The space around the lucrehulk was a dark tunnel, the usual blue light of an established hyperspace route was lacking, and it was down to the internal lights within the bridge of the freighter to provide light.
Poe turned to another officer in the command chair. "Do you have our hyperspace coordinates?"
"No, we are outside the known galaxy."
"Do you know where we are headed?" He asked again.
"Yes, we were transmitted coordinates before we jumped."
"Transmit those to the Base." Poe ordered. "I'll head down to the hangar and ready the fighters."
"Yes sir."
"Entering the Jedha system now sir."
His own ship, The Imperial Wrath, as always, exited lightspeed without a hitch, the smooth transition into real-space was a credit to the well trained and drilled crews of his ship.
"Conduct an all systems check, across the fleet. Compile a report ready for the shipyards when we return." He ordered.
"I'll see to it." Di Angelo interjected, quickly vacating the bridge.
Solace looked over at his commanding officer, the previously present tenseness had since vacated his form, though he was obviously still thinking about a whole manner of things.
Silence reigned over the bridge as the fleet moved to the designated jump point, an older spec imperial star destroyer moving out from behind a moon to greet them.
He looked out over to see a large lucrehulk hauler also in the system, one of the regularly sanctioned equipment trips, blanketed under a web of forged new republic transport licenses, used to supply the ever growing first order within the unknown regions.
"Has that transport checked in?" He asked aloud.
A beat of silence followed before an ensign confirmed that they had.
As the fleet formed up in a single file formation, they lurched forward into the dark tunnel of hyperspace back towards friendly territory.
"Sir, incoming call from the Supreme Leader." The chief of communications said.
"I'll take it in my office." Was his reply, as he turned and strode out form the bridge, leaving Solace in command.
Arriving in his spacious, albeit sparsely decorated office, the thumbed the transmitted, allowing the holodome on his desk to show Snoke.
"Supreme Leader." He greeted neutrally.
"Grand Marshall." Were the returned words. "I am displeased to again find starkiller base under blockade from my own forces."
"The positioning of the fleet was necessary to prevent any further elements of the sith eternal leaving for the wider galaxy whilst we contained the situation of the detected craft." Jackson explained.
"Were you successful?" Snoke asked.
"Mostly. We believe the new republic managed to extract some data from the ship, however we are unsure as to the complete extent of it. Worst case scenario, I'd say the New Republic is aware of where we are." He briefed.
"Hm. How displeasing." The supreme leader replied.
"Need I remind you that these were people under your directive?" Jackson retorted.
"No, you need not. Where are these careless fools?"
"Dead. Killed by New Republic forces." Jackson lied through his teeth.
Smoke's deformed head dropped into his hand as the Supreme Leader pondered their next course of action.
"Increase production of all elements, we must be ready." Was the order.
"Yes, Supreme Leader."
The transmission cut, leaving Jackson to feel the tension her was holding dissipate.
"We're being hailed. Looks like a new set of coordinates." The impromptu rebel captain of the Lucrehulk informed.
"Adjust course and set route." Poe ordered.
"Copy sir."
Arriving down in the long hangars of the Lucrehulk, he could see X wings and Y wings spilling from the side decks as their pilots performed last minute checks.
They probably numbered about thirty in total, with a mix of the fighters and bombers, in approximately a two to one ratio.
Poe began his pre flight checks, the dark light shining in from the large hangars doors made the m rely on the stale lighting provided to run bis equipment checks.
"Emerging in five minutes." Came the announcement over the hanger speakers.
"Entering orbit over Ilum now sir."
The tunnel or hyperspace gave out to show the arctic planet, the planetary trench that was cut into it ran wide, and the continentally sized cannon jutted out. In orbit, a wide fleet of star destroyers stood ready, Apollyon and Chase's ships stood ready for any cultist action on the surface. Below, the clear skies of the planet betrayed a smoking crater on the surface.
"Make ready a shuttle, and inform the surface I am enroute to meet with the supreme leader. Have Chase send over a SITREP, forward it to my datapad." He ordered. "Solace, take the fleet to the shipyards above Erebus."
"Yes Grand Marshall."
Turning on his heel, he made for the main ventral hangar, data pad in hand. As he approached the main hangar, he stood and read through the situation report from Chase, whilst the large crane overhead retrieved a lambda shuttle from within the bowels of the ship, whilst also transporting out those fighters which had been damaged in the battle over Dxun.
Boarding the shuttle as it was placed down, a pilot quickly followed him in and begun cycling the ship. Dropping down out of the star destroyer as it began to turn away from the planet and towards Erebus, its two escorts joining it as it jumped into hyperspace.
The shuttle ducked down towards the planet, powering through the trench and passing by the planetary gun, the quickly ducked into the larger executive hangar on the surface.
Jackson quickly dismounted, marching through the halls of the planetary fortress into the Supreme Leader's chambers.
"Well Well Well, Anything further and I would've thought you were committing sedition, Grand Marshall." The scathing words met him the moment he entered the auditorium.
"My Actions would not be necessary if you could control this pathetic sect you insist on having. Their poor basic security procedure has left us exposed to not only the New Republic Military, but the galaxy as a whole." Jackson fired back.
The Lucrehulk shook as it reemerged into real space.
Looking out of the gigantic hangar shields, ahead of the hauler lay a giant space station.
Centered by a spherical dome not too dissimilar from the control sphere that centered the Lucrehulk's own ship, it was flanked by three giant fins that jutted both upwards and downwards of it. Under the central dome, a bright flash of light erupted, passing to reveal the form of a star destroyer, as dockyard tugs moved forward to bring it clear.
"Is that... a factory?" A pilot asked.
Silence reigned as the forty something pilots stood and watched before another bright flash burst forward, a trio of what could only be upgraded spec Arquitens cruisers flew free.
"Whatever it is, we need to destroy it." Poe announced, his voice echoing through the large chamber. "Make sure you have our route out of here pre-programmed into your navicomputers. Lets move pilots."
The hangar burst into noise as pilots on both sides of the long arms of the hauler scrambled into their ships. As he dropped down into his flight seat, his communicator burst into life with a message from the main bridge.
"Sir, we're being ordered to move towards the newly produced ships and unload our cargo."
"Move closer, and scan that station." Poe ordered. "All wings check in."
Amid a mess of radio calls of the different fighter and bomber wings checking in, another comm came from the bridge. "Scan complete sir, we can see numerous heat sinks and radiators based around the lower tips of the station, it looks like it draws its power from the sun."
"Affirmative, all wings lets go, target those heat sinks." Poe ordered, as his ship whirred to life. Lifting out of the hangar, he lead his fighters low across the bow of the new, dormant star destroyer, bursting past it, before priming a first round of torpedoes. Moving past the giant engines of the capital ship, he dropped low to acquire his target, the spindly neck of the lead arquitens.
His targeting computer whined in confirmation of a target lock, and he squeezed his secondary trigger on the flight stick, the two corners of his vision blinded briefly as the bright neon purple warheads were fired. The pair of proton missiles arced through space before impacting, decimating the neck of the tower, leaving the command bridge to topple forward into the main structure of the ship, forcing it down in a myriad of flames and secondary explosions.
The fighters and bombers burst past the other ships, and Poe was vaguely aware of the two accompanying arquitens cruisers being demolished by his wingmen, as they pressed on towards the space station, under the distant eye of a singular resurgent class star destroyer, who's lone captain stared out in shock.
"Sir, urgent transmission from the forge."
"What is it." Apollyon demanded.
"A garbled transmission from the Vigilance sir, they say there is an attack?" The deckhand reported.
"An attack? Impossible, our location is secret, much less the forge." Apollyon replied. "Tell them to get their act together."
"A new transmission from the Forge itself sir, confirming that thirty plus new republic fighters and bombers are engaging them!" Was the frenzied shout.
Apollyon went white in shock.
Chase stepped forward, seizing command. "Contact the surface and inform both the Grand Marshall and the Supreme Leader that we are under attack." The bridge exploded into activity around her orders. "Deploy the fleet to the forge. Double time!" She barked.
All around, the huge number of star destroyers began to pivot away from the planet, and towards the Erebus system, where they would then jump onwards towards the forge.
"If we are exposed then so be it." Snoke continued. "We shall move the plan up and deploy against the galaxy. The weapon, is ready."
"Decades of planning have gone down the drain because of your actions." Jackson whisper shouted. "The efforts of thousands people and millions of tons of equipment and material, a mandate from the Emperor himself."
"The Emperor is dead. His mandate along with him." Was the Supreme Leader's response.
"The Emperor and his efforts live on through us. And I will not have such efforts undermined by you." Jackson fired back. "From now on, The Military is independent of you. You will continue to operate whilst I and the fleet tolerate you. Your efforts to collect trinkets are on hold, until we are at war. Understood." Jacksons tone was domineering.
Snoke practically glowed with hatred, and went to speak before the doors to the chamber opened.
"Sir, The Forge is under attack, a group of New Republic star fighters are engaged, The Vigilance has no onboard fighters with which to repel them!" A praetorian reported.
"Take me to the command centre." Jackson barked at the red armoured guard, turning back on Snoke and marching out through the depths of the planet. The guard guided him for ten minutes before the pair emerged into the giant nerve centre of the planet. The square room had tiered levels of command consoles, descending stage by stage until it bottomed out in a square, a large holoprojector housing present.
As he entered, the captain on duty snapped to attention. "Grand Marshall on deck!"
All personnel snapped to attention in an instant.
"Back to your stations. Make contact with Erebus, Chase's fleet, and the Forge. Bring up the Forge system on that projector." He ordered coldly. The map flashed up as he descended the tiers into the centre of the room.
"Erebus on contact for you sir." A communications officer called.
"Erebus Naval Command here sir." One of the communicators sounded.
"Deploy all defender squadrons to the forge. Deploy the reserve fleet to Jeddah, lockdown the system." Jackson ordered.
"Copy. Complying sir." Was the officer's response, before the line went dead.
As the room went into low-lighting, the holographic projection of the forge filled the room, displaying the Forge in Red, the array of New Republic fighters displayed in blue, flocking around the factory station.
"Set S-Foils in attack position, we wont have another shot at this!" Poe shouted.
The fighters burst forward to the tips of station, priming missiles and bombs to strike the exposed heat sinks and radiators. The station quickly lit up with point defence fire as the ships split up into pairs, each accompanying their wingman. The first wave of torpedos flew loose, striking true into the first heat sinks. The blew up in a brilliant wave of light and smoke as the first of the First Order's ships arrived.
Dropping into the system, aside the still dysfunctional Vigilance, twenty-four TIE Defenders based on the surface of Erebus quickly sped up to attack formation, grouping up in the typical Imperial flying V formation.
Aboard the stationed star destroyer, one notably lacking any fighters of it's own to deploy, the captain finally ordered them to power forward, to close proximity of the station in order to provide covering fire.
The X-wings again split up, with those who had already fired their proton warheads moving to screen against the incoming Defenders.
On the border of the system, Chase and Apollyon's massive fleet entered the system, each of the capital ships made quick work in dispensing out various wings of TIE Interceptors, the great horde of imperial starfighters quickly closing the distance to hunt down the New Republic ships. The fighters were quickly scattered by the Lucrehulk they had snuck in on opening fire, taking the horde of fighters by surprise.
Noting the hostile action, and how the Lucrehulk moved to intercept the advancing Vigilance, Apollyon was quick to order the fleet to open fire from range, targeting the large hauler. Under the full frontal assault of upwards of fifteen star destroyers, the shields the freighter shattered near immediately, and the outdated armoured hull of both the central sphere and the supporting arms crumbled under the withering fire of the First Order's responding fleet.
Poe watched as the ship was near instantly decimated, allowing the originally stationed star destroyer to close the distance, now very much in close to the station, it began employing its turbolasers to destroy the New Republic fighters.
Poe lead his fighters around to the very bottom of the station once more, targeting the lower base of the central sphere, where there were and array of openings for the stellar forge. His squadron were quick to release a secondary payload of proton missiles, the warheads arcing up and impacting at various different points on the belly of the station, once again filling the space with an array of smoke and secondary explosions.
The attack rippled up through the station, an array of explosions covered the station as it begun to go supernova.
"Get clear of the station! All fighters go for the jump point!" Poe ordered as the fighters jinked apart to avoid the sea of interceptors that descended upon them, alongside the hail of turbolaser fire.
The fighters closed their S-Foils as they jumped out the system, leaving the starforge to explode, the energy release dissolving the flank of the Vigilance, it's captain having gotten carelessly close to the orbital factory.
From the command centre, Jackson watched the large holographic map as the station exploded, ruining the Vigilance and subsequently damaging the Labyrinth control station, likely beyond repair.
Silence reigned in the computer intensive room, as the staff watched the damage readouts. In the explosion, all of their TIE Defenders had been demolished in the explosion, alongside a considerable amount of the unshielded TIE Interceptors.
Jackson was silent for along time, the gold embroidery on his otherwise midnight uniform stood out sorely among the enlisted personnel.
"Call for a general staff meeting on Erebus. Move all fleet elements and crews to a state of high readiness, activate all reserves we have, begin loading the logistics ships for extended campaigns." He ordered, voice unnervingly cold and calm.
"And charge the weapon."