[4 BBY ]
[Combat Bridge, Imperial Navy Lucrehulk(R-series)-class Kalinda Redeemer, Raven Squadron, Imperial Navy Fifth Fleet (the Army of Light), exiting hyperspace, uncharted system, Claimed Realms of Warlord Zeta Magnus, Outer Rim, Unknown Regions]
"Realspace emergence complete" Jun Sato, Commodore in the Imperial Navy, heard the young, blue-skinned ensign, Trilya he believed her name was, read out from the displays as he stood on the raised platform of the bridge, surveying the larger picture of the system "All systems report positive. All vessels in squadron confirm positive"
Waited silently for the confirmation from sensors of the enemy forces "Confirm: two Lucrehulk-class, one Providence-class…."
'Mining facilities planet-side and in local asteroid belt, with ancillary refit yard, perhaps even full yardship' Jun thought to himself as the enemy defensive fleet was laid out, larger than desired, but within the expected parameters at the very least. It seemed Naval Intelligence had been correct, or rather the scout pilots and recon droids who'd been risked this far out had been correct in their assessments 'Hmm, on the higher side of projections though'
It was a very Confederate looking fleet, or at least very early-to-mid War, circa the Clone War stage and the early Republic Collapse, in its make-up. There were two unknown cruiser sized-vessels, and dozen unknown 'light' vessels that might Vaagari or Ebruchi purchased, or even locally produced vessels by the would-be warlord. But beyond those it was a fleet build around a core of the three battleships, backed up by four Recusant-class destroyers, and nine Munificent-class heavy frigates. As he saw the force of Scarabs and Vultures being detected it merely confirmed that the sentient playing warlord here had been left too long to his own devices. It was clear enough that the Confederates, before their civil war, had been helping this warlord along, and his support of terror attacks in the last decade were now clear.
'Shame we didn't know this, and deal with him, before he built up sufficient force to have garrison forces this size, in systems like this' he thought unhappily as he ordered his squadron forward, angling for the shipyard, interdiction fields active 'This will not be easy'
His Raven Squadron wasn't exactly outgunning the defenders, this being a raid after all. Instead, he had two Lucrehulk-class optimised as battle-carriers and a Venator-class optimised similarly, backed up four converted Dreadnought 'Dead-hammer' Assault Cruisers, two carrier refit Acclamator-class, and the usual two dozen odds and ends for escort and support. Including seven Lupus-class missile boats. Not ideal for what he was seeing, but his mission wasn't to engage in any grand battle unless he had to, so Jun focused on achieving his objectives as best he could despite presented opposition. Instead, he touched the holo-graphic displays, shifting the heavy fighter squadrons out towards the 'wings' of his squadron, actually further out "…to shift position as detailed. I want them to prepare for break-away and raid on my order. Sonda Bright and Makram's Rage to launch Ready Squadrons, and have the starfighters take up position with forward screen. Shift fleet approach track as follows"
"Curving away from them towards the planet?" Roth, his second in command, and Captain of the vessel, asked, the Zabrak female scanning the displays "Attempting to lure them out Sir?"
"They have the numbers, and now we're threatening multiple targets if they stay where they are" Jun answered, hands behind his back, studying as the seconds marched by "I'd rather not have to retreat without doing some damage…"
He nodded, watching as hundreds, then almost two thousand, icons filled the screens as the majority of the enemy fleet started to move "And there we go. It seems they are intending to engage will leaving a covering force of a Recusant, escorts, and droid-fighters…hmm…fleet stance change! Withdraw to point gamma! Two-thirds fleet's max realspace speed!"
"Let us make them work for this" he said to Roth's questioning look as the squadron began to slow, then to turn, burning hard towards the gravitational zone between the second and third planets of the system. Combined with the interdiction drives now active on his two Lucrehulks it meant they'd have to chase him, now that it looked like he was seeking to avoid the enemy by striking at the planetary mining facilities before immediately racing to escape the system "I'm curious what battery time they have on this droid-fighters"
She nodded, studying the sensor feeds "They'll catch us before we reach there, just barely, and before battery packs will run dry on those Scarabs, let alone the Vultures"
Jun nodded "They wouldn't commit otherwise, it's a risk, but that is the nature of these things. Orders to all carriers: prep all squadrons for deployment on alert, project…fifteen standard minutes"
A needless order in many ways, as those squadrons were already combat ready, but Jun wanted to time his launches to have maximum impact and avoid sudden, last moment, problems. Judging from sensors the enemy force was droid-heavy in command, if not entirely droid led, and was reacting much like CIS forces would react in such a scenario. Jun didn't want to get mono-focused on that, in case they were playing him as droid-fighters moved ahead of the main body as both 'chased' his fleet down to force an engagement. The fighting on the borders of the Empire had been like this for a decade now; harsh, ever shifting, and forcing him, and other officers, to carefully think on when to engage and when not to engage. Or, in this case, where to engage, and how to engage for maximum effect.
"Increase fleet burn a further…five point five percent" he ordered as such, trying to give the impression that his forces were trying to get there ahead of the starfighters….
"Enemy squadrons increasing speed to match…" a paused came from the young ensign "Increasing to overtake Commodore"
"Enemy capitals?"
"Negative Sir" came back "Maintaining current speed"
He nodded, almost to himself "They are at max burn for the early war engines. Good. Launch Y-wings and have them link up with ARC-squadrons. As soon as enemy fighters engage our lines they are to move towards, and destroy, enemy facilities on the planet. Begin deployment of our own droid-fighters as per Fire Plan: Phoenix"
His own droid-fighters were either Vulture-R(efits) with a secondary engine and drive to allow them increased speed despite their larger payload and improved targeting systems, or the far more deadly Vulture-IIs. With their (albeit weak) direction shields, heavy payloads, and greater speed, he was hopefully they'd give a good account of themselves…especially as they were properly designed to work in conjunction with his starfighters. Once they were launched, the enemy nearing, his deadly TIE starfighters, with their powerful shields, missiles, and overpowered engines slid out the bays of his carriers, screaming towards the enemy. As per the fire plan he detached gunship escorts to join the 'wall' of battle that the droid and star-fighters formed; then his Lupus-class missile boats unleashing full salvoes at the enemy screen before turning the entire back in formation.
"Staggered withdrawal as per Pheonix Beta, prioritise recovery operations" he followed up with as the swarm of enemy droid-fighters was slammed by his missiles and then engaged the wolf-packs. They'd come in with old 'swarm tactics' against numbers that match their own, with a superiority in quality over them, and paid the price as Jun watched the engagements favour his squadrons as he pressed forward with his fleet…then pulled back as the enemy capitals pushed forward "Intensify forward firepower, full reverse engine burn"
Farther away from the battle, or skirmish as Jun continued to carefully retreat and the enemy seemed wary of charging forward as they suffered heavy droid-fighter losses, comms and sensor feed showed a successful strike on the planet. Just as several squadrons of Y-wings, ARCs, and Z-95(H)s emerged from hyperspace and conducted their own attack runs on the enemy's shipyard. It was less successful than the Commodore would have like, with indications of explosions on the likely secondary fuel storage and repair cranes, but his focus now was evacuating his fleet after knocking out the mining and fuel extraction operations that had made this, till now, untouched system so valuable to the local warlord. Really, it'd be up to the Admiral and the rest of the fleet to deal with it in the upcoming weeks.
"Droid command Sir?"
"Yes, seems the most likely situation Captain" Jun answered as the engagement continued over the next hour, as he withdrew as the enemy, at last, drew back in the long-battery powered droid-fighters as they'd struggled to do as he rotated starfighters. Heavy deployment of ECM and scramblers had clearly forced the enemy droid-fighters into programmed responses, but even then the reaction time to the engagement was too….standardised for a veteran of the battle of Naboo and other such engagements since, let alone simulated battles "I do believe we've confirmed the highly automated nature of the warlord's outermost operations, and that he's been supplying our adversaries with resources from fuel to weapons"
"Not combat data though Sir" she speculated, and he to agree based on the performance as he watch, unhappily, as the four 'dread-hammers' took a pounding in the withdrawal, damage that'd need repairs. They were much improved on the standard 'brick' of the Dreadnought, with their 'Hammerhead' fore, and thick X-fins at the rear, with their extra guns on them, had done well today. But, as often, at a cost as they'd held off, and inflicted damage on, the enemy capitals as they probed forward "That's clear"
"Yes, most likely, they've played far too conservative, that or we've missed something" he admitted, shaking his head "But we're breaking clear now, we've done enough and any longer we'll start getting into sunk cost territory. Signal to Fleet: Interdiction field dropping once minelaying complete. Prepare drives to withdraw on ten second command alert. We've done enough for today"
'Two-hundred droid-fighters, twenty-four TIES, and an escort frigate isn't a bad trade for six times their numbers' he told himself, even if every lost pilot and crewman hurt. They'd achieved their primary goal in hurting the resource extraction operations, as well as the 'trade-port', so the shipyard would have to wait for heavier elements of Fifth Fleet to deal with. Multiple attacks like this would be undertaken across the Unknown regions in the next few months till they could cripple, or eliminate, Zeta Magnus and any other groups that were being disruptive on the border of the Empire. Jun Sato would prefer that it meant peace eternal, but, as he'd sadly learned over the last decade, knock down one, and another popped up in its place. All you could do was fight to ensure the future was just a little bit brighter than yesterday…
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