"Preparations are nearly finished on all fronts Grand Marshall."
Jackson stood at the centre of the strategic command centre on Ilum. The inverse pyramid layout left him on the lowest tier, standing amid the large floor based holoprojector.
"Is the weapon charged?" He asked.
"We are awaiting your order to fire, sir."
He nodded. "Activate the ping and scramble frequencies for New Republic military communications."
"Pinging now sir."
The projected image shifted to show the wider galaxy, and one by one the red dots that gave away the positions of the long range communications arrays for the New Republic began to appear.
"Tell the infiltration squads the green light. Send contact out to all the partisan groups we have contact with." He ordered.
"Sending green light." Was the confirmation given back.
"Prepare to fire the weapon, target the Hosnian system." He ordered.
As his orders were passed down throughout the station, the planet soon began to hum as the many capacitors laid throughout the station began to spool up to direct the energy harvested from the nearby star.
Above the snowy planet, in low orbit, Apollyon watched out over from the bridge of his flagship as the muzzle of the planetary weapon began to illuminate as the power built.
His fleet hung on either side of his ship, whilst others in orbit finalising their preparations of a war deployment. The staff of the bridge halted their work to look out at the weapon, as it glowed red, before the interstellar laser exploded out of the snub muzzle, baking the bridge in a crimson light.
From the surface, Jackson and the command staff watched out as the weapon fired, feeling the vibrations in the floor as the beam was ejected from the planet.
Years of planning, infiltration, meticulous strategic and tactical doctrine theorisation and simulations and theoretical war games, built upon decades of construction all culminated in this decisive moment, as the weapon fired and the military might of the First Order descended upon the galaxy.
Throughout the New Republic, as the interplanetary laser descended towards the Hosnian system, the various communications arrays that formed the back bone of military communications for the New Republic Navy begun to go dark.
The lax watch commanders, uncaring of their duty on account of years of dull monotony, were not ready for the First Order's advance force, which had slipped through the complex web of listening posts on the border of the galaxy to destroy the stations.
What small fighter compliments they possessed were quickly bested by those deployed from the twin gozanti cruisers, their pilots having been drilled rigorously for the engagement.
As the pilots exterminated their New Republic counterparts, the arquitens cruiser closed in on the station, aligning its starboard docking port to that of the station.
The elite commando teams made quick work of the station's garrison, and were quick to split up and target critical areas. The central communications decks were seized, with no personnel spared from the blaster fire of the first order troopers.
The stations transmitter was then disabled, whilst the second team planted explosives on the reactor core of the station. Within ten minutes, the teams were falling back to their home cruiser and departing, leaving the station to incinerate amid deep space.
Across the galaxy, the New Republic Military communications infrastructure alit with blaring alarms as the stations signalled that they were under attack, before they were silenced all simultaneously.
Nothing the irregularity, the deck officer for the communications hub on Hosnian Prime ordered for a system diagnostic, and to attempt to make contact with the other stations.
As he peered out of the main viewport to the military district of the city, through the clouds, the sky began to glow and insidious red as the laser from the unknown regions impacted the planet, and all the others within the Hosnian system, turning it into a great debris field.
As the ship jumped into real space, Leia watched in real time as the capital of the new republic was reduced to space dust. She felt the billions of people cry out in pain through the force before a deathly silence reigned.
The pilots were shocked into silence as the shuttle slowly drifted forward. In the distance, what remained of the Hosnian defence fleet was desperately manoeuvring to avoid the hail of planetary crust chunks. She saw a nebulon B axed in half as a piece of debris sawed through the thin spine of the frigate.
"Make contact with the fleet." She ordered sombrely.
The co pilot flicked through numerous radio channels, filled with both static and panicked cries of other civilians. It took a moment before they managed to secure a channel with the flagship of the fleet, a Starbird class, named Defender.
Joining it in the newly made asteroid field, an aging MC80 flanked it, joined by an array of other frigates and corvettes which were staying close to the heavy shielding of their capital ships.
"Defender come in, this is general Organa-Solo."
A scratch of static preempted the returned message. "We read you general, aft port hangar has room for you."
The pilot flew forward towards the fleet, having to jink suddenly a few times to avoid being blotted out by an asteroid. They flew up and between the fleet, before touching down in the hangar.
A lieutenant was waiting to meet them, amid the blaring of alarms and flashing red lights. Throughout the ship, the warning system repeated messages to the crew.
"General, the Admiral was on the surface when the attack came, the captain is attempting to rally the fleet and get a status. We have breaches and depressurisation on decks four and five, and long range communications are out." Came the quickly rattled report as she made her way to the bridge.
Arriving on the bridge, she quickly waved off any decorum that was shown by the captain and the crew, before taking the offered commanding seat. The holotable showed the entire system, and was a simple mess of debris.
"Give me an update on all ships within the fleet, and move us to the edge of the system so we can leave. Set course for the dry docks at Sluis Van." Right away the navigation crew begun their work, and the ship was slow to pivot around.
"We lost three frigates and a cruiser to initial blast, alongside the reserve fleet that was landed planetside. The Defender is currently battling depressurisation, and the MC80 suffered engine damage." The captain reported.
Leia nodded. "Increase power to shields to deal with these asteroids."
The rhythmic sound of asteroids bouncing off the shields filled the space as the fleet moved to the edge of the system.
"Long range communications have dropped admiral." Was heard on the bridge of Home one, causing Ackbar and Dameron to look over.
"A malfunction?" The mon calamari asked. "We are running a diagnostic now, but it doesn't look like it. We've lost contact with the long range relay stations."
"Then the attack could've already begun." The calamari theorised. "Bring us to the reserve site over Bracca. Detach the fourth wing of the fleet and send them to Raxus to gather volunteers. Send the fifth to Rothana to gather any equipment they can muster."
The low whine of their hyperdrive filled the bridge, as two sections of the fleet broke off and calculated their own hyperspace vectors.
From their position, it was a short jump to Bracca, the planet run by the scrappers guild for the empire. The management of the planet had been purged of imperial sympathisers, and all scrapping had been on hold or only undertaken while under strict observation by New Republic officials.
In addition to a few remaining old clone wars relics, there were also older imperial ships due for scrapping.
Entering the system, both Ackbar and Dameron made contact with the guild authority. When asking about their best conditioned ships, the scrappers guild produced a pair of near intact Venator class star destroyers, alongside that, they also surrendered two wings of old T-65 X-wings.
Whilst they were an older model, the fleet would take anything they could get their hands on in face of a new imperial threat of unknown size.
"Confirmed destruction of the Hosnian system, Grand Marshal." The gunnery officer of the planetary base reported.
With the firing of the weapon having been calculated to be devastating to the internal components of the planet, and it had early been decided that the weapon system would be treated as a one-and-done item in the arsenal of the first order.
Following its use, Perseus could now then justify the reassignment of command and control assets to the moon of Erebus, to hold all elements of high command within close proximity of eachother.
"Deploy our fleets, our offensive begins now." He ordered.
Across the fringes of the galaxy's western reaches, the dagger shaped hulls of imperial star destroyers were once again known to the colonists of the planets, as they found themselves quickly placed under the thumb of oppression.
The initial stages of the plan focused on securing key point of production and logistics, as with the loss of the star forge their ability to supply their fleets whilst in a combat setting was extremely limited.
Early decided upon targets had been some of the smaller local farming colonies, alongside the major target of the refining platforms and cities of Bespin.
Currently en route to the major target, Apollyon headed up his personal fleet from the command deck of his personal star destroyer, The Wolf's Head, named as homage to his father's first command, he was joined by four other star destroyers and a grouping of gozanti and arquitens cruisers.
Emerging high in orbit over the dusty orange clouds of the gas giant, Apollyon's fleet checked in, clearing them to proceed onwards.
While the dense clouds of the gas giant shrouded the many floating platforms from scanners, they did allow a select few frequencies of communications through, and the fleet was quick to pick up on them, giving them a fix for the location of the tibanna gas mining colony.
"Detach the rear two star destroyers from the formation and have them hold above in orbit. Give them a group of cruisers to hold down the jump point, detain all ships entering and leaving the system, priority for any haulers." The bridge staff was well drilled, and at his orders had undergone extensive training and drilling, sometimes against the expert crew of his father's flagship.
The front three ships of the V formation began their descent into the gaseous clouds of Bespin, whilst the rear two advanced to main light speed waypoint to lock down the system.
Initial intelligence gathered had warned of a rebel fleet within the sector, however they were likely undermanned and outgunned by his own fleet, so he didn't spare any worry about encountering them.
As they descended, Apollyon gave the order to ready their ground elements. A wing of TIEs flew past the bridge as they disappeared lower into the clouds.
"Are scanners still impaired?" He asked.
"Yes Admiral. Though we estimate we are soon to break through the main cloud cover, where our sensors would be functional."
"Proceed."
The trio of daggered capital ships cleared the swirling gas clouds, as their sensor arrays burst to life, quickly detecting the airborne metropolis ahead of them.
In the distance, Apollyon saw the flash of green lasers as the Tie Fighters began to engage.
"Sir, lead fighter wings report contact with X-wings."
"Increase power to scanners, begin charging main batteries and hold on the ground force deployment." He ordered.
The activity on the bridge increased a notch, as the ante raised slightly.
"Sensors picking up large contacts sir." A nervous ensign called out.
"More mining platforms?" He asked.
"Potentially ships, looks like they are over towards the New Republic refuelling yards."
"Then it could be the sector fleet." Apollyon theorised. "Have our destroyers in orbit relay to central command that we are engaging the sector fleet."
Activity on the bridge again ramped up, the crew getting their first taste of combat.
"Increase forward power. Position the fleet directly above the platform, the New Republic will not attack us for fear of collateral damage." Apollyon ordered.
The ship jolted forward as their thrust was increased, the clouds clearing ahead of them to show the New Republic fleet hanging amid an array of refuelling and resupply stations. Slowly their undocked ships had begun to turn towards them to engage.
"Deploy the ground elements to capture the platform. Deploy three extra squadrons of fighters and two bombers. Avoid damaging the supplies if possible." Apollyon ordered, facing the fighter command section of the bridge.
"Charge forward batteries and engage the ships that are free from the refuelling platform."
The echoing sound of turbolaser fire rang throughout the ship. Their star destroyers still employed the eight barrelled gun emplacements favoured by the old empire, and had a set of five of these on each flank of the star destroyer to serve as its primary offensive battery.
The rebel sector fleet, for its worth, was potentially on par if not larger than his own trio of star destroyers, however his advantageous position above a floating city of civilians allowed him to use the New Republic's compassion against them, as they wouldn't risk the destruction of a star destroyer falling and destroying the platform and killing all of its residents.
The fleets capital ships were of the ever recognisable Mon Calamari make, and it was soon after they began to dispense their own fighter wings to screen themselves against the bombers.
On the ground, the unprepared New Republic garrison weren't at all ready to face off against an invasion, and were still troubleshooting their communications when the first order arrived, many of the garrison had been cut down before even managing to reach a weapon, much less return fire.
The division had been then quick to secure the administrative sector of the city, and announce martial law before securing the remote control interface of the fuelling platforms, denying the New Republic Navy any further resources.
Seeing their position, and Apollyon's use of what was essentially human shields, and being severed from their supply lines, the New Republic sector fleet was quick to turn tail and run, sending power to their engines to escape the atmosphere and to calculate a jump vector.
"Make contact with our elements in orbit. Warn them of incoming contact from the surface. We can box them in and crush them." Apollyon ordered, as his own ships boosted forward to give chase to the fleeing New Republic.
As their own TIE fighters weaved through the enemy fleet, their bombers continued to score critical strikes against them, with a few frigates having their engines destroyed, leaving them to sink into the gaseous clouds of Bespin.
As both fleets broke the atmosphere, it was immediately clear the New Republic sector fleet had no where to go. As they moved clear of the scanner obstructing clouds, they were presented with the second half of Apollyon's fleet, as they opened fire and dispensed their fighter and bomber wings. What formation the Republic did have quickly broke apart as the captains of the sector fleet made to bypass the obstructing star destroyers.
As the sector fleets ships passed between, under, over and beside the two star destroyers, the gunnery crews picked their own targets as the twin destroyers fired erratically in all directions to maximise the amount of ships damaged.
All around the imperial fleet their enemies were destroyed. The unwavering fire of the first order crews was finally getting the better of the hulls of the New Republic ships, as escape pods began to be fired as their home ships sagged and fell, many exploding completely.
Discipline began to break down in the barraged fleet, as Apollyon spotted individual X wings begin making erratic jumps to light speed in different directions. It wasn't long before a Starhawk capital ship finally exploded that all cohesion was lost.
It wasn't long before the sector fleet had been reduced to a cloud of scrap, with TIE's weaving throughout, destroying any escape pods they found.
"Report back to central command that the Bespin sector fleet has been destroyed, alongside a damage and losses report from our own fleet." Apollyon ordered.
Within the command chambers on Erebus, Perseus watched as the galactic map was updated with their victories, a plentiful amount of planets having been seized within a standard rotation, more than initially anticipated.
And with the report from Apollyon arriving and the successful destruction of an entire sector fleet, the sheer scale of their victories were astounding. Privately, he, and likely many others among high command thought these were too good to be true, and that the New Republic would quickly mobilise to actually oppose them. But so far there had been little signs or activity at all, with many fleets to gain an understanding beyond basic in-system situational awareness as a result of a crippling lack of long range comms.
His own fleet hung in orbit of Erebus, a ready to move reserve force incase and action needed responding to, however at this current rate he doubted whether it would be needed.
So far there had been little resistance on the worlds occupied by them so far, which ultimately resulted in less resources having to be dedicated to policing them.
Surveying the map, he prepared to give the order for the second phase of the offensive.
AN
Oh yeah it happened. Only a wolf's head update for now, I've made admittedly little progress on other chapters, as a result of work being mega busy.
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