[17 BBY]
[Command Bridge, Eriadu Authority Procurator-class Star Battlecruiser, The Terror, Republic 1st Fleet, Combined Republic Battle Fleet, Naboo System, Chommell Sector, Mid Rim]
The weave, the spiderweb of unity, that was the Toth Fleet dissolved before Wilhuff Tarkin's eyes as his forces cut off the head…and the body crumbled. He knew, even before being told, that Cavik Toth was slain, as was the man's closest subordinate, causing his great Mandator II to be visibly surrendered across the Separatist command-net. That might not have been enough if one of the other Mandators, The Slaughter, upon which another of Toth's most loyal was present along with tactical droids, had been functional. But it was not. Not after the pounding it had received, crippling its communications even if several of the turbolaser batteries were still hammering back at his own fleet.
Dangerous. Still powerful…
But that fleet was broken now, the battle lines disintegrating as some of the massive warships made to try escape by fighting their way out, while others signalled surrender, even as others fought furiously on. That mattered not, even if those ships were powerful and dangerous. They were broken of unity, shorn of command. Each battling as an individual rather than as a fleet, gaps opening everywhere, panic spreading. Wilhuff saw the gaps before they opened, a hand gesture, some words, and his will was done as bombers diverted and a yet another wave of strike shuttles took flight. Y-wings were now free to ravage where defences crumbled, and even powerful beasts like those metal monoliths were now vulnerable. Now they would yield or die.
Subtly, but with renewed purpose, his fleets began to orientate as Toth's Fleet crumbled, and the focus turned to the struggling battlecruisers of Dua Ningo. Maarisa's own fleet was dying, but dying slowly, bitterly, and the trickle of reinforcements was sustaining her fight, holding back Trench and Kleeve on the Separatist side. Now though his fleet, the Stormcrows, and the remnants of Rahm Kota's were turning, shifting position to aid her fight, while trapping the Sullustan's battlecruisers. His own losses were mounting, but the tide had turned, the webs that defined the enemy fleet crumbling even as victory pressed his own ever forward. The Invincibles and Dreadnaughts, with the starfighters and droid-fighters providing cover, were driving into the enemy escorts and battleships.
Now the numbers were matter, quantity, focused and disciplined, overwhelming the individually superior Separatists vessels, even as more numerous droid-fighters overwhelmed theirs. As he had expected they were unused to dealing with being inferior in light craft, had not evolved the anti-droidfighter swarm tactics that Republic fleets have been forced to be necessity. Those had been hard lessons to learn after all, and time and circumstances had deprived his foe the chance to learn them till now. Today they were learning as his forces systemically stripped away their escorts, Maarissa doing her bloody work, and now his own starfighter came forward like hungry predators.
Some mighty Mandators still struggled on behind his fleet, but they were trapped or damaged, just as Ningo was being even as he fought to join his web with the battered one of their main fleets. Forward went a wedge of Venators and Venerables, shields battered but holding, Naboo below burning with war as the droid armies were driven back, only the ferocious cloned Morkugai savagely resisting. They would soon die, could already see that, cut off, unsupported, and facing an enflamed planetary resistance. Forward his fleet went, this being the pivot of those sectors under his control, the forge upon which a star nation was born from in fire and bloodshed and shattered durasteel….
--
[17 BBY]
[Confederacy of Independent Systems Warship Invulnerable, Providence-class Dreadnaught, Confederate 2nd Fleet, Combined Fleets, Naboo System, Chommell Sector, Mid Rim]
"We need hssskkkk retreat!" Trench hissed and clacked at the avatars on the holo-display, primarily those back in distant Raxus seemingly intent on having his fleet commit suicide here and now "Beaten! Hssst! We are beaten!"
"We can still…"
"NO!" he hissed back at Kleeve "Mind-ttrickssshh! Jedi! Retreat! The droidssshh agree! We are outmatched!"
Toth was dead, and Ningo was cut off from communications, his fleet trapped just Toth's had been, and going to be destroyed as Toth's had been. Kleeve was not thinking clearly, not when their battle wall was being devastated by fighter craft, both starfighters and droid-fighters, as the enemies' numbers advantage in those areas finally came to bear. With Toth gone the assault force on Naboo was already finished…and had been an acceptable loss from the start – a planned loss. This was already a debacle, a complete disaster in the making, and they were intent on making it worse!
"They situation can be salvaged!" some idiot, the human Councillor, Stark, was shouting at them, further distracting Trench from what needed to be done. Like directing their remaining starfighter squadrons to work with their droid-fighters to screen their still powerful battleship formations "Admiral Mar Tuuk will breakthrough and…"
"Mar Tuuk is engaged at Enarc by Moff Geen" Merai, the Mon Calamari, was attempting to reason as Trench tried to direct more fire on their upper-starboard axis as more of the enemy fleets moved into the gaps left by Zsinj's vessels. Many destroyed or reduced to barely functional wrecks, but far too many were simply retreating and being replaced for the Harch's liking. It was over, and the longer they stayed engaged the worse it was going to be when they finally retreated "He will be unable to reinforce anyone. There are no reinforcements to be had. I second Admiral Trench's statement that retreat is vital"
"Permission denied!" the Nemoidian snarled, at least his hologram did, though Trench was barely listening as he was now hyper-focused on the coming mass bomber waves building behind those screens of frigates and Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers "You will relieve Admiral Ningo and retake the orbitals!"
That was not going to happen Trench could tell as the tactical screens showed Ningo still focusing on fighting things out when he should be breaking free of the engagement. He'd take losses doing so, but it was better than losing the entire fleet amidst this chaos. It had been impossible to adequately control so many droid-fighters, and that was when they had the advantage hours ago when the battle had begun. Now it was in dealing with a relentless push from the combined enemy fleet as Toth's ships were either destroyed or surrendered, and some sort of large-scale Jedi trickery. What Trench would to have that madman Grievous still alive to throw at them right now!
What was most troubling was the turnaround times on their starfighters and droid-fighters as the battle persisted to Trench. They were rotating crews, and the lack of organic pilots was starting to particularly bite his forces now as escorts began to fall away, several now being rammed by enemy droid-fighters as they struggled to maintain their fleets in a solid battle wall. Their forces still had the advantage in heavy fleet vessels, but maintaining that formation was causing more and more gaps to open for the small craft as a positively ludicrous number of droid-fighters had been destroyed on both sides. None of the battles so far in the war had compared to this, and neither side would be doing much in the coming months based on what he saw. His armrest was partly crushed from the stress as idiots continued to scream at each other, and him, in the background of the unfolding madness…
--
[17 BBY]
[Command Bridge, Eriadu Authority Venerable-class Star Destroyer Turbulent, Republic 2nd Fleet, in battle Enarc system, Alui Sector, Mid Rim]
The Turbulent shuddered under the sustained barrage of fire as Lucas Geen's battered Second Fleet once again faced the Neimodian Mar Tuuk after the enemy Admiral had driven them from Christophsis. Lucas knew his forces were barely battle ready, even with the recall and addition of those raiding squadrons he'd sent out like Captain Pelleaon's and those few allied ships he'd recovered. But it was enough to stop the Seppie fleet dead in its tracks, and holo-feed from Naboo showed him their sacrifice was worth this reckless engagement. Worth the forces of the ah-hoc 'Seventh Fleet' assembled at Ryloth from various odds and ends and then hurled at the now mostly empty Christophsis.
Mar Tuuk was once again winning. He had, once again, the larger, more modern fleet after all. But he wasn't winning fast enough, and he too must have the same information available to Lucas as suddenly his assault began to falter. The word from Naboo was simple yet complex – Admiral Ningo had now joined Cavik Toth in death, and that was the death knell of the Seppies ability to win in that system. Grand Moff Tarkin's orders were very simple to. Hold. Hold at all costs.
And that was just what Lucas Geen's fleet was doing right now, even if many of his vessels were battered wrecks only barely combat worthy. But he had received reinforcement of starfighters and droid-fighters, and that had parried Mar Tuuk's ship advantage, even if Lucas had been forced to use Seppie 'suicide droid' tactics at times. It was the only way he could hold the Nemoidian here in system after all, holding out here with grav projectors and hyperspace mines away from the world itself, and its nice, but not usable in this battle, defensive systems. Just his outnumbered, outgunned, and already defeated fleet.
But here and now he's held. Here and now, he watched the enemy fleet begin to disengage…
"They aren't retreating towards the way they came?" he asked calmer than he felt, now Commodore Vida answering him from the sensor stations.
"No my Moff, they are retreating off the hyperlanes towards the galactic north-central-east"
Lucas nodded at that. That was good. He wouldn't have to chase to Christophsis and risk losing his shattered fleet there then. Victory never felt so bittersweet….
--
[17 BBY]
[Meditation Chamber, Command Deck, Eriadu Authority Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Republic 5th Fleet, Combined Republic Battle Fleet, Naboo System, Chommell Sector, Mid Rim]
"If were not taken, I would claim you" Asajj Ventress found herself panting out weakly as she half sat, half-lay down, on the meditation ritual circle as her…Master. Yes, she could admit that without shame here and now, despite age she was the Apprentice clearly. The Force Bond between them…
Hummed with vitality. With life. With memories. Shared and United. Unshakeable. Unbreakable.
Daron gave a weak snort, the ritual ended, but the after-effects lingering on them, on the fleets that now stood in victory over "Thank you Asajj, you are full of happy thoughts. Unexpected that"
She laughed. Honest and true. He would say that her? Unexpected indeed?
He felt it, giving a chuckle, then laughing himself. Before ending on that amused snort, shaking his head "Two distrustful paranoids trusting each other"
Asajj smiled darkly "The Force is with us…"
"…because we make it be with us" he finished, shaking his head "Welcome to the grand vision of the futures"
"They are kriffing banthapoodoo futures" she agreed bluntly forcing herself back up into a half-lotus "So, an afterlife? Making pacts? The rest? See, you are a Sith!"
"No, I'm not"
"Darth Traya" she hummed "Us. We. Two sides of the same coin. Bound to your fate now. The future is ours"
"Hmmmm" he half-growled looking up at the vast array of sigils and defences upon the "The future is in motion. It is nobodies in the end. For it is…"
"Up for grabs" she agreed with a nod. Knowing so much more now. So much that needed to be known. A revelation of a Being beyond the Stormcrow himself. Making Deals. Asajj had made worse "Yes, it is"
She clapped her hands together then "Great. I need to drink. A great deal. You need to claim your Jedi Knight and do as the Force wills. We have much to discuss Master"
"Don't say that. I have much to discuss with Tarkin now first I expect. This will….take time to plan around"
She pushed herself up to stand as he sighed tiredly. The Force had not set her free as the mantra went. But she was free now. Free of Destiny. For the Future was now in motion. And Asajj Ventress would grasp it with both hands…
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