Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. And for those Americans reading this, Happy Independence Day!
Let's get to it.
Ke-Pa: I'm not going to address every single event that happened in our history. Unless i specifically address it, or the changes in this universe make them impossible, assume any event still happened.
Chapter 40- The Big E
On the bridge of the Supremacy, General Hux is listening to reports coming in from the hangar. Anakin and the Zulus are continuing their attack in the hangar they landed in, with over a thousand casualties so far. The Zeros and Hades shuttle have also escaped and made the jump into hyperspace.
"Send all available troops to the hangar," Hux orders. He is still unaware of what is happening in the throne room, or that Ben is also aboard, and is determined to quash this small raid.
"Yes, General," one of the officers around him responds.
"Contact our escorts, and order them to make ready to transfer some of their troopers to this ship to replace our losses," Hux also orders. Even though he still thinks his men will be able to eventually kill the intruders, he knows they will take more casualties, and he wants the Supremacy to have its full complement of troopers at the end of things.
Suddenly, alarms begin to go off. Hux straightens up and swivels his head. "What is that?" he yells out.
"General, proximity alert! Multiple ships jumping out of hyperspace!" an officer orders.
Hux races over to the viewport and looks out into space. And almost as soon as he reaches the viewport, ships begin dropping out of hyperspace. First out of hyperspace is the North Carolina. Then comes two more battlecruisers, a starfighter carrier, about 16 Tokyo and Baltimore class Star Destroyers, a dozen heavy cruisers, and a dozen light cruisers. Six interdiction cruisers have also jumped out of hyperspace and are beginning to generate gravity wells. Then, as the rest of the fleet has dropped out of hyperspace in battle formation, one more ship comes out of hyperspace. And Hux, along with many other First Order officers, stare in shock at the massive form of the Enterprise.
The Enterprise had finally been declared fully operational a month ago. There had been a few delays in construction, and her handler's trials had revealed some problems that required fixing, all of which had delayed her entry into service beyond what had originally been scheduled. However, once she was declared fully operational, she was immediately deployed to Andromeda. She had been stationed with the Naboo Defense Fleet since her arrival. But when this mission had been conceived, she was assigned to lead the fleet against the Supremacy.
On the bridge of the Supremacy, Hux stares in shock at the massive Enterprise. Although the Enterprise is still relatively small compared to the Supremacy, Hux knows that this ship will be a challenge even to the Supremacy, even when he does not know about the superlaser in the ship's bow. It takes him moments before he is able to shout, "Sound the alarms! Order all ships to stations and scramble all fighters! Prepare for battle!"
Alarms begin to sound across the First Order's fleet. As the shocked First Order scramble to prepare themselves to fight back, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Admiral Jacobsen himself stands at the viewport, taking stock of the situation. In terms of numbers and types of ships involved combined, he knows the two fleets are about evenly matched. He knows it's going to be up to the element of surprise and his advantage in starfighters that will determine the victory.
He also knows he can't use one of his biggest weapons. He is well aware that Rey, Ben, Anakin, and the Zulus are still aboard the Supremacy, so he can't just use the superlaser on the massive ship to destroy it. He's also hesitant to use it on other ships of the fleet, worried it could scare off the rest of the ships into a retreat. He knows he has to destroy this fleet here and now. At least for the time being, he can't use the superlaser. Although his fleet still holds plenty of firepower, it definitely removes one of his biggest advantages.
However, he's not really concerned. He is still very confident in his fleet's ability to handle the First Order. And so, Admiral Jacobsen smiles as he orders, "Scramble all fighters and bombers. And signal all vessels: Open fire."
Only a second later, the Enterprise opens fire with all her turbolasers and ion cannons while starfighters and bombers begin taking off and streaking towards the First Order's fleet. The rest of the fleet quickly begins to open fire as well.
Turbolaser bolts begin to impact the unprepared ships of the First Order. Many of them don't have all their shields powered up, and begin to suffer damage to their hulls from the Terran turbolasers.
As the ships begin firing, the swarms of Terran starfighters streak towards their targets. Leading the way is the Hammer Squadron and the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney. In his cockpit, Daniel smirks as he arms all his weapons and readies himself for battle.
The First Order has been caught so off guard that they are not able to scramble their own starfighters fast enough to respond to the Alliance's fighters. And so, by the time the first Terran starfighters reach the First Order's fleet, the ships have not managed to launch a single TIE fighter yet.
The swarms of Terran starfighters separate to attack the different ships, and a mix of laser bolts and proton torpedoes begin streaking out from the starfighters to strike the warships. A handful of point defense batteries on the First Order's ships begin to return fire at the Terran fighters, but the Terran pilots are able to easily evade the initial return fire.
Daniel grins a bit under his oxygen mask as he streaks low over the hull of the battlecruiser Indomitable, avoiding the few laser bolts flying at him while strafing any target of opportunity along the hull with his laser cannons. The ship's shields protect it from damage for the most part, but the continual punishment slowly wears down the shields bit by bit.
Daniel streaks past the bridge of the ship, then flies over the edge of the stern a moment later. Daniel immediately does a Split-S and pulls out underneath the ship's hull to repeat his strafing run on the bottom of the hull. However, as he begins to make his way back along the hull, he suddenly sees a TIE fighter come flying out of the ship's hangar bay. Daniel allows himself only a fraction of a moment of surprise before refocusing himself. He aims his nose right in the flight path out of the hangar as a second TIE comes flying out of the hangar. Daniel then squeezes the trigger, firing his laser cannons in their path as several more TIE fighters come flying out of the hangar. Daniel manages to destroy four before he flies past the hangar.
Daniel noses down slightly and snaps into a tight turn as he flips the switch for his radio. "This is Hammer 5! First Order has started scrambling fighters!"
Terran pilots across the fleet swivel their heads as they hear Daniel's transmission. And sure enough, they can see TIE fighters starting to launch from the various ships. Instantly, several hundred fighters, primarily Zeros, begin turning to engage the TIE fighters while remaining fighters continue their attacks against the warships. The Zeros pounce on the TIEs as they swarm out of their hangars, blasting TIE after TIE to pieces. A number of Zeros begin circling the hangar openings, blasting TIE fighters as soon as they exit the hangar. Few TIEs manage to make it past the initial marauding Zeros.
As the battle of the starfighters is ongoing among the First Order's fleet, the battle between the fleets themselves is heating up. The crews aboard the First Order's warships are beginning to get their remaining shields online, and more weapons batteries are returning fire against the Terran warships. However, the fleet had lost vital minutes from the surprise appearance of the Terrans, and the Terrans still have the advantage. The Terran fleet presses forward to close the range, opening up with every weapon they have.
On the Enterprise, Admiral Jacobsen issues orders for his fleet to maintain battle formation, and to not attempt to merge with the First Order's fleet. He doesn't want an all out brawl, and he also doesn't want to risk any of the First Order's fleet getting past him and attacking the interdiction cruisers or his starfighter carrier, which are holding back to avoid getting into the battle and risking their destruction.
The Terran fleet holds their formation as they close to a respectable distance from the First Order, firing all the while. Their fire at first is focused especially on the few Star Destroyers and cruisers among the fleet to eliminate them quickly. However, the Enterprise is focusing her turbolasers on the Supremacy itself.
The battle continues to rage on as the Terrans press their advantage. On the ships of the First Order, the commanders grow increasingly worried. Their TIE fighters have mostly been destroyed by now, most shot down as they exited their hangars. The Supremacy has managed to give them at least a little bit of a fighting chance due to her multitude of hangars and hundreds of TIE fighters, but it's not enough for the First Order to regain any real momentum in the air.
As the minutes go by, the battle is turned further and further against the First Order. One of the First Order's Star Destroyers explodes under punishing fire, and the other Star Destroyers and cruisers are nearing their damage limit.
However, for Admiral Jacobsen on the Enterprise, he is not feeling any real triumph about it yet. And that is because of the Supremacy. The massive ship is firing with all of its weapons against his fleet, and its shields are still holding strong. And its multitude of weapons are starting to cause some damage to the smaller ships of Jacobsen's fleet.
Jacobsen is concerned. He knows he can't use the superlaser, as he hasn't heard that Rey or the rescue team are off the ship, nor can he nuke it. But the Supremacy is powerful enough that it could eventually destroy a good portion of his fleet even as the rest of the First Order's fleet is being destroyed.
Then, an idea comes to him. It's drastic, and has a lot of risks, not only to his ship, but also to the friendlies aboard the Supremacy. But this could work and cripple the Supremacy. And he knows that he can minimize the risk to the friendlies on the massive ship.
"Captain!" Admiral Jacobsen shouts, drawing the attention of the Enterprise's captain.
"Yes, Admiral?!" the captain responds.
"All ahead flank. Set course 010 and up attitude 5 degrees. Focus fire on any ships in the way," Admiral Jacobsen orders.
The captain, Captain John Campbell from the UK, stares at Jacobsen in shock, realizing his plan. However, he recovers himself after a moment and says, "Yes, Admiral." He then turns towards the control station and calls out, "Helmsman! All ahead flank. Set course 010 and up attitude 5 degrees!"
As the captain issues the orders, Admiral Jacobsen turns to his communications officers. "Signal the fleet. All other ships are to maintain current positions. Order the 352nd and the Hammers to cover our approach." The officers hurry to relay Jacobsen's orders to the fleet.
In moments, the Enterprise begins to move forward. Slowly at first, but picking up speed as it goes. The fighters of the 352nd and the Hammer Squadron, along with several dozen other Zeros, form up around the Enterprise, fending off any TIE fighters or bombers that get close.
The Enterprise continues to pick up speed as its engines are running at full power, altering course slightly for Admiral Jacobsen's ordered course.
On the Supremacy, General Hux has been observing the battle with worry as he has realized that the First Order has not been able to pick up any momentum. But now, his attention is focused on the massive Enterprise as the ship is closing in on them.
"Focus more fire on that dreadnought!" Hux orders.
More of the Supremacy's weapons begin to turn their fire on the Enterprise to try and disrupt it's attack while the rest continue their bombardment of the smaller Terran ships. However, to Hux' surprise, the Enterprise is almost entirely firing on the other ships of his fleet on either side or in its path.
Hux is confused. His confusion only grows as he realizes that the Enterprise has almost entirely shifted its fire to other ships. Then, it suddenly hits him, especially as he realizes the Enterprise is still closing on the Supremacy and not slowing down, what Admiral Jacobsen's plan is, and horror fills him.
"Signal all ships! Focus all fire on that dreadnought!" Hux all but screams.
But the order comes too late. The rest of the fleet is still engulfed in the fight with the rest of the Terran fleet. The Supremacy focuses every weapon it can on the Enterprise, but the Enterprise's shields are just enough to protect it from the increased fire as the ship's engineers focus more energy into the forward shields.
On the bridge, Admiral Jacobsen waits until what he knows is the last moment he can issue this order before he orders, "Sound collision! All crew, brace for impact!" Alarms sound across the ship, and everyone on the bridge braces as they watch the remaining distance close.
Across both fleets, including the two ships themselves, people watch in shock and awe as, with a deafening sound, the Enterprise rams the Supremacy. The pointed bow of the Enterprise smashes right into the port wing of the ship, about 5 kilometers from the middle of the ship where the bridge and throne room are located. Throughout the Enterprise and much of the Supremacy, a violent shockwave ripples through the ships, shaking the crews and throwing many off of their feet. Many close to the impact site on the Supremacy are defeaned by the sound.
On the bridge, Admiral Jacobsen is thrown off his feet, but he continues to monitor what's happening. At the moment of impact, he had worried if his plan would work. But to his relief, it has. The bow of the Enterprise was shaped much like that of a conventional aquatic warship on Earth, and was pointed at the tip, but spread out as it went back to facilitate better penetration during a ramming. In addition, the hull was mostly constructed of an alloy of steel and quadranium, but the very tip of the bow was reinforced with a new metal that had been discovered by the Alliance. The metal had been discovered on an uninhabited planet that had been discovered as a result of the Grysk War. The metal was incredibly dense and nigh indestructible. As a nod to a similar metal in Marvel comics, the metal was named adamantium. However, even on the source planet, the metal was incredibly rare. The bow of the Enterprise had used up most of the available adamantium.
All of this was done to enable the bow of the Enterprise itself to serve as a weapon. Admiral Jacobsen had thrown his faith in the Enterprise's design. And to his great relief, the work of the ship's designers holds true. With terrible grating of metal on metal and horde of other terrible sounds, the Enterprise smashes through the outer hull of the Supremacy. A series of explosions erupt around the hull of the Enterprise as it continues to smash its way through the Supremacy.
Eventually, the Enterprise loses its momentum and comes to a stop. However, the damage is done. The Enterprise has smashed almost ⅔ of the way through the Supremacy. The massive ship has been instantly crippled, and fires are spreading through the ship from the impact zone.
"Engines back full," Admiral Jacobsen orders. The Enterprise's engines are thrown into reverse, and the ship begins to move backwards, pulling back out of the Supremacy. As it does, Admiral Jacobsen gets his first look at the bow, and breathes a sigh of relief. There is some minor damage to the bow, and he knows there will probably be some shock damage that will have to be repaired, but the Enterprise has survived the impact well.
"Pull back and focus all fire on the impact zone! Call as many bombers as possible to focus their attacks on the impact zone!" Admiral Jacobsen shouts.
The Enterprise slowly pulls back, focusing all fire on the site of the impact, determined to finish the job. Swarms of fighters and bombers begin attacking the Supremacy to assist the Enterprise.
As the fight resumes, in the throne room of the Supremacy, Ben finally rouses himself from the daze he is in. Raising himself up on his hands, he looks around and soon sees Rey resting just a few feet from him. Ben crawls over to her and shakes her. "Rey! Rey!"
After a few moments, Rey stirs and opens her eyes. "Ben," she mutters.
"Come on. We gotta get out of here," Ben says urgently, and he slowly hauls Rey to her feet. They stumble in the direction of Snoke's personal escape craft. As they do, Ben raises his wrist to his mouth and shouts into it, "Anakin, we're getting out of here! Snoke is dead. Don't wait for us. Get out of here!"
Down in the hangar, Anakin hears the message. He cuts down another stormtrooper in front of him and bellows, "Zulus, let's get out of here!"
All of the commandos hear Anakin's order, and take to the air with their jetpacks as Anakin races towards an Upsilon-class shuttle. Only a few minutes later, the shuttle flies out of the hangar, with Anakin and all of the Zulus on board. All safe.
As the strike team escapes the Supremacy, the Enterprise is making a turn away from the crippled Supremacy back towards the rest of the First Order's fleet to continue the battle. Admiral Jacobsen has decided not to use the superlaser, worried that the impact of the ramming could have caused shock damage to the weapon and not wanting to risk firing it if the weapon had been damaged. However, the Enterprise still wields plenty of firepower. And all the First Order can do is wait to be destroyed.
(Hours later)
Silence now reigns on the Supremacy. It's been hours since the battle ended. Almost the entire First Order fleet had been destroyed, with only two ships managing to escape. On the Supremacy, the decision had been made to scuttle the ship, knowing it was crippled beyond repair. Most of the crew had been evacuated, and the final measures to destroy the ship were underway.
However, one high ranking officer has not yet left the ship. In the throne room, General Hux has come into the throne room. Now, he stands before the throne, staring in horror at the body of Snoke, lying in its two halves, unmoving. The shock, loss, and horror flooding through him have him frozen.
Suddenly, he hears a groaning. Looking to the side, he sees Kylo Ren slowly getting to his feet. Kylo had been hit in the head by a falling piece of debris in the aftermath of the impact, which was why he had taken so long to come to.
As Kylo struggles to his feet, Hux manages to ask him, "What happened?"
"The girl murdered Snoke," Kylo says as he struggles to his feet. He looks around and asks, "What happened here?"
"Their flagship rammed us. And the girl must've taken Snoke's escape craft," Hux answers the question.
Kylo fully stands up and shakes his head to regain his senses. He looks out of the viewport and says, "They escaped, but not for long. Summon the fleet and ready all forces to pursue them.m We're going to finish this." He then turns to leave.
"Finish this? Who do you think you're talking to?" Hux exclaims angrily, "You presume to command my army? Our Supreme Leader is dead! We have no ruler!"
Suddenly, Hux is cut off as the Force begins constricting his airways, slowly choking him as Kylo turns back to Hux, his hand outstretched. "The Supreme Leader is dead, and I am his right hand," he growls, his message clear.
Hux grasps desperately at his throat as he looks back at Kylo before he manages to gasp out, "Long live the Supreme Leader!"
(Elsewhere)
In the cockpit of Snoke's escape craft, Rey and Ben are quiet as they are making the journey back to Naboo. They are still trying to digest everything that happened aboard the Supremacy.
Rey finally asks Ben, "You really think he's gone for good?"
"Yes. I had hope until now. But now…I'm not sure there's anything that can happen to turn him back to the light. He has grown too ambitious, too power hungry," Ben answers.
The two sit in silence for a little while longer before Rey speaks again and says, "Ben…I still have so much to learn. Please, help me learn who I can be."
"Of course, Rey," Ben says, looking at her with a little smile before turning back to the controls, ready to just get back to Naboo.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
I hope this was a good one, and that you liked the debut of the Enterprise. I decided to save the first use of its superlaser for another time, as I thought the ramming would be even more interesting and practical in this situation.
So, Kylo Ren is now Supreme Leader. Next chapter will deal with that and show some of his first actions as Supreme Leader.
Alright. Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!