[21 BBY]

[Dooku's Palace, Serreno, Serreno System, D'Astan Sector, Outer Rim Territories]

Dooku, Darth Tyrannus, Count of Serreno, gazed out from the balcony of his palace at the beautiful forests of his homeworld while pondering upon recent setbacks and his Master's instructions. Resistance to the Grand Plan had been expected, encouraged even, as it would draw out organised opposition to the future Sith Empire they were working to build to replace the rotten edifice that was the Republic. Excellent in theory, but less pleasant to deal with in actuality, as it had cost him the Dathomiri Ventress as both punishment and proof of loyalty; something his forces had failed in achieving over Sullust even worse.

Standing straight, hands clasped behind his back, he stood proudly surveying his realm despite, or perhaps because of, his Master's admonishments over failing to see the acolyte dead. Retaliation, or an attempt at such, were to be expected by the Nightsister; assuming his forces, or those of the Jedi themselves, did not manage to hunt her down in the meantime. It would be a useful task to whittle down enemy Force user numbers at least, and he had set the task of slaying her to two of the other Acolytes, along with a force of B-1 Commando Droids, to ensure such occurred. Ideally Ventress of course, but some slain Jedi either was acceptable to both himself and his Master.

It was going to cause difficulties with the Nightsisters of Dathomir once word reached them, an unfortunate loss of potential recruits, but they would have had to be dealt at some point anyway. They, and Mother Talzin, would have to wait though; other potential thorns within the Trade Federation and Techno Union had risen as more immediate problems. Ambitious little vermin had risen up in the wake of the deaths at Geonosis, and recently of Wat Tambor when his personal ship had...mysteriously exploded. San Hill still remained firmly in control of his forces, but now mercenary armies were beginning to flock to the Trade Liberty Faction as they were informally calling themselves after Toth's actions at Kuat.

He narrowed his eyes in anger at the actions of Cavik Toth and Jango Fett in switching loyalties. An understandable decision of course, but they would suffer for it, as would their backers for attempting to assassinate him mere weeks ago. A pathetic attempt, and obviously in retaliation for his own agents attempt to eliminate Findos, Toth, and a meeting of some their supporters on Cato Neimodia prior to it. While failed it had killed several of the filthy Neimodians allies, and an uncle, so it wasn't a complete waste; nor could it be traced to any of Dooku's agents...no more than he could the one on him. For now he merely had to play friends and allies with those loose for the idiots in the Parliament to maintain his own image as Liberator and Hero of the Separatist cause.

'The difficulty is in ensuring their forces are stalled after their recent successes, gaining my own while not inflicting too severe a defeat upon the Republic' he thought considering various options to put forward to his Master upon their next discussion. His cyborg General, Grievous, unaware of the need to avoid such things, had routed a Republic Fleet at Chardaan when both he and his Master had wished to have a Republic victory, albeit a hard won one. Unfortunate, but it had allowed propaganda on both sides, a dead Jedi, and merely meant adjusting the Grand Plan into the scenarios of a longer war most likely. Dooku paused in thought; there was also the possibility of Jedi Master Krell currently on Ryloth to cause trouble that would benefit both the CIS, and more importantly his Master.

'No, not yet' he reminded himself with a shake of his head. The Galactic South, and the fringe around Mon Cala were useful sideshows, and diverting his enemies within the Separatist alliance in that direction would probably be his best move. A great strike upon Kamino, that would fail, was being organised now after all and they would need successes in the wake of that failed offensive; goading Krell to action and striking at the Tarkin dominated Sector Armies for victories, but irrelevant ones, would be ideal. For now he would settle for his two minions causing chaos in those regions while they pursued Ventress and hopefully slew a few Republic Jedi and commanders as they did so...

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[21 BBY]

[Executive Security Solutions City-ship/Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Republic 19th Sector Army, In Hyperspace, Approaching Jiroch System]

"All sections report Ready status General, preparing to exit hyperspace. Sixty Seconds" my Executive Officer Gardan reported as I sat upon my command chair amidst the vast and brightly lit bridge deep in the bowels of the city-ship. I nodded, watching the holographic displays and currently inactive...well, passive...camera displays from various points on the outer hull. The bridge was massive compared to a standard warship bridge, and I'd opted for a large trained staff and extensive command and control links; fleet control, and sensors were a strong point...hopefully.

"Alright, let's get this party started then" I replied focusing on the bloodshed ahead. Or at least destruction, as droid armies shed precious little blood usually. It was best to appear calm and confident as I motioned at a nearby officer, a young twi'lek, to transfer direct sensor feeds from the forward sensors to my tactical display as I stood up to attend it. With the press of a button the data was forwarded to a display within a conference room within the secure areas of the ship. Allies, of sorts, made up of planetary defence forces commanders and a few others here to 'observe' the approaching battle.

"Transition in...3, 2, 1...Emergence" Gardan announced as suddenly the screens illuminated with starlight and stellar bodies of the Jiroch system. More importantly the Confederate Naval forces present in system "Multiple enemy units detected...estimates as expected"

I nodded "Good, signal all ships; Implement Attack Plan Alpha Two, Deploy Star-fighters and Droid-fighters"

We'd brought a strong force to this battle, deliberately so as I wanted a solid victory to show in the wake of the various meetings at Javin. Now we just had to prove it was more than just talk; and to achieve this I was hitting a scouted Confederate Task-force here in Jiroch, while Jurdan struck another known Confederate supply base in the Vassek system with his own force. My own battle-group was the weaker of the two; formed up around my Stormcrow, two of the Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers, three converted Munificent-class now Revenant-class, and a screening force of six modified Gosantis, two Consulars, and a mixture of five other armed merchants serving as escort carriers.

My foes were slightly stronger than initially scouted; formed up around four Munificent-class rather than the projected three, and a further Recusant-class light destroyer. Droid-fighters were already launching from them, as their escorts, seven converted transports looked like, along with two Gozanti's of their own. Too late; two squadrons of my bombers exiting hyperspace near their formation, accelerating towards the nearest enemy Munificent. Droids were swift to react to certain things, but they'd proven poor at fast attacks like this, especially as another squadron came out on the other side led by an Aethersprite. And, as per their protocols, they went after the perceived Jedi fighter leading this distraction force of bombers.

"I want fire concentrated on the Recusant and Munificent Three, Interceptors and Fighters to engage enemy screens while Bombers focus on Munificents Two and Four. Slave fleet auto-gunnery to our sensors as per Alpha Two; watch for leakers on bombing runs. Engage wide spectrum jamming"

The real danger was the droid-fighter swarm, though I'd done my best to pick a battlefield where we had the advantage as our starfighters launched, formed up, and tore into the Separatist lines alongside our own formations of Vulture droid-fighters. My orders didn't really need to be said...or perhaps they did as many of the crew were still green, and this was my last escapade with a Capital ship command had seen the Star Destroyer gutted and abandoned. Which was the case the orders were carried out and our formation continued forward in a solid block, escorts screening our advanced as star-fighters engaged on the sides, above, and below as ships poured fire into the space ahead.

"Slow reaction time"

I nodded in response to Gardan's words as the Munificent-class targeted by our initial bomber strikes was disabled "Command droid, or just inexperienced organic looks like. We need to keep disrupting their communications if that's the case, order the TIEs here..." I gestured at the icons "...and here to come around and target these squadrons"

"Copy General..." Gardan replied passing along the orders before returning attention to myself "...we're taking fire, damaged reported by The Herald of Night. Direct impact ion canon, light front turbolasers are temporally out"

"Escorts...Junda Myth and Irate Beggar to cover the Herald of Night till they are back on line, there heavy batteries are still firing"

He nodded back and I returned to watching the battle unfold...

"They're pulling back..." I nodded after a few minutes "...looks like moving to hyperspace out, but not recovering droid-fighters. Orders to all ships; maintain formation, do not pursue, and prepare for suicide runs. Fighters are to execute Fire Plan Tango Five"

"Sir" came the reply as my orders were passed along. Thankfully my Stormcrow had some of the densest anti-missile and anti-fighter defences in any of the Sector armies even if it lacked heavy firepower, and it came into play now. The thick outer armour held up well too, and I watched as three of the Munificents pulled away, while the Recusant slowed and began to wallow almost in space...then self-destructed seconds later, or perhaps detonated as a munitions store went off. That would be for the post battle study to figure out; right now my concern was eliminating the droid-fighters attempting to kamikaze my formation...

"That's the last of them..." I muttered after a nerve-racking few minutes as the Vulture and Scarab droid-fighters charged our lines in a chaotic muddle. We'd lost the escort carrier Sunset Dancing, and damage to a few ships, but eliminated over three hundred droid-fighters and destroyed a Munificent and Recusant, along with damaging the others in exchange. It was a good clear victory to show our allies "...long range sensors?"

"Enemy battle-group estimated an hour out General, report is they've entered hyperspace and heading our way"

I nodded "Right, recall all fighters and bombers then form up the task-force and prepare to return to Javin for repairs"

In theory we outgunned the Confederate task-force based one of their Lucrehulk-class Battleships, but there wasn't any gain to staying here and risking losing our minor victory. We had achieved my goals for the day, and no point in getting greedy. Hopefully this would boost my argument with the various dignitaries aboard right now, and more importantly with the people they were reporting too; they wouldn't have to know about the Confederate reserve force on the way after all...

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