[14 BBY]

[Trade Federation Lucrehulk II-class Battleship Justice Served, Federation-Confederate Navy 2nd Fleet, in orbit Druckenwell, Druckenwell System, Doldur Sector, Mid Rim, Trade Federation Alliance]

Mar Tuuk stood, watching the data analysis running on the holo-displays before him two aides with him in a Tactical Droid and Captain Ur Irkath. Before them was the record of a minor battle. Though Mar Tuuk had to resist a laugh at that, as only a few years ago this would have been considered a major fleet engagement by almost everyone. Now…it was minor engagement, between two sides at war, that were also not at war…but were at war…

"The enemy withdrew. This is a tactical success Admiral"

He hummed at the words from the, now slightly dumber, tactical droid as it's processors were still not fully recalibrated after the latest security updates. There had been no droid rebellions despite the droid chaos but ensuring their armies and fleets didn't suffer any further problems. It was a nuisance in the midst of a disaster, one that was slowly resolving itself…even if the unit occasionally stated the blatantly obvious, but still missed the underlying issue. Something that Captain Irkath served to point out.

"Technically, yes, but it was not exactly a victory either. Our forces too withdrew after the fact, and Radnor is now neutral rather than involved. After…"

"A pirate raid?" Mar Tuuk offered "Rebels?"

"Admiral?"

Mar Tuuk shook his head "We are not, officially, at war with the Empire, and our orders, and their orders by all accounts, are very clear on that matter. Even when they seize entire systems. We must be careful in our language I'm sad to say. Officially. Here we must discuss honestly"

The captain nodded "Sir. It was less than ideal. The Imperials pressed aggressively and then withdrew at the request of Radnor, not because of the engagement turning against them"

"I am inclined to agree Captain" Mar Tuuk noted, studying the engagement between what he was starting to recognise as a 'standard' Imperial 'light' Taskforce. Of course, such things varied wildly at times, and in the ship classes, but he did detect a general trend in these squadrons patrolling or raiding into the Confederacy or Independent Systems proper now. With Rodia switching sides it was something he had to be wary of, that of a full Imperial invasion, just as other commanders watched for the other former Republican factions attempting to take Confederate systems "Such engagements as this will decide matters in many, many, places. Far too many I expect"

The greatest difficulty was that many of his colleagues were waiting for a decisive battle, or wanted to force such a decisive battle…

'They are fools' he thought tiredly, watching the avatars of the two fleets start to engage. As he noted the Imperials had a battleship and carrier core, escorted by cruisers and then lighter escorts in proportion to that core force. In this case it was a Victory-class Star Destroyer, one of the former militarist faction in the shape of now Commodore Pellaeon matched with a Lucrehulk, one still in droid-fighter/carrier format, with escort of two dreadnoughts and three Munificent-class and eight light escorts. It had been a tactical droid led force that opposed them unfortunately, with four Lucrehulks with three escorting cruisers facing off…

It had been a desultory affair, the Imperials not being officially there, and then officially there by request of the government on Radnor. Or a faction of it at least. The response force several system away had reacted in time at least, arriving soon after the Imperial did, and played the stupid game of not being at war but really being at war despite that not being at war talk. Radnor, while not exactly a major system was a useful world, with a strong R setup, and therefore was a target of both themselves and the traitors in the civil. Apparently, the Imperials as well now as Mar Tuuk watched the brief engagement, one that similar to a few others on the border systems by various reports sent to him by other fleet admirals.

The Imperials had deployed their TIE starfighters supported by modified Vulture droid-fighters, with Mar Tuuk's subordinate squadron throwing droid-fighters and bombers at them in response. It was grating to watch them be shredded as the Imperials maintained tight fleet cohesion, ensuring the starfighter engagement took place just at the edge of their escorts range. They had forced the tactical droid to play things by the programming, trying to overwhelm with droid-fighters, but the Imperials had inflicted enough casualties to force a retreat. Whereupon the Imperials had lurked back, attempting to engage with the locals to officially change sides as they engaged at range between starfighter squadrons. Finally withdrawing when the locals on Radnor panicked and requested everyone withdraw.

Such engagements were likely to be the primary threat, as nobody could afford to risk their full fleets right now, even the Imperials. Oh, they'd do it for major systems such as Rodia, but even there he was limited from throwing them back, just as the Bothans and their allies were. Throwing everything at the Stormcrow might win, might lose, but win or lose losses would be crippling, and then Mar Tuuk would have to face either Merai or some other enemy fleet jumping on his own weakened one. No, with the Imperials and Republicans still fighting their own civil war, and playing at opportunists rather than conquerors, Mar Tuuk suspected, strongly, that battles like this would be the greater danger in the short to medium term.

Unfortunately, there was little he could do about the matter, as his primary goal for that short to medium term was now in shoring up the Federation position from here to Denon, then unto Neimoidia itself. His superiors and colleagues spoke of decisive battle, yet also wished to avoid war, and he knew they talked both ways because they wanted to win a big victory, drive off the threat, and the hope things would settle down so they could focus on the enemy of Raxus. Again, hoping they would achieve a swift, decisive, victory and bring the civil war to a swift end after negotiations. That wouldn't happen, not now, but Mar Tuuk could only focus on his assigned task, and the was to strengthen and hold these sectors as best he could….

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[Moff's Ready Room, Command Deck, House Stormcrow Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Mobile Headquarters, Imperial Navy Fifth Fleet 'The Army of Light', over Rodia, Tyrius System, Savareen Sector, Outer Rim Territories, Disputed Territories]

"Rodia is secure your Majesty" I said to the avatar of Emperor Tarkin as I sat in my office at my desk "I've begun establishing a logistics hub and fleet base here, along with forward recon towards Isalon and Roon"

"Confederate response?"

I shook my head faintly "Large scale formations remain defensive currently, though there have been several smaller engagements in this sector and nearby, but we are remaining within our ROE"

Which was a frustrating situation as we were invading the Confederacy, but not. My actions down on Rodia were causing me a minor headache with my various Jedi, though that was more 'wanting to know' than an actual problem. We had secured the loyalty of the world though, and destabilised the local sector as intended, along with securing my influence with my overlord here. Sure it had brought more attention in all likelihood, but this whole situation had clearly been a setup despite my inability to figure out exactly who had manipulated the idiots I'd had to kill into doing what they did. It was Sidious in my view, but I had no proof of that either, and there were others after me now as well.

The avatar of the emperor nodded "Continue your operations towards Molavar and the Rishi moons Moff Stormcrow. We have reports that forces from Kamino may attempt a breakout in the future in response to the current situation"

I frowned, then nodded "That would make sense, though to where I wonder"

"They may have a link to the Core, or are being allowed access to those sectors by the Hutts by routes we are not aware of" he told me serious "The Kuati have still received reinforcements of clones, and we know the source. Be wary of any potential enemy reinforcements, but you are to investigate the matter further, but are not to engage the Hutts"

"Of course, your majesty, I will maintain the current status with the Hutts" I replied, and it was likely part of why I'd gotten this task rather than others. The truth was I didn't like the Hutts, or their needless slavery culture, but I could work with them tolerably enough in the past and was okay to negotiate with them. Which was unlike some of the more fervent officers you might find in the galaxy, or those that might on the opposite side and open to corruption. Always a danger with the crime lord outer core of the Hutt government onion system "Though if there were routes through the Confederacy, they are likely to be closed off now"

"One would hope, but there must be no threats allowed to spread to the Empire from a stray weapons programme, or some act of madness. Peace must be achieved, and that requires a firm hand Moff Stormcrow, even if we must currently restrain ourselves"

Nobody here wanted that nightmare horror show of Sidious's out here, especially little old me. What Tarkin wanted me to do was continue crushing any 'pirates' out here, while pushing as far as we could, but not far enough to provoke an all-out war just yet. Largely because we needed to knock out Kamino, and then Rothana, and that would take time. Simply charging across the hyperlanes wasn't safe anymore, and instead we now had to slowly secure Sectors by a combination of threats, negotiation, and I-can't-believe-it-illegal 'police actions' against systems if needed. Just like the enemy, all of them, were doing right now.

I, my praexium in all but name, was also a tempting target, fleet or no fleet, and I did suspect that my boss here was hoping for that to draw out enemy forces to be destroyed in battle. War was a difficult thing to judge as it could shift in a moment, and while for now the Confederates had backed off from Rodia, that could change today, tomorrow, or in a few months. That was glaringly obvious what with seeming alliance between Corellia and Coruscant/Alsakan against Kuat, all mixed in with them deploying….something that resembled a giant asteroid space station against Palpatine's forces. Events were spiralling across the galaxy.

"Sir" I replied with a salute as the conversation ended and the connection ended. My written orders were both more detailed, but also more in line with a 'if you can' basis as well. Really it boiled down to not pissing off the Hutts, try and avoid war with the CIS while we focused on Palp's allies in this galactic quadrant, and generally do what I was doing in crushing any resistance if necessary. That meant the situation here was very fluid, and my fleet had to operate at a high tempo as I many missions but also had to keep as much of said fleet concentrated as well. So, units had to be cycled in and out of small taskforces and deployed in a constant, but also irregular, scouting and patrol that resembled a war of privateers rather than a genuine war.

'Well, that's what you get for being Wrath you idiot' I reminded myself, pulling out the next set of schedules and went about picking the one we'd implement. Thankfully I had numerous Force-users now, along with crack troops and pilots, and so I could do certain things when the Stormcrow's C abilities and electronic warfare and signal interception got factored in. The Rishi Moons were my current, albeit slightly distant, objective so I began to plot how to get to there, and then beyond…

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