[Closing weeks of 14 BBY]

[Command Bridge, Command Deck, House Stormcrow Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Mobile Headquarters, Imperial Navy Fifth Fleet 'The Army of Light', in hyperspace, Disputed Territories, Outer Rim Territories]

Initiate Clean Sweep. Those were my orders. Not quite out of a clear blue sky of course, but they had come suddenly within the operational framework as expected. It had still dragged me from my bed early and shortened my sleep cycles back somewhat over the last few days as my fleet entered, and then travelled through, hyperspace. We'd been ready, and we've proved it by getting underway immediately after orders had arrived, Fifth Fleet unwinding and deploying into hyperspace to move along the now cleared trade lanes to link up with Zsinj and her fleet…

Then destroy all resistance before us.

Taking Kamino and Rothana intact was far less important than sending a message…

So, here we were, travelling through the always slightly off-feeling hyperspace, on course for the known entrance to the route to Kamino. Sidious's fleet had departed as per intelligence reports and comm intercepts, headed to the Core through Hutt space, and hopefully walking into an ambush. There was no guarantee of that, but it ensured the deaths would be amongst those not in the Empire rather than amongst those soldiers and sailors under my command.

It was a risk, but the war in the Core was growing ever bloodier, and I could understand High Command's, ie Tarkin's, view that it was best to let them get away. But the simple truth was that Kuat was still years away from winning, big offensives lately or not, and with everything be concentrated against them right now…who could tell if this was a brilliant move or another Endor plan for Sidious. What did matter was destroying the Sith's powerbase here in the 'southern reaches' while we could, along with, hopefully, destabilising the Confederacy as well. Or what was left of the Confederacy at least as they underwent the same political chaos, followed by collapse, that the Galactic Republic had suffered.

"Moff" Gardan greeted me, coming up to me with a data-slate of various things for me to review and sign "As you requested"

"Thank you, Captain, any issues I should be aware of?"

He answered in the negative as I looked at the various reviews undertaken during our trip. Maintenance and discipline were vital aboard a large warship, amongst a large fleet, as hyperspace wasn't entirely empty, and I wanted to minimise our risks as best we could. I needed the routine as well as the crew did, and I went through the checklist that had been handed to me. The Imperial Fleet expected high standards, and I'd been part of that push after enduring the giant clusterfuck that was the Republic's 'Navy' for several years during the early stages of the 'clone wars' especially.

When the time came to fight the coming tide against the Far Outsiders….I'd have it as ready as it could be. Ahsoka was even behaving during her….vacation…with us, even if it wasn't a willing vacation. But orders were orders, and while we were nominal allies our states weren't fully allies either, which was why everyone was playing silly spy games right now. Something that concerned me as the Force was…not indicating great things in the future, but, then again, Divination was rarely a preferred subject of servants of the Shrouded Lord beyond our obsessiveness with screwing with said Divination and future predictions. Screw Destiny and all that jazz being the team mantra often enough…

"Signal from Moff Zsinj" Gardan interrupted my mind drifting to other concerns, and I glanced at him as he walked over, and back, to the officer he'd attended from me "She wishes to stop to readjust for local gravity wells"

I nodded "Signal our agreement in response. Also state I want to have a quick conference once we're out of hyperspace and recalc-ing routes"

"Aye-aye Sir"

It wasn't overly long till we done just that, our fleets meeting and merging with forward deployed forces, and I had a brief call with my opposite in Third Fleet. So far there'd been no real opposition to our move after driving out from Rodia and Christophsis, beyond skirmishes with outer patrol fleets, but now the clock was ticking as we drive towards the 'Rishi Moons' as they were called. Taking no chances we emerged far from the moons and the route we needed to access, my fleet coming out first to spring any trap…should there be one, several hours of intense, if dull, duty later. That was, amusingly, the hardest part – many, many, hours of simply standing watch and waiting for something to, inevitably, go wrong.

Now, though…

"Emergence to real-space complete" the young, but, by now, combat veteran officer reported the obvious as per detail as I came to stand at the tactical display, watching everything illuminate in real-time "Enemy contacts detected! Squadron strength"

I nodded to myself, then stood straighter "Understood, put me on speaker to the system. Broadcast my message loud and in the clear"

"Yes Sir Moff Stormcrow" was the response, and I waited a moment till it was done and I gazed out at the understrength formation defending the much more dangerous. Not overly dangerous to the concentrated strength of my fleet though, let alone what was waiting to emerge behind me. But this could be a trap, Palpatine being Palpatine, or there could be a superweapon surprise…

"Soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic" but I pressed on coldly, with a calm serenity as my image, standing hands behind my back, looking at ease, as my holo-image went out "Clone or Freeborn! This is Moff Daron Stormcrow for the United Federal Empire. My forces have arrived to put an end to the tyranny of the traitorous elements that serve as your overlords! Every clone, every slave, will be freed and the chips in their heads removed. I now call on you to lay down your arms and you will be granted full citizenship within the Empire in the coming days. Resist, and I shall destroy you utterly for you have no capacity to resist my fleet….please, I beg you, lay down your arms"

Then cut the transmission, Gardan coming up to my side once more "Think they'll accept Sir?"

"No" I stated sadly, looking out at the enemy beyond "I don't believe so. Which is why we have to make an example of them. Hence the slow boating approach"

I sighed "Orders to Fleet – all units to advance, fifty-percent of military speed, Razzle-Dazzle Formation"

"Sir"

My Fifth Fleet advanced slowly in sub-light, adopting a rapidly shifting and adjusting formation just in case there was some trap ahead of us, or another weapon like the Alsakans had thrown out with their asteroid battle station. It was wasteful energy wise, and I wouldn't normally pull such things, but…again, we were making a show of this, and I was giving the enemy a chance to escape. But, unfortunately, these were Clones, and, worse, recent Kaminoan decanted Clones with fanatical, mind-screwed, loyalty. I could already feel it through the Force, let alone what I knew of them from all the reports over the years. The Clones were slaves…

And I could nothing about it, beyond destroying them most likely as the hours slipped by, our approach meeting no resistance as we activated Distortion Drives and the Interdiction Cruisers to prevent sudden hyperspace jump attacks. That was a Republic tactic just as it had been mine, and would have been to the Rebel Alliance of a time that would never be, and something I'd not allow as my forces crept towards the inner systems. Tempting them enemy to ambush us, sending out two more warnings till we came into final comms range before the firing started, and I gave them one last chance.

"Surrender now or die. There will be no more warnings, and no mercy shown"

And, as I'd expected, they choose to die as orbital defences now fired at the extremes of their range. All I could do was shake my head in irritation, take a breath, and then send out commands as the turbolaser fire impacted the outermost screens of my wall of battle "Orders to Fleet. Snap Count. Snap. Snap Count"

My orders rippled out, the distortion and interdiction ending momentarily as my heavy cruisers began to engage the enemy fleet, sending out detailed sensor information to Maarissa Zsinj's fleet. The one waiting in hyperspace and now flashed into existence in rapid succession on the flanks of the already vastly outnumbered squadron of Acclamators and escorts attempting to interdict my fleet along with the lunar fortresses. Only then did our interdiction and distortion systems get powered back up, our turbolaser batteries engaging as the older starfighters used by the enemy were annihilated first. This was no battle.

This was a one-sided slaughter. We engaged. Clones died as their outnumbered warships were smashed to debris in rapid succession, their communications jammed and starfighters and escape pods, though there were almost none, all of them Kaminoan lifesigns at that, ruthlessly hunted down. There was a warning here for what the result of resistance was going to be for Kamino was this display was beamed unto that hyperlane as our ships obliterated the enemy mobile forces swiftly. Now came the closest thing to a 'new' siege weapon – the Hammerhead Heavy Cruiser, a new Imperial warship with a nasty surprise. Based on the ancient railgun warships it had a central spinal weapon, and a dozen of them joined our vast horde of turbolaser firing starships in smashing everything that might be considered an infrastructural target on the moons.

Shields were collapsed. Then the bases beneath them destroyed till the surface of the two lunar bodies began to crack and turn molten in many places. Till not a trace of the enemy remained. We had offered them a chance to surrender, and they had refused…such was the cost of that refusal as we went for complete overkill in an overly dramatic manner. Those had been our orders, and I could only watch dispassionately as every of the enemy was eradicated. As Zsinj got the happy sunshine job of broadcasting a 'warning' to Kamino in the form of our terms of surrender for them.

"Kamino will immediately free all enslaved individuals created through its cloning processes and surrendered to the care of the United Federal Empire, primarily for medical care and de-chipping of mind-control devices. The planetary government will also surrender all cloning technology, and all other war material, over for immediate destruction. Fair reparations to care for the enslaved…"

I stood patiently as the 'destroy Kamino either way' terms were signalled to them. Kamino and Rothana were to be destroyed, or, at the very least, reduced by to backwater planets with nothing of value…because everything that wasn't nailed down would be sent back to the Empire proper. They had had plenty of opportunities to surrender but had stubbornly fought on…and could be ticking bioweapon timebombs for all we knew. So, destroy them we must, and a message sent to all the neighbouring Sectors…

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