Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars movies, shows, books, comics or games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not for sale, or rent. The Mobile Armors, and later Mobile Suits mentioned in the story are inspired by the various Gundam shows. They obviously belong to their respective creators, and, or copyright owners.
Chapter 4
=FG=
Part 5
=FG=
CIC
FEW PSD Palpatine's Honor
Cal-Seti system
Torranix sector
When the adrenaline began draining out of his system, Firmus all but collapsed, while sitting in his chair. He had to clutch the armrests to keep his hands from visibly shaking.
"Damage Control, report, and dispatch Damage Control parties to all areas in need of immediate repair. Contact our surviving ships and make sure they will have access to assistance as soon as we have the critical areas under control." Piett's voice sounded alien to his ears. Somehow, it came out calm and collected, when he felt anything but.
By the war's standard, this was a mere skirmish, perhaps one that ended with an unexpected victory. Even if said victory tasted like bloody ashes. However, this was the first time Piett was alone in command for anything but a routine droid hunt. Until now, there has always been someone else senior in the system who was in command and ultimately had to shoulder the responsibility for everything happening.
Like starting another bloody war…
"Guardian system compromised, it's down to sixty percent coverage. Missile stock is down to twelve percent. We've lost a third of our primary weapons, and close to forty percent of the secondaries. Sensor coverage is about the same. Armor is compromised in several sectors…"
A holographic image of the ship came alive in front of Piett's chair. There were many red and amber areas showing the parts of the ship suffering the most extensive damage.
"We've got two hundred confirmed dead, and close to six hundred injured, being treated. Another hundred and twenty crew members are currently unaccounted for…"
That was surely a combination of internal sensors being out in places. Then, there was likely nothing left from some poor bastards, and other unlucky souls ended up vented into space.
"Tactical, what we lost? What's the status of our fleet and the enemy?" Piett tuned out the rest of the DC report. He could see or already heard the relevant parts.
"Our confirmed losses are severe, Captain." The tactical plot refreshed at that point, showing too many FE ship symbols gone dark. "Three of our light cruisers have been destroyed, two lost with all hands, and the last is crippled. We lost both Assault Carriers, one of the Dreadnought cruisers is a drifting wreck, and the other is heavily damaged. Both Victory Star Destroyers read as moderately damaged. We're still to receive a proper DC report from them. We lost several light escorts, and over seventy fighters. Mobile Armor losses in direct combat were light, however, we lost too many with the Battle Born before and during launch."
Piett bit the inside of his cheek not to scream at that. With both Assault Carriers gone, his long-range strike options were now severely limited by both available ordnance and the small craft to carry it.
That was the tactical consideration. The other practical ones were the thousands of Imperial crewmen he got killed.
"We bloody did the Republic bastards good in retaliation. We've gutted their escorts, and their battle line is little better than ours. And they lost all small craft in the last engagement."
If it wasn't for the Silencer and Guardian, it would be much, much worse. Piett could clearly remember the moment the enemy battle line flinched away from the close-in brawl they came for. It only happened after his people used the Silencer, and followed through with unleashing the Guardian in rapid-fire mode, hammering every enemy capital ship with hundreds of light missiles. That swarm hid capital scale proton torpedoes and concussion missiles.
A Guardian equivalent would have both softened the impact and allowed the enemy to respond in kind. Instead, in this particular instance, Piett's ships were able to punch well above their weight class due to the enemy's ignorance.
He still got his task force practically shattered, and borderline combat ineffective.
"Send another courier to Admiral Tigellinus with our current status, requesting immediate reinforcements and repair ships if available."
=FG=
Republica 500
Temporarily Imperial Residence
Coruscant
If any single building on Coruscant was fitting to be the Imperial residence, from a security standpoint if nothing else, Republica 500 was it. For ages, the huge spire had been home to the powerful, wealthy, and famous. It thus featured all the luxuries they needed, including confidentiality, and more importantly security. Even at the height of the Republic's golden age, Republica 500 was protected by a small army of highly vetted private security, Republic military, and members of various government protection services.
The war merely increased the defenses the spire enjoyed, now including a barrack for a whole legion right under the Imperial Residence itself.
It was a shame, that all those loyal troopers were unable to keep politics out of Satine's home. However, this time around, the Empress was more than content to leave Obi-Wan to deal with it, while she spent a bit of precious time with her daughter.
Fay sat in her lap, for once content to let Satine braid her long hair, while she was engrossed in trying to make a stuffed Krath hound toy move with her mind. It even almost worked, with the toy twitching now and then.
Meanwhile, in a nearby room, Obi-Wan was playing to his strengths in negotiations, wooing Raith Sienar, and his company to work for the New Order. That man's backing would be a useful asset in countering the many interests more or less controlling Satine's thron
e. Naturally, such backing wouldn't come due to the goodness' of Sienar's heart. He was a cold-blooded opportunist at worst, and an oddly honorable man at his rare best moments.
"Because of our mutual interests, we've decided to give you a head's up, Raith." Obi-Wan spoke in a voice like honey. Even if you did know better, you would find it hard to believe he wasn't particularly fond of Sienar. Even to a careful observer, the two looked and sounded like two old friends sharing drinks, gossiping, and making the odd deal to advance their mutual interests.
Which was how many a deal were struck every day on Coruscant, and all over the Core.
"We are?" Sienar asked in a voice like silk.
"The Imperial Government in this case. We've made contact with the changed part of the galaxy at two separate points. Preliminary reports show we're dealing with a very odd alternative future of all things."
"Obi-Wan, if you were anyone else, I would be calling for medical assistance right now…" Sienar chuckled, before sobering up. "You're being serious."
"From the contacts we've made with the other side, it appears that Palpatine over there lived, and one of his agents managed to get to the Separatist leadership, forcing them to shut down their armies." Obi-Wan roughly summarized the biggest point of divergence anyone could point at right now.
"That… well, I'm rightly not sure when our problem children had the genius idea of removing the shut-down codes. If somehow their counterparts found themselves avoiding the key reason for that insane decision.."Sienar trailed off in speculation. "There is a Republic on the other side?"
"Oh, it gets even better. Their Palpatine was unable to keep the Republic together either. He proclaimed the formation of a Galactic Empire at the end of the war, and his New Order lasted until a few local years ago when he got killed. Their part of the galaxy has been burning in another civil war, this time for the throne, ever since. We've been in contact with two groups of Imperial Remnant over there. One was in such dire straits, that in exchange for information, protection, and supplies, the local commander surrendered a whole system in our custody, formally requesting membership in the Federated Empire." Obi-Wan explained.
Sienar was quiet for a few moments, digesting the information.
"You, of course, accepted. If they're twenty years ahead, the technologies we can gain without spending fortunes on R&D…"
"We, of course, accepted," Obi-Wan confirmed. "If nothing else, the local Commandant and his people are going to be invaluable in sounding off anything the other group of their Imperials tells us. In that regard, for some odd reason, Palpatine's Empire went with a very cheap and basic deathtrap of a fighter produced by their equivalent of your company. From what we can gather, it was only recently they began fielding advanced fighter designs."
Sienar went still at that. "We're offering our best. No Imperial pilot would die in one of our craft, because it is in any way a basic heap of scrap!"
"Yes, it seems your Defenders do quite well in field tests so far." Obi-Wan soothed the engineer's ego. "One of the things we offer is to supply you with alternate future versions of craft built by their Sienar. I believe examining such examples would prove invaluable for developing better starfighters for the navy?"
=FG=
Losses from the battle at Cal-Seti:
Federated Empire:3 light cruisers destroyed, and 1 crippled; 2 Dreadnought Assault Carriers destroyed; 1 Dreadnought Cruiser destroyed, and 1 heavily damaged; 1 Victory SD with moderate damage, and 1 with relatively light damage; Palpatine class flagship – moderate damage; 2 Tartans destroyed, 2 CR90 destroyed.
75 fighters, 21 MA, 2 Strike Craft
New Republic: 3 Nebulon B Frigates destroyed and one heavily damaged; 5 MC30 Frigates destroyed, 1 damaged, en route to Coruscant; 1 Battleship mission killed and boarded; 2 Battleships crippled by Silencer strikes; 1 Battleship moderately damaged, 1 MC80 Liberty Flagship moderately damaged with destroyed bridge; 3 Alderaani War Frigates destroyed;
XWing 280 Y-Wings 280, A-Wings 12
Practical tactical assessment: There is no change to the trend of two fleets with rough firepower parity meeting in combat and suffering in excess of fifty percent casualties, or more, if one side doesn't break and flee first. Further, close in combat continues to be excessively bloody affair for everyone involved, and is to be avoided if practical.
=FG=
Part 6
=FG=
Home One
Coruscant system
There was no hiding that some kind of disaster happened, when a single, heavily damaged frigate arrived at the Coruscant system. The desperation of its commander to transmit fleet combat logs first, before even wanting to talk about transferring injured personnel, or arranging emergency repairs, had been telling.
Unsurprisingly, rumors spread throughout the Mon Calamari cruiser like a wildfire gone out of control. Very soon, everyone knew something had happened.
That was how Leia finally tracked down Madine. The Corellian General was deep within the intelligence section of the ship, staring intently at sensor logs. The mood in the compartment was anything but good. High-ranked officers and experienced specialists worked with manic energy as if their very lives depended on it.
The amount of quiet cursing made Leia almost think she was stuck back in Jabba's palace. That, in turn, made her feel unclean and in desperate need to hit the fresher. However, she pushed through the momentary flashback. Leia instead focused her attention on the sensor logs displayed by a large, crisp hologram.
There were hundreds of Republic fighters and bombers flying at a small group of Imperial ships. From the look of it, there were nowhere near enough enemy fighters to make this attack anything but devastating.
A wall of missiles flew at the incoming Republic fighters, and while they broke away… Leia blinked in understanding when various funnels of light formed around the advancing Republic craft, showing they were coming in too fast, against a fleet that was also accelerating. They were in no position to avoid the missiles. If they tried, they would still suffer multiple strikes before they could safely flee into hyperspace, without being able to touch the enemy ships.
They pressed through, and the slaughter continued.
Leia watched the battle until the enemy ships broke off their approach and jumped to lightspeed. At that point, General Hudsol ordered the damaged frigate to run for the hyper-lane, but only after receiving the fleet's sensor logs.
"General Madine, what did we just watch?" Leia imperiously demanded.
The Corellian looked away from the holo-tank. For a moment, Madine wore his age in a less than graceful manner.
"Best case scenario? We just found out who has been holding the Empire's best R&D projects, and they finally entered the war. Worst case scenario, that Piett Hudsol spoke with is the real deal, not a clone. Now we might be in a war with an intact Empire from the changed side of the galaxy.
"What conversation?" Leia hissed, while her mind raced, struggling with the implication.
"Ah, you missed that. Specialist, play that recording for General Organa." Madine ordered. "The biometrics we can use from the recording match those of a young Firmus Piett. They're close enough to indicate we're dealing with either a clone or the genuine article. Of course, we can't be a hundred percent sure what is the truth, without a closer examination of the man." Madine elaborated.
Leia silently fumed and listened to the brief conversation. Whoever, whatever, that Piett worked for, it was Imperial, so by definition, it was not to be trusted. A democratic-minded person could eagerly argue that an Imperial military commander had no authority to just give a whole system like Cal-Seti away. It simply didn't matter what deal they struck with this new Empire. The mention of the local civilian leadership meant little, Leia knew that firsthand. Unless the Empire believed such a leader worked for it, their Imperial overlords tended to keep them on a short leash ever since disbanding the Senate.
Unfortunately, practically speaking, a request for protection in these dangerous times was the precise justification the Republic used to put worlds and whole systems under its protection. It didn't matter what the Empire thought about it, or sometimes, what the reality on the ground was. As far as justifications went, it was one of the better ones. That fact only made it that much more frustrating! Those sounded like smart Imperials, more like Kaine than butchers like Isard or Zsinj.
No matter their true nature, the former represented a different, more insidious danger, than the latter. Leia had read many reports about Kaine and was one of the people who authorized support of subversive activities in his space without a second thought. He was the most dangerous type of Imperial, one who believed in the New Order and tried to live up to those expectations. If the Republic didn't remove him from the board, the sectors he controlled would be a bleeding sore for decades to come.
And now, this disaster.
"What was Hudsol thinking?" Leia finally hissed.
"That he could either win, or at worse, force the enemy to show all their cards, and have enough surviving ships to bring the news to us," Madine answered. "To be fair, the only real surprise is the Imps are now using clones of competent officers, and the way they gutted our fighters and bombers. We knew they were trying to miniaturize the Death Star's super-laser, to fit on SSDs. Doing so on something as small as an ISD is unexpected, but nothing radically different. It merely means that this new faction has been much more successful than anyone else in that regard. That, in turn, leads me to believe they are either what they say they are, or the bunch of Imperials playing with the best toys of the late Emperor."
"If he wins? General, we can't afford the kind of victories, where we have the last crippled ship standing! From what I saw of those sensor logs, that is what Hudsol might end up doing!" Leia snapped. She didn't bother being diplomatic. That was already a disaster they were facing! The only question was its magnitude. "Prepare an exhaustive briefing containing everything your people know, or suspect about the situation. I'll talk with the Chancellor and arrange a leadership meeting as soon as I can. We need to get ahead of this before it's too late!"
=FG=
Imperial Fleet Command
Admiral Dao military complex
Coruscant
Fleet Admiral Coburn sat within the nerve center of the Imperial Navy, well, one of them. He was like an arachnid making thousands of ships, and countless crew, dancing on his strings. The old Human nearly chuckled at that thought. Such an image was more apt for his CIS counterpart, Trench, who simply refused to die. According to the latest intelligence reports, the enemy Admiral was now more of a cyborg than that monster Grievous used to be. Nevertheless, the cunning bastard survived his last run-in with Veil, and that was what mattered in the end.
Coburn chased the moment of levity with a sip of strong, hot tea, and refocused his attention on the job at hand. Until his shift in the command center was over, he was the one overseeing the Imperial deployments across the galaxy. He had the responsibility for dispatching the right response in case of a crisis. Doing so would avoid inaction before the news could properly make its way up the chain of command, and be discussed by the military's political overlords. This was one of the concessions and founding principles of the Empire. No Imperial world would suffer invasion, or blockade, while the politicians bickered about if there was a problem in the first place, and if there was one, what to do about it.
That was what the Republic Senate did during the infamous Naboo Crisis all those years ago, and it didn't change during the war.
In contrast to the now-defunct Republic, the Federated Empire was going to live up to its core ideals and provide safety and security to those under its care. Ultimately, that was all that took to have the military back in the transition to the New Order – it promised the people in it what the Republic failed to deliver.
More importantly, soon everyone would know the Federated Empire would have to live to its ideals, or it would follow the Republic into oblivion. From what Coburn could gather, that was precisely what Palpatine's Empire on the other side of the galaxy failed at, with predictable consequences. That was a lesson everyone should take to heart, the Admiral believed.
Coburn's eyes swept over the many large monitors, and larger holographic images, showing the parts of the galaxy, where the Imperial Navy was deployed in active combat zones. Most of those were either because of the need to suppress rogue droids or Separatist fleets that didn't accept the peace. They instead waged a doomed war in a futile attempt to liberate the worlds the Empire retook before the war ended.
In ironic contrast, while the largest naval concentrations were near the border with the Confederacy itself, those were generally safe areas. The same was true about the important systems holding the Imperial strategic reserve.
The Mid-Rim Alliance and the Mandalorian Freehold were no different. They both had their large forces, which often jointly deployed with Imperial battle groups.
At this time, the really interesting points were on the fringe of explored space, where contact with the changed part of the galaxy happened. One point was more or less MRA's problem, though Imperial forces in the region were already mobilized and on the move.
The other one, in the Core, was much more problematic. The whole Fondor region was still a mess and would remain so for at least another decade, and that was an optimistic take on the issue. The truth was that the Navy was stretched too thin to deploy the force needed to clean up such a large chunk of space properly. Doing so, instead of the cat and mouse game forced upon Tigellinus would require the deployment of multiple Sector Fleets, not just one. For the foreseeable future, that was out of the question.
A small commotion at the early warning section got the Admiral's attention. Within less than a minute, his terminal lit up with a priority message. He opened it and
frowned.
It was no surprise that Piett poked the locals in a way they didn't like. That was his task, even before the other Cal-Seti requested membership in the Empire, and got it granted with haste. The long-range scout that raised the alarm had little data. It brought only a rough composition of the enemy force and their hostile intent, confirmed by a brief conversation between Captain Piett and a General Hudsol of the New Republic.
There was no helping it, now. Valentra's people would have to expedite the deployment of forces and defensive assets as far as the newest Imperial member system. Coburn briefly wondered if he could arrange for either Veil or the Emperor to deliver the joyous news to the Empire's logistics specialist. They were friends after all. The odds of being strangled at hearing about the new potential war were much lower when they were concerned. Coburn personally didn't like his odds with Valentra.
At any rate, Coburn had a lot of orders to cut, and messages to send. He called upon display the available reserve forces, as well as those already slatted to reinforce the Fondor region. The reserve cupboard was emptying too fast for his comfort.
=FG=
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