Chapter 5: Astral Currents
April 5, 2228.
2 hours, 41 minutes, 22 seconds.
At least that was the estimate according to Pauly's calculations. For how much Iulius trusted her work, there was the chance that it could be wrong.
"Sir." Maurice then alerted. "Enemy fleet coming out of hyperspace."
Those words triggered the entire bridge to lock on. Soon enough, they would face another battle that defied any odd. They had to give more than everything in order to survive, but if Iulius' plan came through, it might stop the unfavorable tide of the war.
Iulius on his part closed his eyes and made a silent yet huge breath to calm his mind, for this battle wouldn't forgive him the tiniest mistake.
Soon enough, small dots started to appear on the horizon, right outside the asteroid belt. But then something huge came out: the Viscount itself had entered the battlefield.
"That ship...so it's Marshall Ackbar?" Iulius asked to STEVE.
"I'm monitoring their transmissions, but it's extremely likely." the AI replied.
Iulius should have felt intimidated, instead he only made a slightly nervous smirk. "Then I guess this is it. All ships on high alert. STEVE, coordinate with the Revenant." he ordered firmly.
Meanwhile, UACT ships kept coming out of hyperspace for at least five minutes. Eventually, there was a massive fleet with a total of 196 ships ranging from corvettes to heavy cruisers, to five Nebula Star Destroyers and finally the Viscount, which could easily act as long-range support with devastating effects. Only the relatively dense asteroid belt shielded the imperials from a constant barrage.
196 ships...and he had 47.
Nobody in their right mind would have ever taken on such a battle. Nobody in their right mind...or nobody without a plan.
Problem was, that plan relied on an amount of luck that bordered pure faith. Yet, that was the best chance there was at stopping the enemy offensive at least on that front.
"Deploy fighters in defensive formation. Let's see how they react." Iulius ordered and Nash relayed the instructions. Soon enough, from the imperial hangars came out several squadrons of TIE Advanced, Defender and Hunter. At the very least, they were all the latest generation of snubs.
And here the first part of the plan took place: since the position of the asteroids in the Roche belt varies all the time between the center of the system and the hyperspace lanes' exits, the UACT fleet first needed to find one or more passages. Of course the Imperials, who had been monitoring the belt for days, already had precise projections.
The imperial TIEs moved a few thousand km toward the belt, taunting the enemy fighters to try and come their way. However the Imperials knew full well that the enemy wouldn't have a real chance to get through that belt before an hour, unless they tried to circle around the huge belt and waste a lot of time.
Iulius was very thankful that Ackbar was a very patient man.
1 hour, 29 minutes, 53 seconds.
Eventually, a gap in the asteroid belt formed, large enough to allow a decent amount of ships to pass and it was going to last for nearly two rotations.
However, it seemed like Ackbar had judged the gap too little to get the Viscount through, and that was a blessing for the Imperials, because they would have never survived a head-on battle with that dreadnought.
Still, the first vanguard of the UACT, nearly 30 ships centered around a Turian dreadnought and two MC cruisers, went through.
"STEVE, connect me to the slingshot." Iulius ordered as he headed to the holo-table.
"Connection established." the AI replied shortly after.
Soon, the holo-table showed a reproduction of the battle, but then nearly twenty asteroids were highlighted. All of them of a size big enough to crush a corvette.
"Grand Admiral, all systems of 'slingshot' are green." the voice of Pauly announced on the comlink. "Trace a trajectory. Me and STEVE will handle the rest."
"Understood." the Lord-Protector calmly replied.
That was the first layer of defenses of the Imperials: asteroids that had been implanted with small remotely-controlled gravity modulators, which STEVE could control from a distance while following Iulius' instructions.
Iulius selected the first asteroid and traced a line that kept the speed of the enemy formation in mind. After he confirmed it, STEVE ignited the manipulator and used it to create a gravitational shockwave that propelled the asteroid while Pauly corrected the trajectory on the fly so the asteroid slammed into a Nebulon-B, pulverizing the ship before the crew realized that the asteroid was coming way too quickly.
The UACT ships immediately spread out as they realized that that asteroid had not arrived by chance. And that was the moment when Iulius ordered the first move of his fleet.
"Light Squadron. Move forward!"
The 12 minor ships that formed the first imperial line divided into three small groups of two Vindicator, a Lancer and a Gladiator, then they all moved to intercept the first enemy ships that had been separated from the main formation.
"All batteries, fire at will. Cover them!"
The two Star Destroyers and the Procursators opened fire, mostly targeting the enemy capital ships. At the same time, though, the Turian dreadnought, which had a much larger range, was standing out of their range while targeting the imperial capital ships with its main cannon. While the other UACT ships were blinding it quite a lot, allowing her to fire only occasionally, the Admonitor and the Revenant were hit once each.
"Can the fighter reach that dreadnought?" Iulius asked.
"Negative, sir. They're all engaged in combat." Nash reported.
"STEVE, give me the largest boulder we got."
The AI did so, illuminating a pretty big asteroid that had been equipped with a modulator. And it just so happened to be right behind the dreadnought. The crew of the ship noticed the sudden projectile and tried to evade, but Pauly redirected the asteroid at the last moment and still managed to hit the aft of the ship, severely damaging half of the engines and forcing her to turn tail.
While the dreadnought retreated, the UACT sent reinforcements from another vector that took more time, and by the time they arrived, the first vanguard had been basically destroyed or routed entirely.
1 hour, 02 minutes, 11 seconds.
"They're falling back. Disengage and regroup." Thane ordered to his Wing, knowing that the rebels and the invaders would be back to the fight quickly enough.
"All Squadrons, report in." he ordered.
"Vektor Squadron: two birds down. All the others in fighting shape."
"Savant Squadron: one bird down, two returned to the nest. All the others in fighting shape."
As all six squadrons reported in, it became clear that the 3rd Advanced Wing had lost a total of eight pilots and ten had returned to the carrier for emergency repairs. Meaning that, out of 72 TIEs, 18 were out of commission and the Wing was down to 75% of its strength, all after the first engagement. While it seemed possible that most of the damaged TIEs would be back in action in a few minutes, it was still a significant blow.
"Can we really last another hour?" Kendy asked.
"We still inflicted more casualties to the enemy. Also, the more the clock ticks, the more we will reduce our perimeter, so we can cover each other better." Thane tried to reassure her and the others.
While it seemed to work, Thane was aware that they could not go on with that attrition for long: the new E-Wings of the rebels were showing off, as they were on the same level as the Avengers and the Defenders, and the pilots assigned to them were clearly some of the best that the rebels had.
This time, the Imperials had bested them because the enemy fleet had been thrown in disarray, but the fact they had still suffered these casualties was a grim sign.
"Wing Leader. I think we can use the debris field as cover." Reaper-4 suggested.
Indeed, with many of the rebel ships destroyed, a quite large debris field had formed. Adding that to the asteroids flying around, it seemed like snub fighters would have to be even more careful.
"Good idea. For now, though, check your systems another time and get ready, because they will be back soon." Thane finally ordered.
47 minutes, 31 seconds.
It took longer than even the Imperials had anticipated for the UACT to reorganize. While it was a good thing, because it meant that they didn't know what the defenders were waiting for, the force coming forward now was much bigger, and that included the fighters.
However, Thane also noticed that there were hardly any E-Wings. Sure, he and his Wing had destroyed several dozens of them in the first engagement, but he didn't think that the rebels were already running out of them.
Nonetheless, there were still some Turian and Asari interceptors that were extremely dangerous. The Captain could only hope that his pilots would be able to exploit the improvised covers to their best, and that the Lancers would do their job correctly.
"3rd Wing, engage!" Than ordered as the enemy snubs entered the debris field. The TIEs sprinted forward and spread out in groups of three, now that the damaged TIEs had had the time to be brought back to a fighting shape.
As the other imperial squadrons also moved to intercept the enemy, Thane was the first to enter the debris field. It didn't take long before he and his two wingmen, Kendy and Maier, made contact with two Asari crafts, two X-Wings and three A-Wings.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, the pilots of the 101st had spent the last three weeks in that system, making daily simulated fights into the densest asteroid fields, some time even risking death closely, but now that training had paid off, for they all proved much superior to their counterparts.
41 minutes, 12 seconds.
Thane finally shot down the last enemy craft, but just as he did that, Maier yelled in the comlink "Boss, break! Break!"
Prompted by his wingman, Thane made a 92 turn to what was the direction above his head, just in time to see a couple of heavy blaster bolts fly parallel to him and almost grazing his TIE. Then, as he had basically braked entirely to do that maneuver, the origin of those bolts darted past him, and he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Thane...is that…?" Kendy asked just as amazed and terrified.
"It's the Ghost." Thane replied, nervous but determined to take the challenge on. "On me. We need to keep that ship away from our comrades."
Though everybody knew what that ship was and the reputation of its pilot, neither Kendy nor Meier even thought of giving up. Thane quickly contacted the Admonitor.
"Grand Admiral, this is Kyrell. We have entered in contact with a priority target. It's the Ghost."
"So Syndulla is here, too." Iulius replied. "Captain, do you need reinforcements?"
"Negative. Everyone else is already fighting for their lives. We'll keep that ship away from our fighters."
"Understood. Good luck."
Meanwhile, the three imperials had regrouped and were tailing the Ghost, which on its part was firing with at them with the dorsal turret.
"That was a close one." Meier commented.
"We can't just attack from the same direction." Kendy added.
"Syndulla is good, but that ship can't move as freely as us in this mess." Thane said.
"And it might be invisible, but so is this Hunter." Meier suggested, referring to his TIE.
As if they had planned this from the start, Thane felt like Meier's idea had all the chances of working. "Go, Lieutenant." he said.
As the TIE Hunter veered off, disappearing inside the debris field and likely out of the Ghost's radar, Thane and Kendy kept the chase going, pressuring the Ghost into going toward tighter spots in the field. For nearly three minutes they kept dueling with the VCX-100, which kept evading or taking their hits with relative ease despite the little room for maneuvering as it kept firing with its rear cannons, forcing Thane and Kendy to be more careful.
But after all, they only needed to draw their attention.
Finally, Meier emerged from up-right, looking at the upper side of the Ghost with a clean sight.
The TIE Hunter unleashed a raging strafe of green lasers and two armor-piercing rockets.
The bolts smashed the freighter's shields just in time for one of the rockets to stuck into the left wing and then explode.
The Ghost was rocked violently and a red alert blared inside the cabin.
"General. The dorsal turret is jammed." Kallus reported.
"Zeb, are you alright?" Hera asked urgently in the comlink.
The Lasat grunted but replied in a grouchy tone. "Could be better. The cannons work, but the turret won't move."
And the turret wasn't in a very useful position, at that moment. However the most pressing matter was the damage to the left section of the ship. There was a huge leak of fluids and several circuits had been destroyed, leaving the left engine fizzling.
"Phoenix Leader to all Phoenix units. We need immediate assistance!" she found forced to request.
Chopper then started blabbering in panic, as well, pointing out that they were losing power really fast.
"Divert everything we got to shields and engines." Hera promptly ordered.
"We need to get back to the fleet, quickly!" Kallus underlined.
"Working on it!"
Hera had to keep shifting in all directions, but those TIEs just wouldn't let them go. That was, until she spotted a very unsavory opportunity: an Endurance Star Destroyer was finishing being demolished and half of it was going directly into the debris field.
"Hang on to something." she recommended before pushing the smoking Ghost toward the wreckage.
She headed straight for the incoming half of the Star Destroyer and dashed toward it, flying dangerously close to it, but that helped because the Ghost managed to disappear for a few seconds amid the black smoke and then diving into the rift between the halves of the ship, among the debris and the floating corpses of the crewmen.
It was harsh, but they needed to survive. They went past the wreckage, but the three fighters were still on their tail.
"How the karabast do they keep up with this?!" Zeb yelled.
Luckily for the Ghost, a squadron of E-Wings finally arrived and forced the chasers to give up.
"Phoenix-Leader, this is Phoenix 3-1. We'll escort you back to the Home One." the leader of that squadron communicated.
"Thanks, Phoenix 3-1." Hera replied grateful but embittered by this defeat.
"Damn it. It's a disaster, out there." Kallus instead commented as he looked at the battle.
Because the Endurance was just one of the several allied ships that were being demolished after the fleet had been once again scattered by a sudden rain of asteroids.
Chopper lamented that he wasn't programmed to fight giant space rocks and that the Imperials were fighting dirty.
"They're fighting smart, not dirty." Hera corrected. "We should've known that Iulius wouldn't stand there without a plan to win." she added with a grudge.
"For now, let's bring the Ghost to safety. I'm afraid one of the engines could blow up any moment." Kallus warned.
The Ghost thus limped back to the Home One, which was waiting next to the Viscount just outside the main battle. Already from the faces of the mechanics and all those who saw the legendary Ghost so battered it was clear that the entire allied force was losing faith quickly: they had already lost 20 and more vessels, plus a hundred fighters, and they still had to sink a single imperial frigate.
"General Syndulla." an officer reported as soon as she and her crew stepped out to let Chopper and the engineers do their work. "Admiral Bogan requests your presence on the bridge."
Hera headed straight to meet with the current captain of the Home One: a Mirialan called Krenz Bogan, soldier of the Mirialan Republics and currently rotating as second to the Grand Marshall of the UACT in Andromeda.
"Admiral. How bad is it?" she asked.
"That's what I'd like your opinion about, General." Bogan replied calmly and gestured for her to come and take a good look at the projection of the battle. "Observe the Imperial ships closely."
Hera did just that and it didn't take long before she realized something, just like she had suspected with the TIEs that had almost shot her down: the Imperials were moving with a flawless coordination.
The smaller squadrons seemed to always move in a position where they could exploit whenever the allied ships were scattered by the asteroids, but it wasn't just that: they seemed to know exactly where the allied ships would move in order to avoid the boulders.
It wasn't possible to know that, unless…
"Dear stars...they're under a Battle Meditation." she whispered in a horrified realization.
10 minutes, 11 seconds.
Galen just couldn't handle it anymore. His brain felt like it was ready to explode. Using the Force to connect thousands of people just wasn't part of his training, it had never been. The path of the Sith was that of gathering power exclusively for oneself, and use it on others solely to submit them.
Yet, when Iulius had asked him to use Battle Meditation on the fleet, he had never felt like rejecting that request outright, and now, after weeks of training, he had refined that technique. But it was still damn hard to maintain for so long. For a moment he wondered how the Jedi managed to do that.
Why should he risk his own life for all those people? He respected them, sure, because they had proven time and again to be valiant warriors, but he was still the powerful one. Why should he had cared about them to that point?
Then every time his mind rushed to one person: the only other person aboard the Rogue Shadow.
Every time he realized Juno was in danger, he found new energies to keep up the fight. He knew what kind of sentiment that was, but he just refused to acknowledge it. Nonetheless, he wanted this plan to succeed so that she would surely live, thus he kept his mind focused.
The UACT was now retreating after being beaten so badly once again, but Galen also knew that his side had just run out of their trump card: all the asteroids had been fired, and to avoid the enemy from noticing the trick, once one of them was fired, it couldn't be recovered, also because the modulators were quite cheap and tended to break down at first impact.
So now he noticed that the UACT was definitely going all-in: standing at the edge of their part of the belt, the bulk of the battle group was slowly entering the breach, amassing its forces for a head-on assault, and this one he knew he couldn't stop. Not against those numbers, and not with a relatively rudimentary grasp on Battle Meditation on his part.
All hope now rested onto Pauly's seemingly absurd gambit. So all he could do was to try and see if at least she was right. He looked at the clock:
8 minutes, 43 seconds.
If the gambit was true, he should've been able to detect it. He took a couple breaths, closed his eyes and reached out again. Not to the people around him, this time, but to the entire universe around him. The asteroids...and most importantly the Roche star.
He focused, feeling the star as if it was a heart, a single organism. He could see the never-ending cycle of gases and energy mixing up, but he couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary, compared to the other times he had focused on it.
No...all of a sudden, he felt an anomaly. Something was boiling inside the star. He felt electricity and a quick vision of what felt like drowning grasped his mind.
He breathed loudly as he opened his eyes and realized that Pauly was right...but the clock was too optimistic.
He rushed to the cabin, where Juno and PROXY were patiently waiting at the seats of pilot and co-pilot, so they were quite startled when Starkiller jumped on the comlink.
"Admonitor, this is Starkiller. Admonitor, please respond!"
"Hey, what's going on…?" Juno asked confused.
Luckily enough, Iulius replied promptly. "Tanis, here."
"Grand Admiral, the clock is running late. We have five minutes, at most!" he urged.
He was worried that the Grand Admiral wouldn't believe him, so he was honestly surprised when Iulius instead turned to give the final order. "All ships, close formation and get ready! Pauly, we need the generator running."
"Acknowledged. Deployment in 40 seconds." the Ensign replied on the same channel.
On the other hand, the mobile squadrons were falling back and taking position behind a sphere that the ISD escorts were quickly forming up to defend their battered sister ships and to hold the line for the last phase of the plan.
Galen sighed in relief. His warning had been listened with no doubt whatsoever, but he still had one last thing to do.
"Stay close to the Corvus." he recommended before returning to the meditation chamber, leaving Juno and PROXY pondering on whatever he was thinking.
He knelt down on his spot and reached once again for the Force. Because he was going to need it in every fiber of his body.
"Come on, move it!" Iden exhorted the technicians as she helped them drop the device from the lower hatch in the Corvus' hangar. The new gravity well generator, or apparently another version of the modulators used on the asteroids, was deployed and ready for the final part of the Grand Admiral's plan.
"This is the Corvus. Mission item deployed." she announced on the comlink before rushing back to the bridge, reaching the position that had been lent to Pauly.
"All systems green, Grand Admiral." the Ensign reported. "Waiting for your order."
"The formation is closed. Activate the device." Iulius replied with a calm tone that still couldn't hide a note of urgency.
Pauly tapped in the activation code and the systems on the screen became green, indicating that the modulator was ready.
"I truly hope you know what you're doing, Ensign." she commented nervously.
"Well, nobody has ever done something like this, Commander. So...I have no guarantees." Pauly replied firmly as she kept her eyes on the device.
Utterly not reassured by those words, Iden reached the small viewport of the Corvus, where Hask and Meeko were spectating the battle unfolding outside.
"Damn it. We should be out in the fray!" Hask said nervously.
"Calm down, Agent. We have our orders."
"Yeah. And I doubt we could do better than the pilots." Meeko commented with admiration.
Indeed, the pilots had performed miracles so far, but they were taking heavy losses. As they fought desperately to keep the enemy snubs at bay, an operator suddenly yelled.
"Alert! Massive energy readings coming from the local star!"
"Here it comes." Pauly mumbled. "Rogue Shadow. It's time. We're activating the device."
"Acknowledged." Eclipse replied on the comlink. "The wizard is already casting his spell, by the way."
"I hope he doesn't fumbles it, then."
"The star is erupting!" the operator announced.
Pauly turned toward the viewport, wishing to see the phenomena she had proposed to bet on. "Here it comes...the Roche Ion Wave."
"Is the modulator working?" Hask questioned one last time.
"It is. The fleet should be covered...but I guess Starkiller will be the real factor, here." Pauly concluded on a hopeful note.
In the meantime, from the blue star of the system stemmed a series of energy strings. The peculiarity of those strings was that they were quite large, and that they started to propagate along the entire system.
And one of them was heading directly toward the area of the fighting. Soon enough, it was going to hit even them if the modulator didn't work.
"Incoming!" the radar officer of the Revenant announced.
But Octis could clearly see the Ion Wave coming at them at full speed, and the idea of what that thing could do if their gravitational shield didn't work had his mind overwhelmed more than the fire of the enemy ships. After all, none of them was going to be able to fire in a few seconds.
He watched as the stream of ion particles headed toward them exactly like the wave of a raging ocean. It was a feeling that made any feeble human being feel small and helpless, knowing that there was nothing to do if not running if something like that was going directly for you.
But the Revenant didn't move, and neither did any other Imperial vessel.
Then...the miracle happened: just like a stream being split by a rock, the ion wave opened up and started spreading alongside the edges of the gravitational sphere created by the modulator, thus sparing the imperial fleet.
As the stream reached the opposite side, though, it literally washed the UACT vessels away. The numerous ships and capital ships that were making their final assault on the 101st suddenly fell silent, their engines and every electronic device virtually gone. Octis wondered if even the AIs aboard had been fried by that storm.
The wave only lasted for a minute. Just as Pauly had said: the great Roche Ion Wave, a phenomena occurring once every 500 years had just been used to save the Empire from another invasion.
Once the wave passed, all UACT ships inside the range had been deactivated and left to drift in the void of space. The Viscount and many others were still out of range, though, and could easily jump in to help their comrades.
"All ships. Move forward in attack formation and fire at will." the voice of the Grand Admiral suddenly ordered on the comlink.
Remembering that this was the plan from the start, Octis snapped out and turned toward his officers. "Task Force, move forward. Focus fire on the capital ships' engines first. Fighters and bombers target the smaller vessels."
The crew of the Revenant snapped into action and so did the rest of the fleet. With the Star Destroyers now taking the lead, the imperials dashed into the group of helpless UACT ships, using every energy they could spare into the weapons and raining down a hellish volley of turbolasers, missiles and every other weapon at their disposal. The enemy ships, without shields or any chance to defend themselves were simply tore to pieces.
Octis noticed with a bit of anguish that there were no escape pods flying around: they had been probably rendered useless, too.
That butchery went on for nearly a minute until the Viscount and what was left of the allied fleet opened fire on them in an attempt to stop the slaughter of their comrades.
"All ships, turn around. Let's make another sweep and then prepare to retreat." Iulius then ordered.
"Deviate all power to the engines. We're getting out of here." Vinicio then ordered.
But he was interrupted by his Commander, Smitz, who alerted "Captain, we got an enemy squadron coming on our starboard side."
Octis turned toward the viewport, to see what the sensors were picking up. There were a New Republic E-Wing squadron, an Asari cruiser and a Human Alliance missile frigate heading at full speed against them. They had likely managed to get out of the ion wave's trajectory and had now returned to hit the Imperials one last time.
"Fire and move. Don't let them come any closer. Send the 1st Wing to intercept!" he promptly ordered.
The 1st Wing was one of the units upgraded with the new generation of TIEs, and arguably these were the best of the best in the 101st, given that Fel was the Captain and commander of the Wing.
They did short work of the enemy fighters, while the Revenant and her escort destroyed the major vessels with a series of precise volleys that only proved veterans were able to place.
"Are there others?"
"Negative." Yagler, who was now his own ISB officer, replied as she looked at the holo-table. "What is left of their fleet is stopping to rescue their comrades. They won't follow us so soon." she replied.
"So...did we win?" he asked with a bit of trepidation.
Yagler rose her head with a smile that even she felt like would never appear that day. "We neutralized a total of 87 enemy vessels. Aside from a few TIEs, we got no losses of our own." she finally declared with a trembling voice.
Octis needed a few seconds to actually grasp the magnitude of the success he had just partook in, but as that realization rolled in, he couldn't hold back a chuckle. The rest of the crew also started laughing and then cheering.
Even more when Iulius talked on the open channel of the fleet right before they made the jump toward Lantillies.
"Gentlemen. Today we have written a new chapter in the art of war. I am proud of any single one of you. You all deserve a drink back at the base."
Another loud cheer followed before the fleet jumped back into hyperspace.
April 8, 2225.
The reunion couldn't have been gloomier. Francesco sat at the desk of his office on the Sentinel, while the other representatives of the UACT were being projected inside the room as they sat at their own places.
"Now he can use the universe as he pleases?" President Johro of the Raxus Conglomerate commented in a fed up tone.
"No. But he knows how to use it to his advantage." the leader of the Mirialan Republics replied, no less demoralized.
"What do we do, then?" someone else asked. "Ackbar is by far our best commander, and this…" he couldn't finish, for spelling it out seemed like there was no hope anymore.
Francesco, on the other hand, was not that pessimistic.
"Everyone, I invite you to maintain calm. It's true that this is a defeat that weights heavily on our hearts, but not that much on our destinies."
The rest of the assembly turned towards him.
"While the losses are heavy, they are not crippling. We can still continue our offensive on the other theaters of the galaxy. As for the matter on how to deal with the Grand Admiral...I say we simply don't fight him."
The others were quite appalled. "And how is that possible? We will have to deal with him, sooner or later!" Mon Mothma protested.
"Or do we?" Francesco calmly replied. "The galaxy is quite big, and even he cannot be everywhere at once." As the politicians looked at him half-intrigued and half-confused, the Emperor kept explaining his strategy. "We continue pushing in the Trailing Sectors and on the Hydian Way, for now. The other Admirals are good, but not nearly as the Lord-Protector. Once he will be forced to intervene in another theater, we will slow down our operations in that sector while the others keep attacking. We will pressure where his forces are weaker and halt whenever their strongest are in the area. After all, his government is still denying him the supplies he needs."
"That makes sense." the King of Mon Cala approved. "And all the while, we keep preparing our final strike against Endor."
"That would be the idea, yes." Francesco confirmed.
There was a little more of discussion, but right now, the strategy of the monarch was a good mixture of caution and efficiency.
"Very well. We should inform our armies and fleets of this decision." Mothma said to concluded the meeting. Everyone bid goodbye and one after another closed the transmission.
Francesco leaned back on his chair, and it was at that point that Claudio, who was waiting in the room on a chair next to the desk, spoke up. "So are we applying the strategy that was used against Napoleon?"
"I don't see many other options. This guy is literally the equivalent of Napoleon. Which is curious, if you consider that fate had it that Tanis bore the same name as one of the most influential figures in Earth's History." the Emperor replied with an amused tone.
"Yeah...but I wonder if this Iulius' story will end up in a similar manner."
"Only time will tell." the Emperor concluded patiently.