Aboard the Imperial Battleship Tormentor
Vice Admiral Kraken strode the deck of his large and majestic flagship, waiting for the enemy fleet to appear. His squadron was at full combat alert, and was merely awaiting the order before they engaged the enemy fleet, when the enemy fleet appeared, that is. Park Kraken hoped that he hadn't misjudged the arrival time, or the entry vector, of the enemy hit and fade force, the one that had appeared to consist mostly of powerful vessels that were suited to hit and fade strikes, and while able to inflict rapid amounts of damage, not really suited to hanging around and getting a good beating in return. In any fleet these vessels should be held to the rear, able to pop in, inflict several rapid salvos of damage, and then withdraw to the rear lines once again in order to avoid having their limited shield and hull strenghts overwhelmed. Well, in this situation, with the flagship's gravity wells preventing any escape, it would be a very bad situation for this force. Espically since most of the ships, and all of the starfighters in the fleet carried a supply of proton torpedoes, and concussion missiles. Up ahead and below of the flag deck sat the Starfury Assault Starfighter's control room, from which the Messiah's complement of small and quick starfighters would be directed. These starfighters had one small ion cannon, and a proton torpedo launcher apiece. While that may not sound very threatening, the fact is is that the Messiah carries fifty squadrons totalling six hundred of these starfighters, meaning that one salvo on one ship could produce up to a six hundred proton torpedo strike in itself, and in addition, at three meters of length, the Starfury Assault Starfighter was extremley fast, and mauneverable, as well as hard to hit, same as her sister ship, the TIE Devil, carried exclusily by the Fire Light Frigates, and Attack class Carrier Spheres, of which none were found in this fleet, and in any case, were very rare to find in the Mid-Rim Protectorate it's self. Not that they were needed. Should any help be required in dealing with any enemy starfighters encountered, the fleet carried a large number of TIE Defenders, simply the best starfighter in the galaxy, and in the hands of aces, extremly deadly. And so they were set, and were merely awaiting for the enemy fleet to come out of hyperspace before they could unleash hell......
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Aboard the Imperial Battleship Bellicose
Admiral Parker ran his eyes over the thin sheet of flimpast that had just been passed onto him, his eyes narrowing it as he read. This was a message from the Vice Admiral, near one of the target systems, his probe droids having found two enemy fleets. One was a hit and fade fleet that it would be believed would be hitting the Imperial blockade of the two planets, of which Admiral Kraken was taking care of right now, but the other one, according to Kraken, was a good sized battlefleet, consisting of several destroyers, that would be hitting the Mid-Rim Protectorate where it would hurt the most: It's captial planet. The fleet was already on it's way, and was expected to arrive within the next few hours. He had until then to formulate a defense, and execute it. Admiral Parker smiled at this. He already had one of several different defense strategies devised within his mind, and this one would be quite risky indeed. He decided to call up a meeting of his staff officers in order to prepare the defense of Vladet. The first thing needed concerning was the safety of the shipyards and construction yards. Since the construction yards were on the ground, all that was needed was to activate the planetery shield. After it was activated, there would be almost no way other then massive planetery bombardement to bring it down, and allow the enemy to harm the construction yards. With that thought locked away in his mind, the Admiral thought next about the shipyards. They would not be protected by the planeterey shields. And there were no mines to protect them either. Admiral Parker would raise his issues with Admiral Kraken when he returned home. If he returned home. Shaking the thought out of his head, Admiral Parker moved on. He thinks that preparing the planetery ion cannon networks, and stationing a portion of his fleet between the shipyards and outer space should provide enough of a defensive measure. He would also order one wing of TIE Advanced starfighters to shoot down any enemy missiles, or starfighters that were dispatched to destroy or harm the shipyards. He would station the eight Victory Star Destroyers for this purpose there, along with their full complements of starfighters, and shuttles. He would see no reason to call up the reserve fleet. The Shroud class cloaking cruisers would be stationed at the outer perimer of the system, and would wait until the enemy fleet was engaged with the Victorys before they would sneak up behind the enemy fleet, and engage them at point blank range. Finishing the pincer movement with a double flanking attack, Admiral Parker would station his Star Destroyers, three each, outside of the system at two sides. When the time comes, the Star Destroyers will come in, disgorge their complement of starfighters, and proceed to engage and utterly destroy the enemy fleet. So that was his plan, and a brilliant one it was indeed. So with that, he moved off to the meeting with the war council to discuss his plan with them, and to suggest to them that they implement it immediatly, as it was that the enemy were mere scant hours away from the expected arrival..........
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On the planet of Isht.....
The Imperial warships, having finished their bombardement of the planet below, were now moving back into orbit. The city was destroyed, had been destroyed, and now it's wreckage was slowly cooling off. The survivors had been allowed back into the city, and were now surverying it's wreckage, trying to collect any valuables that had been left after the merciless bombardment. The message that the Imperials had sent was quite clear. After the bombardment had begun, communications across the planet, in the form of comlink communications, had gone deadly silent, as the people took in what was happening.
Let them have little doubt now. thought Commodore Braxus now.
We let them get too complacement. We let them believe that we were a democracy of a goverment, that we would acceed to their demands, or at least listen to them and be afraid, afraid of the people. Our attempts to negotiate with them only brought about further violence, the populace perhaps believing that they were close to breaking our will, and us acceeding to their demands. Well, this should give them no doubts who we are after all, and now that they do know, they will either bow to us, or be destroyed. thought Braxus again as he took a sip of his wine cooler. It should be interesting to see what the outcome of this would be after everyone has gotten over their shock and all.
But to let them see that we aren't entirely heartless monsters, we will rebuild their city for them, and provide them compensation for their losses. And with that last thought, Braxus let himself slip off into a little nap.....
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Aboard the Kaloth Battlecruiser Dayark.....
The hit and fade fleet had been in hyperspace for several hours now. Admiral Keytan, commander of this expedition, just hoped that the Imperials hadn't figured out what their little game plan was. They were indeed to attack the Imperial blockade, and do their best to break it up. If they were successful, they would reap great awards indeed, both from their high commanders, and probably from the grateful citizens of the Ishori as well.......
Then, with a chime from his navigator, he knew it was time. Time for he and his men to go into battle, and to defeat the Imperials, gaining vengeance, as well as power, and glory........
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Aboard the Defender class Star Destroyer Briam, en route to the world of Vladet
Admiral Farder, commander of the Star Destroyer that was the flagship for this operation, let loose a small smile as his ship, his fleet, approached their destination. Their orders were quite simple. Enter the Vladet system, and while the captial ships engaged the enemy fleet, all of their starfighters were to proceed and attack the shipyards, hopefully knocking them out in short order. If they weren't able to, then once the fleet had finished mopping up any defenders, then they would proceed to attack the shipyards as well, reducing them into molten slag. The fleet would then retreat into hyperspace. According to intelligence, most of the strength of the navy that was the Mid Rim was devoted to the offensive campaigns that the Imperial Admiral known as Kraken was laying into the Elrood Sector, and the maintaing of worlds recently conquered, as well as supressing the uprising that had occured on Isht, leaving Vladet with nothing more than an taskforce that was estimated to be that of one Imperial Star Destroyer two Quasar fire Starfighter Carriers, and several other miscellaneous ships. His own fleet consisted of six Defender class Star Destroyers, four Aegis Mark one cruisers, and fifty support vessels, mainly escort frigates, corvettes, and gunships of the Corona, Marauder, and Warrior classes. This very modern fleet had been purchased from, and mostly built by, the New Republic, before their massive collapse. Now, with this fleet, also including swarms of the deadly XJ-wings, and B-wings, Admiral Farder would land a decisive blow against the Empire, and maybe even save his own system, while he was at it........
