The Imperial fleet formed into two different lines of battle. In Line abreast formation sat the Star Destroyer
Decimator, flanking it on port side a Strike class cruiser. Next to them, in column formation, sat a pair of Illustrious class Fast Attack cruisers. The enemy group broke up into two squadrons as well. One Defender and five DP-20 Gunships broke off to go after the Illustrious cruisers, while two Defenders, and 5 DP-20s went after the Star Destroyer, and Strike cruiser. Since the latter group of enemy starships was nominally the more powerful one, it was this one that the bombers would target.
The Illustrious Crusiers, the
Inflackable, and
Inexorable, both veterans of many campaigns, and battles, advanced on the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer, leaving the gunships ignored as of right now.
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On board the cruiser Inflackable.......
Captian Wheeler turned from the sensors station to the viewport, watching the Defender class Star Destroyer edge ever closer to his ship.
"Status of weapons and shields?" asked the captian.
"Shields are at full power, with rerouter stations powered up, and standing by." reported shields.
"Guns are at full power, with torpedo tubes fully loaded, and reloads standing by." reported guns.
"Good, communicate with the
Inexorable. We engage at 10 kilometers, repeat, 10 kilometers. Start by launching all torpedoes at topside shields, then follow up with ion cannon fire to command pylon, and hangar bay, and turbolaser fire on topside shields." ordered Captian Wheeler.
"
Inflackable copys your orders, captian." reported the communications officer.
The range steadily closed, until at 10 kilometers, when the ship shuddered as all of her torpedoes were fired simultaneously. At the same time, dark blue streaks emerged from the cruiser Inflack as she fired all of her torpedoes as well. Ninety Six torpedoes streaked in at the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer. Explosions lit up the topside of the Star Destroyer as the torpedoes impacted against the enemy shields.
"Status of the enemy Star Destroyer's shields?" requested captian Wheeler.
"Topside shields are down to five percent sir." reported sensors.
"All ships, open fire on assigned targets." ordered captian Wheeler.
Both Illustrious cruisers opened fire on the enemy Star Destroyer, green turbolaser fire, and blue ion cannon fire streaking down into the enemy Destroyer's hull.
"Sir, incoming missiles from the gunships. I read twenty concussion missiles, incoming!" screamed the sensors officer.
"Guns, activate the flechette launchers. Have them shoot down the incoming missiles." ordered Admiral Kraken.
The flechette launchers board the cruiser came to life, throwing clouds of shrapnel, and particles into the paths of the incoming missile warheads. Some of them were fooled, and detonated, taking others out nearby. Ten missiles were destroyed out of twenty. Those ten hit the shields, weakening them by 15%. Then the Defender Star Destroyer opened fire, targeting the part of the shields that the missile strike weakened. Turbolaser and ion cannon blasts weakened the shields even further, and disabled a few systems here and there.
But the fire from the Illustrious cruisers were taking their toll on the Star Destroyer. The bridge and shield generators had long since been disabled, leaving the Star Destroyer without any shields. Now it was time for the four starfighter squadrons of the two cruisers to make their presence known to the enemy Star Destroyer. They consisted of Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie squadrons, all TIE Defenders, and Enigma squadron, a squadron of TIE Scimitars. The Defender Star Destroyer's hangar bays were being sprayed with ion cannon fire to prevent the launch of enemy interceptors. The Star Destroyer attempted to launch thirty six A-wings. Of these, only eleven escaped the launching bays without being disabled. They joined three gunships in trying to block the paths of the incoming starfighter squadrons.
Alpha and Bravo squadrons broke off to deal with the enemy gunships, while Charlie squadron dealt with the enemy A-wings. This left Engima squadron free to make their runs on the Defender class Star Destroyer. Alpha and Bravo squadrons fired linked proton torpedoes at the Gunships, which opened fire with their quad laser cannons on the enemy TIE Defenders. Five TIE Defenders, four from Alpha, and one from Bravo Squadrons, were destroyed before the wave of forty eight proton torpedoes arrived. Explosions flared over both of the gunships, and in the end, one was destroyed, and another one was disabled. This left on gunship to deal with. But where was it? Coming up fast behind the bombers! It's quad lasers cannons lanced out, catching one bomber by suprise and detonating it in a fiery cloud of debris. The TIE Defenders roared in at the last gunship, and fired another forty eight proton torpedoes, this time all them being targeting at one ship. Several small and one large explosion later, the enemy gunship was eliminated. A series of explosions off to their left came to an end, and Charlie squadron reformed up with the group, with three of it's TIE Defenders missing. One A-wing was shown on sensors, in fast retreat to the hyperspace point where the enemy Escort Carriers awaited.
The Imperial Navy TIE Scimitar bombers opened fire, both of them firing linked space bombs, powerful warheads that were extremley difficult to track and fire on. The TIE Defenders launched their last salvo of torpedoes as well, sixty two proton torpedoes streaking out of their tubes, and heading in towards the enemy Defender Destroyer. Twelve torpedoes were shot down by the enemy anti-missile stations before the torpedo salvo hit the enemy destroyer, detonating all along the topside of her hull, opening great gaps, and causing many secondary explosions. A report from the Illustrious cruiser
Inexorable stated that her hull seemed to be at twenty five percent capacity. Then the space bombs arrived.
A series of bright explosions completley enveloped the topside of the Defender class Star Destroyer, followed by an even brighter explosion that enveloped first the hangar bay, then the entire ship. The controllers on the cruisers knew that the Star Destroyer's reactor core must have gone critical, and overloaded, and so ordered their starfighter squadrons away from the Defender before debris could affect them. When the explosion faded, the Destroyer had been split in half, with the bow being the largest,and most intact piece of the ship. The stern was a mess of wreckage. Only eleven escape pods were counted as having launched from the ship. The two remaining gunships now turned about, and sought to flee the battle. The Scimitar bombers pursued, launching their last pair of space bombs before turning away, the Illustrious cruisers following with another salvo of ninety six proton torpedoes. One gunship managed to shoot down some of the missiles, and evade the space bombs through some brilliant manuevers. The other gunship was hit full on, losing it's shields, and turning end for end before the reactor went critical and detonated, destroying the gunship. With the enemy ships eliminated, the Illustrious cruisers recharged their shields with power diverted from elsewhere, and the ships set off to help their comrades after recovering their remaining TIE Defenders, and TIE Scimitars.
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Aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Decimator
The engagement with the enemy starfighter squadrons from the Escort Carriers had gone well, but now they had to contend with the enemy interceptors from the two Defender Star Destroyers, making a starfighter missile strike on the enemy ships, difficult, at best. But still, they had to try, and the target was the Defender Destroyer going after the Strike cruiser
Nymph. The Nymph was currently firing on the enemy gunships, two of them, which had rushed ahead to engage the Strike cruiser, and weaken her shields in preparation for the enemy Destroyer to strike the killing blow. From the launching bays of the
Decimator came four squadrons of starfighters, the three TIE Defender squadrons from the earlier engagement, plus one squadron of TIE Scimitars. The enemy Defender squadron that they were headed towards launched all six of it's squadrons of A-wings, making the jobs of their TIE Defender squadrons all the more harder for them.
The TIE Defender squadrons attempted to make things easier by lauching single linked proton torpedoes at the A-wings as they came in. Following up with laser and ion cannon fire, they managed to destroy seventeen A-wings, and disabled a further five in the opening moments of this intense battle. Half of the TIE Defenders stayed behind to duel with the A-wings that stayed to duel with the Defenders, while the other half stayed with the bombers. The A-wings split up, some going after the TIE Defenders guarding the Scimitar bombers, while others dueled with the Defenders that stayed behind. It was now that the Defender Squadrons executed the Double Cross Manuever. The TIE Defenders that were flying with the Bombers turned back, and targeted the A-wings that stayed behind to duel with the other Defenders with missiles. The Defenders who stayed behind to duel with the enemy A-wings then targeted the ones heading to attack the ones that were flying escort with the bombers with missiles of their own. Both groups fired. Twenty more A-wings were then destroyed by the missiles, and with follow up fire from laser and ion cannons. Five TIE Defenders were destroyed by the A-wings during this manuever as well. Eighteen fully fuctional A-wings remained, squared off against Twenty six TIE Defenders, down ten ships, some from this engagement, and others from the earlier engagement. A melee of laser and ion cannon duels between the A-wings and the TIE Defender ensued, since the TIE Defenders didn't wish to waste any more torpedoes on the A-wing squadrons. In the end, nine A-wings were in high retreat to the Escort Carriers, with three more TIE Defenders having been destroyed, and one more forced to withdraw with heavy damage. With that, the twenty two remaining TIE Defenders formed up with the TIE Scimitars, and launched their remaining proton torpedoes at the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer, eighty eight proton torpedoes streaking out and closing the distance between the fighters and the Destroyer in two waves of forty four each. Then the TIE Scimitars fired their magazines, unleashing forty eight space bombs to drift towards the enemy Star Destroyer.
The torpedoes arrived first, twenty of them being destroyed by anti-missile stations. These managed to collapse the topside shields of the Star Destroyer, allowing the space bombs to impact the hull of the Star Destroyer. Many medium explosions, and one large one later, the enemy Defender class Star Destroyer was destroyed, joining a similar fate to the first Defender Star Destroyer. Moments later another bright explosion brought the eyes of the pilots around to behind their ships. One of the two Gunships engaging the Strike cruiser had detonated under it's intense turbolaser and ion cannon fire. The other Gunship then broke off and attempted to flee. Attempted was correct in that, about halfway to the jump point, it was intercepted by a salvo of ninety six proton torpedoes that tore away it's weakened shields, and ravaged it's frail hull until it could stand no more, and detonated in a spray of fire and debris.
The Illustrious cruisers, having finished their work, were arriving on the scene to help out. With that force eliminated, the only enemy forces left besides the escort carriers and various units of starfighters retreating to them were the forces assaulting the Star Destroyer. Of these, the three remaining enemy gunships were all either destroyed or crippled, and the Defender Star Destroyer had taken heavy damage. It then began to withdraw, deploying all of it's A-wings to attack the Star Destroyer in it's stead, to cover it's retreat.The Star Destroyer countered by launching it's remaining two squadrons of starfighters, TIE Defenders low on numbers. One squadron had seven Defenders remaining, the other six. The remaining starfighters from the strike on the second Defender joined the battle over the Star Destroyer, twenty two TIE Defenders lending their assistance, along with two squadrons from the Illustrious cruisers. In the end, all the A-wings were vanquished, losing eleven TIE Defenders in the process as the cheap trade off. The Defender managed to escape though, along with the Escort Carriers that managed to rescue forty three of the remaining starfighters. But that didn't matter. What did was that the Battle of Almar had been won. The cleanup was now beginning.
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