"Admiral, you may engage at will." ordered Moff Zell, now formally in charge of Coruscant's Defences.
"As allowed, High Moff." responded High Admiral Daparko, commander of the Super Star Destroyer and her escorts, and now overall commander of the other vessels forming up with his fleet. He had not been briefed on the ambush, and so would be fighting to his very best ability to eliminate the enemy fleet with the resources he had at hand.
"All capital ships of one thousand meters or more, form up line abreast formation. All other ships form a second line behind us and keep the small fry from hitting our vulnerable areas. Launch all starfighters, send the bombers along with an escort to soften up their ships, keep the remaining ships beside our ships as a screen." ordered the Admiral.
The
Ebony Vigilance formed up as the middle ship in a single line of warships, flanked on either side by the Allegiance destroyers
Aggregator, and
Vengeance. The three Imperial class destroyers formed up on either side of these two ships, the remaining ships clustering behind these six ships to help protect their flanks and rears.
"Admiral, superlaser is at half charge and is awaiting for your command to fire." reported the gunnery officer.
"Very well then. Let's remind them why we are so dangerous. Target and eliminate one of the enemy Dominator battleships. Fire when ready." ordered the Admiral.
The ship gave a slight shudder as the energy core drew on the power necessary to fire the deadly super laser cannon mounted aboard the Eclipse. Then the green beam appeared out of the bow of the ship, lancing across space to strike one of the enemy battleships, blasting it appart without another word, the smoltering fragments of the ship skittering across the shields of her consorts. The enemy formation breifly broke and then reformed. Then the enemy flotilla accelerated, straight torwards his ships.
In the meantime, the Imperial starfighter wings sent against the Coalition fleet met their adversaries at the halfway point between the two closing fleets. Imperial TIE Defenders and TIE-2 Starfighters clashed with Kris Fighters and MC-10 Starfighters as the Scimitar Bombers attempted to work their way through this mess of a furball in order to attack the Coalition capital warships. The enemies screening vessels flew forwards to add their anti-starfighter weapons to the fray. The Admiral ordered the bombers back, not seeing anything useful coming out of this engagement. Out of three wings of Scimitar bombers sent into the fray, only two wings came back, the Coalition losing a few of their pickets to concentrated attacks in return. The Coalition starfighter screen did suffer heavily though, fifty percent of their fighters lost in the melee. By comparison, the Imperials only lost about ten percent of their total starfighter strength.
And now it was time for the big boys to come out and play. The Coalition commander went by the book as far as standard Coalition strategy seemed to go, using the speed advantage his Claymores possed to blaze past the bigger ships, pelting their shields with heavy, slow firing weaponry, and opening the way for the Dominators to unleash their true and awesome weaponry upon the weakened shields of the Imperial warships. The destroyers had let the Claymores go by with only token fire, only now unleashing their full destructive potential upon the Dominator type battleships. Space between the large capital ships lit up as full cannonades of fire were exchanged between them. The Admiral in the meantime released the smaller vessels to engage the Claymores.
The smaller vessels, many of them armed with scores of torpedo launches and turbolasers, turned the might of their weapons upon the Claymores immediatley as they passed by the larger capital ships. Two of the Claymores, caught between a formation of eight dreadnoughts, fell out of line, their hulls ruptured by numerous torpedo hits. In exchange, one of the dreadnoughts detonated after a hail of particle projection shots penetrated and set off it's torpedo magazine.
While the now intense engagement continued, Moff Zell felt that now was the right time to spring the trap, seeing as how the Coalition forces were now fully engaged. A scout ship with a precise set of coordinates and instructions was dispatched from a space station to the far side of the planet and beyond, reaching a point near Selvaris several minutes later. The message was deliverted to Admiral Bhindi Drayson, who immediatley acted upon the information. After a series of tight beam transmissions, the vessels of the fleet dropped their cloaking shields and proceeded torwards Coruscant. They would come around the orbit of the planet and suprise the Coalition fleet as they were preoccupied with the
Vigilance and her escorts. Bhindi allowed herself a small smile, awaiting for the right moment for the chance to launch her fighters and take her sweet fill of Coalition bloodletting.
