"Sir, message recieved by the Ishori. They have reject our overtures, and their fleet is moving into an attack wedge. It looks like they want to open fire first, sir." said the sensors officer.
"Very well then, let's move to get this party started. Deploy the fighters, first and foremost. Have them attack the lead cruiser, firing all of their torpedoes in three waves, then using their ion and laser cannons to strafe the shields, and flechettle launchers as the missiles hit home. Two of our picket ships will accompany them on this strike." said Commodore Braxus.
In the bays of the Victory Star Destroyer Mark I, alarms blared and klaxons sounded as the Battleship was prepared for combat. Crewers, and gunners ran about going to their stations, except for a group of twenty four people, dressed in black, and holding helmets under their armpits. These were the pilots of the Imperial fighters about to fly into combat, and they were being briefed by the leader of their two squadrons, Black Leader, almost under the name of Commander Fosh. Fosh was describing to the pilots what had to be done, and how they would do it. Once that was done, the men climbed into thier fighters, and prepared to lift off. Commander Fosh strapped himself in, then activated his repulsors. Then, as the order was given, the fighters flew out of the bay, four at a time, and formed up into their individual trios once they were clear. In route to the enemy fleet, they recieved a signal that enemy fighters were launching. Fosh grimaced. Although his own squadron, Black Squadron, was made up of elites who had fought in many fighter engagements, their second squadron, Grey Squadron, was made up primarily of rookies led by a veteran fresh from a few battles, the rookies having been trained at Vladet. They were here to replace Red Squadron, a good group of veterans who had been annihiliated in a battle over the world of Rachuk in a battle with a group of Lancer class Frigates. Those were good pilots, and their absence was already being felt. The rookies were well trained, but this would be their first real combat engagement. Commander Fosh thought it would be best to call on some support to deal with these fighters, with Black Squadron handling any that got through. The two Picket ships accompaning them raced ahead, and opened up with their dual laser cannons on the approaching starfighters. Several large explosions were seen as the laser cannons aboard the pickets found their mark, then the explosions slackened off not only as the enemies numbers began to whittle, but also as the remaining enemy fighters assumed manuevers. There were eleven fighters left, a shadow of the former forty eight there had been several minutes ago. Commander Fosh made the decision to bring in one half of Grey squadron to assist Black Squadron in dealing with the remaining enemy fighters. By breaking into groups of two, each group had more than enough firepower to rid of a target in one pass. And so in they went. Indeed, on the first past, each pair of Defenders scored a kill, leaving two enemy fighters, now identified as Headhunters, left. The remaining two both dropped behind a pair of Grey Squadron's Defenders. They began sticthing the Defender's rears with laser fire as a pair of Black Squadron Defenders roared in on a head to head pass. One of the Headhunters fired a torpedo as the both of them were being chewed apart by laser cannon fire. Both of the remaining Head hunters vanished in a firestorm, but so did Grey Three as his Defender was destroyed by the Head hunter's torpedo. Silently cursing his unfortunate loss, Commander Fosh had no choice other than to swallow it, and continue on with his mission. The TIE Defenders blew through the remaining Headhunters, and reformed for the attack on the lead Ishori cruiser.
Commander Fosh grinned as the cruiser opened fire with it's turbolaser batteries, trying to score a lucky hit on a TIE Defender. Commander Fosh's grin died when one of Grey Squadron's TIE Defenders went up in a blaze of fire from a direct turbolaser hit. He had forgotten to bring the rookies about for evaise manuevers. Silenty cursing himself, he brought up his targeting reticle for the torpedoes, and aimed it at the lead cruiser.
"All Defenders, slave your targeting data mine, and prepare to fire all torpedoes in three waves, each one at my mark, firing in pairs." said Commander Fosh. He watched as the lock grew to a yellow, then a steady red, then a tone sounded. That was their mark to unleash hell.
"Fire, one mark."......."Fire, two mark."..............."Fire, three mark" yelled Commander Fosh as he squeezed his own firing trigger three times close together. Three pairs of Proton Torpedoes lanced out from each of the twenty two starfighters coming against the Ishori war fleet. Then the fighters pulled up and away from the Ishori cruiser, lest any more of their number be utterly destroyed by accurate anti-starfighter massed turbolaser volleys. Then the cruiser stopped firing as it bled the energy from it's weapons into it's shields in an effort to prevent it's self from being destroyed. The first wave of proton torpedoes slammed into the cruiser's shields head on, collapsing most of it's shields. Then the second wave of forty four torpedoes arrived, collapsing the shields, and causing moderate damage to most sections of the hull. Then the third wave of torpedoes arrived, smashing into the now vulnerable and weakened hull, consuming the cruiser in a hail of fire, and wind. When the explosions dimmed, small and medium sized chunks of metal were all that remained of the once mighty and proud Ishori war cruiser, and the Ishori's best officers, and leaders. Commander Fosh's part in the engagement was now over as his starfighters withdrew into the Star Destroyer's hangar bays.
Then it was the turn of the capital ships to eliminate the two remaining war cruisers, and the numerous picket ships. Even though they were still outgunned, with the elimination of the enemy flagship, the Imperials had gained the advantage in morale, and had disorganized the enemy, which would prove to be a big advantage in the battle to come. The Constrainer Pickets were ordered to concentrate all their firepower upon one picket ship at a time, while the Victory would target and eliminate one cruiser at a time. With that done, with the words over, it was time for action. The Imperial fleet lumbered forwards. The Ishori fleet began to fall into disarray, then the third cruiser in line began to issue orders. The picket ships then jetted forwards to meet the constrainers, while the two cruisers split apart, and came to envelope the Victory. Commodore Braxus, impressed with this manuever, thought that a member of the leaderships must have been on a inspection tour or whatever on this cruiser when the Imperial fleet arrived, and thus his life was spared so that he could reorganize, and command the fleet to victory. Too bad it wasn't going to happen that way. With an order, the Victory began firing her turbolaser cannons at the third cruiser, the combined power of forty turbolasers weakening her shields. At the same time, the two Ishori cruisers also opened fire, their more powerful turbolasers weakening the shields of the Victory even faster. Then, in one move, and a order from Commodore Braxus accomplishing this, the Victory drastically changed the equation. It fired all of it's eighty concussion missile launchers, spewing eighty missiles of death outwards. Then the arcs became inwards as they all fell on one target; The third cruiser. In five seconds, the cruiser went from being a mighty vessel of war to a mighty pile of scrap as the missiles blew through the turbolaser fire weakened shields, and impacted the hull, their concussion warheads causing immense structural damage, which was then taken advantage of by the turbolasers as they resumed fire, destroying the ship utterly.
Seeing the demise of the third cruiser, and the elimination of the last of the Ishori command staff, the second cruiser tried to flee the battle. Normally, the Imperials wouldn't mind this, but in this case, with this particular treaty, it was Commodore Braxus's job to eliminate the cruiser. He quickly ordered the tractor beams to sieze the ship, and ordered the missile tubes to reload while the turbolaser cannons once again sought to weaken the shields of the cruiser. Then the cruiser lowered it's shields, powered down it's engines, and blinked it's hull lights on, and off twice in succession, a signal of surrender. Too bad Braxus wasn't interested in surrender. He ordered the turbolasers to fall silent, a sign that the Imperials are considering the offer, then ordered the reloaded tubes to fire. In a blazing light, the last Ishori cruiser was gone.
Meanwhile, the Imperial picket ships weren't doing so well against the Ishori pickets. Two constrainers had been knocked out, and a third tittered on the brink of destruction. Of the five Ishoiri pickets, only three remained, but these were the best, modified DP-20 gunships. Then, the Victory changed the equation.
With the fighting done, it was time for Isht to become a proud member of the Empire.......
