Ralen sighed visibly as Wells took up position next to him, both gripping firmly the rail in front of them to seperate the catawalk from the command center down below.
It was seen plainly across his face that he did not particularly want to be here. He wanted to be back at Abregado, continuing to bolster the defenses and rebuild there - the planet itself had made considerable progress in its rebuilding, to the point that it was almost impossible to tell that a battle had taken place there only weeks before.
That was thanks in part to the accuracy of the gunnery crews of the
Timeless and her task force. Ralen, Wells knew, would never have risked such a thing with an average fighting force.
They'd trained endlessly before the attack, making sure their gunners could pick off a specific letter in a building's paint if they had to.
That would come in handy in a place surrounded by miniscule mines.
As the admiral glanced out at the minefield - which was constantly getting larger and larger as the Star Destroyer and her fleet moved ever closer - he knew even now the gunners were readying themselves down in the bays, sweaty palms rested against hard metallic triggers and yokes.
Ralen did not want to be here, in the middle of nowhere, rounding up the remnant of terrorists. That was a job for a police force, or a prefect. Not the admiral of the Second Fleet, a man whose reputation was slowly rising with the conquest of Abregado, who had written several documents on military tactics and history.
It was a job for a police force, or a counter-terrorist squad, but the task had ultimately befallen Admiral Me'Vere. And though he detested the fact that he had been alloted the operation, he would pursue it with the utmost prejudice.
It was his job to serve the Sovereignty, through thick and thin.
What kind of precident would that set for the men if he only worked toward the jobs he found "enjoyable" - if combat could be called enjoyable - and haphazardly conducted those that annoyed him?
Ralen's thoughts were disrupted by the sight and sound of the starfighters of the Second Fleet zooming past the enormous Allegiance Star Destroyer, unleashing furious blasts of red-concentrated energy against the mines just kilometers ahead of the Imperial-model vessel.
The once hundreds of dots began to disappear in violent flashes, though they themselves - alerted by the presence of forces of non-matching IFF codes - began to open fire, their green responses cutting through the fighter lines evenly.
Mines were not accurate things. Their jobs were to work in clumps and fire at whatever was going through - the sheer number of laser blasts would eventually take its toll. Against warships mines were nothing but annoying flies as they tried to pass through.
A fleet riddled with thousands of different weapon emplacements could make shortwork of the galaxy's largest mine field in minutes while taking minimal damage. The smaller ships would most likely suffer mild to heavy damage - but Star Destroyers could literally smash into any mines in their way and knock them aside or even manage to tear them apart completely.
The fighters were doing their job beautifully, cutting right through the opening lines like a hot knife through butter. In the midst of it the rear guard of the force broke off, moving toward the flank of the mine field - well out of range of the guns.
The vanguard came to a halt just before the mine field, opening up volleys in every direction, each of the hundreds of weapons emplacements targetting a different mine - ion cannons, laser cannons, turbolasers - until the entire fore of the minefield was more or less cleared - leaving only a trail of smoke where the mines had once been.
The fighters had taken slight losses, and had come out the other side of the mine field, skimming across the barrier of the shield of the planet, clearing the distance and coming around for another pass...or at least that was what it appeared to be at first.
In one sudden and strange movement, the entire fleet turned about. The fighters, skimming around the flanks of the mine field, came in as well.
Moments later they were gone in hyperspace.
<font size=1>Losses
ORS-
17 X-Wings
10 A-Wings
9 B-Wings
4 TIE Defenders
Farfalen-
25% Mines
OOC My apologies for pulling out, something came up so I jacked up the damages and simply called this thread moot - no qualms seeing as nothing could really happen next post anyway right?
