Coruscant

Theren Gevel wrung his hands. It was stupid, really – ridiculous to be nervous, after all this time. After a thousand letters, Holonet messages, and live conferences, it was insane to be nervous about meeting the Grand Marshall. But the Governor of the Bastion Conclave was, nonetheless. It was doubtful that he ever would have sat and waited for anyone else in the navy or military; he neither needed to nor had the patience to do so, anymore.

But Simon Kaine was quite another story. No one else in the upper echelons of Imperial power had earned Theren’s trust. Their collaboration in the war against the Holy Demosthesian Empire and Jutraalian Remnant had solidified that bond of trust – between two men who had yet to meet in real life. “You may go in, now,” the secretary said, with a note of what might have been disdain, Theren observed. The durasteel door slid open, and, hopping to his feet, the commodore stepped through.

Kaine stood upon his entrance, smiling slightly, nodding in greeting to him. Once he’d reached the desk, Theren saluted, but after a moment, the Marshall stuck his hand out instead. “A pleasure to finally meet you, Theren Gevel,” he said, on the verge of a chuckle which might have broken the formality of the proceedings.

“Same to you,” Theren replied, opting not to give the traditional response. Both men sat, Theren slouching slightly, and a moment’s silence ensued. A look or two passed between them, leaving little doubt as to what was on the other’s mind. “So I spoke to Ciscero,” he began casually. “Who informed me of some of your less… media-friendly intelligence sources.”

“You would have found out sooner or later, I’m sure,” Kaine replied. “If you’re wondering whether I’m angry because you sought out the truth, I’m not. Maybe it was a bit naïve of me to think I could hold you back.”

“I’m just too inquisitive for my own good,” Theren replied. He was pleased to see that they could make light of the matter; the thought of informing Kaine of his inquisition into the secrets of the Naboo Sith Order had caused him no small amount of distress. “But I’m guessing that you called me here for another reason.”

“Right you are. I’m sure you’ve heard of the peace treaty with the Coalition?” He asked. Theren winced slightly. “I know it’s not the most preferably option, but they’ve been kind enough to compensate us for the trouble of not wiping them out.”

“They’re going to attack us again, you know. Rebels are malcontents, that’s their fucking game. Eventually they’ll decide to take another run at us.”

“Maybe,” Kaine replied, nodding. “What we got in exchange was probably worth it – and certainly more than we could have acquired through violent measures.”

“Shipyards?”

Kaine nodded.

“I hope you’ve moved them into Imperial territory. There’s no telling when the Coalition might just decide to start shooting at us again.”

“That’s exactly what Moff Zell said – who sends his regards, by the way. But with the war against the Coalition over, Imperial High Command has decided to implement your plan.”

“High Command, or you?” Theren asked, skeptical that Imperial High Command could be persuaded to do anything originating from the mouth or pen of Theren Gevel.

“Does it matter?”

Theren shrugged. “No.”

“Good. We’ve settled upon your first target, selected as per your operational specifications,” The Grand Marshall said, forgoing any stipulation on just how command had determined which world to begin the conduction of Theren’s plan on; it was easily apparent to both of them. He tapped a button on his desk’s holoprojector, and a map sprang forth…



The Zenith,
Ison System

The fleet burst out of hyperspace with practiced precision, the E-2 Asteroid Miners in tow, out of range of their target but close enough that the green and blue orb of Ison was visible, its prized shipyards around it. The world was a lightly-populated, backwater affair, probably settled only because of its proximity to the Corellian trade spine.

Lieutenant Dayvid Tornel stood steadfastly by Theren’s side. “Nervous?” The aide asked, taking one more look at his datapad and checking off several things.

“Not really. Move us forward, moderate pace. Order the Immobilizers to begin to correct their course, north-east, and launch the TIE Devils.”

OOC Fleet Manifest:

6 Reign-Class Star Destroyers
8 Imperial-Class Star Destroyers
2 Attack-Class Spheres
- W/600 TIE Devils Apiece
4 Victory Star Destroyers
2 Immobilizer 418 Cruisers
6 Rendili Drive Yards Assault Frigates
9 Corona-Class Star Frigates
4 Strike-Class Cruisers
4 Lancer-Class Frigates

100 TIE Defenders
20 Skipray Blastboats

90 E-2 Asteroid Miners

Two Days Previous



"Look at the fleet movements, here...here...and here..."

Admiral Telius Keyan rubbed his eyes tiredly in the glow of the holoprojector in the dark room. As he did so, he realized just how tired he really was, he hadn't slept in forty-eight hours.

He was one of the Legion-Generals, of which there were only five. Each Legion-General was the head of a specific branch of the Sovereignty military, and Keyan was the head of the Navy. As such, it was his job to command the defense of assaulted worlds within the Sovereignty.

He had experienced both defeat, at Kessel, and victory, at Bespin. But that didn't mean he got to sleep when he wanted to.

Sleep seemed a luxury these days.

A soft knock resounded on the door, snapping him out of his tired manner. He was grateful for the interuption, anything to give him a break from the endless hours of strategic planning.

"Come." He called, and the door slid soundlessly open.

And in walked three men, one was a guard, one was obviously an intelligence agent of some sort, and one was a disheveled man, of about average height and weight, but he looked well into his forties. Keyan gave a small smile of recognition upon seeing the man.

"Mr. Braddock, I presume." Keyan said, standing from the uncomfortable chair he had occupied for the last seven hours.

The mam whom Keyan had designated Braddock looked up, smiling slightly, "That would be me. What can I do you for?" He asked in a gruff voice.

"You can tell me why you and your smuggling operation has been found on Ison yet again, for the third time. Something interest you there?" Keyan asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Actually, we were shutting down." Braddock said. Keyan glanced at the intel agent standing next to the smuggler, who gave a silent nod of confirmation.

"Really? And just why would you want to do that?" He asked.

"Because... some folks have been talkin'... the Empire might be comin'." Braddock said, looking around the room. Keyan frowned at this news.

"What do you know?" Keyan asked.

"Well, some of my buddies spotted a group of them heading in the corridor's general direction. We just wanted to be prepared, just in case." Braddock replied.

"Imperial ships come and go all the time." Keyan said, "I seriously doubt they would go that far into Sovereignty territory."

Braddock shrugged, "I know what my guys told me. And they don't lie." He glanced around, looking at the skeptical faces, "Well... at least they don't to me." He finished.

Keyan signalled to one of his aides behind him, who was already speaking quietly over the comm system. After five long minutes of silence, the aide spoke into Keyan's ear, who sighed almost inaudibly.

Braddock looked around again, and then back at Keyan, "You aren't going to lock me up are you...?" He asked quietly.

Keyan walked up to him, close enough so only Braddock could hear his voice, "No... I have thought for a better use for you..."




Moments before Imperial Reversion - Ison


"Alright boys, lets move!" Braddock said as he lifted his modified Corellian Corvette off the hangar floor on Ison. Dozens of similar ships followed suit. The all angled upwards, toward space.

After clearing the atmosphere, and moving past the shipyards and minimal Sovereignty fleet, they headed straight towards the Imperial formation as it exited hyperspace...



Moments before Imperial Reversion - Allegiance-class Star Destroyer in orbit of Ison


"Braddock and his people have lifted off." One of Keyan's aides said to the Legion-General, who sat quietly in the command chair of the Allegiance-class Star Destroyer.

"Tell the fighters they may begin their run." Keyan said.

Even as he said it, dozens of ORS starfighters - mostly old Tie Interceptors - broke from their patrol routes and followed the smugglers, who were now fleeing from Ison with all their might.

The Interceptors easily caught up to the smugglers ships and fired their lasers at them, all of them hitting one or two ships. To any observer, it looked like a standard planetary patrol chasing away unwanted smuggler/pirates.

Which is really what they were doing, Braddock was an unwanted smuggler/pirate. And he was doing his job well.


"Load missiles into all ships, raise the planetary shield and charge the ion cannon." Keyan ordered, and his various aides moved to carry the orders out.

"Shipyards are being locked down." One of the aides reported, "We have a few thousand soldiers in each yard, as per your orders sir."

"Keep some of our squadrons back to protect." Keyan said, nodding to himself.




Fleet Manifest:



3 Allegiance - Class Star Destroyers
4 Imperial-Class Star Destroyers
15 Victory – Class Star Destroyers
4 Republic - Class Star Destroyers
10 Corona-class Star Frigates
6 Majestic - Class Heavy Cruiser

50 TIE Interceptors
400 Scorpion-class Attack Droids
432 B - Wing Class Starfighters
1000 E-78 Swarm Fighters

The Zenith,
Ison

Theren Gevel didn’t smile. He didn’t react, for all appearances. “Bring the fleet up to a moderate speed. Don’t close into range, but move in.”

He pointed casually in the direction of the blue-green orb that hung in the distance. Tornel moved to comply, issuing orders accordingly, the ships only beginning to move in their commanded directions. “Order the E-2 Miners to set a course out of the system and prepare their exit. Long range transmission jamming.”

Tornel looked up. “The enemy has probably already loaded their missiles, sir.”

Theren shrugged. “Do the same. Raise all shields.”

"Send out a call for reinforcements, then jam their transmissions." Keyan ordered from the bridge of the Alleigience-class Star Destroyer.


"Range to the enemy fleet?" Keyan asked an aide.

"Two million kilometers and closing." The aide, at his station, replied.

"Continue on course. Report on Braddock's position." Keyan said, looking down at his datapad which held a list of all equipment Braddock and his smuggler friends had been supplied, by the Sovereignty forces, as a going away present....



*

A blast rocketed Braddock's corvette. The ORS Tie Interceptors were playing their part of loyal planetary defense a little too well.


"Damn... haven't seen anything like this in quite a long time..." Coldis, Braddock's copilot, said darkly as the Imperial fleet grew larger in the viewport.

"Shut up. Put your game face on, lets do what we are here to do and get our asses out of here." Braddock said angrily. Why had he been suckered into doing this? Did fate hate him that much?

Braddock leaned forward, reaching for the comm unit tranmitter, "Hello...? Imperial ships, boy are we glad to see you guys here, you mind getting these ships off our backs? We all seem to have the same enemy here."

He waited for the Imperial ships to
respond...

The Zenith,
Ison System

Theren’s eyes narrowed in almost ridiculous fashion. “Hello...? Imperial ships, boy are we glad to see you guys here, you mind getting these ships off our backs? We all seem to have the same enemy here.”

Tornel looked at his commander concernedly. “Is it just me, or is it against protocol to allow civilian craft to approach military craft during battle?”

“Oh, it’s not just you,” Theren muttered sarcastically, stepping forward to take a better look out of the viewport. Civilian pilots, it was taught in the academy, were often not just poor at their trade, but stupid to a suicidal degree. “Any captain worth a fuck should know that.”

Yet there it was; a civilian ship – presumably a smuggler of one variety or another – progressing rapidly towards his fleet. It was also Imperial protocol to offer a warning shot to ward off vessels breaking the strict no-fly-zone rules regarding military vessels. Theren Gevel did not have the time for such nonsense. “Probably a smuggler anyway. If he’s stupid enough to break the law of the land and run in our direction, he deserves what’s coming to him. Fire at will.”

And, issued from the bow of the Reign-Class Star Destroyer, came several quick turbolaser blasts. The small, barely armed civilian craft’s shields gave way almost instantaneously; by the third blast the craft was nearly destroyed in her entirety. The fourth caused it to completely combust, leaving little or nothing in her wake but space dust.

“And continue firing in the general vicinity. Ward off the fighters.”

Somewhat aggravated by the distraction, Theren continued issuing orders. “Order the E-2 Miners to jump. How long until we’re in range of the enemy fleet?”

“Not long, sir.”

EDIT: HTML on.

"Evasive!" Braddock screamed as the large Star Destroyer took out a few of his wingmates. "Activate the cargo and let's get the hell outta here!"

The destroyed ships were not made up of just debris, for their cargo was still intact, and was floating a few hundred meters off the Imperial Reign Star Destroyer's bow. As Braddock pressed a few keys on a specialized keypad, the special cargo came alive among the debris field.

The Scorpion-class Attack droids were the perfect for this type of strike, designed to attach to target ships, strip the shields off, and cut through the hull. Once they had gained entry they were programmed to automatically seek out special points on the ship, such as computer cores, command centers and so forth.

Now these did their jobs well, about a hundred attaching to the Reign on it's port side, and underside. Already they were stripping the shields off with their Emancipator Shield Disrupters.



*



"Scorpion's attached." One of Keyan's aides reported.

"Very well. Launch fighters." Keyan ordered calmly. Out of the Ison atmostphere came roughly half of the Sovereignty's complement of fighter craft, minus the B-Wings, which stayed back with the fleet.

The fighters gathered together, but not a mass formation. Each fighter craft put as much distance between it and any other fighter in formation. This avoided the common 'mass formation' which was a virtual slaughter waiting to happen.


The fighters moved forward and into the Imperial formation.



Damages -

Light Shield Damage to Various Imperial Ships (Fighters)
RSD Zenith - Shield Damage on Port Side (Scorpions - Cutting through hull at this point)

The Zenith,
Ison System

The Scorpions were remarkably slow, ponderous things. It was a wonder that any of them, in fact, made it to the Reign-Class Star Destroyer’s hull alive; even more of a wonder any of them survived much longer after that. “Slow us to 5 MGLT,” Theren ordered quickly, as reports of the attack droids came in. A fair few had been crippled beyond repair simply by the destruction of the ships that had been carrying them. But with no shields and precious little protecting them, it became something akin to a shooting gallery for the well-organized TIE Devils.

“Route all targeting and position information for those droids directly to the Attack Spheres,” Theren said. The disadvantage of having hundreds of droids attached directly to the hull of a capital ship was that their locations were instantly apparent, and virtually unmoving. Instantly, a flood of targeting statistics flooded to the computer brains that piloted the Devils. Working cohesively, hundreds upon hundreds of TIE Devils swarmed around the Zenith, using their inhuman pinpoint precision to avoid any significant damage to the flagship.

With more than one Devil to every Scorpion, it was seconds before miniature explosions erupted on the hull of the Zenith, scorching her slightly but doing little else. The strategy, evidently, had worked, and for the most part the Scorpions were obliterated.

Seconds later, the fighters swept into the Imperial formation. The Devils, now finished their task of ridding the Zenith of the droids attached to her, directed their attention to combating the new threat. “Bring the Lancers into the center of the formation,” Theren said. “All vessels with laser cannons, fire on the fighters.” Sovereignty fighters dodged and weaved through the Imperial ships. This was perhaps not the wisest order; while their effort to remain separated (and thus not destroyable en-masse) was commendable, it also rendered their damage somewhat slight, as fighters worked as individual units instead of as a team.

The Lancers worked their bloody magic, and as the isolated fighters swept in the midst of the formation, they were eviscerated by her guns and the guns of the other vessels.

“Order both of the Interdictors to break off from the main group with an Imperial Star Destroyer escort – Basilisk and Paragon. One in each direction. Set course for a wide arc forward around the enemy force – keep out of range of their weapons.”

Having already set their course earlier, the Interdictors and Star Destroyers blazed away from the Imperial formation, at first traveling almost perpendicularly to their former course (to put distance between themselves and the Sovereignty) but then slowly arcing to move relative forward.

OOC Damages:

-Scorpions Destroyed
-Significant Fighter Casualties

Keyan watched as the Scorpions were picked off one by one by the numerous Imperial fighters, "Well Braddock sure helped us out a whole lot." He muttered.

"The rest of the Scorpions have been released." His aide reported.

"Have the Victorys launch missiles at predesignated targets. And activate all planetary defenses." Keyan said, watching the Tactical Analisys Computer as the Imperial formation constantly changed.

"Firing now, sir."

The fifteen Victory-class Star Destroyers moved forward a few hundred kilometers, to target the Imperial ships moving toward them. Each Victory was loaded with eighty concussion missile tubes, which in turn all targeted a specific Imperial ship.

The missiles were launched, each at a single target. The Imperial ships were able to destroy a few of them, but not all could be destroyed. The missiles hit their intended targets spectacularly.

"Move the Vics back and pull the B-Wings up. Have them prepare to fire." Keyan said.


OOC Damages:

4 Rendili Drive Yards Assault Frigates - Heavy Damage 9 (300 missiles a piece)
2 Reign-class Star Destroyers - Moderate Damage (300 Missiles a piece)



Planetary Defenses:

1 GenCore mk II Shield - Active
1 Planetary Ion Cannon - Active
20,000 Mines - Active

The Zenith,
Ison System

“Lock down all damaged areas,” Theren shouted as the bevy of missile fire rained in. “Isolate atmospheric leaks! Order the Attack Frigates to reinforce shields with weapon power! Prepare to release missiles on my mark!”

“Fire,” Theren ordered, and watched as the myriad of warheads – from the Attack Spheres, Skiprays, Victory-Class Star Destroyers and TIE Defenders – shot forth from their launchers, flying across the intervening space between the two formations and exploding viciously against their intended targets.

Fewer targets, but a greater effect. “Prepare for the jump,” Theren ordered, as the fire of combusting B-Wings played across the Sovereignty line, even as the shields of one of their lead craft buckled under the torrential assault.

“Reinforce shielding with power from the sublight engines,” Theren ordered. “Have all crews steel themselves for another round of missiles.”

190 B-Wings Destroyed
1 Alleigance-Class Star Destroyer – Crippling Damage to Bridge and Superstructure

"B-wings in position."

Keyan looked up from his captain's chair at the haze of ORS fighters, "Reload the Victory's missile complement."

He watched as one of the Allegiance-class Star Destroyers - the Blight - was hit by the Imperial fleet's missile complement.

"B-Wings..." He hesitated for a second, "Fire!"

The remaining B-Wing starfighters - 242 in all - fired their complement of proton torpedoes at one target: The Zenith. With each B-Wing carrying dual missile tubes, 484 torpedoes hit the Reign along it's bow and bridge sections.


Damages -

Reign-class Star Destroyer - Zenith - [Bow Section Shields Down]