Takeovers of Berea, Deriyln, Tifnyl, and Korad

Vladet

"Let's see now, the recent Isht deal, signing off.....one hundred fifty thousand parcels of land to be purchased by the NO goverment for conversion into food fields and processing plants, which we will need to feed our troops if our volunteer and recruitment rate keeps on increasing the way it has been lately...." muttered Park Kraken himself as he glanced over the deal that was laid out on the large datapad on his desk. When he was finished reading over the treaty agreement, already signed by the land owners, and the Isht goverment, he picked up the holopen by his desk, and imprinted into the document his signature, thereby making the purchase official. He then pressed a button on the holocomm unit on the edge of his desk and called in his secretary.

A moment later, Lillian, the secretary that worked in his offices in the afternoon every Friday, came into his office. "May I assist you with something, governer?" asked Lillian with that big overdone smile of hers. Park briefly let her take his attention away from his work, looking over her soft well craft body, before burying his head into his open hands. His time to take in such beauty was over, he must not thing about other women, he would even feel guilty with a brief glance. He had all he wanted in his wife, Melina, and he would not seek more. Sighing, he raised his head again and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I've finished with the Isht document. If you would please file it according with the mail. Also, please send in the Diamal delegate. I understand he has some issues to bring to my attention." said Park. The secretary nodded, and with a slight twinge to her smile that suggested she knew what was ailing him, she picked up the datacard and headed back out the door, stopping just after leaving it to gesture to someone just outside of his field of vision. A moment later and she was out of sight, replaced by the Diamal delegate that had traveled to the goverment offices from the nearby embassy maintained in the capital city. He bowed, and sitting from his desk, Park half-heartedly returned the gesture, offsetting his tired state by adding a salute to the bow. The delegate was then seated, and then began talking to his point.

"Honored governer, let me thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see me. I will get straight to the point though so as to not take up too much of your time." said the Diamal.

Park sat up straight at hearing the delegate state this. Normally a Diamal would take all the time in the world to dance around issues, even if there were of galatic importance, before finally getting to the point. Whatever the delegate wanted to speak about, it was obviously important. He nodded for the delegate to continue.

"We have, some problems, perhaps it may seem trivial to others, but if affects my people and their morale. When the Empire took us in, accepted us into their ranks of worlds, make us esteemed members of the New Order, it did so in such a necessary way as to render our military obselete. Since then our military has been rebuilt, and even now we send ships regularly across to other member worlds of the Mid-Rim Protectorate, but we have not been a member of any particullary powerful fleet, and in fact, many of the other alien species under Imperial rule feel the same way. Now, don't take this wrong, we are fine the way were are, but in fact, we would be so much happier if we were able to project our power, even farther than we originally could, under the guidance of the New Order. Let me get to my point now. We want to re-form the Grand Fleet of the Imperial Mid-Rim, and we want to do so in such a way to include representatives from all estates of the Empire." preached the Diamal.

"I have listened to your suggestions, and will take them to heart. I had recently spoken to a fair number of delegates from other worlds. They are propose something similar, that through the traditional Imperial show of force, that the best way to unite all alien species under one banner is to form a grand fleet of naval vessels, each having come from different worlds with different ideas and culture. But I have been hesistant to do this for the sole reason that the Empire, err excuse me, the New Order, would be better off promoting peace than starting wars. But recently I have been re-evaluating the proposals. Even if we don't actually use the fleet, it would be a good gesture of faith on our part, and there's nothing wrong with the occasional parade. I will accept your proposal, delegate, and we will draft something up. But for now, I must take my leave." said the governer.

The delegate smiled, and after a brief handshake, stood and left the room. Kraken sat there for a moment, thinking about what all had just gone on, and then blew out another sigh. The one good thing about this new line of work was that this was work that he was more experienced with, and could get more of a hands on experience with, rather than just sitting behind a desk signing forms all day. He stood up and called his secretary back in again. The woman came back into the room and noticed him packing up his things. She inquired to his future whereabouts and he merely mentioned that he would be leaving the office for the day, and that any messages for him were to be recorded and filed into reports for his schedule for tomorrow morning. Having his briefcase packed up, he grabbed his olive green hat off of the rack and proceeded out of his office and out of the building, recieving the usual nods, salutes, and gestures as he did so. His personal driver and cab pulled up to give him a ride. Several moments later they were off, headed to the Mid-Rim military command headquarters.

Mid-Rim Military Headquarters

The hovercar drove up to the front gate securing the base from the rest of the planet, and the driver showed his I.D. and purpose of visit to the guard in the shack near the gate. The guard read the identification, offered up a salute, and ordered the gate to be opened. Moments later they were inside of the sprawling military complex, and had driven up to the main military complex. The car stopped here, and the driver got out. Coming back to the rear of the hovervehicle, he opened up the rear door, and out of it emerged the governer, now wearing the olive green uniform that he loved and adorned so much. Nodding to the driver to stay with the vehicle, the governer headed torwards the front of the building, where another guard offered a salute as he opened the doorway. Inside, he went through the usual security checkpoints, surrending his hidden weapons and the such, and then finally entered the war room.

Inside the room, hovering over the tables of information inside, were various staffers, anaylists, and strategizers. In addition, two prominent figures were also standing there, Commodore Brand, recently returned from Outer-Rim duty, and General Iscarion, newly promoted after showing initiative and loyality during a recent campaign to put down an insurgency on one of the outer-rim planets. These two would be prominent figureheads in his new project. He walked up and saluted both of them formally, before briefly hugging his old friend the commodore and shaking the hand of the general. Kraken gestured to the table, and all three of them took up positions to begin their discussions. Kraken decided to start off their conversation about their plans and designs.

"Well, I had just finished talking to the latest of the delegates, and have finally decided to go public, in a sense, about our latest ideas and schemes." started the governer, "I told the ambassadors that I would agree to their proposals, and would begin working something up."

"I'm sure they will be surpised when they see how far along we have come in the "time" since you agreed to assembling the armada it's self." commented Brand.

"Well, their reaction will not be my problem, not at the moment anyways. My main problem is delivering this plan to them and making sure it succeeds." responded Kraken.

"Of course, and the first preparations have been completed." replied the Commodore.

"And what were this preparations?" asked the governer. Unlike his old days, when he would spearhead these projects, now he mostly left the planning and execution to his staff, being burdened such as he was with the duties of goverment and politics.

"At each of the participating worlds, taskforces had been assembled, and have been training since then up to our working standard for performance. In a couple of days, we will head off to begin a series of exercises melding these forces into a single cohesive unit." said the commodore.

"And the ships they have been working with?" asked the governer.

"Their own designs and kinds, for right now. After they become a cohesive unit, we'll supply them with the finest warships and starfighters the Empire can provide." answered the commodore.

"Excellent. So the first stage is completed and the second stage is about to take effect. May I inquire as to our third stage?" asked the governer in a now pleased voice.

"The third stage. Well, once we have a cohesive unit equipped with the modern technology, we will need a test for them to perform. We have designated a number of targets to take over as a demonstration of their fitness and loyalty, both for the Empire and for their comrades, before we officially present them and the fleet to the public." outlined the commodore.

"And the targets for this, how should I put it, shakedown cruise?" inquired the governer.

"Let me show you." said the commodore as he actived a series of buttons under the table. Moments later a holoimage appeared, displaying first the galaxy, then it narrowed down to a sector, and then within the sector it showed the target systems, and the planets within the system.

"The Elrood sector eh? Finishing what we started there?" said the governer in a very pleased voice.

"Yes sir. We will finish what we started there a while ago, and the Iron Fist of the Empire will reign supreme there." replied the commodore in a now happy voice as well.

"And this brings us to the next step of the equation. Formerly the grand fleet consisted just of naval units, but now a new element has been added. The grand unified Imperial army." said the governer, turning his attention from the commodore to the general.

"That's right governer. We have been training hard for a long time for this opportunity, and we are ready to prove our worth." replied the general in a crisp and eager tone.

"I should hope so. This would be the first time the Empire has widely accepted various speices into it's ground forces. I hope for your sake that you suffer no serious debacles, or else." the governer replied, adding a hint of an edge to his voice.

"I wouldn't worry about that governer. Those who stand in our way, will die on our way." the general replied in a hard and cold voice, her deep blue eyes starting at him with a coldness that sent shivers down his spine. He smiled instead to hide his sudden fear of this woman.

"Very good. If there is nothing else, then I must be going. I have a dinner apointment to keep with delegates from the planet of Corulag. A clever way to negotiate about protection for food shipments if nothing else." said the governer with a smile. With two more salutes sent and recieved, he was on his way. With him gone the two returned to their plotting.

Far out in front of him, through the Raptors forward viewport, Kach could see Admiral Gilfords squadron forming up to attack. With an Astrus-class Star Destroyer, two Victory III Star Destroyers, and two Ferro-class Medium Cruisers his commander was in possession of a massive amount of firepower.

Arrayed out behind Kach's ship was another three Raptor Assault Cruisers identical to the one he was standing on now and four Carrack Light Cruisers. Just barely equal to the firepower of the other squadron, and led by a man far more experienced than Kach was, Gilford would easily favored to win by any oddsmaker taking a look on the training exercise.

But as any fighter pilot will tell you, "It's not the crate but the man sitting in it."

While the Admiral was still listening to the suggestions of his officers, Kach had already single handedly decided on a course of action and the best way to implement his plans. By doing so he had avoided one of the fundamental weaknesses of democracy, the whole discussion stage that makes the system so slow and unwieldy. As a result, he was ready to go before his commander had even decided on a course of action, and Kach wasn't one who would hesitate to make the first move.

"Alright," he spoke into the Comm system to the ships following him, "All ships, full speed ahead. Carracks, pull behind the Raptors shields and drop your own, splitting the energy between your engines and weapons. On my mark the Raptors are going to split in a bomburst pattern with the Inexorable attacking the Victory on the left and the Allegiance the Victory on the right. The Raptor and the Undertaker are going to move to the side but continue straight ahead at that Astrus. At the same time the Carracks are going to go to full throttle and charge that ship. By then we'll have the shields down and you'll rake them. Then the Raptor and Undertaker will go in there and finish them off. Remember, on my mark."

A flurry of acknowledgments came back from the other ships that were with them as the Carracks pulled behind the Raptors and the whole formation began charging forward like some unstoppable locomotive.

Out in front of them, Gilfords ships were finally moving, the two Victories, each flanked by a Ferro, pulling away from the Astrus that continued moving forward.

"Sir, they're trying to..." Kach cut the lieutenant who spoke up off.

"I know, they're trying to flank us. However, this doesn't change our plan. In fact, they may be doing us a service by spreading out so they can't support each other."

The Lieutenant who had spoken up looked dumbfounded. He hadn't thought of that.

"Something you'll want to learn if you ever want to become a great commander is that within every weakness there is strength and within every strength there is weakness. As a commander, your job is simply to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of your enemies position an exploit them while fortifying against their strengths. If you do your job well you will win, and if they do a better job they will win."

Brook Trout.

"Tschel, you are dismissed from your post to ponder that. Tomorrow I want a 5,000-word essay on your views of what I just said and its strategic and tactical implications. Am I understood?"

"Uh... Yes sir," he said, snapping to attention and marching off.

It seemed odd, assigning an essay to a man, particularly in the middle of a squadron exercise, but in his opinion nurturing a mans strategic growth so he could better serve the Empire someday took precedence over an exercise that was in the bag anyway. And these unconventional ways of teaching, he had found, were more effective than the academies. Fleeting was something you had to understand, something you had to unlock inside yourself. Not something that could be learned by studying countless older battles. Those might help develop a fleet officer’s actual tactics, but they would never unlock the sense of understanding required to make a truly great commander. His way would.

The rangefinder display on the engagement monitor in the bridge center showed 15 more kilometers to target. Not quite close enough. Outside, Gilfords fleet was shooting Turbolasers at them, and the Raptors were responding in kind. Nobody had been reported dead in space yet, but it was bound to happen soon.

Slowly they ships got closer.

15…14…13…

A kilometer passed ever 22 eternal seconds.

12…11…10…

10!

“Mark!” Kach shouted, “Carracks full speed ahead. Raptors to your assigned targets. Undertaker follow us. Proton Torpedoes away. Hit their forwards shields, as soon as they look like they’re falling shoot a few ion cannon bolts at their Starboard Projectors.”

“Proton Torpedo duds launched,” The gunnery control officer next to him said, “Ion Cannons are on standby.”

Ahead of Kach’s ship a wave of Proton Torpedo duds shot out. It took them twelve seconds to cover the last six kilometers to Gilfords Astrus Star Destroyer, the Administrator. At the last second before they hit the ships shields, each dud self destructed, pelting the forward shields with metal shards.

The real shields barely even felt the blast, but the simulated ones sure had. After fourteen Proton Torpedoes had “impacted” against them the simulated ones fell and a pair of ion bolts tore away from both the Raptor and the Undertaker. These also harmlessly dissipated on the Administrators shields, but on the Combat Simulation Computer where the shields didn’t exist and they kept on going. One hit a weapon turret, knocking it out. To others knocked out life support on decks 117-134. The last, however, slammed right into the ships port shield generators just as the Carracks flew past, unleashing a hail of Turbolaser bolts and Proton Torpedoes that struck the ships bare hull on the simulation computer. The shields would only be down for a few seconds as the Carracks flew past, but it would be long enough.


“Starboard Shields down with reserves coming online, all main life support down with backups kicking in. Starboard Quad Heavies down, Starboards Reactors down…”

“Damn it,” Gilford shouted, cutting off the damage control officer. “Captain, activate the bridge maneuvering jets. Bring the port Quad Turbolaser batteries to bare.”

“Activating now, sir,” the Captain called as the scene outside began to move.

“Sir,” the gunnery officer complained, “By the time we turn around those Carracks will be long gone.”

“That’s not the idea,” he said. His agitation bled through his voice. “Notice how they’re slowing down? Knowing Kach, he’s trying to use them as a diversion so he can slip his Raptors right next to us. While their shields are weaker, a single Raptors broadside is just over half of ours. What he wants to do is use them against the Starboard side where the main armaments been knocked out. I want to… Hold here, this is fine.”

The rotation outside the bridge stopped.

He cleared his throat and then continued. “Well, anyway, without the five Quad Turbolasers on that side we’re doomed, so we have to move the Port ones in his direction or we’ll be torn to pieces.”

“Port Quads, SLTs, fire… now!”

Two dozen of the massive Turbolaser bolts lanced out, smashing into the ships full strength forward shields that were quickly augmented by the reserve. After taking the bombardment they were just barely still up.

“Sir, their shield recharge rate is just over three percent per second…”

That was only half the recharge rate a Raptor could manage.

“Dear God, dump the rear and starboard shields into the front and Port ones.”

“Sir that will…”

“I know, we’ll blow several fuses and we won’t be able to move energy around anymore, but we have to do this if we want to survive.”

Gilford knew just what was about to happen. Three seconds after they had began transferring shield energy around a huge salvo poured out of the two Raptors and slammed into Gilfords Astrus.

There was a flurry of feedback.

“All shields down, I repeat, all shields are down…”

“Proton Torpedo launch confirmed…”

“Port Reactor B down, Port life support at half strength. No life support on decks 107-152. Coolant lines to the Port Maneuvering bank severed…

“Damn it,” he shouted, “Pull the Victories and Ferros back here.”

“The Victory and Arrogant are both dead in space. The other Ferro, Temptation, is now being directed this way. The Victory it was guarding, the Dominant, has lost half its drives but it will try to come this way as well, but it’s currently engaged.”

“Damn it, how long till our main armament can respond?”

“Quads, 15 seconds. SLTs, 45.

“Shit…”

“Sir, Proton Torpedo impact in seven seconds!”

“Where are our missile defenses? Our defensive banks? Where are they?”

“They were knocked out by the last salvo.”

“Three seconds to impact,” came the call, “two… one…”

Nobody could hear the Torpedoes self-destructing outside the ship, but everyone knew when they did. Every light on the ship shut itself down. Three seconds later they powered back on, along with several hundred other systems that had automatically shut themselves down when they were “destroyed.”

“Sir,” the Captain said, “I’m sorry to report that the Administrator is dead in space.”

Oddly, instead of snapping back at the man who was stating the obvious, Gilford was completely silent.

“Alright. Get me a line to Thorton over there on the Raptor. Then get the fleet regrouped while I’m talking to him.”

“Yeah sir,” there was a pause. “You have your line, sir.”

Across from the holopad in the center of the bridge a life sized, blue tinted Kach Thorton appeared. He was silent as he waited for his commander to get onto a holopad as well.

“Good job Kach,” he said, stepping onto the transmitter.

“Thank you sir. I…”

The two officers barely started conversation was interrupted by a shout. “Admiral Gilford, incoming transmission. Looks like new orders.”

“Bring them here,” he said, ordering the Lieutenant who had shouted to him to rip several pieces of paper off a printer and bring them to him.

The lieutenant walked up, carrying the papers and a manila envelope carefully hidden within them.

“From project Specter, sir, he whispered.”

The lieutenant was one of the few people on the ship cleared to know about it.

“Are the prototypes ready?” he whispered back.

“Yes, but the design team wants you to go meet them anywise.”

“Alright. I’ll go see them once we’re in hyperspace.”

He looked up at Kach, then down at the orders. “Alright, Kach,” he spoke. “New orders. We’re going to regroup and head over to the Mid-Rim military headquarters. And before we jump I want you to come over here and see me. I have something I need to show you.”

“Yes sir, I’ll be right over!”