Coruscant, Imperial High Command War Room

"And that outlines my plan for dealing with the Galatic Coalition." finished Simon Kaine, placing the pointing stick he used to highlight several points on the map of the system displayed by the holoprojector.

"Hell yeah, this'll teach those mothafucka aliens who is boss." voiced Zell, his full support being behind the plan.

"Sounds good, Simon. Now, who will lead the main fleet?" asked Regent Hyfe.

"I had planned for Bhindi Drayson to lead the assault." replied Simon.

"Not that wench. Couldn't you have chosen someone better for the job?" said Zell.

"Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she's not qualified for the job. Who would rather have lead the assault? Park Kraken?" replied Simon.

"Ugh. Nevermind, Drayson is good enough." said Zell.

"Then it's agreed. Let the plan commence. Oh, and if anything should go wrong, it will be on your head Simon." said Hyfe.

* * *

"Then it's confirmed?" asked the Coalition Admiral.

"Yes sir, the Ebony Vigilance will be at Coruscant for a military festival of some sort. She will have a standard escort." replied the intelligence officer.

"Good. This will be the perfect opportunity for war plan Blue." replied the Admiral as he signed off.

The Admiral turned to look at the others in the room.

"The Empire's flagship will be present at Coruscant for the next several days for a military event. I vote that we strike now, as planned." proposed the Admiral.

"But what if it's a trap? We know the Empire has been setting up several of those for us lately in the Outer-Rim territories." said Regrad.

"Don't worry, I have a backup plan for such an eventuality. Now, all those in favour?" pressed the Admiral.

After a unanimous raising of hands, the plan was approved for a go ahead. If everything went according to plan, then within one standard week the Empire would be at war with the Coalition, but with their capital in GC possession and their most valued ship destroyed

One week later, at the edge of the Courscant system

A ripple telling of a emergence from hyperspace to realspace was detected, setting off the alarms of the ships orbiting Courscant as well as the planet's sensors, too. The ripple broadened as a ship entered the system, a Coalition Claymore class battleship. Then, more ripples opened up, other ships reverted, first tens, then hundreds of warships, exiting hyperspace from the direction of the Rim and entering realspace near the planet of Coruscant it's self. The Coalition Onyxian Commonwealth fleet, tasked with the mission of capturing Coruscant and destroying the Empire's flagship in a brutal first strike of a new war of conquest, had arrived within the system. The fleet was very grand as a result of stunning Coalition success with subverting new planets to their cause and rallying their economy into favourable positions.

The flagship of the fleet was the Claymore cruiser Freedom. In addition to this ship, there were nineteen other Claymores in the fleet, along with an equal number of Dominator class battleships, and this formed the core destructive potential of the fleet. Escorting the larger ships were scores of smaller capital ships, Stryker carriers, Longsword frigates, and Defender class gunships. All of the ships in the fleet formed up into their respective taskforces, forming four individual battlegroups, and they all launched their complements of starfighters before powering up their shields, these fighters being of any class ranging from the Kris types to the more common MC-10s. The fleet, having finished forming up and prepared for the tough battle ahead, moved torwards Courscant with intent and purpose.

The Imperial fleet seemed to have been caught off guard but quickly rallied with such stunning speed that is a true tribute of the elite men of the Guard. The Ebony Vigilance and her escort of two Allegiance class destroyers formed the core of the defence fleet, being joined by various other vessels that had been in system at the time, these forces consisting of three Imperator type destroyers, two Victory class ships, eight Thorne dreadnoughts, six Illustrious cruisers, ten Fire light frigates, two Dasher corvettes, eighteen Intrepid gunships, fourteen Rapier-II gunships, and a whole host of Imperial fighters launching from the space stations, ground installations, and the ships themselves. The planetery shield activated, and the Golan-V stations in orbit around the planet armed their batteries. The Empire was in for a fight.

In the meantime, near the outer planet of Selvaris, Bhindi Drayson awaited for word on the battle to reach her via means of shuttle, since her flagship, an Executive class Super Star Destroyer, currently sat concealed in a cloaking shroud. The other ships in her fleet, twelve Eternal class Destroyers, and sixteen Thorne class Dreadnoughts, sat in their own cloaks. For now they would just wait for the order until they dropped their cloaks and pounced....

In addition, awaiting for the word that they needed help, fully suspecting a trap, the Coalition Far Eastern fleet lingered near the edge of the Coruscant sector....

"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.

The Dominator class battleships closed in with the Imperial formation. The large Imperial warships were letting the Coalition ships have the full brunt of their weaponry, but so far it seemed to only be making a small dent in their formation. Then the losses for the Imperials started. First the Imperial Star Destroyer Reckoning, and then the ISD Requiem dropped out of the Imperial formation, their sheilds down, their hulls breached in multipule places by high powered energy shots from the enemy battleships, secondary explosions hurling giant chunks of hull out into space. Escape pods burst forth from these two doomed ships. One of the ISDs went in a series of spectacular explosions, and the other one just drifted thoughout space, abandonded and forgotten, continually venting debris and gases. With these two ships out of the way the Dominators could concentrate their fire on the bigger prey.

Then, suddenly, one of the Dominators went up in a spectacular explosion, an attack of TIE Scimitars, coinciding beatifully with a turbolaser salvo from one of the Allegiance class ships, penetrated the ship's sheilds and struck several weapons batteries. A chain explosion followed from the weapon's ready ammunition down to the main magazines which then ignited, blowing the ship apart. In the meantime, in the rear of the Imperial formation, the duel between the Claymores and the secondary capital ships continued. Riddled with shots, an Illustrious type cruiser drifted, dead and abandoned, while yet another dreadnought was cut in half by particle projection shots. Several of the Claymores in the meantime were increasingly looking as if they had been chewed upon by giant space monsters, their hulls holed in several places, systems flashing on and off as power varied.

The Ebony Vigilance herself was faring very well in the space engagement, all of her weapon batteries concentrated on a single target, whittling it down. Her gunnery officer turned his attention to the capitan of the ship.

"Sir, the superlaser is once again ready to fire." reported the man.

"Very well. Target and eliminate one of the Dominators that has taken the least amount of damage." ordered the capitan.

A superlaser beam once again leapt out from the Eclipse class ship, striking and obliterating a Dominator class battleship from the ranks of the enemy. Then, at once, the remaining Dominators once again closed the distance, coming to within broadside range of the Imperial ships. All about the ship formations starfighters buzzed, attacking one another and occasionally going after an enemy ship. Then the sensors officer looked up from his station.

"Sir, enemy reinforcements are exiting from hyperspace. I make the count fifty enemy starships. I make the count as eight Claymores, six Dominators, four Unity class ships, four MC-80b cruisers, two Intimidator class cruisers, ten Longsword frigates, ten Defender gunships, 4 Haven class light cruisers, one Dauntless class Command cruiser, and a modified Viscount class Star Defender." reported the sensors officer.

"So Regrad himself has finally come in for a scrap eh? We'll make sure he pays the price for it. When our superlaser is next charged, we'll eliminate that Viscount, and the legacy of Regrad forever." said the capitan, chuckling.

* * *

"Bhindi, new change of plans. An enemy fleet has been detected in Sector Beta. You are to engage and destroy this enemy force before proceeding to assist the Ebony." ordered Simon Kaine.

Bhindi Drayson acknowledged the orders, and reformed her fleet for an attack on the second hostile Coalition group. This group was fresh from hyperspace and would present an interesting challenge for her and the fleet under her command. However, she had little doubt that she would emerge victorious.