<font color=teal>Rebel Fire: Fusillade

What of the Empire? They may not admit it, but we are at war, Chancellor. The invasion of Corellia is more than a simple "localized attack", it is a war. And the Republic must respond in the like.

The two stood in the Ground Control Centre of the Republic's capitol world of Corellia, looking into the now-dark sky to the flashes of light that could be seen above the light fog than hung in the air.

If we were on Coruscant, the officer thought briefly, those stars and that firefight would be invisible. Corellia cannot aford to fall.

The officer had faith in Vice-Admiral Vondiranch, but it occured to him that such a low ranking man should not be put in control of the defence of the homeworlds...

But Admiral Drayson, along with most of the Second Assault Division, were away. Reports indicated that they were battling a smaller Imperial force on the fringe...

The Chancellor's voice brought him back to the present, to the balcony, looking over the vast lake of Corellia's surface.

Then go, Vice-Admiral. Take the fleet and respond. Tell the Imperials that we do not take lightly their war with us. Smash their position at Muunilist, and take away their ability to survive. Shatter Arliss Towers and break the Imperial economy.

He nodded, a smile forming on his lips.

It is a good day to die. He though, looking back to the sky.

<font color=teal>Deep Space Rendevous Point

Is the fleet arrived? There was a confirmation from the crew pit, and the officer smiled. The fleet was not grand, but it would so, he thought. Three of the most powerful warships in the Rebel arsenal, Zeus-class Vlyx Battle Cruisers, would lead the armada. A half dozen of their smaller counterparts, and Dreadnaughts... a powerful force. Powerful enough to shatter an Imperial position, anyway.

And fighters! Sqaudrons and sqaudrons of the best starfighters the Republic had to offer! X-wings and E-wings, and dozens of Missile Gunboats, a design stolen from the Empire, indeed!

They all geared up and began to press forwards, lining up in a single line, and made the jump to hyperspace.

To Muunilist, and to victory!

OOC: Fleet Forces

Zeus-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser Victory
Zeus-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Zeus-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Corellia-class Vlyx Battle Cruiser
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
Modified Imperial Dreadnaught
--35 ships total; 3 ZBC, 6 CBC, 26 MID

Twenty four days prior

" You're joking?!!?"

The shrill voice of a middle aged humanoid resounded through the cramped passanger compartment of an Imperial Lambda-class Shuttle. The man's hand extended towards a viewport and his finger lanced towards a congregation of small objects dotting the atmosphere and orbital path over the planet of Muunlist.

Below him sat the dorsal expanse of the Allegiance-class Star Destroyer Conquest II. From the aft of the oversized Star Destroyer sprouted a command tower with a boxy structure atop which housed primary ship functions and fleet relays. Jutting from the tower, hull, and nearly every possible durasteel orifice were weapons pointing into the dead of space. There seemed to be no blotches or blemishes on the command vessel. Her hull was grey and her armor seemed to shine in the system's limelight as the sun faded beyond the planetary horizon.

" Tell me she's just finished a refit!"

" Yes and no."

The panicked man gave a terrified glare at the calm, younger gentlmen who had responded.

" Explain!"

" She had to undergo a refit to make her systems more compatible with ours. She's former GDI stock."

" I can tell that! If she's brand new, what's her crew like?"

The responder grinned. " Academy fresh."

Rear Admiral Justiin Vorum grimmaced. From a desk in High Command to the lordship over a Fleet formation, the flag officer should have been ecstatic. Under normal circumstances, he would have been, except his was a monumental task. Imperial reserve formations had merely grouped together in worthless task forces over certain worlds. Now, over Muunlist, they had gathered to be formed into an efficient Fleet reserve formation.

The problem therein was the ships had just finished extensive refits, had no crews, and most were unfamiliar with large scale unit manuevers. Average age of the ships' crews was between eighteen and twenty standard years.

" One mistake! Lose one convoy to Rebel raiders and I'm stuck with this! I'd be happier behind my desk!"

The younger officer, an Ensign with staff bars on his shoulder smirked but kept his jeers to himself. His father could be very unpredictable.


* * *

Ten days Prior

It was said the even the Imperial Customs' craft laughed from their hundred meters demi corvettes at the rediculous assortment of vessels doing their best to get in some sort of shape. Formations had broken, ships had collided with minor damage, and maneuvers had turned into nothing but a mass of moving warships from a hundred to a thousand meters in length doing their best to avoid a predicted enemy and their own stray comrades.

Things would get better. They had to. Or line units would have nothing to defend their home ports.


****

One day Prior

Rear Admiral Vorum sat on the Conquest II watching his boys as he affectionately termed his command execute their first live fire exercise without a hitch. Over estimating battle computer predicted twenty percent losses to the force while the objective had been taken efficiently and ahead of schedule.

The customs craft had stopepd laughing, as had the dedicated System Defense Force.

His boys would do well...if they ever had anything to do.

Who would be foolish enough to breach Imperial territory, brave scattered mine fields and abolisher traps, and assault an Imperial system?



OOC-Manifest of Defenders

Squadron I
Allegiance-Class Star Destroyer - PENDING
Victory-Class Star Destroyer MK II - PENDING
Abolisher-class Cruiser
Abolisher-class Cruiser
Enforcer-Class Cruiser
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Gunship
Corellian Gunship

Squadron II
Victory-class Star Destroyer - PENDING
Abolisher-class Cruiser
Abolisher-class Cruiser
Enforcer-Class Cruiser
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Gunship

Squadron III
Victory-class Star Destroyer - PENDING
Abolisher-class Cruiser
Penetrator-Class Assault Cruiser - PENDING
Enforcer-Class Cruiser
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Corvette
Corellian Gunship
Corellian Gunship
Lancer Frigate - PENDING
Lancer Frigate - PENDING

Dedicated Defenses
Attack-class Carrier Sphere
2 Carracks
2 Interdiction Pickets
3 Abolisher-class Cruisers

<font color=teal>Muunilist - Imperial Space

The Republic Naval Officer in command of Fusillade fleet looked out at the swirling mass of stars, as most commanders did in the moments leading up to battle. From the command deck of the Battle Cruiser Victory, he watched the seconds tick down until the Republic Fleet emerged from hyperspace...

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two-"

In a perfectly executed show of force and worth, the Republic's finest emerged from the tunnel of hyperspace. Before them, some thousand kilometres away, was the blue/green ball of Muunilist, economic capitol of the Empire.

And glittering in between that objective and the newly arrived Republic warships...

"Imperial Line Vessels. A full battle group's worth." He knew that within moments these ships would be arrayed for battle, set to match the guns of the Empire against those of the New Republic.

"Colonel Moss, deploy the fleet." The formal order echoed for a moment across the bridge of the Victory, and the ships sprang to it. Arraying themselves in a long line, shaped as a diamon, the Vlyx Battlecruisers the arrowhead of a most deadly shaft.

"Full fleet sublight, Colonel. Shields up, arm the weapons. Transmit to Corellia: We have engaged the enemy. Right. Jamming active."

Weapons were armed and tested, flashing into the darkness of space and dying equally as quickly. Shields rose, protecting the vulnerable battleships from the deadly energy of the enemy lasers and missiles.

And over the entire system, silence descended as communications lines were cut off by a screach of squelch.

The Fusillade had begun.

(This message was left blank)

Present Day: Arrival of Unknown Task Force into Imperial Space

" Rear Admiral, we have commenced our bombing run."

" Excellent. Report target damage," Vorum replied, standing in the port crew pit, an odd position for an Admiral. Under his gaze sat the Fighter Operations Officer relaying orders and commands to a full wing of Scimitar Assault Bombers.

Two hundred kilometers from the Allegiance-class Star Destroyer sat the moon of Avaria, the smallest and closest to Muunlist. Its rocky and barren surface made the construction of a fighter target range natural.

Red targets marked runs for the bombers, the other half of the planetoid used by fighter jocks.

" Coming onto target. Flak fire commencing."

Droid manned batteries of light laser cannon sputtered to life, throwing light and fire into the black sky at the seventy two bombers on their way to success.

The fire became more intense as the cavern walls narrowed and towering spires of rock and earthen debris grew in size. The Scimitars had been transferred in from other commands and had been practising round the clock to get things perfect. They now did indeed act as a complete unit.

Several minutes of harrowing, close formation flying lead to a clear field of fire where each squadron dropped its payload of proton bombs, turning a valley into a crater.

" Well done," Vorum said, clasping the operations officer gaily on the shoulder.

" Bombers returning, sir."

" Exc-"

The battle alarm klaxon sounded, switching off standard lighting and replacing it with the emergency operations.

Without knowing what, wherre, or how, the Admiral ordered all hands to general quarters and all ships into battle formation. Perched finally on his command chair, he needed no assessment. The Rebels had assaulted his barely formed command. As pristine as a newborn babe, and just as inefficient and ill learned, the Admiral's command would either earn its spurs in battle or pass gloriously into the registrar of the fallen.

" Launch all fighters. Bring the Planetary Defense Squadron itno position. Recall all customs craft to the edge of the system. Raise abolisher fields and send the coded positions to High Command, standard message. Inform also of a need for reinforcements."

Several acknowledgements came, but Vorun wondered with his every fibre if the well trained and disparate collection of men an materiale he had been given would survive this forec encounter.

The transmission departed and made it past enemy jamming efforts, Imperial techonology and methods unknown to the enemy.

What would arrive when, if at all, was another matter.

Until then, it was up to the Youth of the Empire to defend a planet of seventy billion people.

" Order planetary defense control to scramble all surface fighter detachments. Arm all surface weapons batteries and raise the shield.

" Activate the mine field. They will have to punch through it before advancing any furhter, unless they do no care about half their vessels.

" Bring us forward. One eighth power. Slowly. Let them think they've got the drop on us."



They had...

<font color=teal>They are slow... recruits, perhaps? Or maybe there is something more than meets the eye here...

"Vice-Admiral, the fleet is deployed." A smile came to the lips of the Republic Officer, and he nodded curtly.

"Time to engagement?" A pause as terminals were consulted.
"Fifteen seconds, sir."

There was a long silence as they came into range, the humming of the ships' engines the only sound to be heard. Then, almost at once, two dozen warships began to fire.

Turbolasers and laser cannons flared as the Republic warships entered the Imperial minefield, which was just now reacting to their presence.

The foremost ships plowed ahead, their vast arrays of turbolasers and laser cannons blowing great holes in the minefield. The compact formation of the Republic fleet meant that a single channel through the minefield would be enough to let them enter, and as the Dreadnaughts passed through that channel they would open up themselves and make the channel wider, each passing ship destroying dozens of mines.

Those that made it past the barrage of lasers and missiles wasted themselves uselessly against the shields of the powerful vessels. A single mine was all but useless against the Republic, and though there were at least fifty thousands out there, a meager handful found themselves in the same arc, and within detection range, of the oncoming hoard.

Most remained quiet, outside the range of the fleet, useless as a defence. This mine field would serve only to slow the fleet down a short while... a very short while, considering that impact the ships had made already in the field.

Right then. Time to begin. The end of the mindfield was in sight, mere kilometres off the bow of the mighty Battle Cruiser Victory. The Vice-Admiral issued an order, a short phrase: "Return Fire".

At once, the Defender Wing, three sqaudrons of the most powerful starfighter in the old Imperial inventory, and a further three of the larger blastboats, leapt forward and into the mine field. The pilots were skilled enough that they could avoid these mines with ease. They would be invisible from the decks of the Imperial capital vessels.

"Colonel? Activate the tractor beams. You know the plan..."

The Republic Armada continued to advance.

" Bring forward the flanks."

The command was simple in its instruction, execution, and implementation. In a standard delta pattern, a design and formation prevelant in nearly all Imperiald esigns, from one look at an old TIEs' solar panels to the form of the massive Star Destroyers, the defenders of Muunlist had an awesome advantage over their enemy.

By chosing to blast only one channel in the dense minefield, scattered at various hyperspace entryways about the system, the had reduced their own effectiveness. Granted, they could do their best to expand the breech as rapidly as possible, they had no chance to do it quick enough.

The flanks of the point, second and third squadrons of the First Reserve Flotilla, swept forward like the closing jaws of a desert predator. Around the gap they streamed creating an efficient crescent around the gap and flooding the region with turbolaser fire and withering barrages of torpedoes.

The Victory-class Star Destroyer had been built with the purpose of deep space battle in mind, when ranges were shorter and battle deadlier, making them only so much more lethal on the modern field of battle. In the close range between the Imperal jaws and the Republic intruders, the one hundred torpedo batteries per Clone Wars-era vessel inflicted greivous damage on the enemy vessels.

The duty of a vanguard was as dangerous as it was glorious. Their valour was magnificent, and their sacrifice forever rmembers in the annals of every army and Fleet they served in.

Republic fighters poured through the gap past the Dreadnaught-sozed gap, the ancient Destroyer-relatives preceeding the enemy heavy warships. They were greeted by Imperial pilots in Defenders, themselves young and inexperienced.

Flak fire abounded, the entire region of space lit up like a Tallor tree. The enemy's three squadrons of fighters would not last long against the Imperials, but the damage the veterans had inflicted was worthy their fabled status.

Another vallant sacrifice.

Imperial planetary defensive batteries were charged and fired, their shots lancing azure and true towards the lead Republic Dreadnaught, specifically unscathed by the withering torpedo enfilade so the planetary defenses would have some contribution left to make.



To match, at the rear of the enemy formation appeared the planetary defense squadron, its spherical command ship and escorts surrounded by sixty squadrons of small droid fighters. A massive number of disposable warriors, each pilot safe inside the armored hull of the launch vessel.



Modern battle, omnipresent death.

<font color=teal>...they are foolish to assume... the Republic does not play games. As they shall soon see...

"We are ready?" There came a nod, and the Vice-Admiral smiled. It was dangerous, to say the least... but the Empire would be sure to appreciate it.

From the flanks of the Republic capital vessels came a flurry of mines, all boarn thus far by the tractor beams of the mighty warships and flung now with abandon against the sides of their own defenders.

Fires erupted where the Empire's own defences struck home, shattering shields and smashing hull plating. It was the ultimate in irony that the Empire's own weapons should be turned against them...

And all the while, the fleet continued to swat down missiles. Having been experts at the missile salvo routine since the beginning, it stood to reason that the Republic could stop such an assault cold.

Then the spearhead struck. In order to surround the Republic fleet, the Empire had spread itself thin. Three Zeus-class Vlyx Battlecruisers hit the thin line of Imperial defenders, shattering a Carrack Cruiser that had placed herself in their path. The tiny ship was engulfed in flame as a salvo from the Victory herself opened the vessel up as a can opener would a can of sardines.

The New Republic's most powerful ships of the line, against a motly array of light cruisers that were all the Empire opted to put in their path...

Fresh returned from a long duty of the Jedi Shadow, Slavatio was comforted by the feel of the republic pilots around him about to enter battle for their cause. Time and again the advanced fighter groups had proven their worth in space combat. Time and again they had shown that they could over-come almost any obsticle.

The Phantoms would certainly be no different. Covert operatives, that is what their technical classification was. Their ships were Imperial Model TIE Phantoms. Their signals broadcast Imperial Transponders on Imperial Frequencies. Nothing would distinguish them as Republic fighters.

These methods could, at times, put them at as great a risk from their own people as the enemies. However, it aided in the element of suprise and stealth. The communications on each fighter not only masked their voices but transmitted on Imperial Frequencies in Imperial Incriptions.

Now, it was time to see what his men could really do. They had flown sims, trained, and worked with one another day in and out but now it was time for the real thing.

Twelve fighters roared through space, twin ion engines blazing at high speeds. The headed for the Imperial Formation, transmitting that they were in distress and to cover their tails as the made for the surface to retrieve more fighters and recieve maintainance.

Hopefully their ploy would work. However, either way they made no sign of slowing. Ion engines leaving ion trails in their wake, twelve TIE Phantoms roared through the vast emptiness of space.