NationStates Jolt Archive

The Republic is Gone,
The Coreworlds Savaged,
The Jedi are Destroyed,
The Empire has Risen,
A New War has Begun…

The dark times had once again returned to the galaxy, the Republic which ruled with benevolence had once again been corrupted by the greedy. The Republic’s champion’s resisted valiantly but in the end they were defeated, the Jedi massacred. The Coreworlds attempted to revolt yet the risen emperor turned their worlds into so much slag.

The Galactic Empire has returned to rule the Galaxy, but this time they were hurt in the process, their enemies did not go quietly into the night. A massive battle occurred over Coruscant between the Farstars Fleet and the Imperial Navy neither side emerged unscathed. As a result the Empire hold domain over the galactic North and the Coreworlds, beyond that there influence is weak. Along the colony worlds to the rim now exists as a loose collection of non-aligned worlds whose allegiance was to the Republic not to the Empire. There are rumors that there are a collection of worlds that are in open rebellion against the Empire, those brave souls who know the evils perpetrated by Palpatine must be avenged.

The Civil War has resumed, the Rebel Alliance survives…


Sector 135x564
Along the Hydian Way
Near the Telos System

“So anyone know what the last thing the Scout Trooper saw was?” stated a voice quickly over the squadrons comms, “A tree!” he finished the punch line much to the chagrin of his squadron mate though a few could not help but laugh.

“Cut the chatter seven, the convoy should be arriving at any moment.” Captain Erica Caldwalder stated sharply her voice distorted slightly over the rebel commutation gear. She was the commanding officer of the newly formed Rising Star squadron, armed with the newest generation of X-wing fighters. All in all though she was glad to her the levity, they were members of the Rebellion since before the the Republic fell, with the recent dark times they had little to laugh about.

Alliance spies though reported that an Imperial Convoy would be exiting hyper in this deserted system, to as a place to realign their hyper coordinates before entering hyper space again. It was common procedure when a ship would transit any great distance which made such locations the perfect place for an ambush if one discovered it before hand. Such points were often reused which made such raids only feasible once, there after the enemy would change their route or reinforce it substantially.

“Remember we are to handle their fighter escorts, the Screaming Wookies will handle anything larger and disable their freighters as well. Intelligence stated there should not be more then a squadron of TIEs and a Bulk cruiser riding along as a gunslinger.

“Star Lead this is Wookie Lead Contact I say again Contact 4 KM bearing 246 degrees!” The CO of the B-Wing squadron reported hastily, their enemy had arrived.

WAR!

War! It was all that was on the holonet, mindless details of mindless battles taking place in some far off insignificant region. The Coreworlds and inner rim had become complacent with the Empire, some, now enjoyed its protection, its almost distant love. It was undeniable that piracy and raids were down, smuggling and other illegal activities had also been hampered all thanks to the watchful eyes of the Imperial sensor network, which was now fully active…..

The passive sensors scanned trade lines, habited systems, uninhabited systems, everything the emperor surveyed, for a happy economy was a happy Empire.

The Imperial Transport Iceni was one of the cruisers on its way from Corellia to the outer Rim base Keal-Var; a deep space listening outpost that monitored most of the Rebellions operations. It was to be a normal routine flight, on a normal routine cargo transfer however war had changed it. The Godulans had been striking at Imperial listening posts all over this sector, some of then succeeding, some of them not, and as such the transports defensive priority was upgraded to a priority two, which got them a larger escort……

“This is the Carrack Trident, transports prepare to exit hyperspace for jump reset.”

“Rodger that Trident.” Came a series of recognitions throughout the fleet.

From within Hyperspace seven bulk cruisers slowed down to a halt reverting into realspace, behind them entered the Carrack Trident, slowly and very laboriously it made its way to the front of the convoy still unaware of the Rebel forces. As usual the compliment of fighters exited the Carracks cargo bay, four TIE Defenders and from the Cruisers themselves another four slid out from view hidden amongst plasma wash.

“Merchant fleet, please set your coordinates for the second Jump reset, Hyperspace core charging, we will depart within six minutes.”

“Got that Trident, Iceni out.”

Bridge ~ Carrack Trident.

“Captain….. I’m detecting some rogue gas clouds coming our way.”

“And, we detect Gas clouds every day….”

“Well Admiral, these are the temperature of engine exhaust…. That identifiable to X wings!”

“Really?” He said with a faint smile, so the rebellion was making its move, when the Empire was most dangerous, most foolish, most foolish indeed. Perhaps it would give the emperor some incentive to test out the Galaxy Gun, some were saying that it would finally bring the outer rimm into Imperial submission, and that’s what they said with the Death Star……. “Very well alert Alpha’s one and two, have them take formation.”

“Yes Sir…. Ehh sir shall I alert the cruisers.”

“Alert them Lieutenant, have them raise shields but keep their Hyperspace engines powering up, we may have to make a run for it.”

Slowly and surely the Caracks guns angled towards the attack vector the green turbo lasers bolts already firing out towards the rebel scum……

“Star Lead this is Wookie Lead Contact I say again Contact 4 KM bearing 246 degrees! One C-rack and six Freighters, four Tie Defenders.” Brain Greentree the commander of the B-wing squadron stated as he finished his contact report.

“Roger that Wookie lead Take your B-wings in disable as many of the freighters as you can, we will keep the Ties of your six, Star Lead out.” Caldwalder order her commands. She switched back over to squadron communications, “Squadron break by pairs engage those ties with Proton Torpedoes then close to guns range.” She ordered again, within seconds each of the four ties would have a missile shot at them, as the x-wing closed quickly with their outnumber counterparts. The snub fighters avoided the turbo laser blasts the weapons to cumbersome to target their evading fighters effectively.

The B-wings shot a broadside of torpedoes at the cruiser, twenty four of the anti-ship torpedoes closed rapidly with the Cruiser whose defenses were concentrating on the fighters themes at this distance just about all of them would hit and the Imperials would know they have been kissed. As the B-Wings over flew the cruisers they broke by flights, each of the three flights of four bombers targeted a freighter with Ion cannons, the azure blue beams lancing along their hulls crippling their systems.

The Alliance objective was not the destruction of the escort cruiser or even to disable all the freighters such objective would have been un realistic given the training of the Imperials in such ambushes, no the Rebels had maybe ten minutes, not enough to accomplish all that. No the Rebels were very pragmatic, if they captured two or three freighters it would be a victory.

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“Incoming fighter attacks captain, shall I have the squadrons engage?” Melvars first officer asked enthusiastically.

Turning to his supposed second in command, Melvar viewed his lack of composure with stern disapproval. Trying to bring the man back to his senses the good captain quickly shot down the idea.. “No no, let them exhaust themselves upon our shields, the current force is not a threat.” Melvar waved off the attack with little concern. “Commander? Order the freighters to proceed to the next hyper jump coordinates while opening fire. Tell them to try and drive the enemy fighters towards Freighter twos engine wake, we’ll send in the first Defender squadron to assist.”

“Yes captain!” The typical Imperial reply rang out.

Outside in space a small, rather sombre battle was being conducted. On one side you had the upstart dreams of freedom and enthusiasm, while on the other you had the stern, realistic vision of discipline and order. Ringing out in unison the Tridents gunners failed to strike anything tangible. The efforts and training of the crew were undeniably brave and flawless, however, they were very much let down by the slow industrial abilities of the turbolasers. As the green wall of Imperial fire sounded, a new, altered breed of X wing made their attack. Against the bleak void these vessels lumbered into attack range, and without warning or hesitation they opened fire.

Hurtling towards the Trident the twenty four dots quickly grew larger and larger. Their destructive payloads not caring for the moral dilemma of this war, not caring about who is just or right, no, the warheads only care for impact, and destruction. Smashing against the invisible wall of the Tridents shields the blast wave scared the hull of the Carrack. Black charred marks suddenly appeared along the side of the craft as the Neutronium alloy quickly cooled back into a solid, the small twists and dents in the hull visible evidence of some minor internal damage.

On the bridge, the officers remained calm and continued to open fire, this time each available gun concentrated on individual fighters, amassing their firepower on one ship instead of aimlessly spreading it amongst the many, always trying to drive the squadron to the awaiting Imperial force hidden between the freighters.

From the Carrack the Tie Defenders quickly moved into action. Sweeping up from below upon the rebel forces their twin lasers opened fire. Swirling in tangent they instantly broke apart for the dog fight…..

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The hidden ties appeared suddenly on the sensor grids of the Rebel Fighters it was Rising Star Eight who first noticed them,

"Contact four bogeys out of the wash, bearing three-nightly. " The Rebel pilot stated as he pulled his stick to his chest sending his fighter in an upward snap roll deafly avoiding the Imperial TIEs lasers, unfortunately the maneuver sent him into one of the large Turbolaser bolts of the Carrack, the death was instant as the fighter was obliterated. His wingman a young woman from the Rim World of
Karideph, an urban planet much like Coruscant and a stanch covert supporter of the Alliance, Kat Osterman fighter maneuvered with him though she herself did not sustain damage from the Turbolaser blast.

As she rolled past her superiors wreckage she annoyed that she needed support as she noticed two of the Imperial Ties fall in on her six.

The B-wings rolled onto the Targeted freighters sending their powerful Ion bolts upon the already damaged systems of the freighters. They would be crippled soon but the leader of the Screaming Wookie Squadron also knew it would not be long until the remainder would escape into hyper.

On the bridge of the Trident a small cheer went up as the wreckage of the X-Wing sped past the bridge, but alas there was little time for cheer as reports were coming in from two of the freighters. Enemy Ion fire was crippling their systems, passing through the lightly shielded hulls with ease. Within a few seconds their engines, shields and weapons were all down, their pre programmed Hyperspace coordinates lost.

“How long until we jump?” Malver demanded with a little anger. Losing two freighters to the rebellion did not look good on your report card.

“One minute captain, the other freighters are going to make it!” His second in command added with a little relief. Moving to the windows Malver was torn on what to do. There could be other rebel traps ahead, they must be aware of their flight plans and reversion coordinates, it’s the only explanation for the ambush.

Analysing the situation almost instantly Malver really didn’t have a choice on what to do, his training was now very much in control. “Send a message to the rest of the undamaged freighters, have them jump to…..” Malver quickly pulled up a suitable system. “P2C/11F, it’s on our current Hyperspace axis, the computer will be able to programme reversion in transit.” He said with some certainty. “Tell them we will follow once we have sorted out this problem here.” The captain was making a tactically sound decision, even if the freighters were followed the Carrack would be more than capable of catching up with the freighters before too much damage was done, and he just couldn’t let these freighters go un-fought…

Meanwhile outside in space the fighter battle was gruelling, the Defenders were now speeding past enemy X-Wings utilising the superior Imperial technology to their benefit. Though out numbered, they were still fast and resilient, the Defenders would not allow these freighters to be captured. As the dog fight ensured the defenders struck rebel shields and rebel forces glanced the defenders deflectors, at was very much a draw with neither side gaining victory.

As the B-Wings made their sweeping pass past the disabled freighters the second squadron leapt to life, zooming out of the plasma wake they would, as if by magic, appear on the rebels sensors. In a flurry of retaliation the Imperial forces struck out with the same calculated judgement as they had at Alderan.

"Copy that Nine, were coming in hang on."

The voice of Gary Alderman stated his voice slightly distorted from the jamming efforts of the nearby Cruiser. He and his wingman covered there flight mate as they send scarlet beams toward the pursuing Imperial fighters. His wing mate even achieved a missile lock on one of the Imperial fighters adding a missile to their beams of hate. Gary gave a small shout of accomplishment as he noticed several of the laser beams hit an enemy fighter, the damage was minimal as the deflectors absorbed the damage. He swore and set his lasers to quad fire, he sent more blasts towards the man trying to kill his friend when they hit he doubted the already damaged deflector could absorb the damage.

He swore as he watched the four Imperial fighters gang up on his friend, she jinked several of the shots, executed a snap roll to avoid more fire, but eventually her luck ran out. The emerald green beams exploded against two of her port engines sending the fighter in a flat spin, he heard her swear some more as more lasers punched through her hull, a second before her crippled craft exploded her command couch was ejected from her fighter saving her life.

Two more X-Wings joined Rising Star's 10 and 11 in their hunt of the imperial fighters that destroyed their friends fighter.

Greentree and his pilots cheered as several of the Imperial freighters were disabled, their hopes turned to concern as another flight of TIEs suddenly engaged their craft. Several emerald beams hit the bombers but their shields were some of the strongest mounted on fighters and absorbed the damage for now.

"We see your Problem Wookie Lead we on our way, suggest you hit that Cruiser again, we will call in our friends..."

"Roger that Star Lead." Greentree issued orders for the B-wings to engage the Cruiser again, they engaged by flights pounding it from each direction with proton torpedoes and their powerful Ion cannons. Six of the X-wings attempted to thwart the TIES attempts to down the bomber craft.