NationStates Jolt Archive

Thyonus system, now corrupted by the Zann consortium.

It had been a month since the Consortium had first taken its first steps into the the Chommel Sector. At first the Consortium had taken it slow, implamenting legal businesses that acted as fronts for illegal Credit laundering and extortion. After the first few weeks though the Consortium grew more bold, as the Republic forces had yet to notice them they began to build military buildings, disquised as work recruitment centres, workshops and business HQ's. Now Zann himself had ordered that one of the Consortiums armed stations be constructed. This would mean that the Planets in the Thyonus system were now officialy Consortium propery and conscription and slavery would soon be implamented on the systems inhabitants, the goverment having already been corrupted with bribe's and promises of power.....or they were simply removed and replaced by someone who would be.

The station's first stage was well underconstruction before the Republic finaly became a problem. As the first of the weapons was being attached to the station hull a Republic Tartan patrol cruser entered, and this marked the begining of the first battle of Thyonus

Tartan-class destroyer Rendili Shadow, just outside the Thyonus System

It was unusual for a ship of this class to be sent without escort to patrol systems like Thyonus (a system known for being susceptible to suggestion from outside forces), but due to a skirmish at Chommell Minor in which Seperatist forces destroyed the personal Star Destroyer of General Saat no ships could be sent to the system without firm evidence of a threat. The exposed nature of his position made Lieutenant Caama Bodi keep his eyes glued to his sensor screen as if his life depended on it. It probably did.

As his ship coasted into the system at a low speed, his read-out suddenly went berserk. Thyonus, a system not known for having heavy traffic was all of a sudden alive with ships, small construction vehicles and their larger support tenders.

"We weren't informed of any construction projects this big... Hang on, we've got incoming transports... Send a message to fleet HQ, IMMEDIATELY!"

Republican Chommell Sector Fleet HQ, Conference Room

Gregar Korden sat at a long grey table, watching Jedi General Saat pace up and down the length of the room. Gathered were the commanders of the various Star Destroyers that made up the core of the Republican defense of the sector, each captain proudly wearing the unique insignia of the fleet on his dull-grey uniform.
After a short period, General Saat pulled a small device from his robe and pressed a button. Immediately a voice-only message began to play.

"This is the Tartan-class cruiser Rendili Shadow, just inside the Thyonus system. The system's alive with constru- ve-els, there's someth- big goi- down h-re, I think it's a-"

Saat turned to the gathered captains.

"We recieved this message five hours ago. We've heard nothing else from that patrol ship since. They've missed five check-ins. I'm authorising a recon in force of that system."
The tall Kobok Jedi turned to Captain Korden.
"Gregar. I'm promoting you to Commodore and giving you the two new Victory-class ships the Senate authorised, in addition to your own ship. They're in-system, and they're already briefed on your promotion and their assignment. The rest of you will stay here and defend our orbital frames."

Half an hour later, Korden was on the bridge of his new flagship, the Forn Dodonna II, watching hyperspace go by. In another hour, they were at the edges of the Thyonus system, a huge blip on any sensors.

As the Tartan patrol cruser entered the system the entire construction effort went to pot. Ships began to flee in all directions as the systems small defence fleet rallied around the partialy complete station. However, once the it was found that the Republic ship was far smaller than an Intercepter IV frigette the forces became more organised. The ships transmitions were soon blocked and Ion cannon shots from Skipray blastboats soon disabled it, all that was left to do was to tow the ship into the awaiting docking bay of the partialy completed space station and board the vessel. The crew would have noticed two things once they entered the hanger bay, one: the ship was still being held by several seperate tractor beams and two: that someone was slowly burning through the main entrance hatch...

One hour 29 mins later
The entire Thyonus fleet had been assembled, groups of Intercepter class frigetes were surrounded by Starviper fighters and backed up by Skiprays. Although the boarding has resulted in the majority of the crew being converted to their component atoms the Captain had been spared. He had been hauled off to the interigation and corruption centre, where a combonation truth and mind altering drugs, coupled with promises of power and a Harem of Twi'Lek slave girls had brought the Republic officer round to the Consortiums way of thinking. During the interogation part of the process though he had mentioned sending of atleast part of a message which would bring more ships to investigate. However, although the Consortium would not back down from defending the system, they were prepered to use every advantage they could, and so the station and attack groups had been positioned in the sensor shadows of the systems main planets. If the Republic did launch a full attack they weren't going down with out a fight. A minute passed and then, with a bright flash, the Republics crusers jumped in....and across the entire flet comlink could be heard one sound, a colective gulp.

With the near-arrogance of a man commanding the most advanced warships the Republic could provide, Commodore Korden gazed out of the viewport on the bridge of the prototype Forn Dodonna II with a sneering look upon his face.

"What's the big deal? The place is empty, by the looks of it. Anything on sensors?"

"No sir. Nothing obvious, at least. It looks safe."

"Have the other ships return to base. Prepare the ARC-170s for recon missions to be launched on my command. Maintain shields up full, you never know what might happen in a blind-spot riddled hole like this. Don't bother powering up weapons unless you see something."

"Aye sir."

The Venator-class ship Forn Dodonna and the Victory-class Ossuss both jumped into hyperspace to return to Naboo, leaving the not inconsiderable warship Forn Dodonna II alone in the system.

As the three Republic ships entered the system the confident atmosphere on the comline was soon filled with fearful moans. What could their frigetes possible do against such force? However, when two of the ships pulled out of the system, leaving only one of the new Victory class vessels the atmosphere shifted again to to that of cautious optomism, after all what could one ship do against their forces? In the command deck of the space station, the now converted Republic Leutenant, now promoted to system govenor, sent out the order for three squadrens for Skipray blast boats to intercept the ship, engage it and then fall back to the station. If this was pulled off successfully then they could launch a casscade of fire on the enemy ship, destroying it at their leasure. Little did he know that this battle would cost the Consortium's forces dearly...

A deepspace comunication came in:

"This is Preator Artanis of the Protoss Expeditionary force, and High Consular of the Armed Republic of the Toori. Might I render any assistance?"

OOC: Sorry Toori, I should have put closed in the threads title, my bad. Anyway this is a closed thread where me and Chommel are developing our nations back histories so I must politly ask you to leave. Thank you for taking an intrest though. To any others this thread is closed so please don't post, though feel free to read the thread....it promoses to be intresting.

[Sorry Toori, the thread was intended to be closed but the notice wasn't put in the title and just got forgotten. Sorry.]

The command staff of the Dodonna II noted with perfect calm the arrival of the consortium fighters, and speedily informed Commodore Korden. He ginned almost manically, turned away from the viewport to face the two lowered control pits, and began barking out orders.

"Charge the forward turbolaser batteries and engage the point defense guns and laser cannons. Divert all available backup power to shields and prepare for a short battle. Gentlemen, it appears we have been given a perfect opportunity to test this new grey monstrosity. Let's grab it."

When the skipray blastboats made their run, the Commodore was expecting them to be more aggressive than they were. Their scattered weapons fire impacted on the shields and was over in seconds. The guns weren't even charged when they turned tail and ran.

"Ahead half speed, follow those fighters, and watch your scopes. If we're going to be ambushed, by chaos we'll give them the shock of their lives."

The great bulk of the modified Victory-class Star Destroyer lurched forward, belching turbolaser fire at the retreating consortium fighters, more to spook the pilots with the power of them than with any intent to cause damage.

As the Skiprays rounded the systems most inhabited planet, being slowly, almost lazily, by the Victory destroyer the squadren leaders sent off messages confirming the vessel was in persuit and that their ships had suffered no damage.

As the Victory destroyer rounded the planet though it was met by considerable resistance. Whole attack wings of Starvipers and Skiprays followed by groups of the Consortiums workhouse ship, the Intercepter IV firgette, and behind them the completed consortium space station MK1. Their was a short moment as both the Consortium fleet and the Victory's crew sized each other up before both opened fire on each other. Swarms of fighters flew at the Vicory from all direction, laser cannons firing as the Skipray's fired off their Proton torpedo's. From further back Intercepters fired off barrages of heavy concusion missles and from even further back the station opened up with its turbolaser's, torpedo and missle launchers, and even a group of mass drivers (designed to penertrate sheilds and do damage to systems exposed on the hul, such as weapons). This massive barrage would have quickly wiped out an acclamator class cruser, or even a Venrator class destroyer, given time, but it seemed to be having less effect on the Victory's sheilds that had been expected, though the mass driver was still passing right threw the sheild.

Despite the impressive display of firepower and the accompanying flashes and whirls of colour, the atmosphere on the bridge of the Republican starship was calm.A subaltern had brought Commodore Korden a drink, and he sat on a thronelike command chair swivelled to face the grand spectacle of the space battle.

"Launch the ARC-170s. Have them focus on keeping the fighter craft at bay, and target those damned mass driver cannons on the space station with the full forward battery. Divert power from the surrounding weapons just for this one shot. Can you do it?"

There was murmuring in the control pits that seemed to signify a collective 'yes'.

"A case of Dornean Brandy from my private reserve to the gunnery team that knocks out those damned mass drivers."

The forward quad turbolaser emplacements briefly ceased fire as capacitors built up for a full-power shot, then all simultaneously unleashed massive, almost blindingly bright bolts of green turbolaser fire that streaked toward the mass drivers as the gunnery teams competed for the prize of a good night's drunkenness courtesy of the Commodore's private reserve. The ARC-170's buzzed around the Star Destroyer, making good use of all of the variety of fearsome and outsize weapons they carried against the faster Consortium craft. The point defense turrets worked overtime tracking all the missiles and fighter craft, and the smaller turbolasers pounded away at the small frigates of the Consortium defence fleet.
Commodore Gregar Korden watched the battle with immense satisfaction, proud of the performance his new flagship was putting on for these pirates.

Under the withering fire of the Victory destroyer the stations sheilds fell as if they had been made from paper. When they final went down they ripped through the mass driver in seconds, blowing them right off the station, having fired off a salvo of mass driver rounds at the assalting guns. The rounds managed to hit several of the heavy turbolasers, disabling them as well.

Mean while the Consortium fleet was faring worse that had first been thought. The Intercepter IV had almost been wiped out and although the Starvipers were doing well against the ARC 170's, hitting entire squadrens of them with buzz droid clouds, they would be little use against the capital ship, and although the Skiprays were still surviving they were begining to think that this was because their weapons were failing to do damage to the ship, unlike the station and Intercepters. Still, the fleet continued to fire on the ship, the occational missle or torpedo slipping hrough the point defence weapons and impacting on the hull, but failing to cause major damage. The Consortium was slowly losing, but they were not so desperate as to use their final action plan, it was far to risky when te sheild could fall anytime now....hopefully.

When the mass-driver rounds smashed into the turbolasers, the whole ship shuddered , knocking the Commodore's drink onto the deck, where the intricate glass shattered into tiny fragments on the bare deck plating. The ARC-170s were dropping out of the sky like stones, or they would have if there was any gravity. Instead they hung out there in space, all too often reduced to a cloud of debris and limbs. Apart from the heavy losses in starfighters, the battle was going well. The shields were holding fairly steady, occasionally dipping in places giving the consortium opportunities to blast away with lasers, but overall integrity was good, and that gave the Forn Dodonna II it's lethal edge in the battle. The amller fighters had little hope of ever penetrating the shields at this rate thanks to the efficient repair and power distribution system prototypes spread across the ship, but the blastboats and their weapons were scoring hits. The dark grey hull of the Star Destroyer was pitted and scored with laser and missile hits.
Korden fumed over the remains of his drink. Glaring at the station through the windows of the bridge, he almost screamed his next order of the battle:

"Ahead three-quarters speed,tarhet all batteries on that damned battlestation! We will end this, NOW! One way or another, we'll end it!"

The Republic had forced the Consortium fleets hand. on the roof of the station defencive panneling was blown away with explosive bolts, revealing a large cannon.Slowly the cannon rotated into position, aiming at the main body of the Victory destroyer.

The cannon was a modified Mk 9 plasma boring unit, used to melt through the crust of a planet to create tunnels and shafts. However, the consortium had modified the plasma release system. Instead of firing a concentrated plasma cutting beam that was effective against planetary surfaces but unable to puncture the Neutronium laced armour of most capital ships the cannon instead built up a large ball of plasma inside the cannons firing chamber before releasing it in one go. The result was a weapon which, though unable to act as a cutting beam, was capable of causing serious damage to even the largest capital ship....if they didn't out run the blasts slow speed.

With a silenced explostion the cannon fired its blast at the incoming Victory destroyer, and in the process caused the capacitors that feed the cannon to overload and deonate, blowing the cannon assembely clear of the station.....and causing massive colataral damage to the top of the station.

Slowly the plasma shot aproched the Victory destroyer...

As the cannon was exposed to space, the crew of the Forn Dodonna II didn't have to wait for Korden's panicked bellowing.

"Divert all weapons and emergency power to forward shields! Emergency thrust, get us out of the path of the brunt of that beast! Make sure the fighters cover our rear!"

The crew were already hald done by the time Korden had finished. The Victory manouvred to fly in what the people on the station would call an upward direction, putting the top surface of the bow at the greatest risk.

The Commodore was now at the window, hands pressed against the transparisteel ssurface, staring right at the blast that was about to rock his ship. It seemed to crawl in slow-motion on an inevitable course, one that would kill perhaps hundreds of crew in seconds. When it came, it impacted on the edges of the concentrated shield area, effortlessly penetrating the energy bubble. It blasted through the bow without even seeming to slow down, melting through the ships's armour, completely destroying the front 80 metres of the nose and causing breaches on all decks, killing hundreds before emergency bulkheads were in place. The entire ships was rocked by the impact, and sirens wailed, accompanied by flashing red lights.

On the bridge, the Commodore picked himself up and dusted off the front of his uniform.

"Damage report?"

A junior officer exited the command pit and carefully stepped over the bodies of several officers knocked unconscious in the rocking and bucking of the stricken ship.

"We've lost the first 80 metres of the ship completely, vapourised without a trace sir. Casualty reports indicate fatalities in the low hundreds, with at least a thousand injured. A third of our marine compliment was vapourised in the blast, and we lost a forward shield generator. We're compensating by rerouting power that would otherwise be used to power the... Missing sections into existing generators. That was a powerful blast, sir. A damn powerful blast."

"What of the enemy station?"

"It apparently sustained damage itself, perhaps a result of design flaws."

"Do we have any missile tubes?"

"Yes sir, we have two."

"Fire them as often as possible at that station."

The destruction of the forward section of the Victory destroyer brought new confidence to the remains of the the Consortium fleet. The significantly weaked destroyer was swarmed by the remaining Skiprays, firing off their torpedo's at any exposed sections of the ship, passing threw the significantly weaked forward sheild. Eventauly the Starvipers moved it, firing their buzz droid cloud missles into the hanger bay of the destroyer, which would become known as the Janson missle strike, causing chaos amoungst pilots and bay attendants.

Slowly the Consortium was pulling the victory from the Republic, even though it had cost them hundreds of lives and thousands of Credits.

"Focus the frontal batteries on the weakened areas. Don't let their fighters through until the proton charges in the reactor detonate!"

This was the last order inputted into the computers of the Star Destroyer Forn Dodonna II, first and last of a unique prototype ship based on the Victory-I frame. The crew scrambled to hundreds of small escape pods to await the mercies of the pirates that had so badly crippled the pride of the fleet. The targeting computers did their best to fend off the fighters until the pods were at a safe distance. Once the distance was reached, dozens of vast explosions rocked the Star Destroyer, tearing at apart and overloading the powerful hypermatter reactor to critical levels, triggering a vast explosive meltdown that sent shockwaves across a wide area.

Picking up the automated distress signals of the escape pods, the two ships that had escorted the prototype to thyonus jumped back in.

"This is the Venator Star Destroyer Forn Dodonna. We request a cease-fire to pick up escape pods. Please respond."

The Republic traitor Kyle Tersa smiled as the Victory destroyer detonated, his loyalty and compassion completly drained thanks to the drug treatment and the offers of money, power and a Harem of Twi'Lek girls. When the other ships in the battlegroup jumped in he knew precicly what to do, turning to a subordanate he sent the order, "Get the Starvipers and the stations guns to target the fleeing escape pods, if the Republic ships do ANYTHING that goes against my terms with them destroy the pods".

When the Call for a cease fire was sent out Kyle smiled before saying "Open a channel to them, and make sure its video".

When the channel opened Kyle was sitting in the stations control throne smiling before saying "So, the mighty Republic wants to talk terms with us does it?"

A commlink from an escape pod being escorted by a wing of ARC-170s interrupted comms between the new ships and the pirates.

"Tersa, you know full well that these... Pirates you seem to be working with can't take another assault, not from two Star Destroyers. Agree to the cease-fire and you'll save me the inconvenience of destroying your ships and station then personally dismembering you. The Republic could easily make this a comprehensive victory."

As if to make a point, the turbolasers of the Victory-class (fully armed, unlike the scaled-down Forn Dodonna II) began blasting away at the nearest chunks of wreckage, to clear a patch for rescue shuttles. In addition, as if to make it clear that the request for a cease-fire was a formality, rescue shuttles began picking up survivors.

Kyle smile before saying "By all means take your crew and flee, but touch and of the Wreckage or attempt to do anything other than collect your friends then I will open fire on the pods, killing those inside. When you are finished I would sujest you leave immediatly, as we are expecting reenforcments any time and if they know I was letting you do this they...would be displeased. Once you leave the system tell the General that if any Republic ships enter my system with out permission then they will suffer the full wrath of the Zann Consortium!" he said, watching the shuttles already leaving the two destroyers.

The two ships and their crews almost made a point of taking their time after the threats of the traitor. Shuttles moves at 60% thrust, staging areas were designated less efficiently than they coul have been, all to snub the cocky pirates. After several hours, the pods were all in place and the Star Destroyers were ready to leave.

"This is the Chommell Sector 8th Splinter, reporting we're ready to leave. Enjoy all that burnt-out wreckage. The Star Destroyer hulk, too."

Nothing beats leaving with a jab at the enemy thought the Commodore, and he surveyed the cloud of wrecked Consortium ships that surrounded the now gutted and hollow shell of the Dodonna II.

"Set course for Naboo, and make ready my personal shuttle. I will be meeting with Master Saat."