The Past


"General... what you are suggesting we do is quite impossible. Those yards are well protected with that shield. Bringing a Golan, a useless one at that, down on those yards will accomplish nothing."

Logan sighed softly to himself and rubbed his eyes lightly, "Admiral Gheller, how long have you known me?"

"Joren... you know I served with you in the Jutraalian Empire." Gheller said.

"Then you must know that Fearsons tried this exact same trick against me at one point, right?"

Gheller was silent, Logan took that for a big fat 'yes', "The yards would be great if we could hit them, but Section Eight reports show that it would take six to eight weeks to insert a team into those yards. It takes time to fabricate an entire backstory, so that is out of the question. We don't have that time. The Prime Minister has ordered this attack to be set in motion within the next week."

Gheller looked down at the holographic map of the Bilbringi system, and Logan could see that he was trying to gauge what was really going on here, "Sir, I respectfully request you please tell me what the fuck you are talking about."

Logan chuckled to himself, "This whole raid, has one purpose: To prove to the Empire that we will not back down when facing them. We will not be cowed into our own destruction. Destroying their shipyards would be fun, but it would hardly cripple their shipbuilding capabilities. They have Fondor, Sullust, Muunilist, Yaga Minor..."

Logan turned to a different holoprojector, "No this is about something else..."

He leaned down and touched a few keys on the projector. An image sprang to life, one that was known throughout the galaxy.

"This is about Bhindi Drayson."

Gheller frowned, and then his expression broke into one of aggravated annoyance, "Her? Some whore traitor from the former Holy Demosthenes Empire? What the fuck would we want her for?"

"We aren't going to capture her or anything, that is also out of the question. But she has been known to utilize a certain command ship, that we are interested in..."


Gheller nodded, finally understanding, "I think... the Pathfinder, her task force, along with Artillery Squadron would do the trick..."

Logan smiled, "Indeed."



The Battle of Bilbringi


The Keerow was taking too much damage. It's shields were beginning to falter, and small pieces of the super structure were now begining to melt away. The guns were still churning just as they always had been, but Logan had now issued the order for non-essential personnel to evacuate. Only the command staff, gunners, and other essential people were still left onboard.

"Where are they..." Logan mused.

The status of the battle had slowly turned to the Imperial tide. The ships Logan had sent to the shipyards were now begining a slow arc around, and out of the battle, as had been preplanned. The Birds of Prey were slowly leading the pack out of the battle, using their superior speed and maneuverability to avoid most large blasts, asteroids, and debris. They gunned for open space, leaving most of their pursuers behind.

The bulk of the heavy ships in Logan's taskforce were still holding their own, but were slowly being overtaken. Despite the lack of solid communications, they were working well together, and were inflicting heavy damage on the Imperial forces.

Logan forced himself not to wince as a Claymore-class battleship slowly went down, flame pouring out of it's side as escape pods jettisoned away.

"General..."

Logan closed his eyes for a moment, composed himself, and looked up at the aide that was standing about three meters from his command console, "What?"

The aid was pointing. Out the viewport.

Logan grinned.

"General, the Pathfinder and support ships are coming out of hyperspace."

The huge Dauntless - class Command Ship was massive, the Coalition's answer to the Venerator line of ships. At six thousand meters, it bristled with weapons, shields, and top of the line technology. It's support ships were numerous, with several Victory-class Star Destroyers, two Mon Calamari MC-90 cruisers, a few Unity Battleships, and several other smaller vessels, which included Birds of Prey.

It followed the Acheron's trajectory into the system, coming in directly aft of the Super Star Destroyer. Without anything further, it opened fire, along with the rest of it's task force. The Birds of Prey lanced out from the main group, raking the monstrous ship with fire.

But far behind the new Coalition ships, was something else entirely.

Artillery Fleet exited hyperspace at the same time as the Pathfinder, but far back, and well out of range of the Imperial forces.

As preplanned, like the rest of the battle, the ships began spreading out. The Intimidator-class cruisers, along with a few escort vessels, began targeting select vessels...

Without warning, they opened fire as well.

All along the perimeter of the battlefield... those small little pests called Constrainer pickets began taking damage...





The Imperial forces had certainly done their best here, but Logan had one last trick up his sleeve.

SSD Acheron

The death of the enemy flagship was anticlimactic, at best. There was no blaze of glory, no heroic last attempt to ward off the attack, no choirs singing their laments. Simply silence as the ship went dark, the flames that engulfed it flickering eerily in the crevices and valleys forged by turbolaser fire. The ship’s hull was so deformed and disfigured from the bombardment that her only resemblance to a Star Destroyer was the distinct arrowhead shape: her bridge was a crumpled mess of melted metal, her pointed bow hd been broken off, leaving only a jagged hole from which debris continued to tumble in its slow dance. Slowly, almost hesitantly, the Acheron’s gunners shifted their fire away from the dead hulk. Whatever it was, the enemy ship was no longer a vessel of war: it might be best described as a monument of the Coalition’s bravery: the Star Destroyer had led its charge into battle valiantly, and fought to the last. But it was no match for the Imperial Fleet, and the battle had taken its toll.

No, the Keerow was dead. The hulk was still trapped in the tractor beams of the much larger Acheron, and presently the Super Star Destroyer brought it around, putting the enemy flag between itself and a rather annoying enemy Star Destroyer. That ship fell silent as the shattered remnant of its commander blocked its firing path, curving gently away to find a more forgiving target for its wrath.

“Orders, Captain?” The gunnery officer asked, watching the fire rage unchecked aboard the enemy ship, engulfing whatever oxygen was left aboard that vessel.

“Pick up what escape pods we can. Make sure we have Stormtroopers waiting for them – Sith knows that these aliens will try.” Joda ordered, observing the launch of thousands of pods from the stricken vessel as those that remained alive – and were able to get to escape pods - abandoned ship.

“Let it not be said the Coalition does not have its share of brave souls, too.” He said softly, wondering not for the first time if all those deaths were in vain. What had the Coalition accomplished here, exactly?

The battle was nearing its end: the Coalition fleet, now grossly outnumbered, was trapped in the centre of the Imperial formation. With disturbing speed the net closed in around them, General Tagge’s Requiem meeting the Super Star Destroyer as his line advanced, ruthlessly vaporizing whatever stood in its way. With the loss of the Keerow the Coalition fleet was shaken: their few remaining line ships stood their ground valiantly, but they were taking fire from all directions and would not last much longer. Even as Joda watched a bright light filled the viewports, and when the transparisteel has returned to its normal transparency there was a hole in the Coalition line were a star cruiser had been.

No, today would be long remembered as a victory for the Empire. Those who died would be remembered as heroes, brave men who had held back an onslaught of alien aggression to protect the people of Bilbringi. They had paid the ultimate cost, for there was no shortage of wrecked Imperial craft on the battlefield today.

“Begin mop-up operations,” Joda ordered calmly, putting the thought of the dead out of his mind. There would be time later for mourning and accolades: right now there still Coalition warships out there, and even the loss of their commander had not stopped them fighting.

“Captain,” Drayson said, returning from her position at the end of the command walkway, “I will retire. I am sure you have everything under control here.”

Joda nodded. “Yes, Admiral. Do you have any final orders?”

“Congratulate the crew on their first combat, Captain. They performed admirably.” With a curt nod, the Grand Moff left the bridge, the turbolift doors shutting with a dull thud.

Captain Joda turned back to the battle: the Coalition fleet was dying quickly, now, fire continuing to pour in from all directions as the noose tightened. Far below, the enemy Birds of Prey had aborted their ill-planned attack on the yards, realizing perhaps that the shields were too strong for them to dream of breaking. They slowed, curving away form the fortifications. The manoeuvre, though, gave the defenders one last opportunity at a parting shot.

And what a shot it was! The massive heavy guns, some installed on Epsilon platforms, others on asteroids or nearer the yards, finally able to track the fast-moving ships as they slowed to make their turn and passed into range, opened fire with an immortal roar. Bright green light shot forth like the thunderbolts of Zeus, smashing through shield and ship alike. Explosions filled the sky, brief fires that consumed the enemy ships, leaving behind only propellant gasses and bittersweet memories.

Than the enemy fleet was in the asteroid field, dodging asteroids and safe from the guns, though no further from death. The ships were agile, certainly, but the asteroid field was unpredictable, and the ships were simply to big to avoid all of the obstacles. As the fleet fought tooth and nail to get through, they left behind a number of ships drifting helplessly through the field. Those would be beaten down and become so much space debris in the asteroid field.

Joda returned his attention to the battle at hand, just as all hell broke loose.

“Captain! We’re detecting incoming ships out of hyperspace! Close proximity!” The call came from the sensor station, and Joda was nearly thrown to the deck as a shockwave rocked the massive Acheron. He shook his head to clear it, wondering what in hell could have exploded to produce that kind of blast.

And then, taking one look at this TAC, he realized what had happened. Somehow, a small force of enemy warships had penetrated the interdiction fields. Normal hyperdrives had safeguards that dropped ships out of hyperspace when they detected a gravity well, protecting the ships and their crew from the deadly effects of being yanked from hyperspace by force. To deactivate those safeguards was lunacy. The gravitational effect of a mass shadow would stop a ship much more suddenly than its hyperdrive, even more so than a hyperdrive interrupted by its safeties. The result was an uncontrolled – and usually fatal – reversion to realspace that was described by pilots as a crash to earth.

Joda had no idea why the Coalition fleet had been travelling with its safeguards off, nor did he particularly care. What was clear was that the battle had just gotten significantly more interesting.

Belatedly, Joda realized that someone had triggered the Super Star Destroyer’s alarms (or maybe the shockwave had set off some kind of alert). He heard Drayson speaking as she exited the turbolift, demanding to know what was going on.

“Admiral! We’ve got new hostile ships in close proximity.” Her question was the same as his: how, and what kind of idiot commander would travel through hyperspace without safeties in place?

“We’re not sure.” Joda explained. “The shockwave you felt was the result of an explosion, looks like one of the new arrivals collided with something.”

Indeed, the uncontrolled emergence of one of the enemy cruisers (later analysis of sensor recordings would show it to be a Mon Calamari ship) had sent it smashing at high speed into a Victory Star Destroyer – the overstressed hyperdrive had exploded, reducing both ships to debris. The VicStar crew had never even seen it coming.

“Jesus.” Bhindi breathed, watching the enemy fleet try to orient itself. The smaller ships were struggling heavily: their internal compensators had been unable to deal with such rapid, uncontrolled reversion. Joda, knowing a little of the physics of hypertravel, could guarantee that the majority of their crews were dead, thrown against bulkheads at unimaginable speed. Their only saving grace would have been that death came quickly. Those that were fortunate enough to have been buckled in would have felt their internal organs crush against their rib cages, and would now be struggling to breath as death came much more slowly. The largest ship was faring better: it’s sheer mass kept it from breaking apart on reversion, and it seemed to be bringing itself around to fire on the Acheron. Again, Joda could not fathom how anyone had survived the reversion to realspace, but that was not his immediate concern.

For their part, the crews of the Imperial fleet had reacted swiftly, shifting some of their fire from the initial enemy task force to the new arrivals. The large enemy ship was taking fire from the Acheron’s rear guns, while her forward batteries continued to eat through the enemy’s first fleet. Presently the Requiem accelerated, bringing its substantial bulk between the Acheron and the enemy ship, showering that vessel with turbolaser and missile fire from its broadside batteries.

“Inform General Tagge he is to make the enemy battle ship his primary target.” Drayson ordered coldly: she, like Joda, was still wondering at the lunacy of this enemy commander.

“More reversions, Captain!” The sensor officer called out, transmitting the data to Joda’s screen. “We’re trying to get an identification on them now.”

“No need.” Bhindi said, her voice hard. “They are Intimidator class cruisers. Long range support vessels: they use a kind of hypervelocity canon. Let’s see what they target, shall we?”

Even as she spoke one of the small Constrainer pickets vanished from the sensor display, the red dot blinking out as the ship disappeared in a flash of bright light.

“They’re far out of targeting range – they must be feeding them data from the main fleet. Instruct the Freedom of the Press to increase its sensor jamming.” Another picket had winked out of existence before Bhindi sighed and looked to Joda. “Have our remaining Constrainer’s power down their gravity wells and pull back. Make sure our other Interdictors maintain their positions. It looks as though the Coalition is trying to run.”

Indeed, with the arrival of the reinforcements (such as they were) the Coalition ships had found their vigour renewed, and they were now coming about to drive through the Imperial line and away from the system. What the presence of the Intimidator’s was worth neither the Admiral nor Captain knew – the Interdictors were too far back to get a clear shot, and knocking out the Constrainers was little more than damage done for damage’s sake.

Likely their commander had been wise enough to leave his hyperspace safeties active, and was now trying to clear the way for the rest of his fleet to escape. Apparently the presence of the Imperial Interdictors had escaped his notice.

“Continue firing, Captain.” Bhindi ordered, returning to her station. “Apparently, this is not quite over yet.”

Dauntless - Class Command Cruiser Pathfinder


Admiral Gheller clutched the guardrail as a blast shook the bridge of the massive Onyxian command ship. The battle was still raging, even though the Imperial forces clearly believed they had defeated their Coalition enemies.

Not even by a longshot.

"Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer." He ordered, even though he didn't have to.

The battle was being fought on several stages, and in several different places. First, the main Coalition fleet, consisting of the heavy cruisers and larger ships were taking a beating, with Imperial forces rapidly trying to surround them. They were still very much in the fight, and their extremely well-trained crews under the command of Kashan Commodore Breck'tor, were delivering blow after punishing blow to the enemy fleet.

"The Kashan train their people well..." Gheller mused as Breck'tor somehow rallied his fleet and began focusing his fire on a single group of enemy ships, bringing them away from the one-on-one fights they were engaged in. Gheller noted with pride that the enemy was seriously feeling the bombardment, and several Star Destroyers began jetting flame from their superstructures and began to melt away from the battle.

Gheller could almost hear the cries of the Coalition crews as they exulted in the destruction.

The second stage of the battle was entirely different. a whole slew of Coalition vessels, under Gheller, were focusing everything they had on the Acheron. The design of the Super Star Destroyer was well known, and the Coalition crews had been extensively trained on which weak points to target. Already, the massive ship was begining to feel the anger of the Pathfinder, and the rest of her support ships, as sections of her shields began to falter. Gheller watched with utter coldness as torpedo after torpedo slammed into her shields and hull.

The third stage was smaller, and more simple. The sudden Imperial bombardment was absolute, and many of the fast-attack ships that Logan had obviously sent to the shipyards had been severely damaged or destroyed. Only a few escaped, and those that did began targeting the Constrainer pickets that were arrayed around the battle (and who were now attemtping to flee the battle).

Next came the Intimidator force of ships, who's methodical crews destroyed Constrainer after Constrainer, and even began targeting the Interdictors. Gheller could see from his tactical map that holes were begining to develop in the interdiction field.

Lastly, the Keerow. The flagship of General Logan was in flames, and most of it's escape pods had jettisoned. Most were picked up by Coalition vessels and recovery shuttles. But the Empire, in all her wisdom, began doing something so utterly... wrong.

Gheller watched in horror as the recovery shuttles and escape pods came under fire from Tie fighters and other Imperial ships. Some of it was crossfire, but some was...deliberate.

"Record that!" Gheller barked, "Bastards!"

He certainly hoped the General wasn't on one of those escape pods...


Everyone in the fleet saw what was going on, and saw what had happened. All over the fleet, resolves were suddenly redoubled, and the doubt that was in the minds of all Coalition forces had been erased. The Empire had just committed a ghastly crime, and they would pay.

All across the battlefield, efforts were suddenly redoubled.



"General on deck!"

Gheller spun on his heel and smartly saluted. General Logan returned it quickly and marched over to the command station, Mahk in tow.

"General, we thought..."

Logan seemed to ignore him. He was in battle mode, and could not be switched off, he was immediately studying the battle reports, his face grim, "You are still in command admiral, but begin implementing exit procedures."

"Yes sir."

CSD Requiem

“General,” Sean Devaron said, his expression grim as he approached the command hub of the star cruiser, “I thought you would want to see this.”

Vladimeer Tagge nodded, dismissing the junior officer he had been speaking too and looking to Devaron.

“What is it, Captain?”

“Footage of the battle, Sir. It’s not pretty.” He indicated the recording on his datapad: it showed a pair of TIE Interceptors sweeping through the battlefield, green lasers piercing through escape pods as they launched from the stricken Keerow.

“I ordered our TIEs not to fire on escape pods.” The General said, his eyes cold. “Do we have their numbers?”

“That’s just it, Sir. They’re not ours.”

Tagge’s eyes widened. It was well known that the Coalition, like many other governments that claimed sovereignty in the galaxy, had taken to stealing or buying Imperial ships. With the Coalition economy in the state it was, it was no surprise they were using those fighters against the Empire here.

What was surprising was that they would willingly target their own soldiers for whatever end it was they hoped to achieve.

“Record and send it to High Command, Captain.” He ordered, thinking. Even Joren Logan, famed for his brutality, would not have ordered the deaths of his own men? Or would he?

The matter would require some thought, and time was something Tagge did not have at the moment. The battle had gotten a whole lot more interesting since the enemy fleet had fallen (quite literally) out of hyperspace.

“How does the rest of the battle go, Captain?” Tagge asked, almost lazily.

“Very well, Sir.” The Requiem had positioned itself between the enemy cruiser and the Acheron, shielding the flagship from the brunt of the enemy attack. With most of its crew dead, the enemy ship was managing to put up a fight, but only barely. The Requiem’s fully living crew was making short work of the enemy ship.

“I understand the shields of the enemy cruiser are already down. Congratulations.”

Devaron frowned.

“You should be thanking whoever is in command of that barge.” He said bitterly. “They didn’t manage to get any kind of defence raised because their crew is mostly dead.” The waste of life, to Captain Sean Devaron, was appalling.

And by fighting, the Coalition was only going to lose more men. More material. Devaron sincerely hoped whoever was in charge of writing their letters of condolence had a lot of time on his hands.

“General, I know it is the Grand Moff’s decision, but,” he paused, unsure, “and I apologize if I am speaking out of turn. But I think we should offer the Coalition an opportunity to surrender.”

Tagge looked at the Captain a long moment, taking his time to respond.

“You do not speak out of turn, Captain. And do not think it has not occurred to me, as well. But, as you say, it is Drayson’s call, and she has not given them that opportunity. Not that I believe Joren Logan would take it – he would rather die here today than admit he failed.”

Tagge gestured to the languishing reinforcement fleet that was burning around them.

“These ships are proof enough of that.”

Devaron nodded firmly. “Yes, Sir.”

“Return to your post, Captain.”

“As ordered, Sir.”


SSD Acheron

“What is the status on our Interdictors, Captain?” Bhindi Drayson asked, gliding up behind Joda, her voice soft and controlled.

The Super Star Destroyer’s Captain pulled up that section of the battle, scanning the damage reports.

“The enemy Intimidators are trying to target them, but they’re too far out of range. They can’t get anything like a clear shot. The interdiction fields are still holding strong. We’re losing a lot of Constrainers out there, though.”

Indeed, three more of the small craft had vanished, taken down by fire form the long range assault ships the enemy had along the perimeter of the battle.

“As long as the enemy fleet cannot retreat, Captain. We shall handle the Intimidators when the Coalition’s fleet is destroyed.”

She indicated the battlefield, and Joda dutifully brought it back up on his display. The enemy’s new arrivals were nearly all accounted for: only a handful had managed to do anything more than drift listlessly away from the battle, their crews decimated. Those few that had managed to attract attention to themselves quickly found themselves under the guns of the Imperial Fleet, and their deaths came quickly.

Of the Coalition’s initial fleet none were now left fighting. The last, a Star Destroyer that had been scavenged and rebuilt by the Coalition, had taken the full brunt of the Acheron’s attack and was now spiralling in its slow dance with death away from the battle. Presently it clipped an Imperial Dreadnaught that had not been able to get out of its path in time, and its course changed so that it dove towards the asteroid field, many tonnes of carefully sculpted metal to be reduced to little more than space debris. Eventually it might be harvested by the Imperial bots that combed the asteroid belt, and melted back down into moulds for Imperial warships.

The Acheron had seemingly taken the focus of what was left of the Coalition presence, and fire was finding its way in from the half dozen or so remaining enemy vessels. The largest enemy ship had found its firing paths blocked by the Requiem, and the two were now engaged in a kind of duel, the enemy ship trying to in vain to manoeuvre so that it could attack the Super Star Destroyer. But with its crew slaughtered and its drive engines damaged in the hyperspace reversion, there was nothing it could do against the infinitely better prepared Star Defender. General Tagge’s ship matched the cruiser move for move, directing all of its heavy firepower against the enemy vessel.

Fires were already burning aboard that ship, and without damage control crews to respond, they would only spread. The gunners aboard the Requiem had taken it as their mission to eliminate the enemy vessel’s offensive capabilities: each time an enemy turbolaser turret flashed, the Requiem returned with a volley of fire that broke the shields and reduced the emplacement to slag.

With each turn, fewer and fewer of the enemy ship’s guns were able to respond.

“Captain?” Bhindi asked, still calm, and an alarm began to ring on the bridge of the Acheron. Joda had already reacted, pulling up the report and silencing the alert.

“Our rear deflectors have fallen below fifty percent,” he reported, somehow managing not to sound stressed about it, “there’s a Star Destroyer back there that managed to get below the elevation of our rear guns.”

“Do our tractors still have the enemy flagvessel?” The Admiral asked, eyes cold. Joda’s eyes widened as he realized what the Admiral meant.

“Yes, Admiral. It’s off our starboard beam.”

“Move it.” She said simply, and Joda, with a sharp nod, issued the orders.

It took only a moment for the darkened hulk of the Keerow to begin to move: caught in the invisible grasp of the Acheron, it traversed its way along the hull. To those aboard the Super Star Destroyer, it appeared as though there were now moving forward, instead of the reverse.

Then the tractor beam controllers, operating in almost disturbing unity, brought the pointed end of the enemy ship around and directed it into the side of the attacking vessel.

There was no explosion: the speed of the Keerow was not enough for that. Instead there was a bright flash of pink light as the shields of the attacker overloaded, unable to bare the weight of the ship crashing into it.

The two ships collided, fusing together, and as the Keerow was released it pushed the enemy vessel off its course, the Star Destroyer trying both to free itself and continue firing on the Super Star Destroyer.

“Shields are recharging, Admiral. Looks like the generators are still in okay shape.” Joda volunteered, breathing a sigh of relief. This was the Acheron’s first combat: it was his job to ensure it would not be her last.

Presently, Bhindi realized the ship’s guns had ceased firing. She looked around, and realized with a grim smile that the battle was all but over. The Requiem was still locked in battle with the enemy cruiser, but that ship was dying rapidly. But the rest of the Coalition fleet had been reduced to little more than dust: a few ships fought futilely on, but the Imperial fleet now outnumbered them by a great margin, and those few ships quickly fell.

“They never once asked for surrender.” Joda bit out, watching on the monitors as fire erupted from the enemy cruiser, burning brightly in the darkness of space as oxygen was drawn in from all quarters of the enemy ship.

“No.” Bhindi said simply, wondering. The Empire had suffered here, yes. But the Coalition’s loss was so complete, so devastating, that she could only wonder at who was in command of its forces that they would throw away so many lives for nothing.

“I wonder if Regrad knows yet.” She said aloud. The Acheron had not stopped its fire against the enemy ship, would not stop until it was either dead or a surrender offered.

“Very good, Captain. Issue orders for General Tagge to delegate some of his fleet to destroy the Intimidators. I will remain on the bridge.”

As the shattered hulk of an enemy cruiser drifted by the bridge viewports, Bhindi wiper her hand across her face, surprised to find it wet.

“And inform Imperial Centre. The attack has been repulsed.”