Beyond - Legends X-Wing: Fleet Action - The Thrawn Campaigns (Rogue Squadron during The Last Command) (X-wing novel)

Thanks! With Thrride the real question is how much she's crazy, and how much of it is deciding to do things to make her seem crazy. Her durability is real of course, as are her exploits, but is she really as insane as she puts on? After all, everybody has heard somebody has died during the tests, but nobody has ever actually seen it themselves. Probably she's rigging them somehow, and managed to start a rumor in her group that somebody died - but do we really know for sure?

 

If you want a Thrawn scene, there's a huge one this week!

 

Chapter 27

Wedge walked out of the briefing room on the Star Cruiser Home One, surrounded by a small sea of commanders. As he headed down the corridor toward the hanger bay, Tycho caught up with him.

"That answers why nothing is going in or out of Coruscant," Wedge told him. "Thrawn apparently found another use for his cloaking devices. He put cloaked asteroids in random orbits around Coruscant. Their relay's been repaired, but they can't lower the planetary shields."

"That does answer some questions," Tycho replied thoughtfully.

“The point of this operation is to capture the Imp’s crystal gravfield trap. With that the New Republic should be able to detect those asteroids and get rid of them.”

A few minutes later Wedge stepped off the ramp of the shuttle into the hanger bay of the Mon Ontent. It just had returned him and several other commanders from the briefing aboard the Home One.

"So Bilbringi it is, than," another fighter squadron commander commented to Wedge. His squadron of B-wings had just been assigned to the Mon Ontent to replace a heavily depleted bomber squadron.

"That it is, and this better work," Wedge replied.

"Glad to see that Victory wing will be taking part.”

Wedge stopped in his tracks. "Victory wing?" he asked. "I saw Victory wing destroyed at Carida."

The other commander skin suddenly paled. "You mean there was another Victory wing?" he asked quietly.

What is going on?

"That answers why the name wasn't already taken when our wing was formed," he muttered to himself.

"Wait," Wedge shot back. "You mean your wing didn't even exist six weeks ago?"

"Our squadron is fresh out of final training. This will be our first fight."

Six weeks. This is what the new Republic is resorting to trying to keep up fighter strength. I hope there aren't more squadrons like this. But there probably are.

“I doubt that there’s much to worry about though. After all, if the rest of the fighter pilots are even half as good as you, the Imps don’t stan a chance with fighters, considering how just three of you shot us all down”

This is the wing that Admiral Hays had us shoot down at Celec Base six weeks ago! They were intermeate trainees then.

“And TIE’s don’t have proton torpedoes. Since you three used a bunch of training ones on us, we might have bagged one of you if you were flying TIE’s.”

It’s faster to build a fighter then train a pilot to fly it. With Thrawn’s endless clones he won’t hae a problem with pilots, even though only a few of them have made it to the front so far. But the New Republic now can’t keep up with losses. These pilots don’t have a chance.

And it means the New Republic is close to losing this war.

"Should we be worried?" he asked with a touch of uncertainty. "I know Thrawn has been retaking sector after sector, but what's with the need to prove Thrawn is fallible? Isn't everybody?"

Wedge sent a cold, hard stare at him. "I've seen Thrawn make our Admirals make blatant tactical mistakes in order to fall perfectly into his traps. He can practically make our commanders do his bidding. At Carida a fleet of equal strength wiped out all but four of our ships with light losses."

"That wasn't Imp propaganda?" he asked in a strained voice.

"No, it wasn't" Wedge stated coldly.

"What happened to the other Victory wing at Carida? I take it they were pretty badly depleted and a ton of TIE's finished them off?"

"No. Nearly full strength. It was alongside another bomber wing when Thrawn dropped a pair of Lancer's out of hyperspace directly on top of them without any warning."

The commander swallowed visibly. "I-I'll keep that in mind," he replied as he walked away. From the other direction Mirax walked up. She had been aboard the Mon Ontent for the last several hours.

"I take it something big is planned?" she asked with a smile.

"Mirax," Wedge replied point-blank. "What's the most recent communications regarding Rogue Squadron you've accessed?"

Mirax was somewhat surprised the tone of Wedge's voice and question. "I haven't looked at anything in a day or so."

"Do you know what our upcoming operation is?"

"No. Do you want me to play Rogue Null again?"

"Mirax," Wedge said in an icy-cold voice. "Don't look at any more communications again. This operation is big and it’s too important. I know I can trust you, but the new Republic can't take any chances, no matter how slight right now. You can look at them again to find us after the operation. It'll be big, and once its occurred it'll be in the news, and it'll be obvious which one it is. This is either going to be a victory against Thrawn, or it's going to lose us the war.”

Mirax wore an expression Wedge had rarely seen on her before. "How bad?" she asked.

“The New Republic is committing its strategic reserve. If we lose it there won’t be any more offensives, and replacements for losses have to be pulled from somewhere else. The New Republic may have to choose what it’s going to defend and what it will give up, and that might rip the New Republic apart. Worst case we’re a rebellion again that’s already proven it can’t win. Probably all of the squadron is going to make it back or very, very few of us."

"I understand," she replied gravely. "Hopefully that rumor about Delta Source being caught is true. Do you want me to leave right away?"

"I'm briefing the squadron in 30 minutes. You can say goodbye to Corran before that, but before the briefing you need to be off the ship. Don't talk to anybody else either."

Mirax nodded. "Somehow I don’t like the way that sounds. I'll do exactly that."

She turned to walk away, than turned back toward him.

“And Wedge? Fly your best out there.” Mirax gave him a kiss on the cheek. Wedge started to turn away, but Mirax grabbed his hands, holding them together. She locked eyes, her expression dead serious.

“Fly your best for me out there.” Mirax gave him a quick kiss on the lips that somehow didn’t seem wrong. A moment’s pause.

“I will see you again.”

She turned and walked away.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Chapter 27 (cont.)

Pelleron walked into the command room of the Chimaera, delivering Imperial Intelligence’s latest report on Mara Jade. At least Rukh isn't up to his usual games.

He was surprised to see that rather than holographic artwork, a strategic map of the core worlds was displayed. Thrawn glanced in Pelleron's direction.

"Plans for the final assault on the core," he said.

Pelleron took a deep breath. "If you won't mind me asking, what are you planning to do about Coruscant? Reducing their defenses and shields will cost us more ships than we can afford."

Thrawn leaned forward in his chair. "We won't. Coruscant only has three months of food stored, and with their planetary shields up they are currently eating into it. Once the Rebellion loses a massive fleet at Bilbringi, and the Coruscant sector fleet is destroyed, we bypass and blockade it. Drive the Rebellion out of the rest of the core, and when the planet is finally starved out, we accept their surrender in exchange for removing the cloaked asteroids."

"They would surrender?" Pelleron asked. "That's almost inconceivable. And how would we remove the asteroids, when we don't even know where they are?" And assuming he's right about them going after Bilbringi.

"Ah, but the alternative is a trillion slow deaths by starvation. Most likely the Rebellion leadership will try to escape the planet when they realize that they are out of options. Once repairs at Bilbringi after the upcoming battle are complete, coupled with repaired ships elsewhere and the loss of the Rebellion’s strategic reserve, we will have enough ships and superiority to ensure they are destroyed in the process while continuing offensives elsewhere.”

“If they wait too long, which they most likely will, those with nothing to eat are quite willing to resort to drastic measures. If they don't flee the planet and let it surrender, the populace will rise up and destroy the Rebellion government and surrender it in their place, rather than starve to death. A number of agents to act as instigators are already in place, although currently unaware of their role."

"And for the asteroids, there is a secret destruct code."

"Ah," Pelleron replied. "I don't particularly like the idea of assaulting Kurt, though. They have three star dreadnaughts eight kilometers long."

Thrawn smiled. "Kurt is only loyal to the Rebellion due to being deep in Rebel space. Drive the Rebellion and their fleets out, and they will undoubtedly accept an offer to simply switch sides."

"Now, you have something to report?"

"Yes,” Pelleron replied. “Imperial Intelligence has a split opinion on the status of Mara Jade."

"Those opinions being?" Thrawn asked.

"Half of them are firmly of the opinion she is still under arrest in the Palace. The other half believes she escaped from the Palace and fled, undoubtedly being vigorously pursued by the Rebellion.”

Thrawn leaned back in his chair, his eyes closing to slits. "Yes, the latter case could pose a problem. In fact, I take that back. It would actually work to our advantage. Her escape will all but confirm her guilt in the raid and the Rebellion would be completely unwilling to believe anything she says. And without constant contact with the Rebellion she would most likely never even have an opportunity to even tell the Rebellion what she knows, in the unlikely event she does."

"Is the latter group of the opinion she escaped before, or after our siege began?" Thrawn asked, his eyes opening again.

"Umm, they don't really know enough to have an opinion either way. Should we put a bounty on her?"

"No, the bounty on Karrde already covers her. If she escaped before the siege, she will probably attempt to rejoin Karrde. She has shown as surprising amount of loyalty to him. In that case the Rebellion will go after Karrde, and destroy relations between them and the fringe."

"And if after?" Pelleron asked.

"She will be trapped on Coruscant. As such with Rebellion security forces highly focused on her recapture, or death, she will eventually be cornered, and quite probably will die fighting. If she eludes capture long enough, she stands a good chance of being involved in leadership of groups of starving populace attempting to overthrow the Rebellion with her newfound loathing of them for her imprisonment, and makes their success more certain."

"Also, those of the opinion she escaped also believe a deception is being mounted to make it appear she is still imprisoned," Pelleron added.

Thrawn once again closed his red eyes to slits, than opened them again. "Most likely a simple face-saving gesture. Admitting that she escaped would make their security look even more impotent. Provided she did escape, of course."

"So our final victory is assured regardless of Mara Jade's fate," Pelleron replied.

"Assuming, of course,” Thrawn added, “we have the opportunity to destroy the Rebellion’s strategic reserve outside of their defenses, with a large shipyard in-system standing ready to rapidly repair what otherwise would be complete losses, and casualties in this battle will not be light.”

“Without that, multiple battles fought elsewhere would likely take losses in excess of what could be sustained while keeping to schedule. The recapture of the core has a timetable, and the siege of Coruscant means the clock has already started."

"I can see the value in that, sir," Pelleron replied. All our Intelligence is that the Rebellion is going to strike at Tangrene to obtain a crystal gravfield trap, but Thrawn is convinced it’s an elaborate deception and they’re actually attacking Bilbringi. Perhaps moving the GCT array there from Ord Mantell had nothing do to with the cloaking devices being istalled on the asteroids? In that case Thrawn had better be right.

 

@Sinrebirth

 

Great strategies from Pelleron and Thrawn. And will the republic be capable of defeating them? What with Mara Jade?

 

Just finished TLC over the weekend.
So this was amazing to read. Bravo.

 

Thanks! I'm think I integrated it with TLC well, and other impressions I've picked up from the EU. And with my personal impression that the one thing Thrawn doesn't understand is in-person loyalty, since he thinks everybody thinks like Imperials. The food storage is from Ackbar's rejected blockade plan from Wedge's Gamble, so it's not entirely original.

 

Thanks! Means a lot.

 

@Sinrebirth

I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that this week's chapter starts the massive, multi-chapter battle of Bilbringi. And apologies again for posting late, still trying to get back on schedule but company is in town.

 

Chapter 28

The proximity alarm sounded as Corran’s X-wing approached Bilbringi, and Corran reached for the hyperdrive levers. Than his X-wing dropped out of hyperspace two seconds early.

Sithspawn! He looked around. A massive Imperial fleet was waiting for them in an entrapment position.

"So much for our surprise attack," Inryi said sarcastically. "What are our orders?"

"Standby, Twelve."

"No time for that, One," Tycho stated. "Three squadrons of Interceptors inbound, dead ahead."

There was a short pause.

"I have an idea, Rogues," Wedge said. "After me, and as little maneuver as possible."

Wedge led them in a curving arc down toward the starboard side of an Assault Frigate.

"Straight and level, Rogues."

What is Wedge thinking? Corran thought.

Rogue squadron flew in a straight line from off the starboard side of the Assault Frigate that would take them across its bow at short range.

The Interceptors pulled in well behind them in a wide arc, flying straight in behind them and relying on their superior speed to close to firing range.

The point defense laser cannons of the Assault Frigate opened up on the squints. A pair of Correlian Gunships that Corran hadn't noticed were coming up from the Frigate's right, and their quadlasers joined in, firing on the Interceptors. They were superb anti-starfighter craft, even if it would take six of them to equal a single Lancer.

The squints, flying in a straight line, were easy targets. Nine of them died before they realized what was happening. A medium quad turbolaser from the Assault Frigate's starboard battery even joined in, turning one of the Interceptors into a molten blob.

"On the attack, Rogues," Wedge ordered.

So that's what he was up to. Picking out a target as he came around and linking his lasers do duel fire, Corran opened up on one of the TIE's at medium range.

The Interceptor, frantically maneuvering to avoid the three warship's guns, was a difficult target. But it didn't see Corran coming either. His lasers missed to the squint's left, but he held down the trigger as he adjusted his aim.

Two red bolts melted the Interceptor's port/upper triangular armored solar panels off. The damaged TIE tried to break, but it swung wide and was out of time. Another red bolt hit the base of the support for its port solar panels, which broke completely off. The squint spiraled out of control as fire began to trail from its port engine. It's pilot began to regain control, but then it's port engine exploded.

Corran picked out a new target, ahead of him flying away and to his left. There's plenty to choose from. He put the reticule on his HUD ahead of the TIE, and held the trigger down.

The Interceptor flew straight into Corran's line of laser fire. Two bolts hit the port/upper solar panel, melting large holes in it. As Corran used the stick and rudder to track it the TIE began to break left.

The squint's badly damaged port/upper solar panel broke off under the strain of the TIE's maneuvering, the segment striking the forward part of the ball cockpit and crushing the forward half in. The pilotless Interceptor went flying away, corkscrewing from the damage.

Never seen that happen before. Whistler hooted out a warning. Corran glanced back to see a pair of squints on his tail. Before he could react he saw red laser fire shoot by out of the corner of his eye, quickly followed by more fire.

"You're clear, Nine," Wedge's voice said.

"Fancy flying, One," Corran replied. Well that was impressive. He quickly picked out another target, a squint cutting past and away from him from left to right at long range.

Arming a proton torpedo, he painted it with a missile lock. Whistler sounded its target lock tone, and Corran depressed to firing button, sending a torpedo chasing after the Interceptor.

The TIE turned to avoid it, but the torpedo cut through its turn, exploding and reducing the squint to an expanding cloud of debris. Corran glanced around to see a TIE closing on his tail.

Whistler blared a warning. "I see it," Corran replied, breaking to the left. He glanced back, only to see the Interceptor reappear in his aft. Corran juked left and right as the squint opened fire, than pulled the stick all the way left and back as some of the green bolts splashed against his rear shields.

The fire suddenly stopped. He glanced back to see the remains of the squint, as the last bolts of quadlaser fire from a gunship lanced through. Good to have capital ships on our side for once.

As Corran looked for another target, he saw Wedge and Hobbie Klivian both vape an Interceptor, and a Gunship's quadlasers claimed the last one.

"Quite effective, One," Tycho said. "Not glamorous, but effective."

"Effective is all that matters, Three," Wedge replied with satisfaction.

"Now what, One" Gavin asked.

"Standby," Wedge replied.

Hopefully something more useful than normal, Corran thought. He checked his scope, looking for the Interdictors keeping the New Republic fleet from running. There were four groups of two well behind the Imperial line. Each group escorted by a pair of Lancers. We're not going after those. Thrawn's gone all in this time.

Wedge's voice came over the comm. "Thrride’s got a plan, and Ackbar's agreed this time. We're staying with her squadron as it moves toward the Imp perimeter, escorting Defender wing as they hit the warships and doing whatever damage we can in the process."

Sounds good.

"Nice to meet up with old friends," Tycho said.

Rogue Squadron turned toward the Imperial perimeter as Defender wing formed up on them. Off to their left was Victory Wing flying B-Wings, along with another squadron of X-wings.

"Where's the rest of our fighters?" Gavin asked.

"Ackbar's using them for something he cooked up on the other side of the fleet. Most of the TIE's are over there fighting them. We're it in this area," Wedge replied.

"But not it for the TIE's" Inryi added grimly. "TIE’s approaching from that pair of Escort Carriers, I count three squadrons of eyeballs. Three more squadrons of eyeballs and two of squints heading our way too."

"Now what?" Asyr asked. "Victory Wing's got their own fighter problem."

There was a pause.

"Tycho, Wes, Hobbie, we've done it before, so the rest of you, who's familiar with Biggs formation?

"Never heard of it," Corran replied.

No other positive replies came either.

"They still teach it to bomber pilots, as far as I know. It's a purely defense formation. Basically each flight of the squadron weaves into each other and vapes any TIE's on each other's tails."

"Then the TIE's will learn quick and ignore our tails and just fire quick shots from every other direction and wear our shields down until they vape us," Inryi snapped back.

"That's why one flight alternates playing fleethund and chases down and vapes a few TIE's, than gets back into the weave once they get one on their tail," Wedge replied. "As long as they're losing fighters faster enough than we are, eventually we turn and go on the attack once the odds even out enough."

“And we’ve got shields and they don’t.”

Tycho spoke up. "It's not the greatest strategy, and if Defender wing was in X-wings with our current odds we wouldn't need to use it. But they aren't and Defender Wing's already moving into position to use it anyway, he replied.

"And we'll be doing it with them," Wedge added.

"And that's Victory Wing off too our left, brand newly reformed and with no combat experience," Inryi spoke up. "Ready to repeat the glorious destruction of the last one."

"Can it Twelve, they're New Republic pilots too," Wedge snapped back.

"We'd better join up with defender wing," Tycho spoke up. "Eta of the first TIE's is 30 seconds."

 

The Biggs formation! Love it.

 

Great action destroying those TIE's

 

Thanks! Striking a balance between effectiveness of a pair of Corellien Gunships, Rouge Squadron and the correct number of Interceptors took some doing.

 

Thanks! It's a modification and update of an actual our-planet tactic, adapted for use with SW tactical capabilities.

 

Chapter 29

On the bridge of the Chimaera, Lieutenant Mithel could see the battle was going well. Ever since he had been promoted from failure with merit at the tractor beam station he had complete faith in the Grand Admiral. This battle would be the crowning jewel in the continuing stream of victories. Thrawn had the Imperial fleet in encirclement positions at medium-long range, slowly pummeling away at the Rebel fleet. A larger Star Cruiser and a smaller one, along with a quartet of Assault Frigates, swung away from the formation, heading straight for the Imperial perimeter in the vicinity of the shipyard's line of defense platforms in a tight formation, and the pair of Interdictors past them.

"What's Ackbar up to with those? Sacrificing some ships to save the rest?" Captain Pelleron suggested.

Mithel looked up from the bridge pit as Thrawn thought for several long seconds. "No, if Ackbar was he would go after multiple pairs of Interdictors. Sensors, how much comm traffic from the large Star Cruiser?"

"Plenty sir, definitely the squadron flagship."

"Transmissions directly before squadron movements?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"And are there transmissions corresponding to movements from the Home One?"

The sensor operator thought for a moment. "Negative, sir, the squadron flagship is definitely in charge of those ships.

Thrawn spoke up. "Have Squadron Eight spread to reinforce behind the main perimeter."

Lieutenant Mithel looked out the viewport as the Rebel ships began to reach the Imperial perimeter. "Have Squadron Seven move forwards and encircle," Thrawn ordered.

"Somewhat of a basic error," Pelleron commented. He glanced at the tactical display. "That's General Lanhall's flagship, he's known to be so incompetent I'm surprised the Rebellion hasn't sacked him yet, let alone brought him to a battle as important as this."

Thrawn stared out the viewport, than back at the tactical display.

"That's not his flagship," Thrawn stated. "It's using the transponder from General Lanhall's flagship. The differences are minor, but visible."

"Emperor's black bones!"

Lieutenant Mithel's head snapped toward the startled and terrified Comm Officer three stations away.

"Its changed it's transponder to Nemesis! Thrride’s old flagship! We're dealing with Kiyrenaa Thrride!"

Mithel was stunned by the Comm Officer's near panic. A flurry of quiet comments and mummers ran across the bridge. He recalled hearing that name, her recent battles and vaguely some old horror stories he thought went with it, but than Mithel had only finished training three months ago. As he glanced around he noticed a strange pattern.

Of those who had long served in the Imperial Navy, perhaps a third showed some signs of nervousness, some showed mild fear and a few were in a state of near panic.

Only a few of the new recruits were nervous; the rest of the recent trainees were wondering what all the fuss was about.

"THE EMPIRE HAS NO PLACE FOR BRIDGE OFFICERS WHO CANNOT REMAIN CALM!" Thrawn shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice complete menace and the wording a blatant threat of the kind of summary execution Mithel's predecessor at the tractor beam station had faced.

Mithel was stunned. He had never heard the Grand Admiral yell before.

Pelleron also raised his voice. "And I would like to point out her ship is on the opposite side of the battle, so she's not fighting us."

Their words and the startle of Thrawn's delivery had the desired effect of restoring efficiency to the Chimaera’s bridge.

But a wave of gossip still came along the Chimaera’s bridge pits. Mithel overheard a Lieutenant several years his senior charged with overseeing the sensor operators.

"She would cut herself open to leave behind messages in her own blood!" the Lieutenant exclaimed.

An Intelligence officer replied in an attempt to calm the Lieutenant. "Technically yes, very rarely, but it was a writing utensil that used a fresh blood vial as ink, not some bloody mess. She used a careful knife cut to put just enough in, than a pressure bandage. And she never did any letters more than a few centimeters tall and the line was a neat few millimeters wide. Get that image of massive blood streaks out of your head already."

"What's going on?" Mithel asked aloud to nobody in particular. To his surprise, Thrawn, standing almost directly above him, answered.

"Through a combination of factual events and carefully crafted policy Thrride managed to put out an image of irrational fear of herself beyond her actual threat into many in the officer core of a certain period. Now my emergence has put nearly the same magnitude of paranoia into the Rebellion."

"The Rebel ships are pulling back," Pelleron commented as he returned his attention back to the battle.

"Have Squadron Seven pull back in line with the remainder of the perimeter," Thrawn ordered, turning away from the window. "Thrride is trying to entrap the forward perimeter."

"What is that Star Cruiser doing," Pelleron said to himself and he looked through the viewport. "Those small hard turns don't make any sense." Thrawn turned back toward the viewport.

Thrawn stared out the viewport. "Whoever is at the helm of that Cruiser is handling it unusually aggressively, Thrawn said.

"Thrride is testing the maneuverability limits of her flagship," he stated after a moment.

"That Star Cruiser is on a collision course with a Star Destroyer," a Sensor Ensign announced.

The Star Destroyer made an evasive turn as hard as its massive bulk could manage, while the wildly maneuvering Star Cruiser turned toward the group of Squadron Seven’s six Katana-fleet Dreadnaughts. The slow and highly unmaneuverable Dreadnaughts scattered from near-collisions from Thrride’s flagship. The four Assault Frigates were maneuvering more than usual as well.

"Thrride seems intent on ramming something," Pelleron said. “I'm not sure why, it would be a pointless waste of a ship.”

"She's not," Thrawn replied flatly. "She may hate, but she's intelligent. She knows that. Unfortunately far too many Imperial officers are convinced she's completely insane, likely in part from at least some deliberate action on her part. She's getting our ships to change course, apparently to maximize her Assault Frigate's advantages over their Dreadnaught predecessors.”

Mithel knew full well what changes over half a century of advances in shipbuilding technology had made since the Dreadnaughts were built. And what that had allowed Rebellion shipwrights to upgrade when Assault Frigates were rebuilt from Dreadnaughts, then later included in Assault Frigates of the same design built fresh. The five massive turbolasers in the bow had been retained, but the five aft had been removed and replaced with five more massive ones each side. Which was in addition to the less powerful quad turbolasers already there, one of which each side had been shifted to the bow. Along with improved fire control this gave an Assault Frigate somewhat more firepower than a Dreadnought ahead, but far more each side.

And Thrride’s Assault Frigates, as Mithel watched the tactical display, were doing an excellent job of being side to side with the Katana-fleet Dreadnaughts. This was due to the Assault Frigate's changes fixing more of the outdated parts of its design, namely a slight but useful increase to the Dreadnaught's poor speed, and vastly improving their terrible maneuverability, bringing it up to present day standards.

The tactical display showed Thrride’s flagship nearly ramming one of the Dreadnaughts. The Imperial warship turned as hard as it could to avoid the Star Cruiser as her flagship made a tight downward turn and seemingly tried to ram another Dreadnaught. With an Assault Frigate in its way, it turned directly into the path of the first Dreadnaught. The unmaneuverable ships couldn't turn sharp enough to avoid each other, and one of their bows rammed the side of another aft. The massive fireball as the Dreadnaught's reactor was breached consumed most of both ships.

"So that's what she's up to," Pelleron muttered to himself.

"Have Squadron Eight more forward and engage," Thrawn ordered.

After a short pause, a sensor Ensign announced what everyone watching the tactical display could already see.

"Sir, Squadron Eight is at extreme range and isn't engaging."

"Repeat the order," Thrawn stated with irritation.

The Imperial ships opened fire, at too long a range to accomplish anything.

"Send a message to prepare for a holo transmission with Squadron Eight's flagship," Thrawn ordered.

"The flagship states that the holo receiver is jammed with an image of Thrride on the Emperor’s setting," a Comm Ensign replied.

"Nonsense," Thrawn replied with increasing irritation. "The display can always be split, he merely won't stand next to her holo. He won't engage because he's terrified of Thrride."

 

Chapter 29 (cont.)


Thrawn looked intently out the viewport. Thrride’s flagship, a 2000 meter long Star Cruiser, was closing from the front and slightly to the left of the Imperial-II Star Destroyer Devastatoron an obvious collision course.

“Conduct a sensor focus on her flagship and the Devastator,” Thrawn stated. “She’s not going to ram it. Note that her closing angle is just far enough to the Star Destroyer’s left that it’s just outside of the zone directly ahead where a Star Destroyer’s entre firepower can be brought to bear. Now it’s starboard batteries are unable to fire. But also closing at an angle some of her flagship’s port batteries can be brought to bear. But she intends something further.”

“The Devastator has shifted most of its aft and starboard shield energy to its port side,” a Sensor Ensign announced as the Star Destroyer slowed.

“Trying to protect against a collision,” Thrawn replied. “Exactly the wrong decision. Order the captain of the Devastator to reinforce its rear shields, go to flank speed and begin a maximum effort evasive maneuver downwards.”

That goes against typical Star Destroyer tactics, Mithel thought. I studied some of those. A Star Destroyer has a smaller turn radius horizontally than vertically, since with its engines farther outboard it can get more leverage, and a minimum radius turn involves reversing the engine on the inside of the turn to swing the ship around.

“He doesn’t seem to be,” the sensor Ensign replied.

“Now it’s too late to avoid a collision that way,” Pelleron commented.

The Star Destroyer turned hard to its right to avoid a collision with the Star Cruiser, reversing its starboard engine for a tighter turn, which slowed it to a crawl as the Star Cruiser began turning tightly toward it and slowing as well.

Thrride’s flagship continued its hard left turn, taking it toward the rear of the Star Destroyer. Thrride’s other smaller Star Cruiser slowly moved past the rear of the Devastatorunderneath her flagship at somewhat longer range, turbolasers and ion cannons passing just under Thrride’s flagship to pound the Star Destroyer’s lower stern. Her flagship’s starboard guns suddenly fell silent despite having two Katana-fleet Dreadnaughts as targets.

The Star Cruiser slowed almost to a stop as it nearly scraped the stern of the Devastator at a right angle to its course, the 2000-meter long Star Cruiser’s port batteries savagely pummeling the Star Destroyer’s aft shields. And as the Star Destroyer slowly moved forward, out of the arcs of fire of all of the Devastator’s weapons, just far enough away to keep its side batteries from hitting the ends of her ship. Unexpectedly the Star Cruiser put several tractor beams on the Devastator, almost halting the already slow-moving Star Destroyer.

“Those won’t hold a ship that size,” Pelleron commented.

“She doesn’t intend to,” Mithel said without thinking to Pelleron. “It will just hinder the Devastator and keep it’s stern close to her flagship’s side as long as possible, where it can’t return fire.” And Star Cruisers have most of their batteries firing to the side.

With a shock Mithel suddenly realized he had violated all standards of bridge protocol. “Apologies, sir.”

“Exactly correct,” Thrawn replied. “And apology accepted. If an officer realizes something his superior does not, he should inform him rather than risk men and ships being lost, although he should do it properly.”

“Her flagship’s fire seems unusually strong,” Pelleron said.

“Sensors,” Thrawn asked, “I presume Thrride’s ship’s port and forward shields are weakening?”

“Actually correct,” the surprised Sensor Ensign replied. “But nothing’s shooting at them.”

Which we can’t right now with the Dreadnaughts herded astern and above by her Assault Frigates, Mithel thought.

“Nor can anything, and she knows it,” Thrawn snapped. “Thrride is putting every bit of energy she can find into her flagship’s port batteries, including temporarily shutting down her starboard and forward batteries.”

And with the Assault Frigates above, they have a clear field of fire over her Star Cruiser into the Devastator’s stern.

The Devastator’s aft shields abruptly collapsed, and the combined fire of Thrride’s flagship’s savage attack and her other Star Cruiser quickly made the Star Destroyer’s stern a mass of small explosions. Fire from a series of otherwise unengaged batteries from a pair of nearby Assault Frigates over the top of her ship added to the destruction. It’s engines failed, and the Devastator slowly drifted forward as Thrride’s flagship pulled away, putting its starboard batteries back in action as a Carrack came into their field of fire.

“Its course will eventually loop it around into Bilbringi’s first moon halfway to the far side the planet,” an Ensign announced. “Time to impact 3 hours. Until then it’s heading out of the battle.”

“And sending it out of the battle was what Thrride intended,” Thrawn stated flatly. “And with under a third of the applied firepower a conventional attack would require to disable it, and well under a fifth of the return fire. The Devastator’s captain slowing, turning and redirecting his ship’s energy away from the aft shields played directly into her hands.”

“And a final nudge with her flagship’s tractor beams adjusted its course, and costs us another ship,” Thrawn added. “Order the Dreadnaught Vengeance to tow the Devastator until it’s trajectory is clear of the moon,” he ordered. “Thrride will attack it, and it will be disabled shortly afterward. But with the shipyards that can be repaired.”

“Her squadron’s maneuvering seems exceptionally well coordinated,” Pelleron commented. “Her smaller Star Cruiser has been firing batteries in other arcs at other ships this whole time, and those Assault Frigates are busy fighting the Dreadnoughts but usually at least one was hitting the Devastator. And I don’t remember any of her ships blocking another’s field of fire on the Star Destroyer.”

"Unfortunately maneuver orders from flagship to ship have a time lag to transmit the message and have the relevant officers repeat the order," Thrawn replied. "Thrride likely has a direct audio link to her squadron's bridges. It's not uncommon among small groups of fringe ships, but bypasses all military protocol."

"Should we do it ourselves?" Pelleron asked hesitantly.

"No," Thrawn replied flatly. "It results in losing track of the larger situation beyond their own squadron."

Thrawn stared at the tactical display. "And now it is too late to save Squadron Seven. Order Squadron Eight and Squadron Eleven to transpose positions. The commander of Squadron Eight will be dealt with after the battle. Meanwhile much of the Rebel fleet is finally making a move on our side of the battle, and that deserves our full attention."

Mithel glanced at the tactical display. The shields of the squadron’s last Strike Cruiser collapsed under the combined fire of Thrride’s flagship’s forward batteries and a damaged Assault Frigate, its relatively weak hull already beginning to fail. Her ship’s starboard batteries joined the smaller Star Cruiser’s in splitting their attention between unshielded hulls of a pair of Carracks, while the squadron’s last Dreadnaught was being attacked by a pair of Assault Frigates. An Imperial-II Star Destroyer was the sole remaining ship of Squadron Seven not facing imminent destruction, and even that wouldn't last long. And Thrride only lost one of her four Assault Frigates and a second damaged.

"Sir, two squadrons of B-wings on a torpedo run against our ship," a Sensor Ensign announced.

"As I said. Detail TIE squadrons 121, 323 and 237 to engage," Thrawn snapped back. "Until they get there, have all starboard brim medium batteries engage the fighters. Turbolaser batteries one and two director fire to kill, all remaining batteries a box barrage, random pattern, hold fire until I gave the order."

Mithel watched, knowing the Grand Admiral was giving time for the guns to traverse.

A thought occurred to Mithel. “Permission to try for tractor beams on those fighters?”

Thrawn quickly replied. “Interesting. Granted.”

The odds of getting one are essentially zero with all this interference from the battle, but the Chimaera’s tractor beams are doing nothing else useful at the moment. Anything for Thrawn and his Empire.

"Fire."

Taken by surprise, two fighters were turned into molten blobs by direct hits as the remaining guns targeting them missed. Mithel knew Thrawn's favored tactic for using capital ship weapons against starfighters went against all conventional military wisdom - but it worked well. It even would have killed a Jedi twice over if the turbolasers hadn’t been powered down for a capture.

The B-wings began weaving to avoid the incoming fire. The turbolasers aimed at them through the battery’s fire control director were now very unlikely to score a hit against weaving fighters, but it forced them to do so and made it more difficult for them to get a torpedo lock. The fire directed randomly around them actually had a better chance of hitting something, and five more Rebel fighters fell to them before Thrawn gave the order to cease fire as the TIE's arrived.

With Grand Admiral Thrawn in charge, victory is certain, Mithel thought.

 

@Sinrebirth

 

Wonderful action scenes

 

Exciting action from Thrawn and his ships

 

Thanks! I've always held the minority opinion that capital ship combat can be interesting, and I hope I did that here, and at the Battle of Ord Mantell a while back. Or, more accurately warship combat, WWII naval and Age of Sail are included in my other interests. Perhaps its that while I know I could never be a young, hotshot fighter pilot, I could easily see myself middle-aged and pacing the bridge of my flagship.

 

Chapter 30

Corran glanced over as Wedge vaped the last of the TIE's. The formation has worked, mostly. Rhysati Ynr and Bror Jace were EV, and with nobody in Three Flight with experience and Two Flight at half strength, One Flight had played fleethund the most. The Imps were eventually reinforced by two squadron's worth of TIE's left over from destroying Victory wing and its escort, and soon enough Tal’dira was shot down as well. All three had ejected, but the odds of being picked up didn't look very good to Corran.

Defender wing was down to 24 fighters, but they had survived as well. Besides them and Rogue Squadron, the only other forces for a considerable distance were a trio of Assault frigates and a pair of Star Cruisers, all of them engaging an Imperial-II Star Destroyer. A squadron of Interceptors were at mid-range, but were headed elsewhere.

“You know One, if the New Republic could get a few ships into the shipyard, they’d have to split their forces and wouldn’t be doing so well,” Asyr spoke up.

That's not a bad idea. Corran glanced toward the grim row of Golan-II defense platforms between them and the shipyard, a larger Golan-III guarding the heart of the shipyard near the Crystal Gravfield Trap. But good luck with that.

"Standby Rogue Squadron, I’ve got a message coming in on a diplomatic encrypt,” Wedge suddenly said to Corran’s surprise. What in the Galaxy?

"Wonder what's going on," Gavin commented.

While they waited for a response, Corran's curiosity peaked. "Whistler, run an assessment of the fleets. How much are we outgunned by?"

Whistler gave out a response after several seconds. "Five to three, huh. That's not too bad.”

“What if the TIE's all get shot down and our fighters get free run of their warships?”

Corran read out the response again, as the droid blurted out a curt tone.

"Probably even odds, but there's enough TIE's that won't happen, and don't get any ideas. You didn't have to add that last part," Corran finished, Whistler replying with what sounded like an electronic snort.

“Rogues, listen up,” Wedge finally responded. “There's a whole fleet of friendlies in that shipyard, and all hell's about to break lose in there. We're to punch a way from one side as they punch a way out from the other. If we can get fighters and ships into that shipyard, Thrawn will have to split his forces, and we just might not lose this fleet.

A voice broke it over the general frequency. “All available starfighters, join for an attack on the Golan-II in sector III-B”

As they turned in for an attack run, Defender wing formed up on them, and two of the Assault Frigates stopped engaging the Star Destroyer and turned straight for the Golan. Corran thought he could see flashes of light scattered about the shipyard, as the Assault Frigates opened fire on the defense platform at extreme range. Small explosive charges?

"ETA 120 seconds on torpedo launch," the commander of Defender Wing announced.

"One, I see a squadron of squints closing from the left," Tycho said. "ETA 60 seconds."

Corran was shocked by what he heard.

"I'll handle the squints myself, Rogues. The rest of you, hit that Golan hard for me."

"Wedge, you won't survive that," Tycho replied with concern.

"Rogues, this is the tipping point of this war. Every fighter in this attack run counts. We can't afford to let us and Defender Wing get busy fighting TIE's. If we do, we lose this fleet. The rest of you, continue on the attack run. That's a direct order, all of you. I'll handle the Interceptors. I always figured Rogue Squadron would go out in a blaze of glory someday, and this seems as good a time as any for me. The squadron I've been commanding the last two years is the best squadron I've ever had the pleasure of flying with. Tycho, I’m handing over command of the squadron to you. Goodbye, good luck, and may the Force be with you."

Wedge pulled away, heading straight for the Interceptors and his doom.

"And Tycho, if I may make a request. If we win this one, try to find my X-wing, and recover the sensor logs if there's enough left, or else pull somebody’s sensor logs. I'm sure Mirax would like to know how many Interceptors I'm worth."

"Certainly, One. Goodbye, Wedge," Tycho replied sadly.

"We aren't going to let him do this are we?" Gavin asked.

"Four, we continue for the Golan. This is a direct order from me. Wedge may be a dead man, but he might have just won the war for us. The least we can do is live up to our end," Tycho replied grimly.

With a heavy heart, Corran continued on the attack run.

 

Chapter 30 (cont.)

"Rogue Squadron, Defender Wing, target the Golan-II in sector III-B. Stay clear of sector III-D and III-C. Prepare to fire proton torpedoes on my mark," Tycho said with a touch of irritation as the B-wings already let loose with a salvo of proton torpedoes.

"Fire."

"Salvo Two, same target."

"Fire."

180 proton torpedoes were headed at the imposing defense platform, three salvos from Defender Wing and two from Rogue Squadron.

"Rogue Squadron, Defender Wing is fresh out of torpedoes. We’ll hit it with our ion cannons and heavy laser cannons once we're in range, Rogue Squadron."

"Copied, Defender Wing."

Over to his right, Corran saw two New Republic Assault Frigates driving hard at the defense platform, firing for all they were worth. Wait, why isn't the Golan firing back more?

Chaos suddenly erupted in the shipyard. Small explosions burst from the side of the Golan, and a hundred other places scattered throughout the shipyard. Dozens of light freighters, previously unremarkable and unnoticed, suddenly sprang into action.

Sector III-D, two sectors away from the Golan and home of the gravfield trap, was a hive of activity. A dozen light freighters converged on the orbital station containing it.

"Rogue squadron, Defender wing, ignore anything moving under its own power, that a shuttle or even looks like a light freighter," Tycho said over the comm. "Those are friendlies."

As Corran watched, the light freighters near the gravfield trap took off, heading on a course that would take them right past the Golan they were targeting. Other freighters fired randomly at shipyard facilities.

"Rogue squadron, Defender Wing, change course 20 degrees right," came over the control channel.

"Copied," Tycho replied. "You heard him."

As the fighters shifted course to the right, Corran saw why. Massed turbolaser fire came in from the left and behind, converging on the Golem. He looked back and saw that four Star Cruisers had swung out of line to engage the defense platform, firing at long range. An Assault Frigate opened up at medium range, and both it and a Correlian Corvette were driving hard for the Golan. The two Assault Frigates were at point blank range, pummeling the Golan hard.

Corran noticed explosions erupting from the left side of the Golan. "Whistler, are the stations shields still up"

Whistler squawked a reply, and Corran looked down for the translation. Left shields are still up? Front shields at 30 percent. Rear shields down? "Whistler, how can they be getting damage if the shields are still up?

Whistler replied with a noise that sounded like an electronic version of "How should I know?" As the Rogues closed on the Golan, it's shields abruptly collapsed. The Assault Frigates were at point blank range, pounding away at it, while turbolaser fire from more distant ships hammered it

A dozen light freighters streaked past on the far side, heading fast out of the shipyard, firing at the rear of the Golan as they shot past.

Wait a second, a resistance group in upgunned light freighters? With upgraded sublight drives?

"Three, are those smugglers?"

"Nine, negative, and that's the last I time I want to hear about it."

"Copied, Three." Translation - Yes, but don't let the Mon Calamari find out. They’re death on smugglers.

Dozens more light freighters shot past the Golan, firing madly into its shieldless rear as they passed. Than the colossal Home One swung out of line, bringing its 3800 meters of massive broadside to bear. Why aren’t the Imps firing at it more? It poured fire from over 50 turbolasers into the defense platform.

Then the torpedoes hit.

The side of the station flared, than went black. The two Assault Frigates pealed away from it, entering the edge of the shipyard.

"Command, sector III-D is clear of friendlies," Tycho transmitted.

In response, the Star Cruisers shifted to firing on the massive Golan-III that formed the main defense for the heart of the shipyard, it's size standing out among the ring of Golan-II's. Another Assault Frigate shifted course to head straight for it, trailed by a Correlian Gunship.

As the Rogues passed the stricken Golan-II, Tycho spoke up. "Rogues, split into pairs and fan out. Engage targets of opportunity. Shoot up any shipyard facilities you see. Defender Wing, I assume you agree with the idea?"

"With pleasure, Rogues."

As they peeled off into the shipyard, even the periphery in sector III-B was a target rich environment. The Assault Frigates had all their batteries in action, port, forward and starboard. Even their point defense guns found targets. Nothing in the shipyard was built to take damage or shielded. Workshops disintegrated under the fire.

Corran opted to conduct a strafing run on a half-built strike cruiser in a small dock. "Ten, after me!"

"Copied Nine."

The internal hyperdrive components were exposed, as was the reactor and the internal parts of some of the thrusters. Corran throttled back to 15 percent velocity, to give him plenty of time to shoot. With no TIE's and nothing shooting back, I can be as easy to hit as I want. At least Wedge's sacrifice bought us this.

Corran and Ooryl opened fire with quad bursts, Corran initially targeting the hyperdrive. So that's what capital ship ones look like. A half dozen quad bursts were put into what looked like the largest hyperdrive motivator Corran had ever seen.

The top of it was melted away, as the interior was scoured clean. Not a single secondary explosion. Less satisfying it seems. Corran switched fire to a rear thruster, putting four bursts into it, than opted for a component that was still the size of his X-wing.

Blasting it to pieces, he switched to a melting away part of another thruster. Ooryl switched his fire from the main reactor, a quarter of it missing and much of the ancillary equipment destroyed, rocking the controls to spray single fire into its starboard hyperdrive components. As they pulled away they both throttled up to full.

"Sector III-C is clear of friendlies."

Over to his left was Wes Janson, barely moving as carefully lined up on the bridge windows of a damaged Star Destroyer undergoing repairs. He can take all the time he wants. Wes put one proton torpedo through the bridge windows, followed by another.

"There goes one bridge," Wes transmitted. "Skeleton crew ran when they saw me. It'll be in the yard another few months now."

Gavin had throttled back to almost nothing, carefully lining up a dozen quad bursts into the bridge windows of a Katana-fleet dreadnaught under repair before pulling away.

"We can be sleeping Nerfs to line up a perfect shot and get away with it out here! Nothing's shooting at us!" Gavin exclaimed.

"Thanks to Wedge," Wes added, his voice somber.

Corran couldn't see Inryi until she slowly emerged from the hanger of the docked Star Destroyer Wes Janson had attacked.

"What did you get, Twelve" Corran asked.

"Lots of things. Shot up a dozen bombers, blew up all the TIE fighter fuel tanks, even mangled some dropships and assault shuttles, no shields on them for once. Vaped the control room and all the tractor beam projectors. Even sprayed single fire into the vehicle storage, probably damaged a few walkers, and scattered it into some workshops. Everything just sitting there begging to be destroyed."

"Wedge bought us that, Twelve."

"I know, Three."

"And so does Thrawn," Ooryl added. Corran looked over.

Multiple capital ships and several squadrons were heading straight for the shipyards. They clearly wouldn't get there anytime soon. The New Republic capital ships had shifted position in response, taking full advantage of the Empire's sudden need to split their forces.

Two squadrons of what looked to be B-wings, suddenly finding themselves with nothing to keep them busy, made an uninterrupted torpedo run on a Star Destroyer, freely blasting away at the bridge tower. As he watched, the tower erupted in flame. Three squadrons of X-wings hit a Strike Cruiser with proton torpedoes, which completely broke apart.

"We've got four minutes free run of the shipyards before the first TIE's show up."

"Wedge bought us that too."

Over to his left, Defender Wing's B-wings were shooting the spine of a small dock to pieces. Others vaped construction platforms, and orbiting workshops were ripped open to vacuum.

"Into Sector III-C, Rogues," Tycho said. "And ignore the Golan-II in this sector. It's got nothing working that can fire this way, courtesy of our friends.”

As the Rogues moved into the sector, one of the Assault Frigate's heavy turbolasers pounded away at a distant, heavily armored box-shaped orbiting platform, marked with diagonal red stripes with long docking arms extending from it. It abruptly disappeared completely in a spectacular explosion, the largest one Corran had ever seen.

"There goes an ordnance depot."

The bottom half of a large orbiting platform suddenly exploded as an Assault Frigate's heavy turbolasers found it's nearly unprotected reactor. All its port side weapons were dismantling what looked to be a supply depot, while a small fuel depot was ripped apart as its tanks detonated.

Corran and Ooryl opted for another supply depot, powered-down heavy supply shuttles lined up in a row. Just begging to be destroyed. Cutting to 10 percent throttle, they strafed along their underside, targeting the fuel tanks, as shuttle after shuttle exploded.

"Too bad those don't count, Ten," Corran said.

Over to the side Tycho was peeling away from an attack against a docked Lambda class shuttle, which exploded under the last of his laser fire.

"Sector III-B is clear. All friendlies out, all targets valid."

Corran looked over into sector III-D, the heart of the shipyard. The Golan-III defense platform was for the moment holding its own under the massive bombardment as an Assault Frigate and a Correlian Corvette came in close.

 

@Sinrebirth
@Sinrebirth
(Not fully sure which one works)