Yela
Yela felt the Pride's docking clamps taking hold of the red Consular-class Corvette that she had hitched a ride on.
"Hard seal," one of the crew members announced. A second later the airlock opened.
"Inform Foster I'm heading up to CIC," Yela ordered.
The last hour had been very hectic and she had blended out most of the mass mobilization. In fact, she had spent the flight up to the Pride in meditation. Her unborn child also hadn't appreciated the stress and had informed the Queen quite plainly of her displeasure with a few kicks.
Yela hurried through the massive warship, flanked by two two-hundred-pound Commandos.
Five minutes later the Queen passed the security in front of the CIC and stepped into the dimly lit room. Her husband, Boss, and Foster were standing in front of the plotting table, staring at the holographic projection of the star system.
"The Queen stands on deck," someone yelled and every one stood at attention for a moment.
"Same drill as with the King. Get back to work," Foster ordered sharply.
Yela joined her husband who protectively wrapped an arm around her.
"Tell me something."
"We just met up with the Grace, the second, and the third fleet and are taking up defensive positions between two of the heavy orbital Battle Stations."
A glance at the hologram confirmed this. The Pride and Grace were hovering side by side and Alderaan's fleet of Dreadnoughts, Corvettes, Frigates and destroyers had taken up position around them. Another smaller fleet was waiting maybe two thousand miles away.
"New contact on long-range sensors. There is a fleet coming straight for us in Hyperspace," an officer reported.
"Sound the general alert. Order the fleet to stand by. Squadrons one, two, and three are responsible for capital ship defense but remind them to stay out of our firing solution because we won't stop shooting. Squadrons four, five, and six are to join the bomber waves and provide cover. The entire second and third air wing are to stay in reserve. I want one of my Arc-170 Squadrons ready in my hangar for surgical strikes. Remind the bomber crews to aim for shield generators and command centers first. All gun batteries are to stand by for further orders. Firing control, stay in close contact with the Grace and the other capital ships," Nina ordered.
"So, what's the plan precisely?" Alexander asked.
"Draw this fight out and batter them as much as possible. They know our fleet strength so they won't send anything small enough for us to win by the might of our guns. I will buy our ground forces as much time to prepare as possible and then jump out of the system before my fleet gets destroyed. Before I jump out I'll engage the Serenity protocol and if we're lucky I'll be able to return at a later point in time with reinforcements."
Alexander's eyes narrowed. "You're running!"
The short, chocolate skinned woman rounded on him, a dangerous sparkle in her eyes. "Your majesty. Let me remind you that up here I am responsible for millions of tons worth of warships. I won't throw away the lives of the men and women that serve under me for a political statement. I'll fight as long as I can and then retreat with my head held high. I might not be a tactical genius like your little brother but I am still a quite capable Naval commander. I spent most of my carrier serving under one of the most talented commanders in recorded history and have more combat experience than just about everyone else here. Now, if you think you can do a better job than me I'll happily stand down and hand my ship and command over to you. If not I suggest you shut up and let my do my fucking job."
Silence spread throughout the CIC as everyone stared at the King. Unlike her husband Yela had a lot better understanding of the mindset of the Pride's crew, having spent two whole combat deployments onboard under Maxwell as an intelligence officer. The men and woman that served on the Pride were like a family and the crew would immediately choose their commander over any king or government. They had abandoned the Republic after all.
If Alexander challenged Nina in her own command center.... If anyone but Alexander or Yela did that, Nina would likely shoot or airlock that person. Alexander might be king but on this ship, he was a guest and one that was irritating the host.
Now that Yela thought about it a royal court and a Starcruiser were quite similar in those aspects.
Her husband seemed to realize that he had just openly challenged Foster's command and authority and took a step back. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
The glare disappeared from Nina's face and was replaced by a mask of steely calm. She folded her hands behind her back in a very Maxwell-like gesture.
"Forgive my tone, your majesty."
Just then nearly one hundred ships appeared at the edge of Alderaan's gravity well. Their fleet was larger in numbers but in average Alderaan's ships were a lot smaller.
"One hulk, three Providence-class ships, and the rest are frigates," Nina announced gazing at the hologram.
"Order the fleet to fire as soon as the enemy is in range," she added.
"Captain, requesting Permission to leave the ship and return to the planet's surface. I have an invasion to fend of," Alexander asked.
"Granted, take the Corvette docked in my lower hangar bay. I don't want that thing blowing up on me during battle."
Yela stepped closed to her husband, "Let's go."
Alex smiled grimly, "No love. You'll stay on board. This Naval engagement will be hairy enough but I trust Foster to deal with the situation. Alderaan will be a death trap for a pregnant Queen. Don't argue, I'm sure Foster will back me up on this. You're staying on board the Pride."
Yela glanced at Nina who shook her head slightly before returning to what she was doing.
Great, she was on her own. "Just be careful. I don't want our daughter to grow up with out a father."
Alexander chuckled, "Don't worry darling. This isn't my first rodeo." Then he and Boss left the CIC.
A small grin appeared on Yela's face when the door closed. "So, another Naval battle it is?" the Queen asked.
"Apparent it is so," her old friend agreed.
"What do you want me to do?"
Nina shrugged, "I don't have a job for you at the moment. I'll tell you when I need your help."
Yela didn't take it personally. It wasn't that Nina didn't want her there. There was literally nothing she could do.
"I'll be on the bridge," she announced.
"Ma'am, I have Captain Vigilant on comms. Ship to ship hail," someone announced just as she left the Combat Information Center.
On the Pride's bridge, the concentration was just as thick in the air as in the CIC.
"At ease, carry on," Yela yelled before anybody could jump up. She walked up between the crew pits and leaned against the windows at the front of the bridge.
She studied the Separatist ships in the distance that from here barely looked more than tiny dots. Her eyes swept over the Pride's massive upper hull, over the heavy turbo blaster batteries that were already trained at the advancing enemy. The Pride's sister ship hovered next to them like a sleeping giant. Her guns were also trained on the incoming fleet.
It had been a while since she had been in a full-scale fleet battle and the usual worries went through her. They were massively outgunned. At least the Venator Class had a much greater range than any of the Separatists ships.
Blue flashes lit up the vacuum of space as the Pride's and Grace's heavy guns opened up, shooting streaks of blue plasma through space. At this range, they weren't shooting at single ships, more at the fleet. The goal was to force smaller ships to take cover behind the larger ones and to disturb any maneuvers of larger groups of fighter craft as well as score an occasional hit.
The Queen crossed her arms and stared in silence. A squadron of ARC-170's thundered past between Pride and Grace and nose-dived before cutting the heavy guns firing solution.
>>This is the Captain speaking. We have engaged the enemy. Stand by to release the Consular-Class in the lower hangar bay,<< Nina's calm voice rang out through the intercom.
A moment later the two Battlestations that flanked the fleet on either side also opened fire, their red plasma bolts joining the Pride's and Grace's blue ones. So far the only thing the Separatists could do was close the distance.
Yela pressed a few buttons on a keyboard nearby and an identical hologram to the one running in the CIC appeared. About a dozen fighter squadrons, mostly vulture droids but also a few bombers were leaving behind the main Separatist fleet and heading toward Alderaan's fleet.
Yela crashed a few numbers. They were eight minutes out. The fun was about to start. Then she remembered that she was pregnant and that kind of fun wasn't exactly good for her.
She stared back out at the windows for a moment and watched as the two Cruisers continued blazing away at the enemy fleet.
Her eyes flickered back at the Separatist fleet. It was a rather straight forward formation, much like their own in fact. The three Providence Class Battleships spearheaded the formation. Flanking them on both sides were each forty frigates in a perfect wall formation. Behind the main fleet was the Hulk or Droid Command ship.
That made eighty Frigates, three Providence Class ships and one Hulk and that wasn't counting possible reserves that were being kept back.
Slowly the three Providence-class ships came into range and also opened fire.
They weren't much more accurate than the Venators and most of the red streaks of plasma harmlessly passed through the fleet without hitting anything. However, two dreadnoughts, a Corvette, and the Pride received hits that didn't do any damage thanks to the shields.
Just then Yela had remembered something. It didn't really have anything to do with anything she was doing right now but it still felt strangely important.
She pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and the hologram in front of her disappeared. Then she opened a priority channel to the central prison on Alderaan. A few seconds later the image of a very stressed-looking government official appeared.
The man bowed deeply. "Your majesty? To what do I owe the honor." A small smile appeared on Yela's lips.
"Greetings Chief inspector. I'm calling about Lux Bonteri."
Ahsoka.
Master and Padawan were standing in the cockpit. Max had disarmed Barriss and left her under the supervision of Bo's men.
Their current objective was to escape Ido which was easier said than done. The Prison had issued a distress call which had obviously been answered by a Republic Dreadnought. That dreadnought was now waiting for them.
Dreadnoughts were slow and heavily armored for their size. The dreadnought was nearly one-third the length of a Venator Class cruiser but in many places, it's battle plating was just as thick as that of its bigger Cosine.
Shenna and Bo were sitting at the controls, Shenna doing the flying and Bo monitoring all other systems and also controlling the two main turbo blaster turrets.
"Any ideas Bay. You're supposed to be the genius Admiral here." Bo asked.
It was as if her mentor had waited for this. "Set new course 003.2 and open up the afterburners for ten seconds. Divert all auxiliary energy to forward and aft shields and charge the guns."
Shenna hesitated. "You mean we should plot an attack vector on the Dreadnought?"
"Apparently. Make it so Shenna! "
"Here goes nothing." Shenna engaged the new course and the Spirit thundered towards the Dreadnought at 1252 meters per second with an acceleration of 30 meters per second per second until Shenna shut down the afterburner.
Ahsoka smiled, feeling pleased with herself when she understood Max's plan. Dreadnoughts were the backbone of the Republic fleet. They were great capital ships. However, as a patrol craft, they left much to wish for. They were slow and not very maneuverable, especially for their size.
However, in this case, the Dreadnought had a big advantage. Under normal circumstances, a Blockade Runner like the Spirit could easily outrun a Dreadnought.
However, this time the Spirit also had to fight Ido's gravity well which would slow her down quite a bit.
Even a Dreadnought could maneuver quick enough keep all plausible escape trajectories in its field of fire. However, if the Spirit headed straight towards her and flew past her she had a big headstart until the Dreadnought finally managed to turn around.
"They're hailing us," Bo announced.
"Put them through," Max folded his hands behind his back.
The holographic image of a clone officer flickered to life over the dashboard. "This is the Republic Warship Circumference hailing the blockade runner on heading 003.2. You are ordered to power down immediately and prepare to be boarded. Fail to do so and we will use deadly force."
"Send a confirmation signal and maintain current trajectory. Bo, how long until we are in ra-"
"Incoming," Bo yelled. The entire ship shook as the gray, blueish Ion blast struck the Spirit's frontal shields.
"Maintain course. Bo, return fire as soon as we're in range" Max ordered firmly. The Dreadnought continued its Ion bombardment of the Spirit. When they entered the second layer of the Dreadnought's Defense the warship opened up with its AAA guns, letting Artillery shells explode in their path. The lights on board flickered and sparks shot from power lines.
The space around the Spirit was surrounded by heavy flak and clouds of shrapnel will slowly start chipping away at the shields.
"We're in range," Bo announced. The belly and dorsal mounted Turbo Blaster batteries came to life and sent a stream of high energy plasma bolts back at the much larger warship.
From what Ahsoka could see they weren't even denting the shields.
Without really thinking about what she was doing Ahsoka sat down at the console at the left of the bridge and booted the system. She was acting out of instinct.
The screens came to life and Ahsoka marked the Dreadnought as a primary and active target. Then she pressed a button and the target indicators turned red as the Spirit's Close-In Weapons system switched from stand by to engage all hostiles.
The eight high yield point defense Laser Cannons locked onto the warship and opened fire, each with an output of over four thousand shots a minute.
Ahsoka then opened the inventory list, ...half a dozen concussion missiles and thirty MK-72 mines.
Those could definitely come in handy.
"I'm sending a few mines in their direction," Ahsoka announced and programmed in the deployment parameters.
"It's up to you," Max replied calmly.
A powerful explosion shook the ship and sent Ahsoka tumbling from her seat. All cabin lights went dark, only the computer screens stayed active. She tasted blood and spotted Maxwell who somehow had managed to stay on his feet. Shenna and Bo had obviously buckled up because they were still seated seats.
No one said a word.
Ahsoka pulled herself back into her seat as more explosions shook the ship. She hastily fastened herself into the harness and stared at one of the screens. Flashes of blueish light lit up cockpits interior from the enemy's fire.
On Ahsoka's computers, dozens of systems had a red alert marker behind then.
"Return fire. Maintain course." Maxwell ordered.
Ahsoka's eyes scanned over her instruments. Frontal shields were down to critical levels. The Dreadnought was still bombarding them but was now only fifty miles away. It had already started to turn to port to keep the Spirit in front of it when she made a run for outer space after she passed them.
That was a mistake. It made aiming her mines a lot easier. Ahsoka launched the mines as dumb bombs armed with proximity fuses. The point defense systems were still shooting.
"Ten seconds to intercept," Shenna yelled. Finally, they shot past the Dreadnought.
"Stand bye new course 215 on full afterburner. Evasive actions. Ahsoka, if you have anything then fire at will. Mark."
The targeting data on Ahsoka's screen went haywire as Shenna engaged the Spirit in an aggressive evasive maneuver before following the new heading.
When the fire control computers had calculated a new firing solution Ahsoka launched all concussion missiles in rapid-fire mode. Just as the missiles left the Spirit the mines reached the Dreadnought and exploded. The Ion bombardment stopped and Ahsoka used the moment of peace to gather her bearings.
She was slightly surprised when she saw the new trajectory they were on. Instead of heading out of the system they were now on a trajectory that.... would take them through an orbital slingshot maneuver. She smirked, the Dreadnought was turning in the wrong direction and they were now flying in her baffles, a blind zone.
Ahsoka checked her sensors. The Circumference's frontal shields had disappeared. However, the thick armor plating had protected the warship from any real harm.
Ahsoka turned the Point Defence systems to automatic and then leaned back when the cannons stopped shooting.
"Report," Max finally asked.
"Frontal shields are gone. They hit us for sure, don't know how badly. Main power seems relatively stable at the moment but we burned through a few circuits." Bo announced.
"I can't say for sure why but I can only give you sixty percent on the thrusters. Hyperdrive is working though." Shenna added.
"Don't worry, we'll have all the Delta V we need for an escape trajectory, especially after our slingshot maneuver."
Ahsoka scanned over her scanners. "Too many damaged systems to call them all out but as far as I don't think we lost anything critical."
"Very well." Was her masters only comment. They went through the slingshot maneuver without any incident and then found themselves on an escape trajectory just as planned. The Dreadnought hadn't even tried to follow them.
The moment they left Ido's gravity field behind them they slipped into Hyperspace. Ahsoka unbuckled her harness. The main cabin lights were still dead.
Her knees felt week when she stood up. "Next time I'm driving," Ahsoka announced. Then she turned around and wordlessly left the bridge.
Crew members hurried past her, probably to deal with the battle damage the Spirit had received. The entire ship was only lit by emergency lighting.
Her thoughts were thousands of light-years away. They were with Anakin, Plo and Obi-Wan. Despite everything that had happened she couldn't deny that she missed them. She also missed Lux. Was he even still alive?
She found Barriss sitting at the table in the main mess hall surrounded by Bo's fellow Mandalorians. Ceiling panels had fallen from the ceiling in some places and wires were hanging from the holes. Repairs would take a while and they needed to land somewhere to represent the damages to the hull.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Yes. What happened exactly. I take it we did some shooting and that someone shot at us in return?" Morgan Still, one of the Mandalorians asked.
"Yeah, we had to dance with a Republic Dreadnought. She had us pinned down against the planet but we managed to outmaneuver her in the end."
Ahsoka sat down opposite of Barriss who didn't meet her gaze. "How have you been Barriss. We never talked after......you know."
Barriss sighed looking miserable. "Fine, I guess. I'm really sorry about everything that happened."
Ahsoka heard the door of the mess all open and saw that the Mandalorians stood up a bit straighter. "Hello, Barriss. I believe it is time that we talked." Max said, his voice unnaturally emotionless. Ahsoka's old friend flinched as if the Jedi had slipped her.
So, no feels. Only some action. Feels will probably come in the next chapter. I hope I made the ship to ship action feel realistic and real. This is it so far. I hope you enjoyed yourself.
Please Review.
Winter Wolf over and out.