The One and Only
Objective: End the Chaos
Allies: Jason Breaker | Vemric Keldra | Verin Oldo | Daegon Corvinus
Enemies: Tu'teggacha | Talon Kyber | Isabella Pavan | Zachariel Steelblood | Aldo Garrick | Halketh
Too slow.
They were too slow. The battle had begun to amp up as Kiff's wedge advanced on the massive world station that was hooked to the skydock that extended to the slave port below. Breaker's ships had escalated the fighting quicker than Kiff had wanted, although he hadn't planned on extending quarter to the Brotherhood of the Maw. But the brief period of time where he'd assumed they considered his offer had been needed to get into closer range for the Storm King to have domination over the battlefield.
"Minister, I think you want to see this. . ." Bragga called from behind him. Kiff turned, his eyes narrowing slightly. Whenever someone said that, it never meant something good. Kiff crossed the few paces between the helm and the fleet-coord table to stand opposite of Bragga, who had pulled up a scale version of the massive Maw worldship on the holotable. "The scan-comm has the reports you asked for. Those savages are loading slaves onto the worldship, through the skydock." She didn't say it, but Kiff knew what she meant. This battle wouldn't be as simple as just blowing up the worldship -- it had become infinitely more complicated.
Kiff swore internally , turning around to Flight Commander Polba, an Aqualish who'd served in the Bassadro Sector Armada before being transferred to the storm fleet. "Polba, how many droids do we have aboard the Storm King?" He already knew that the rest of his fleet had no ground forces. He'd tasked himself with the role of space superiority, and hadn't thought that boarding ships would be necessary when the plan had only been to blow them apart.
"W-we have five hundred thousand battle droids aboard, Minister," the Flight Commander blubbered, his basic mangled by the physical constraints of his Aqualish features. "Give or take a couple thousand. But of those, only ten thousand are currently activated, and of those there are only enough assault landers to ferry waves of twenty-four hundred at a time." Kiff's brow furrowed with consternation. That wasn't good, it was plain to see. Battle droids depended on overwhelming numbers to achieve victory, and on a worldship that was nearly five times the size of the Storm King, two thousand was barely a dent against the forces the Maw likely had garrisoned there.
But did they have a better option?
"Launch all assault lander squadrons," Kiff ordered at last. "Ensure they are each filled with battle droids, and each squadron will have an escort of two Vulture Droid squadrons from the Storm King's hangars." The Flight Commander nodded his acknowledgement of the order and made his way to his own control station to relay Kiff's commands to the Star Dreadnought's hangar master. Kiff turned to the comm-scan. In the meantime, the rest of the Confederacy forces needed to be made aware of the development. “CIS forces,” he announced over the encrypted communication channel exclusive to Confederacy ships, “hold fire on the Maw worldstation. Civilian captives are located on the station, and ground forces are moving to engage and rescue. I repeat, hold your fire.” Content with the orders, he strode away from the comm-scan to the fleet-coord table, making a mental note to redesign the bridge the next time the Storm King was in dry dock so he wouldn’t have to make a journey from the command table to comm-scan just to relay his orders.
He was walking when alarms blared and someone shouted “Chit!” Kiff only saw Bragga’s face, tight and pale. His stomach sunk, but he didn’t need to ask.
“ Shots fired from unclassified battlecruiser-grade ship,” the tactical droid reported. “Directed at unclassified mobile station. The ship is hailing as CIS-aligned.”
What in the Western Reaches? was all that Kiff could think before he realized he had to act. But the Vicelord had been quicker, and although the order had been directed to Oldo directly, Kiff had still heard it. “Any way you can.” Oldo was loyal, loyal beyond doubt. Kiff knew that he would follow any command to a fault. Even if that meant his own life.
Kiff would not allow another sacrifice of an dear friend. A better man than most. He would not have another Commander Jol.
“Helm,” he said softly, the usual gusto replaced with something colder. More dangerous. “Adjust course. Place our prow facing the ship of Laertia Io.”
The droid at the Helm followed the order immediately, and the starfield began to move as the Storm King yawed to port to face the massive battle cruiser sized ship. There was no time to order Laertia to stand down — he’d already expressly commanded that all ships cease fire against the battle station, a command that the battlecruiser had expressly ignored. “Is the Thandarian Mass Accelerator cannon charged?” He asked to the gunnery captain, who wordlessly nodded a confirmation. The Leviathan was now directly in front of the bow of the Storm King, the battlecruiser still thundering away.
“You may fire when ready.”
Sound cannot be heard in space; any spacer knew that, even cadets at the academy who were as dry as a summer day. Yet when the massive ATK-19 Thandarian Mass Accelerator Cannon fired, it felt as if the void around it screamed, although it was only the Storm King’s internal components adjusting to the sudden expulsion of energy and mass. A single blare of the klaxons followed, announcing the launch of the massive cannon to the entire ship, as if the mass accelerator’s report had not been enough.
Kiff did not even have time to reflect on the destruction before a fresh crisis arose. It was Bragga again. “Fething gundarks — Minister!” She shouted, all previous attempts of decorum lost. Kiff’s blood was racing, and he hardly noticed. And the urgency in her tone — and alarm in her wording — told her that she had good cause to swear so loudly and openly.
“Cronau Radiation, a thousand and a half klicks out. Near the planet’s atmosphere, port-side.” He distantly heard the scan-com report, but his attention was fully on Bragga.
In her eyes was a look of. . . fear.
“An entire armada just reverted to realspace, ten klicks from the rear position of our rear forces. Our escort cruisers. . . they didn’t stand a chance. Only the Barbatos is still intact, but they’re reporting that their primary thrusters and hyperdrive are compromised. Reactor core is leaking too. They’re signaling desperately for aid.” The pit in Kiff’s stomach only sank deeper when he saw the enormity of the fleet.
“Assault dropships have contact sir! Mild losses, but we’ve landed roughly twenty-two hundred droids on the worldship.” Another report rang out. “Minister, what are your orders?”
Then “Primary Maw dreadnought is showing signs of a power build up. Possible discharge of weapon of mass destruction, imminent,” came the report of the tactical droid.
“Maw fighters swarming the 44th line! Fireshield and Ilun are destroyed! Minister?”
“Minister, what are your orders?”
“Minister!”
It was too much. It was all too much.
His knuckles were white from pressing into the cold metal rim of the fleet-coordination table, he realized. In a daze, he lifted them away, feeling a faint tingling in his hands as bloodflow returned to them. The blood seemed to be returning to his brain, too. He was the Minister of War, veteran of half a hundred battles. He was Kiff Brayde. And he would not be dying today.
“Order the 42nd to swing around and accelerate to meet our new friends,” he commanded. Being port side, the 42nd skirmish line would have the easier path to intercept. “Helm, downward tilt of forty-five degrees and port tilt of twenty-five degrees. Port Solar Ionization Cannons, target the two nearest Praetorian Star Destroyers and fire once you have locked target. The 42nd will intercept their smaller ships.”
“Minister,” Bragga protested. “The 42nd is hopelessly outnumbered against that fleet!”
Kiff’s face was grim. “Yet they will intercept all the same. Inform Grand Marshal Keldra that he is to augment the 42nd with his own forces. They are all we have. Port Dual Orbital Autocannons, target the other capital ships making to intercept with our fleet. Starboard Solar Ionization cannons, target the fleet port side as well, alongside our long range mass driver cannons. Starboard Dual Orbital Autocannons, target the portion of the new fleet descending into the planet — they’ll not escape us in atmosphere.”
He paused to catch his breath and review what my before him, before continuing. “Inform Fleet Marshal Breaker and High Marshal Oldo to take what forces they can spare and intercept the fleet descending into atmosphere. Instruct then to not interfere with the firing angles of the Storm King, and tmthat they are welcome to the leftovers.” He ran a hand through his hair, forking the dark long strands. “Launch all fighters from the Storm King. Remaining vulture droids are to escort our heavy bombers on targeting runs against the forward Maw fleet. The 44th is to push with them, and I want focus on that dreadnought, particularly its reactor core. Destabilize it before it can charge whatever it’s charging. Any of our guns that are in range are to do the same.”
And last of all, their main objective. “Ion batteries, disable that worldship’s primary drives, but keep it afloat. Turbolasers, target any defenses, but keep the worldship’s superstructure intact. Tractor beams, lock onto it. We don’t have interdictors, but we sure as hell aren’t going to let them escape with those slaves. All droids borded are to find, liberate, and escort slaves to the assault landers for transport to the Storm King.”
He looked around. “You have your orders. Now, go!”
The subsequent roar of thunder from the Star Dreadnought served as a reminder for why it was called the Storm King. For as mighty a storm that the Maw forces were, they would how before the wroth of the King.
Flagship
- Storm King-class Star Dreadnought
- CNS Storm King [92% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x1 Argente-class Assault Cruiser
- CNS Lady Talon [67% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x2 Bonteri-class Escort Carriers
CNSStarwalker[0% Shields, 0% Structure] DestroyedCNSRoyal Flush[0% Shields, 0% Structure] Destroyed
- x3 Terrus-class Flak Corvettes
- CNS Cayano [87% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Bloody Smile [92% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Raptorflight [68% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x6 Trench-class Fast Attack Corvettes
- CNS Eybel [52% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Varunn [91% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Firestar [63% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Wampa Rush [98% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Most Loyal [43% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Sayu [85% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x1 Argente-class Assault Cruiser
- CNS Rex Lapis [88% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x2 Bonteri-class Escort Carriers
- CNS Barbatos [0% Shields, 25% Structure]
CNSCoroner[0% Shields, 0% Structure] Destroyed
- x3 Terrus-class Flak Corvettes
- CNS Brightshine [97% Shields, 100% Structure]
CNSFireshield[0% Shields, 0% Structure] Destroyed- CNS Breathtaker [56% Shields, 100% Structure]
- x6 Trench-class Fast Attack Corvettes
- CNS Bassan [23% Shields, 93% Structure]
- CNS Dreamfly [88% Shields, 100% Structure]
CNSIllun[0% Shields, 0% Structure] Destroyed- CNS Black Folly [99% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Sola’s Scar [65% Shields, 100% Structure]
- CNS Mistrust [87% Shields, 100% Structure]
Storm King
- The Thandarian Mass Accelerator Cannon had fired at the Leviathan.
- Port side (x2) Solar Ionization Cannons are targeting and firing at the Praetorian-class Star Destroyers Bane and Sissiri.
- Port side (x4) Dual Orbital Autocannons targeting Final Order capital ships in orbit (x1 Supremacy-class, x3 Praetorian-clsss) engaging Confederate forces.
- Starboard side (x2) Solar Ionization Cannons targeting Final Order capital ships in orbit (x1 Sovereign-class)
- Starboard side (x4) Dual Orbital Autocannons targeting Final Order ships descending into atmosphere. Target at opposition writer discretion.
- Ion batteries are firing at worldship primary thrusters, with intent to disable hyperspace travel but keep the station aloft. Turbolasers are firing at worldship defenses but making sure to keep superstructure intact. Tractor beams are locking onto worldship, aiming keeping it in place.
- All remaining weapons are firing at forward Maw fleet, focusing on the dreadnought
- ATX-19K Thandarian Mass Accelerator Cannon | Fully Charged
- RMSD-M11 Vroeger Solar Ionization Batteries | 0/2 Posts
- RMAD-M12 Bralsingr Dual Orbital Autocannons | Fully Charged
- All fighter squadrons of the Storm King have launched. Assault Landers have ferried battle droids to the Maw worldship, escorted by two squadrons of Vulture Droids per squadron of Assault Lander. Heavy Bombers are making runs against the Maw Dreadnought, escorted by remaining Vulture droid squadrons. All other fighters are intercepting Maw fighters.
- 42nd Skirmish Line is moving to intercept Final Order starships.
- 44th Skirmish Line is moving on to push the frontal Maw fiery, focusing on the Dreadnought and its reactor core and any vulnerabilities.