One Sith coup fleeting

[Ashin Varanin]

So due to personal circumstances, [member="Catalys Maijora"] has asked me to take over his side of the fleet battle in this thread. I'm skimming some of it, but I haven't been involved in the thread, and I'm guessing as to who my opposite numbers are. I'm thinking [member="Aelius Varangian"], [member="Darth Mephirium"], [member="Darth Vornskr"] and [member="Braxus Zambrano"]. I'm still figuring out what force composition, odds, damage, and relative positioning look like. In the meantime, can your fleeters give me some idea of your current understanding of those questions? I intend to join this as an NPC Admiral on the Chrysalide, taking over for Catalys.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

This is me skimming the thread and picking out fleet bits for my reference. WIP

Spoiler

"Your service is to me," Mephirium announced," by honor of the Kaggath!"

The silence broke. An older officer stood up from her chair and bowed. Mephirium acknowledged her with a nod. Soon, the entirety of the bridge joined her. The 501st and its fleet of Star Destroyers, as the rest of the galaxy soon would, waited with bated breath for Darth Mephirium's orders.

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Four hours had passed since Arcis had fallen. Mephirium had taken the time to know his deck officers' names and the speak with the admiral aboard. The rest of that time had been spent hailing his allies in from across the galaxy. Coruscant did not know what danger it was truly in, but those below would soon learn of Darth Arcis' death.

There were already whispers of Mephirium's treason. It would be civil war without end.

The six Star Destroyers' sole job was to make sure things were open for the rest of Mephirium's fleet to arrive. A conglomeration of Star Destroyers, old Acclamators, X-wings mothballed by the Galactic Alliance, and a myriad of other vessels would be arriving in system shortly.

Kentarch's mercenaries, a contingent of the Saeva Corporation's naval might, and the transport ships housing the mutants Grudge had crafted for this particular assault would be joining them. Others had pledged themselves to Mephirium's cause as well, though whether they would show was another matter entirely.

Mephirium's current retinue aboard Arcis' capital ship consisted of Captain Aelius Varangianhttp://starwarsrp.net/user/10712-aelius-varangian/http://starwarsrp.net/user/10712-aelius-varangian/, head of the Imperial Royal Guard

Spoiler

Mephirium: "My fleet encircles Coruscant.

Spoiler

Kentarch: The Blood Dusk, A single Dark Blade Class Dreadnought cut through space as it made its voyage to Coruscant. Along with the capital ship several transports followed as the ship came into real-space above the Galactic Capital. As he arrived, the revolution was already in motion. The moment Kentarch had waited for. Descending into the lower atmosphere, the ship made an almost unhindered approach to the dark temple. It's crew devoted as they were diligent, everything had been planned and rehearsed down to every last detail. Quickly several transport ships slipped around the Blood Dusk rushed towards their intended destination. Filled with a division of mercenaries and Dolos Defense Agency contractors, it was the most Kentarch could bring from the remnant space of the former Sith Empire.

Spoiler

Kaine: Even as Darth Mephirium's message spread through the stars corralled within the Empire's vast domain another fleet dropped in at the very perimeter of the Coruscant star system, a small flotilla of Wyyrlok-class Star Destroyers led by a single Primeval-class Tactical Star Destroyer, the Ruination. They anchored themselves against the backdrop of a nearby star, holding their position as they allowed Mephirium's forces to start their own assault against the Imperial capital.

Spoiler

Catalys: The sunlight reflected off of Courscant’s atmosphere, glinting across the surface of the agent’s flagship.

Spoiler

Grudge the Grutt: Respectively, from the coast of the planet, two Lancer class freighters found themselves leering just above the gravitational pull the planet possessed.

From the two colossal sized freighters, a few shards of purple were launched. They posed no thread, at least until a mere second passed, the twenty shards of purple growing into two hundred. The two would grow into one thousand, one thousand into ten thousands. The skies were suddenly filled with an amassing shadow, thousands upon thousands of shards of spiraling and descending purple aimed to pierce directly into downward and into the planet's surface. Come the time anything with average sight could spot these massive shards of purple, they had amassed to total estimation of twenty thousand escape pods. Yes, Escape pods.

And No man, child or Dark Lord would be spared of hearing her last performance as the massive freighter descended into the Dark Palace.

From the opposite angle, another Lancer class Freighter had made its way into the atmosphere, aiming to descend NEARBY the Palace as well.

Spoiler

Braxus Zambrano: The Black Iron War Fleet made its mighty presence known to all in orbit, the many Wyyrlok-Class Star Destroyers surrounding the large and infamous Primeval Tactical-Class Star Destroyer Ruination. For any other planet, any other situation other than this one the full might of this fleet would already be bearing down upon the unfortunate victims planetside. However this time the fleet sat idle in perfect formation just outside the range of defensive weaponry while the fleet of Darth Mephirium moved to engage in combat.

Spoiler

Vornskr: And where was the rest of War Fleet Black Iron? Vornskr had not yet summoned the rest of his fleet, only a handful now milled about the Ruination with weapon systems primed and ready to go for any eventuality.

Spoiler

Mephirium: Arcis' former fleet engaged with loyalist forces. One of the Star Destroyers was destroyed as soon as the fighting began. Remaining vessels are holding their own with the assistance of allied ships from Ession. The skies over Coruscant are a mess.

ephirium had not expected such a quick retaliation. Within moments, one of the six Star Destroyers (each of which were of the archaic design, repurposed by Arcis' engineers) went up in flames. It had not had time to raise its shields before the loyalist vessels had managed to hit something particularly vital. The massive ship was ripped apart by Coruscant's gravity as its engines began to fail. Two halves of the flame-bathed metal carcass fell toward the world below.

Not a soul on that vessel had survived.

And so the battle began.

The usurper turned his nose up in distaste as his fleet engaged that of the loyalists. Ties and repurposed Galactic Alliance X-wings battled for supremacy just beyond the planet's atmosphere. His Star Destroyers showered the loyalist vessels in turbolaser fire, and the loyalists gave as good as they got.


The three destroyers he had gained control of before the battle fell out of hyperspace alongside the vessels of his allies. They quickly moved to try and provide the Star Destroyers with a defense against the loyalist bombers heading their way.



Then, with his shoulders back and his head held high, Mephirium turned from the bridge and spoke to the officers. "Maintain the blockade until told otherwise. Destroy any deserting vessels."

Spoiler

Abelain: He could not offer nearly as much as what was already on the board to either side, though the three-hundred super-soldiers within the Paladin spoke of the contribution that he could make, as well as the ship itself.

The soldiers would not mind whichever decision he made, at least not the ones that had been given the serum. Many of them felt betrayed, and would be perfectly willing to execute their Dark Lord, loyalty having rotten away when their comrades had. Turning to Lieutanent Stall, Abelain gave his orders, "Set a course for Coruscant, inform me when we near arrival." Stall simply nodded, directing the remaining bridge crew to their activities.

Spoiler

Kentarch: "We're going to need a fire mission on that emplacement!" A young mercenary captain shouted to the Sith Lord.
Kentarch got on his communicator and began barking orders to the capital ship. "I need a scan on defensive positions around the temple. We got an enemy emplacements and we are taking heavy fire!" He shouted over the roar of battle. Then another explosion sent another half a dozen of his men flying up into the air, the bolt that caused such destruction was yellowm, which meant it was likely some kind of Particle cannon. "Anytime Blood Dusk, got all the time in the world." He said growing impatient, as yet another large yellow bolt struck a couple yards behind him, this time it was a near miss.

Spoiler

Aelius (I see what you did there): Without losing his stride, Aelius was immediately back at Mephirium's side the very next moment as they neared the Field Hospital, silent as ever as he listened to him deliberately hand out instructions. "My Lord--" The Royal Guard respectfully cut in. "We have space superiority, for this fleeting moment. I suggest we make use of it. Our Star Destroyers could fire orbital artillery in positions around the Palace, leveling any potential escape routes.. at the small price of danger close to our soldiers, however." A explosion erupted behind the Royal Guard, lightly denting his armor with shrapnel and tattering his cloak, though he paid no mind to it. What was a Guardsman without a stiff upper lip, after all.

Spoiler

Behind his flagship, a fleet of starships gathered behind their executor. Frigates, cruisers, destroyers, and carriers all played their part and insignificantly they looked from a distant, but as the fleet drew closer to the enemy, they would soon unleash the fury of suns.

Crossing his arms behind his back, Catalys stood tall and gazed out onto the battle. In a bright flash that lasted merely a second or less, a star destroyer became one with the void. Pieces of its debris shot out in every direction, whilst the main hulk of the wreckage spun helplessly in orbit. The ship's A.I. swiftly calculated, gathering information about the enemy fleet. Knowing very well the nature of their starships, the tactical data was distributed to the officers and crew of each vessel in Catalys' fleet.

"Give me firing solutions in five." The agent's voice was amplified by the modulator, the masked Umbaran glanced back to the officers of the Primordial.

With the help of the vessel's advanced systems, the forward guns charged online. "Solutions in four..." The hellbore canons fixed onto the nearest star destroyer, and with a firing range of the distance between a planet and it's moon, the massive projectors rotated along their central axis. "Make that three and much, much less..." The A.I. brought targeting to maximum, aiming to bash through the shields and hull, and cripple -- if not destroy -- the ship's reactor. "On your orders, Commander."

"Fire!" In the blink of an eye, the twin hellbores spun rapidly and unleashed a volley of energy, which after a minute, would become equivalent to two-hundred forty concussion missiles traveling towards their target at twenty-percent lightspeed.

Darth Mephiriumhttp://starwarsrp.net/user/3468-darth-mephirium/http://starwarsrp.net/user/3468-darth-mephirium/

OOC: I know you said you're not a fleeter, so I' won't be doing any number-crunching or anything. Just here to roleplay a dramatic Star Wars battle.

Spoiler

Abelain: The Paladin exploded into view of Coruscant, albeit far enough away that they weren't' immediately drawn into the space battle. The rivaling fleets were intimidatingly large, and it became evident once more that a side had to be chosen. The Arue'tii stood, rapping his fingers upon the console as he considered the pros and cons once more of either faction. Finally, he made his decision, and turned to face the Bridge crew, "Send a message to Darth Mephiriumhttp://starwarsrp.net/user/3468-darth-mephirium/, Tell him that we pledge ourselves to his cause."
Paladin: http://starwarsrp.net/topic/34240-vanguard-class-heavy-cruiser/

Spoiler

Hauntruss: Hauntruss rolled her burning golden Sith eyes at her commander, "Captain Draco." Hauntruss hissed in glee, "Should the situation become too unfavorable, prepare the Inquisition Fleet to orbitally obliterate this complex." The Captain shocked by the command but, more fearful of his dark master only nodded and attempted at a calrifcation. "m'Lord?" he whispered. Hauntruss smiled a toothy vile grin, "Should this palace of holy Sith power be tainted by too much sqauubling ramble, I will cleanse it in unending fire and from there we shall rebuild. Regardless of any 'capital' symbolism it holds."

Spoiler

Mephirium: Yes, he had the assurance of the follow-up fleet - a conglomeration of allies Mephirium had gained over his eighteen threads that he banged out in two days during his escapades that now gathered back on in Ession's space. The feet was a mix of pirate vessels and the Ession Defense Navy. They would serve their purpose if called upon, though Joffie would have liked to avoid that.

It was unwise to put all your eggs in one basket, after all.

When the message from Abelain Narv'uk came through, Joffie was the one to receive it.

"You've made the right choice. Adding your IFF tags to our roster - whatever vessels you have at your disposal would be quite useful in staving off the loyalists." Joffie cringed as one of the loyalist hulls fired some form of weapon he didn't recognize. That weapon carved through one of the Star Destroyer's shields with relative ease and crippled the vessel's reactor.

Joffie wasn't sure whether it would return fire or be ripped apart. A moment's waiting confirmed the former. Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Joffie issued orders to the fleet.

The Star Destroyers could not stray too far from their current positions - the men below required the occasional orbital bombardment if victory was to be achieved. Instead, the mass of Ties and their accompanying bombers changed course. The soldiers they had been transporting were already on the ground. They needed to keep the fleet safe now.

A number of the fighters remained near the Star Destroyers to deal with any bomber threats that might reveal themselves. The larger group escorted the usurper bombers toward the loyalist fleet. The bombers were to cripple as many of the loyalist vessels as they could while two of the five remaining Star Destroyers maneuvered about to engage.

Joffie cursed as the command deck shook from another payload dropped onto an unlucky loyalist defensive position. At least something was going right.

Spoiler

Gulliver Foyle: Up in orbit, the gunnery sections on the big ships were somewhat more restrained. They viewed things like hollering out the fire order to be archaic and unnecessary, something for the poor saps who didn't have the luxury of computer-aimed weaponry to call upon. They quietly performed their jobs, doing their best to ignore the fact that they themselves would shortly face the incoming fire of the enemy fleet.

Spoiler

Vornskr: Already the fight in space had been raging for some time, the loyalist defense fleet trading blows with the insurgent's surprisingly small flotilla. Perhaps this Darth Mephirium was saving his full strength for later, much like Vornskr himself was doing, and that meant that the Epicanthix Sith needed to proceed with the utmost caution.

Spoiler

Cyrus: Cyrus flagship, the Dark Blade Contempt was made ready to get underway in a matter of hours, along with three Wyyrlok-class Star Destroyers and a score of smaller escorts. Any available vessels would be drafted along the way, though their loyalty was potentially in doubt. They departed shortly after the first messages were received and arrived shortly after Darth Vornskr had stepped foot on Coruscant.

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Fifty-two Sith warships (including two Dark Blades and four Wyyrlok's) dropped out of hyperspace in a tight formation well outside the general orbital plane. A standard practice to disguise ones arrival, but given the size of the flotilla it was all but certain that someone would detect their cronau radiation. At best, Cyrus figured he had thirty minutes before his comms would be lit up with queries.

"I want immediate intercepts on all comms inbound and outbound the planet. Every channel and freq we can get. Reports every fifteen minutes. Priority is any information about the status of the Dark Lord, Loyalist forces, and any opposition forces. Scanning and tracking divisions get me an update on all military vessels in system in two minutes. I want hourly updates on the readiness of Battlefleet Iron Lance."

Then he paused, watching the veteran crew leap into action with an almost uncanny efficiency. Almost immediately, reports began flowing to the command console, the most notable being that displaying a ongoing battle between two fleets, one consisting of a seemingly random conglomeration of mostly smaller vessels (with a few older star destroyers) and the other, somewhat larger, consisting of One Sith ships.

The would-be insurgent and the Coruscant defense fleet, then. Things looked even for now, probably the advantage of surprise on the part of the traitors, but an extended engagement would inevitably weight things in favor of the loyalists. So either the would-be usurper had planned badly or he had strategic reserves. It didn't take a lot of thought to figure out which was more likely. Cyrus turned to his flag captain.

"Keep us dark, Captain Vayyrel, I want to see how they respond when we show up on their scopes."

Spoiler

Isamu Baelor: The Hand of The Dark Lord had deployed his personal fleet in space above the besieged palace. The fleet, consisting of a number of Wyyrlock-class Star Destroyers and various support ships, took up defensive positions surrounding the Grand General’s experimental Star Destroyer: The War Hammer.

Built to rapidly deploy an invasion force, the War Hammer was a large ship equipped with drop-pod capabilities. From its underside, the ship birthed a never-ending stream of drop-pods. The forces being dropped planet-side where not typical Sith, but rather the personal forces of Isamu Baelor. They were veterans of Contruum, and Balmorra. They were the soldiers that carved the Republic in two. They were elites.

Spoiler

Abelain: Meanwhile, above the planet forces gathered for what seemed to be a grand space battle. Abelain was growing fearful that perhaps the rebel forces which he had allied himself with would not stand the test of strength that was coming, though he purged such negative thoughts from his mind. The Arue'tii had never commanded the vessel during a battle, and this would be his first experience with the task. Thankfully, there were many experienced officers aboard the ship, such as the loyal Captain who would ensure that the Paladin performed to it's maximum ability.

The Vanguard-class ship turned, opening up with a frontal assault on the nearest Imperial vessels, utilizing it's heavy long-range turbolasers to wear down the shields before the ships had established maximally efficient range for the remaining weaponry. Firing alongside the turbolasers were five heavy and equally long-range mass drivers. All of these guns focused fire on a Wyyrlock Star Destroyer, and though it was obvious that these alone would not damage the vessel, they would certainly help in fighting the larger ship once it came into range of the remaining guns.

Spoiler

Catalys: He did not fight because he was loyal, he did not obey because he believed in this cause. He fought for the Dark Lord because he's a survivor. "Launch a forward assault, I want screen ships at the center, maneuver cruisers and destroyers around the flanks." Quickly, the forces loyal to Catalys had begun taking formation. A small fraction of the former Primeval fleet had gone forward, whilst the bulk of his forces sat back in reserve. Awaiting ambush, and enemy reinforcements.

Escaping the hangar bays were swarms of starfighters, and as a testament to the Dark Lord's fury, he had deployed the newAllegiant-class Starfighters. Although not the swiftest, these multi-role fighters are very capable, and have the ability to confuse enemy sensors and targeting computers.

Continuing their assault, the fleet opened fire, the agent's flagship drifted towards the left flank as smaller, quicker vessels charged ahead. Enemy firepower was quick to respond, destroying two corvettes and crippling a frigate immediately in the process. The starfighters dived below the capital ships during the exchange, and aimed to flank the ventral sides of the enemy fleet, coming up and strategically striking enemy batteries with their proton torpedoes.

Spoiler

Aelius: Moff Joffie cursed savagely. First a entire bloody Star Destroyer decimated by an ammo rack detonation in the initial stages of the battle and now.. this. The wizened Moff watched as another Star Destroyer's shields were overwhelmed by a massive strike of 'Hellbore' cannons from the enemy capital ship. Explosions erupted, as crew rooms were consumed in balls of flame. "M-..major.. str-...structure damage...several...front...facing turbolaser b-...batteries destroyed." A shaky voiced responded from the crew of the wounded Star Destroyer. "Ascend above the enemy fleet." A lieutenant officer looked to his senior commander in bewilderment. "To flee, sir?" Moff Joffie paused, and then nodded. "I'd suppose something similar to that, yes." With his word, the mauled capital ship attempted to fire it's engines to quickly position above the enemy fleet.

"What is the status of our remaining vessels?" Joffie asked another subordinate.

"We've lost a corvette, but other than that we're fine, sir. Their Allegiants are attempting to hammer the underbelly of our Star Destroyers, but they aren't known for anything more than moderate firepower. We've lost some power to ventral shields but that's it." With another curse, Joffie quickly regathered his wits and ordered the remainder of his destroyers, corvettes and other smaller ships to screen the ventrals of the Star Destroyers. From hanger-bays, refurbished X-Wings were released. Being a Sith military officer, Joffie knew a particular weakness of the Allegiant-class starfighter -- their forward facing weapons. The X-Wings were ordered to exploit this vulnerability in particular by using their famed maneuverability to stay on their tails and flanks.

Meanwhile, the Star Destroyers were ordered to form into a tight wedge to better provide more efficient overlapping anti-starfighter fire. Idling their engines, they transferred power to their weapons and shields, focusing fire on both the (hopefully) weakly armored but fast moving ships heading directly for them, cross-transmitting weapons calculates to better coordinate firing lanes, but also the Primodial which had just damaged their fellow Star Destroyer.

Simultaneously, a dozen wings of TIE bombers flying in loose formation with a few X-Wings swarmed it onto the Primodial whilst they figured the enemy Starfighters were distracted, specifically targeting their shield generators with their entire Proton Torpedo payloads in hopes of disabling it and thus allowing the Star Destroyer's massive, center based firepower to decimate the enemy capital ship.

Spoiler

Cyrus: Cyrus watched with concentrated indifference as the Loyalist and Usurper fleets continued their duel. Whoever was in command of the traitors forces was reasonably skilled, but also clearly wise enough to know he was outmatched. He was playing carefully, buying time and banking the durability of his Star Destroyers to allow time for smaller vessels to recharge and regroup. Standard Imperial (and now One Sith) tactics, but it still took some aptitude for command to pull it off. It was also exploitable, of course. The tighter you grouped ships the better your defensive coverage was and the more fire you could direct down specific vectors, but you began to lose the ability to rapid redeploy and potentially cut off entire lanes for return fire.

Assuming you cared about hitting your allies, that is.

There were still too many unknowns, a misstep here could be fatal. At any rate it seemed like luck had been on Cyrus' side this time, there was no indication of detection just yet. Best to continue the approach with caution.

A tech had been standing quietly by the command chair for several minutes now. Cyrus nodded to acknowledge her presence. "Report."

"Sir, there is a third group of vessels also un-engaged. They are staying quiet but we've visually identified the Ruination and other ships from War Fleet Black Iron. We've been tracking comms traffic and watching the progress of transports moving to and from the Black Iron ships, and we believe that Darth Vornskrhttp://starwarsrp.net/user/136-darth-vornskr/http://starwarsrp.net/user/136-darth-vornskr/ and his personal guard have landed at the palace. There's a blackout on any formal communications, but from what we've been able to decipher from secondary channels we believe that he is engaged with the first usurper, Darth Mephirium and loyalist forces."

Cyrus just nodded and dismissed the tech with a curt 'very well.' That was a lot to chew on, good work for the intel goons. Three parties at play then? It made sense, and the Sith were ever a quarrelsome lot. The only question was which side to join. The Dark Lord didn't look like a winning team, despite the fact that the defense fleet was making good progress at the moment. Too many factors weighted against hte loyalists, but the force alone help those on the losing side if they won in the end. Mephirium on the other hand was an unknown to Cyrus, he had never worked with him. Vornskr? A lot of questions there too, though for different reasons.

He turned in his chair, addressing the flag captain.

"Captain, any idea who the commander of the Capital Defense Fleet is? Last I remember was Admiral Sar'theron."

Vayyrel shook her head almost immediately. "No sir, she transferred several months ago. Most recently was, I'm not sure, someone recently promoted, though. There was a feeling of some corruption in appointing the position."

Cyrus nodded. Typical, the very sort of thing he'd tried to stamp out with Boan Rein rearing its ugly head again. And it meant that the leadership of the loyalist fleet was yet another unknown factor. Too many of said unknowns, time to make things more cut and dry.

"All units, advance in close formation, cruiser screen in front, strike craft on standby. They haven't noticed us so far, lets see what happens when they do."

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

FWIW, I was planning on keeping things pretty low key. Not overly concerned about damage and weapons and force composition and the like, besides maybe mentioning the total number of capital ships. I was more focused on writing a decent battle with cool explosions and the like, I haven't got the muse for anything more detailed than that.

At any rate Cyrus' force (as yet uncommitted to a side) consists of two Dark Blades, four Wyyrloks, and 46 other vessels. Say uh, 15 cruisers and the rest (31) smaller ships. I have no intention whatsoever to track strike craft, that's shits for the birds (and you know, gaming and stuff).

Looking forward to round two with you, I suppose.

[member="Ajira Cardei"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"]

I feel the same way. I'm in no mood to bust out a calculator unless I need to tally up an alpha strike or something, and we seem to be well past that point.