[ Directly Engaging: [member="Reshmar"] ]
[ [member="Aryn Teth"] | [member="Cathul Thuku"] | [member="Lokthra Dawning"] | [member="Bandor Kre'fey"] | [member="Mathieu Bahreiko"] | [member="Jyoti Nooran"] | [member="Fiolette Yvarro"] | [member="Mazik Stazi"] ]
Command Deck // FIV "Eidolon" // Resurgent II Class Battlecruiser.
Indellian System, Ison Corridor - Gateway to Varonat.
First Order's Thirty-Second Fleet, "Vindicta." with the Indellian Planetary Defense Fleet.
Several Parsec's and Light Years away from Varonat.
Astarii’s boredom was thankfully dispelled, as reports from Gerrenthum, and the various early warning stations along the breadth of the Corellian Trade Spine had signalled the arrival of an incoming armada. For what seemed like hours, the Hapan woman had been pacing the length of her command deck, slowly spinning towards insanity. Now, with the messages regarding enemy contact cascading from one side of the combat bridge to the other, she stalked along the polished obsidian deck and came to stand before the tactical hololithic table.
It was there that she had found herself staring at a tactical display of the entire Indellian System, from the marked locations where their various gravity mines were located to the expected points of entry the enemy would fill - once they had reverted into realspace. In addition to the aforementioned points, there were projected trajectories of her various naval maniples, which had a scrolling list of what squadron and battlegroup they were attached to, along with the telegraphed firing arcs from the orbiting installations. Though they would be too far out to engage the enemy effectively, should they revert within the system or out of it, the stations would be enough to act as a deterrent - if the enemy decided to maneuver to the other side of the system. That was further enforced by the position of her various squadrons and supporting battle lines positioned around the mouth of the Ison Corridor. Knowing that if the Alliance had sought to wrest control of the Sector away from the First Order, they would proceed towards the site of their most significant defeat in the last war.
It was, in her mind, utterly amusing that their most hated foes would attempt to break through the First Order’s lines again and try to take the Anoat Sector for themselves. They failed miserably the first time, falling prey to the myriad of safeguards and countermeasures that the Order had developed. While, yes, the Alliance had bloodied the Order’s nose, they were unable to break their hold on this critical juncture. And it all began, from when the First Order had claimed dominance over the Ison Corridor, a strategy that would doubtlessly find itself repeated in the days to come. As her finger began tracing various lines across the projected display of the system, several officers started relaying mobilization orders to the multiple gun decks dotting the
"Eidolon’s" obsidian arrowhead. Cannons began to realign themselves with new vectors, and the impressive point defense array had cycled their lasers and missiles to active readiness. She knew, without even being told, that their vessel’s sensors had detected a gathering of cronau particles near the edge of the system.
“So,” She said with a thoughtful air hanging about her every word.
“The enemy seeks to draw us out of position by reverting just beyond effective weapon’s range. An interesting tactic, I wonder who the Alliance has sent to breakthrough.”
Mere seconds after her words slipped passed the curvature of her thinly-pressed lips; the first enemy vessel arrived - taking station at the rim of the System and amidst an orderly formation of various warships. The sensors and broadcasted transponders had picked them out as primarily Mon Calamari in design, leading her to believe that she would find herself against some unknown commander that hailed from that distant, watery star, or something that she had worked alongside before. Though, she had been in isolation and pitted against the Ssi-Ruuvi for far too long, and couldn’t recall who - or what Sons and Daughters of Dac held rank within the Alliance’s Navy. As she began to purse her lips and review the names of every vessel that entered the system, nothing had come to mind. They were the standard designations found amongst the self-righteous sycophants that proclaimed themselves to be paragons of law and order, but none were overly familiar - even the designs that later proved to be more Imperial in aesthetic design. Those one’s to were, somehow ancient in their unfamiliarity. Nevertheless, with enemy contacts filling the edges of her tactical table, various computer systems and technicians worked to update the Admiral’s hololithic display furiously, it wouldn’t do for her to lose focus. Her opponent had arrived and was beginning to place his pieces on the board, but she couldn’t let him make the first move.
When she had seen several squadrons break off from the group of starships that had arrived first, Astarii had ordered several of her personnel to feed her table with projected vectors and see where they were heading - which when the task was completed - brought a savage snarl to the Imperial Admiral’s lips. From the data that their sensors had collected, and the comparisons that were drawn, the Hapan was sure that several of these squadrons were interdiction units that sought to deprive the Indellian System of expedient reinforcement. Sadly, when she would issue the call to arms, they would arrive when expected, as a majority of the First Order’s navy drew upon the Bakuran-born technology that would allow them to revert unhindered by active interdiction fields. Therefore, the response to the Alliance’s intrusion would be quickly met - perhaps even easily dealt with, should they arrive in various flanking positions behind the enemy’s formation.
Without further hesitation, as the threat had been recognized, Astarii ordered the Heavy Attack and Skirmish lines of her Battlegroup
“Firestorm” to move and intercept the taskforce navigating towards the far side of the Indellian System. While their guns would be sorely missed in their blockade of the Ison Corridor, they would serve the First Order’s purpose better when they intercepted the Alliance's advance. In addition to this alteration of the playing field, she had ordered the activation of the mass-shadow mines that were sown throughout the system, which were coupled by the spooling gravity well generators located within her fleet's staggered formation. She had to admit, at that moment, she was confused as to why they would believe that severing the Indellian System off from the rest of the Corellian Trade Spine would allow them to operate in the Anoat Sector freely. They only spread themselves thinner and thinner, allowing the wolves of the Order to pick away at their forces until nothing but ruined carcasses remained. With her orders relayed, and the warships breaking formation to move towards their newly assigned vectors, Astarii refocused on the various pieces her foe began to arrange.
Through the combined long-range sensors of the orbital stations, the various warships at her command, and the early warning satellites that dotted the Trade Spine, she was about to divine what transpired near the edge of the system. Several minelayers had seen fit to unleash their payload in the distance, and as their readings became disrupted by the deployment of some unknown munitions - the Admiral had a feeling they were attempting to cloak their newly positioned fields. Nagnol gas, she surmised. Due in part to the curious properties of the spreading miasma, their sensors were having difficulties penetrating the disruptive vapour, which was the very cause for Astarii to come to that conclusion. Nevertheless, when they dealt with the taskforce being sent towards the mouth of the Ison Corridor, where a bulk of the First Order’s Thirty-Second Fleet had taken up station several cycles ago, all they would have to do is avoid those marked sectors and fill them with laserfire as they passed by. The magnetic and plasmatic energies of a turbolaser, and the highly ionized particles of an Ion cannon would swiftly vaporize the Nagnol gas, and subsequently, disable the mines drifting within.
It was then, as the enemy revealed himself, by broadcasting a transmission across an opened channel, that Astarii had found herself shocked. She had fought with a man named Reshmar once before, at the Battle of Castameer, before she had been forcibly retired from the Galactic Alliance’s service. From what she could remember, he was an admirable, if not noble person that embodied the ideals of an ailing Republic - much to his detriment in recent years. As the man laid bare his intentions, it took every ounce of her will to keep the transmission open. The snarl that adorned her face from earlier had melted into a sneer, rife with her rising contempt. How dare this miserable alien to make demands of her, and her subordinates! The very notion of abandoning their posts, and submitting themselves to such ludicrous requests chafed at her nerves - scraping them raw. As she wrung her hands around the protruding edges of the tactical table, Astarii knew that she had to control her rising anger. It wouldn’t do for her to lose her cool in the moments of first contact with the enemy. These moments, no matter how fleeting they might seem in the grand scheme of things, were utterly crucial - and for that, she had to retain some measure of level-headedness.
With his knuckles turning white from the tension, the Hapan re-played the transmission and considered her options. She couldn’t accept the man’s demands and knew that while he disliked the prospect of senseless violence - there was a part of her mind that wished to relay the chaos currently transpiring in Varonat’s orbit - and throwing those words back in his face with a bestial snarl. Instead, she calmly moved away from the tactical table and obtained a headset from a nearby rack. With a few tweaks and shouting an order to her comm’s officer, the Admiral was connected and spoke with the full weight of her authority pouring across her every word.
“This is Admiral Astarii Saren, Commanding Officer of the First Order’s Thirty-Second Fleet.” She began, pausing momentarily to allow the elderly Mon Cala’s mind to recall and adapt to the change in the Hapan’s allegiance.
“It’s been a while since we’ve stood on the same battlefield, Admiral Reshmar, however, I’m slightly disappointed we’re no longer standing on the same side.” While her words came across as crisp, and as clearly as one would expect of an Imperial Officer, her following remarks were flecked with hints of despair. She had hoped that a man as smart as her former comrade in arms would realize how corrupt the Alliance had become, and look to his open people when the Silver Jedi fell from grace. Nevertheless, such an occurrence had never come to pass.
“I’m saddened to see that we’ve become enemies this day, as I had hoped that you, of all people, would see reason in what evil’s the Alliance commits against our people and their own. You’ve sided with those that demand more of their people than the First Order, and expect their unwavering loyalty in return. Yet, they have done nothing but murder children and innocent people with their every offensive.”
The Admiral paused for a moment, taking the time to not only allow her words to sink in but to consider what she would say next carefully.
“Perhaps we wouldn’t be in this mess if your allies in the Galactic Alliance had sought to unleash their wanton bloodlust elsewhere. Sadly, we find ourselves living in the bed that the Triumvirate had forcibly made, with hundreds of thousands slain on either side of this renewed conflict.” With her eyes refocusing on the table before her, the Hapan reviewed the changes to the battlefield as they slowly unfolded. It would take time to move from one side of the system to the other, especially with the recent activation of the First Order’s gravity minefields and interdiction arrays. They would be intercepted long before their supposed tasks would be complete, and that would doubtlessly throw a wrench in Admiral Reshmar’s best-laid plans.
“Your pitiful attempt to blockade of the Corellian Trade Spine will not hold. Your minefields have been marked, as I, in turn, assume you’ve marked mine. Your vessels, predictably move to sever our hold over the Ison Corridor, and the remaining leg of the Spine. They will not make it to their destination in time to be effective, nor will your fleet survive - so deep in our sovereign territory. The Galactic Alliance and the authority they’ve so graciously given you mean nothing out here.”
There was nothing but scorn in her words, as she listed off the many future failures of her newfound opponent. Let them believe that he has won, She mused, it will be in his moment of triumph that he shall find himself falling into defeat’s embrace. Knowing that she had stolen all hope of victory from his grasp, would not only be satisfying, but utterly damning of the Alliance's attempt to wrest control of the sector away from the militant arm of the First Order.
“So,” Astarii continued.
“As you have no wish to engage my forces and I have no wish to submit to your ridiculous demands, it would be wise of you to order your warships to turn about and return from whence you came. I will ensure that my comrades along with their accompanying fleets, already moving into the Gerrenthum System, and the planetary defence forces that you’ve bypassed en route will permit you safe passage home. We’re at war with the Alliance, Reshmar, and you’ve trespassed on our lawn. You have One Hour to accept my gracious offer; I would appreciate it if you do not make me regret my kindness.”
[ [member="Sieger Ren"] | [member="Robogeber"] | [member="Gromm Cardan"] | [member="Asharad Graush"] | [member="Cyrus Tregessar"] | [member="Gerhard Maxim"] ]
First Order's Thirty-Second Fleet, "Vindicta." with the Indellian Planetary Defense Fleet.
