Chapter 139: Probing
Chapter 139: Probing
- Clone Wars Day 15: Foless -
Newly minted Commadore Gilad Pellaeon had never expected to be leading a task force of mixed Republic Navy and his own homeworld’s defense fleet. Corellia, despite being a founding member of the Republic, had always been a bit insular compared to the other founders, rarely bothering to stick its proverbial oar in the water of greater Republic politics outside the sector it dominated. After all, when your home star system had five habitable worlds and three native species, there just wasn’t a lot of reason to expand.
Corellia had never had the massive overpopulation issues of the rest of the Core, hadn’t gotten into the colonization game in a big way as a result, and had thus lacked much interest in greater Republic politics. Oh certainly, they’d slowly stretched their influence to dominate the Corellian Sector, and their incredibly long history as explorers meant Corellians were everywhere in the galaxy. Yet, for the most part, they’d lacked the same push for expansion that drove many Core World powers to play galactic politics.
It was actually why Gilad himself might be Corellian, but he’d been largely raised on Coruscant, his family having become more invested in the Republic and moved to the center of its power while he was young. While he hated the capital itself, Gilad had become enamored with the idea of military service and hired a slicer to get him into Raithal Acadmey at fifteen, years before he could have applied legally. He’d never been found out and had graduated near the top of his class. He’d served with distinction and risen to the rank of Captain…but hadn’t gotten farther as he admittedly had a taste for women that the Admiralty disliked. His habits of hopping from bed to bed, including into and out of the beds of a few of their daughters, had stalled any farther advancement.
The new High Command didn’t give a damn about that.
No, they only cared that Gilad Pellaeon was one of the rare few officers who had serious experience commanding at least small taskforces for anti-pirate operations. His delayed promotions meant, in point of fact, that he was perhaps the Judicial Captain with the most practical combat experience in the entire former Judicial Forces. Which is how he’d found himself slapped with a quick promotion and put in charge of a mixed force defending the Foless System. The fact he was Corellian himself had eased the mixed nature of the command structure, but the whole edifice was still shaky on anything more than a local level and he knew it.
Thankfully, despite his promotion, he only had to worry about aforementioned local level.
He’d been tasked to defend Foless with everything they could give him, and that was it. At least for now.
Foless was a major trade hub, the world resting right at the intersection of the Corellian Trade Spine and the Shipwright’s Trace. Unfortunately, despite the loss of an entire fleet at Thyferra, the CIS pocket in the southwestern section of the galaxy had rallied and surged up the Corellian Trade Spine from Mechis III. A number of minor worlds had been taken in rapid succession, culminating in Bestine IV being overrun before anyone could get sufficient fleet assets into the area to try and stop the new surge. There, they’d stopped long enough to use Bestine IV’s growing ship repair facilities to rearm, resupply, and make repairs…which had given the Republic long enough to rally a force here to Foless.
It was a good choice of location, to be honest. Foless itself, being right on the edge of the Inner Rim and a major trading hub, had long had a sizable anti-piracy self-defense fleet. One that they’d quietly been upgrading in the lead up to the war, though not to the extreme extent that planets like Corellia and Alderaan had managed. The locals did have quite a few Defender IIs, purchased from Tythe, and a solid squadron of twenty upgraded Munifex light cruisers that they’d snagged when the Trade Federation’s private defense fleet was forced to publicly downsize. Add in some solid fighter wings and some homegrown gunships, and they were actually able to contribute meaningfully to his forces. Though they would have been run over easily by the CIS fleet without reinforcements, of course.
As to the form of those reinforcements, he had been sent with four of the few Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers the Judicial Forces had still possessed, plus a small flotilla of Consular-class light cruisers. That had been all that could be drawn from the limited pool of former Judicial Forces, but his far more important strength had been provided by the newly revealed GAR and practically fresh-out-of-the-docks Corellian Naval forces. From the GAR he had sixteen Acclimators, twelve Venators, and a single Maelstrom-class Battlecruiser that he was using as his flagship. A very solid picket force…if they weren’t facing down a CIS fleet that had fifty Battleship-conversion Lucrehulks as its core element.
Thankfully, the Corellian contingent made up for at least some of the gap, as his homeworld was finally committing some of its new construction, instead of just restored and upgraded mothball ships.
Corellia hadn’t had time to reinvent the wheel, so they hadn’t tried. Instead, CEC had dug deep into old designs from the High Republic Era and rapidly upgraded them to modern standards, then started building them on every free slip they could lay hands on in the sprawling Corellia System. Which, as the home of the single oldest shipbuilding megacorp in the galaxy, was a lot of building slips. Even if they’d had to reactivate and repair a lot of them in a hurry.
The result was the resurrection and improvement of three designs. The Emissary-class Heavy Cruiser, the Pacifier-class cruiser, and the Longbeam-class corvette. The Emissary-class was a solid 1,400 meter ship, with the new iteration having stripped out the frills from an era of peace and been upgraded to an armament that absolutely deserved its listing as a Heavy Cruiser. The Pacifier-class, which had once carried a dozen Longbeams in addition to fighters, had been redesigned into a potent cruiser-carrier.
As for what it carried, CEC had somehow acquired majority control of Koensayr Manufacturing and poured credits and talent down their throat until they produced two new designs. The BTL-series Y-Wing fighter-bomber and the IE-440 Nighthawk interceptor. Both had apparently been in the design phase already, though the Nighthawk had been originally intended as a multi-role fighter that had been hastily modified. However they’d done it, CEC and Koensayr were pumping both fighters out in huge numbers…and Corellia had always had an overabundance of pilots. It was practically a cultural touchstone, in point of fact.
Which explained why the overhauled Pacifier II design carried thirty squadrons (360) of Nighthawks and another twelve squadrons (144) of Y-wings. With a total of 504 fighters/bombers, the Pacifier officially outstripped even the GAR Venators in fighter compliment, all while being a bit smaller and slightly better armed than the Venators were. Given that he had fourteen Pacifiers, plus his Venators and the local fighter wings, he might well be the only Republic fleet commander who might legitimately have superiority in starfighter numbers over the CIS fleet.
Given that he didn’t have enough of the Emissary IIs, numbering only a dozen, to help him truly go toe-to-toe with the CIS heavies, he hoped he did. He’d leaned into that unusual advantage for this war in planning his doctrine. Now, as the CIS fleet crashed into the system he was defending at the edge of the hyper limit, he braced himself. It was time to see if the rough plan he, the local defense commander, and his Corellian counterpart had put together survived contact with the enemy…
… … …
- Clone Wars Day 17: Ord Mantell-
“Now.”
Master Even Piell’s single eye practically glowed as he ordered the trap he’d set sprung. Three dozen bomber squadrons and several missile frigates popped up out of the thick comet cloud at the edge of the system moments after he gave the order, ambushing the CIS probing attack that had tried a hit and run on the system. It wasn’t even close to the first such probing attack, the CIS commander for this area of space clearly looking for weaknesses he could exploit.
This time, Master Piell wasn’t letting the bastard have his scout force back intact.
He’d had enough time to analyze the way his opponent was running the probes. Combined with a little bit of Force guidance, he’d managed to use that analysis to pre-position the strike force that was now screaming down on the quartet of Munificent-class ships. Ships that had already pulled in their fighter cover in anticipation of jumping out of the system. Ord Mantell had a uniquely thick outer comet shroud, so much so that it regularly hosted the Blockade Runners Derby. Now, it had allowed his small force to hide, giving the enemy virtually no warning before the fighters and frigates were already in range and pumping out missiles and torpedoes as fast as they could.
He watched grimly as the trap did its job, destroying two of the Munificents outright and rendering a third unable to jump to hyperspace. It surrendered, even as the last enemy ship managed to jump out. Unfortunate, that one had gotten away, as it would make pulling the same trick harder in the future. Still, at least they’d bloodied the bastard’s nose this time. Maybe he’d think twice about sending another probe at all.
Of course, that did risk the commander finally finding wherever he’d misplaced his balls to and attacking in earnest. Something which Piell didn’t know if they could handle, given the reinforcements the enemy fleet had gotten outnumbered their own. Still, even if they managed to take the system from him, he’d make damn well sure they bled more than they could afford for it…
… … …
- Clone Wars Day 18: Thisspias -
Anakin juked, dodging fire inside the cloud of Vultures that had gotten snarled up with him and his fellow Blades. Thankfully, despite the danger, that was exactly what they’d wanted. When he’d first noticed that the Vulture swarms being used for probing attacks on Lantillies had a statistically unlikely focus on the Blades in any skirmish, over all other targets, he’d brought it to the attention of the mix of higher-ups operating as the ad-hoc local command. To his pleasant surprise, the group had managed to hammer out this mission as a result of confirming that observation.
Sure, escort missions sucked, but he’d take it if it meant actually striking back at the CIS in any way at all right now.
Zeroing another Vulture, he was clear of the furball just long enough to glance at the scopes, confirming that the armed freighters that were the whole point of this operation were successfully making it through. They were, bringing a tight smile to his face despite the fact that he’d lost a few of his pilots already. The Thisspiasians were a warrior culture, and while they hadn’t had enough of a fleet to hold off the CIS, they were causing the droid army that the Confederacy had landed nine sorts of hell on the ground. With those freighters all loaded to the brim with supplies the Thisspiasians could use to really make the droid army pay, they could ensure the likelihood of a local victory on the ground, even if they couldn’t take the system back properly.
Of course, the entire operation had been made possible only by the fact the Blade fighters having been foolishly designated with extremely high priority by the CIS droids, allowing his wing to pull the entire swarm out of orbit. With the CIS having only left a few cruisers and a large Vulture swarm to protect the planet’s orbitals, under a tactical droid that wouldn’t change the targeting of the Vultures on the fly? With the Vultures tied up, and the cruisers on the wrong side of the planet for a quick interception, the freighters were getting in nearly unmolested.
It was a small thing, maybe. But this raid constituted the very first offensive operation that anyone within the Republic had attempted, at least so far as Anakin knew. Pleased that it was working out, Anakin returned to the dogfight, determined to cost the CIS some more of its Vultures before he pulled his people out…
… … …
- Clone Wars Day 19: Tythe Central -
“Rana, you’ve done amazing, so don’t take this as a criticism…but this is a hell of a fucking mess.”
First Admiral of the Fleet Rana Lin snorted at that.
“That’s putting it a bit lightly, isn’t it boss? I’d have shoehorned a few more expletives in there, if I were you. In fact, between you, me, and the bulkhead? I already have.”
It was Izuku’s turn to snort at his top military commander’s dry delivery. Yet, even as he did so, he was still staring into the galactic holo that mapped their various theaters of operation. The worst mess, since it hadn’t stopped being an active combat zone since the fifth day of the war, was the ongoing fighting over the Dac system. While the fighting on the planet itself had pretty much ended, the Gungans and Zavra being too much for the Quarren insurgents to handle, the void warfare was still ongoing in fits and starts.
The CIS very clearly wanted the massive shipyards the system held, as it was the only point where they’d doubled down…then doubled down again. Izuku couldn’t exactly blame them, really. The Mon Calamari Orbital Shipyards were both large and, just as important, among the most sophisticated in the known galaxy. It was easy to lose sight of that fact due to their relatively slow rate of production for the size of the yards, but the truth was that every single ship they built was essentially bespoke artwork. Building battlecruisers which you could say that about at any rate above ‘utterly glacial’ was only possible because of just how advanced the yards themselves were. The truth was that it was the design work that caused the slowdown in shipbuilding, not the facilities.
Something which, pointedly, had changed in the year and a half leading up to the war.
Despite their love of art, Mon Calamari were brutally pragmatic as a people, and they most certainly hadn’t ignored the warning the Jedi had given them. Not only had they quietly shifted work on all the ships Alderaan wanted from being relief ships to war ships…but they’d also quietly put aside their normal tendencies to start producing copies.
It went massively against the grain for them to make more than one of the same ship without tweaking the design. Indeed, even now they were still tweaking ship internal fittings and other minor details as a compromise between pragmatism and culture. Yet they had landed on the side of pragmatism and began building duplicate warships. In doing so, they’d proven that their actual production rate for large-scale warships was second only to the League of Free Stars. Not even Kuat could match them in speed-per-ship, even if Kuat had far more total building slips to work with.
The result was that the initial CIS had run face-first into a fleet of over ninety battlecruisers, and nearly twice that number of heavy cruisers, plus orbital defenses. Every single one of those ships was superior to anything of comparable tonnage the Confederacy had, though they’d been out massed by enough that they’d still have fallen if the League hadn’t answered their calls for aid. With support from the League, including eight Miruko-class, the initial CIS incursion had been pushed back. Yet, unlike everywhere else the CIS had been turned back from so far, which were only seeing probing attacks at most…Dac had come under assault twice more.
“What happened in the third Dac assault, Rana? That’s a lot of damaged Volitions and their support frigates, but very few outright destroyed.”
Rana scowled and brought up a holo of the battle with a few quick taps. Izuku watched in surprise as just two CIS ships appeared before any others. Specifically, a pair of Subjugators. He began to understand when both ships immediately charged their MegaIon cannons and fired as fast as they could, the waves from the super weapons hitting two thirds of the defending fleet. Everything smaller than a battlecruiser that was hit went dead, with the telltale arcing lightning of ion damage sparking over their hulls. His eyes narrowed as the Volitions and the Mon Calamari heavy cruisers only went down with the second pulse. The Mirukos, Paladins, and Mon Calamari MC80a Battlecruisers didn’t go down at all, and immediately started pounding the pair of Star Dreadnaughts.
“The multi-layer shields do work as a defense then?”
While it had previously been theorized that the same multi-layered shield defense that provided the only real protection against the Null Torpedo/Graviton Beam combination would also protect against the overwhelming MegaIon weapon…no one had known for sure. Rana paused the replay and answered.
“Yes. But a certain level of raw power is required by the shields. Two Volitions almost made it through. In fact, if you look at the edge of the waves, several are still functional, having lost shields but not been rendered helpless. The Mon Cals went heavily into overkill with shield redundancy on the MC80as and pulled through, if just barely.”
Rana restarted the replay and Izuku watched as a CIS fleet dropped in less than two minutes later…only to find that one of the Subjugators was an air-bleeding wreck and the second was in dire straits. The two Star Dreadnaughts had been forced to come in alone and unsupported, since their super weapons very much didn’t discriminate. The survival of the Paladins and Mirukos had meant they’d been ripped into from outside their own effective range with anything but the super weapons. Which, given that both Subjugator had suffered heavy shield damage for their sister ship’s weapon themselves, had quickly doomed one and would have doomed the other without the new fleet dropping in.
The CIS commander had clearly made a snap decision, probably the wrong one in Izuku’s opinion, to close ranks around the surviving Subjugator and protect it as they fled the system. If he’d been in that commander’s shoes, he’d have pushed on and possibly taken the planet, given how many of the defenders had been disabled. But they’d clearly prioritized the recovery of their weapon, possibly on standing orders. Their best information said that the CIS had started the war with less than a dozen Subjugators, and now they’d already lost two. Hopefully, that would make them reluctant to deploy them again in the future.
“Thankfully, Dac has enough repair slips to handle the fleet, since the damage to most of the Volitions wasn’t actually that bad. I took the liberty of sending another pair of Mirukos and eight Paladins to reinforce, just in case they try something daring while repairs are underway. The Dac front is by far our largest current commitment, and losing those ships while they are in the yard would be a disaster.”
Izuku pursed his lips but nodded. Having almost ten percent of their total number of Mirukos tied down to defense of a single system was…not ideal. Yet it also wouldn’t last. Rana had possessed the good sense to order Plus Stations deployed to Dac. They’d built up a stockpile of the powerful, modular stations in the run up to the war. Now, a full dozen of them were being added to Dac’s defenses. In another week, they would start coming online and make the system far harder to take. Enough so that they could likely pull back half of the Mirukos, at least. He made a note to talk to logistics about getting an Ultra Station or two built at Dac as well.
The even larger, nastier defensive Ultra installations weren’t modular. Unlike the Plus stations, which were designed to be brought into a system in pieces and assembled, Ultra Stations had to be built in place. Even within League Space, only a handful of critical star systems such as Tythe and Evocar had Ultra Stations. Yet, Dac was proving to be enough of a target that building one or two of them there might well be on the table. If for no other reason than to free up their limited mobile assets.
Shaking that thought off, even as he put a mental pin in it to bring up to logistics later, Izuku took back control of the holo display. Exiting the Dac recording and zooming back out to the overall galaxy, he let his eyes move away from the League’s own defenses. There had been a number of probes of other League worlds, but Dac was their only major ongoing battle at the moment. Oddly, that seemed to be relatively true in Republic space as well.
“Only probes against Lantillies, Ord Mantell, and Kidriff 5? I know the CIS opened a new battlespace at Foless, but that’s only the assets from their southwestern pocket. They can’t be using everything they have free up to galactic north against us at Dac. So why aren’t they committing their reserves? We know they have them, even without stripping defenses or halting the absorption of their gained space.”
Rana grimaced, gesturing for control, and Izuku passed it over to her. She highlighted an area of space around Togoria, which included Kashyyyk, Umbra, Zeltros and Onderon.
“If you want my best guess based on what ship movements we have seen, boss? I’m guessing they are still looking for softer places to stab deeper into the Republic, instead of committing to the slugging matches required to punch through the systems they were halted at. There are a bunch of smaller hyperlanes in this area you could move a fleet through, and Togoria is firmly on the Separatists’ side. Given that we know there were also some issues between the King and Senator on Onderon…”
Izuku scowled as he examined the zoomed in region of space. Only a complete fool would try to take Zeltros itself, given what had happened to every other group in history that had ever tried. But if you took the rest of the systems in that area you could force the Zeltros self defense force to pull back to the planet itself and simply bypass through the outer system without risking anything. Commenor had a solid defense force, but it was flanked on two sides by Neimoidia and Cato Neimoidia. Both of which were supposedly loyal, but absolutely no one believed it. They were both Trade Federation worlds through and through, after all.
Worse, Neimoidia was only a galactic stone’s throw away from Kuat.
That world, despite its incredible defenses, had to be one of the absolute most critical targets for the CIS. One that they would throw thousands of ships at if they could carve a path to it, just for the chance to damage the Kuat Shipyards. Yes, he could unfortunately see it. The question was what to do about it. They did have some influence in the area, being friendly with both Kashyyyk and Onderon’s king. The League even had a decent sized fleet already in the area, at Randon. That world had jumped to join the League, and its strategic position holding the junction of four separate hyperlanes had resulted in Admiral Lin sending a proper fleet to defend it. Not a picket force like in many other cases, but a proper defense fleet anchored by a pair of Mirukos and a dozen Paladins.
Izuku highlighted it, bit his lip, and nodded after a moment.
“I think we need to quietly reinforce the fleet you sent to Randon, then equally quietly let the Wookiees know we’re willing to come to their aid. There is a risk the CIS will shoot down the Lesser Lantillies, instead of trying for the Trellen Trade Route. But there are fewer major planets along the Trellen, and we know Trandosha is friendly with the Confederacy. Add in a fair bet that they’ll want the Umbaran technology if they can get it…”
Rana nodded firmly.
“It makes sense. Though, they have enough ships they might just try for both. Particularly if Onderon somehow flips.”
Izuku grimaced but shrugged.
“True, but we can’t be everywhere, and despite being friendly with Onderon…it’s too far into the Republic right now. We can’t offer them support without looking like we’re trying to invade ourselves, where Kashyyyk is nearly on top of our new borders. We alert the Republic, do what we can, and hope for the best.”
His top Admiral sighed, but nodded agreement…then changed the subject.
“With that out of the way, boss. We need to discuss what to do about Geonosis. We can’t just let it stew, given it will get harder and harder to deal with the longer we wait.”
Ugh. He already knew what he was intending to do there, but he also already knew that Rana was not going to be happy with his decision. Gearing himself up for a verbal sparring match with her, he started to outline the plan…
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A/N 1: I was actually surprised to discover that Pallaeon started out in the Judiciary Forces. The bits I included are actually entirely canon, at least for the EU. Including him apparently being skipped over for promotions due to being a womanizer. Since I wanted to use an actual Judiciary Forces officer for a perspective, I figured he was the perfect candidate, as he's actually a recognizable name for EU readers.
A/N 2: The reveal of what Corellia was working on for New Construction! Old designs updated in a rush, but solid High Repulbic era designs. Admittedly, not a lot is known about them, details wise, so I'll be making up a lot of weapons numbers, sizes, and so forth. The Nighthawk is actually a design Koensayr was working on LATE in the Clone Wars. Given how short the Clone Wars actually were, though, I figure it was already in design phase, and Corellia pouring resources down their throat could get it ready. Particularly as the Clone Wars are starting a full year after they would have in canon.
A/N 3: We get a bit of an explanation in this chapter about both the Subjugators...and the League's Null Torpedo/Graviton Beam setup. I mentioned a long time ago (seemingly) that someone would eventually figure out how to counter that devastating combo. It DID get mentioned in later parts of the Crusade that people had figured the solution out, which was to project multiple layers of shields. It just so happens that, powered sufficiently, the same modification lessened the impact of the Subjugator Mega Ion canons. As seen by how many smaller ships were disabled, it doesn't eliminate them as a threat, but it does make it possible the fight them.