Chapter 74: Victories and Retaliation

Summary: A peak at what's going on elsewhere...

Warning! Chapters 71-74 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 74: Victories and Retaliation

-Orbit of Nar Haaska – Three Days Post Battle of Tisht-

Admiral Lin was pleased as she settled into orbit over Nar Haaska. Despite having a population close to one billion, data on the world had been…limited. The reason for that was, it must be said, also the reason that she'd faced some serious unknowns during the battle for the world's orbitals. Technically, by the thinnest of definitions, there was a single additional world between Hutt Space and Wild Space. But Droxu was, at best, a Hutt outpost that served as an early warning against anything in Wild Space coming to call that might not be friendly.

Wild Space differed from the Unknown Regions to the galactic 'west' in that, technically, it had been charted and explored. Sort of. Kind of. If you squinted a bit and didn't care that only a single expedition that might be several thousand years out of date was all that might have touched on any particular system out there. Some species, like the Kaleesh and Huk, were known to live out past the Republic's border and the paths to reaching their worlds were somewhat well established in various records. Those were relatively known entities.

Others were basically a bunch of question marks. Like the blue-skinned cyborgs that had nearly crippled two of her Volitions when they'd launched some sort of ECW attack. Thankfully, League ships had far better ECM systems than most of the Republic, and they'd eventually fought off the cyber-attack. Those two Volitions had been pounded by a trio of oversized frigates in the process and might well have been destroyed if Lin's own frigates hadn't ripped the unknown and admittedly tough ships apart before they could do too much damage. Both Volitions were still going to need significant yard time, even as it was.

There had been half a dozen other nasty surprises like that, as the Hutts had called in contacts they certainly had with Wild Space factions who had dealt with the Hutts far more than they ever had with the Republic. In the end, while the battle had cost her more than she'd have liked, those tricks hadn't been enough. And now the League controlled effectively every way into the core of Hutt Space but Kessel. Which was, itself, a very poor choice of paths to travel by.

Strategically, they were now in a good place…mostly. Unfortunately, they'd also spread themselves about as thin as it was safe to do until more forces became available. Aside from some spoiling raids and taking a few poorly defended worlds here and there, it was time to consolidate and shift to longer-term strategies. All while doing their best to weather the incoming backlash as the Hutts started to properly get their house in order. Well, they'd known that would be coming and they had plans in place. Hopefully, those plans would be enough…

... ...

-Nar Kreeta System - LSF Deliverance - Flag Bridge-

Commodore Sail'ada frowned in annoyance as he took in the strength of the Fleet that had just dropped out of Hyperspace. Having been assigned to defend Nar Kreeta, he had known from the start that his was one of the most at-risk commands. Nar Kreeta, Nar Bo Sholla, and Kleeva were the three easiest attack vectors for fleets moving into Hutt Space from the Republic. Kleeva, of course, was simply a system they'd taken as a buffer for Nal Hutta, making it both more and less likely to be attacked. More because the Fleet presence there was smaller. Less, because the Fleet concentrated on Nal Hutta beyond it was their single strongest defense Fleet outside Tythe. Still, in the unlikely event the Hutts had put together a Fleet big enough to take Nal Hutta back, there was no question they'd have done so.

That wasn't very likely, not this quickly, and it clearly hadn't happened. It had been just over four weeks since their 'Blitz,' as Admiral Midoriya called it, had started taking so many Hutt systems in as rapid a fashion as possible. Long enough for the Hutts to knock together a fairly powerful mercenary Fleet, yes. Not nearly long enough to gather forces strong enough to take back Nal Hutta, though. Which, of course, explained why there were here instead. Nar Kreeta controlled access to Nimban and Sleheyron. The former having the largest shipyard complex in Hutt Space and the latter being an access point to the Bootana Hutta subsector where the Hutt Throne Worlds resided.

It was a logical target. Which was, of course, why he was here. It was also why he'd been assigned Toru-class scout ships, which he'd been using to keep an eye on Ilos Minor, the likely vector for any Fleet to come through. In turn, that meant that he'd been aware of this particular Fleet building up for the last week, fully prepared for it…he'd thought.

"Tactical? Any sign where those three Dreadnaughts came from?"

Iresa Lokt, his Staff Tactical Officer, was quick to respond.

"Yes and no sir, I've been running them through known databases and found hits. They used to be Republic Judicial until one of the downsizings. They were sold off to, and this is a direct quote, 'an Outer Rim Planetary Security Force.' Best bet is that's code for one of the corporate owned worlds buying them for security against raids…and possibly to cow their own people as well."

Well, that much made a regrettable amount of sense. Self-defense fleets weren't encouraged to have ships that big these days. But that hadn't always been the case and Dreadnaughts were an old design. Likely, the corporation that owned them was Hutt controlled or had been bought out, bribed, or threatened. Still, that also hadn't been entirely what he'd been asking. Thankfully, Lokt was good at her job and quickly moved on to the information he'd been after.

"For the more immediate answer as to how they joined the Fleet without us noticing, I'm afraid I have only speculation. Best guess is that they've likely been nearby while the Fleet was gathering, hiding in dark space, and only joined the Fleet after it started moving. Likely specifically to avoid us realizing they had them."

Sail'ada tsked. Clearly, someone on the Hutt's side was starting to realize they were using scouts. Even if it was unlikely that they knew the nature of those scouts just yet, they'd clearly twigged to the fact they were being watched somehow. Worse, they'd taken steps to fool anyone doing it, which showed an irritating level of competence. Still…

He went over the enemy order of battle. The trio of Dreadnaughts were a nasty surprise, no question. On paper they weren't that far off of comparable to the Volitions he had, though he had four to their three. Of course, that was a bad joke in practice. Unless someone had figured out how the Null Torpedoes and Graviton Beam trick worked, then spent the money and resources to build a counter, those Dreadnaughts weren't even close to a match for his Volitions. Of course, neither set of ships was alone, and he had to admit that the Hutts had managed to put together a formidable force for how little time they'd had to work with.

In addition to the Dreadnaughts, there were a quartet of Centax-class heavy frigates. A somewhat good design made by Sluis Van. A single Pelta-class and a pair of unmodified Munifexs rounded out the true capital ships, but were still somewhat overmatched by his own array of Siege-class and Munifex IIs. Of which he had four and eight each, respectively. It was in the lighter ships that the numbers skewed the other way. The Hutt Fleet had at least twice his number of corvettes, and at least three times his number of gunships, a hodgepodge of freighter conversions and true military designs. Add in the large freighters that were disgorging quite a few squadrons of mixed starfighters, and this must look to the Hutts like a Fleet with a very solid chance of taking his own on.

Pity for them they were wrong.

Annoying for him that they might have been right, if the fertile minds behind their invasion plans hadn't realized this was going to happen eventually. Even if he'd stuck with just his mobile elements, the Null Torpedoes and Graviton Beams would still have doomed that attacking Fleet. There was just no feasible way they'd refitted to deal with them just yet. This amount of firepower against him would have hurt, though. Beginning the process of chipping away at the League by throwing money at the problem. Unfortunately for his enemies, Sail'ada wasn't stuck with just his mobile forces. Knowing that they'd be pushed onto the defensive sooner or later, the people planning the Crusade had prepared several things to make sure critically captured worlds wouldn't flip again easily.

Things such as the trio of Orbital Defense Platforms that had been shipped in as pieces and rapidly assembled. Not quite as powerful as the ones over Tythe, but of the same general type and a very nasty surprise. Then, of course, were the much more prosaic ships he was about to order into action. Smirking, he looked at this comms officer.

"Janna? Is Mousetrap ready?"

Janna Osketirix, whose last name he couldn't hope to pronounce, leaving him quite glad she allowed him to use Janna, grinned at him. It was quite a nice grin, too. Pity she was currently under his direct command. Ah well, maybe someday she wouldn't be.

"Ready, sir! They were able to align vectors under low power ten minutes ago! Your orders?"

Sail'ada's own smile turned hungry as he gave it, the half-whimsical thought about his gorgeous comms officer giving way to professional eagerness.

"Tell them to roll out the welcome mat for our guests, Janna. We wouldn't want to be rude after all. They've come expecting to introduce themselves, so we'll kindly give them our own introductions first."

There were quite a few hungry smirks mirroring his own around the Flag Bridge as Janna sent out the order…

... ...

-Bloody Profit – Hutt Dreadnaught-

"What's this? Sir! Six ships just lit off drives right in our path! System is…saying they are some variant of an ES-23? Cargo carriers, sir. Must have been using them as forward scouts, I guess?"

Edric Steinlish frowned. He knew the League had been scouting his Fleet, of course. As a Muun, it had been hilariously obvious once he'd been given what data the Hutts had on the minor engagements fought so far. How they were doing it, he wasn't sure, what he was sure of was that it didn't make any sense for them to still be doing it now. It wasn't as if his fleet were hiding at this point.

"Scan the area those ships were in. I want to know if there's anything there."

The larger variants of that same ship, the ES-24, were used as carriers by his enemy. If they'd dropped off some of their droid controlled fighters as a first ambush, it would make some sense as an attempt to whittle away his own screen. A doomed effort, of course, but it would likely do a little damage and provide the enemy with data.

"Scans report nothing, sir. A few rocks, but nothing big enough to hide behind, and no power signatures at all."

Frowning, he said nothing for a moment, then grimaced.

"Sent two squadrons of Vultures through that space ahead of us to run a sweep, just in case. Slow to 70 percent speed until the sweep it done."

... ...

-LSF Deliverance - Flag Bridge-

"Cautious bastard, isn't he? Guess that makes the odds the Dreadnaughts came with their defense force crew higher. He's experienced enough to at least have run into some nasty pirate tricks, I'd guess."

Commander Lokt, who was effectively his tactical second on the Staff, nodded in acknowledgement.

"Probably thinking we dropped starfighters in his path, sir. Not that it's going to do him any good."

Sail'ada murmured his agreement, watching as the first-generation Vultures raced out ahead of his enemy's main Fleet. Those things weren't all that useful, Naboo having proven they were pretty sad compared to a real starfighter. Even in swarms. Of course, that just meant that the old models had all been sold off to groups like this, while the Trade Federation designed an improved version from what they'd learned. They did also, he had to admit, make for a nicely disposable sweeping unit.

A thought he might forward to their own R and D types. Their own droid fighters were much better, but had been explicitly designed to play wingman for flesh and blood pilots. They had high end droid brains and extremely good performance overall, with the costs that came with that. They could certainly duplicate what the Vultures were doing, but it would be a heck of a lot more money down the drain if they were destroyed. It might not be a bad idea to produce something more disposable for sweeping a potential trap like his opponent was doing.

Not that it was going to help his opponent, as he didn't know what he was looking for. A fighter, even in standby, would radiate enough power to be picked up at close range. What those freighters had actually left out there, in low power mode, could be run off a comm battery. They weren't going to pick it up with a Vulture sweep. Still, he supposed the enemy could be paranoid to shoot every rock out there and discover the trick. Thankfully, as the minutes passed, it became obvious that such wasn't the case. His undoubtedly confused enemy called back the Vultures, bringing them into a hangar to refuel the short-ranged fighters even as the bit of space in question let them pass unmolested.

"Range to ODP envelop?"

A tactical view of the system popped up on his screen, showing the answer. They were less than a minute out.

"Alright, pass the word to the ODP crews. I want to wait until they are only 2km outside our own battery's range. No point in giving away all our tricks. Let them think the ODP's are shorter ranged than they are. Once they cross that envelop, tell the ODP's they are free to fire…and deploy our welcome mat at the same time."

His tactical commander nodded, saluted, and went to relay his orders…

... ...

-Bloody Profit – Hutt Dreadnaught-

"Sir! Orbital installations are powering up weapons! They…what the kark is that? The power readings are…"

The tactical officer of the Bloody Profit didn't have any chance to finish his sentence as those odd looking orbital defense stations abruptly opened fire from what should have been well outside range. Edric Steinlish had no chance at all to react as each station fired a massive coherent beam of continuous light. No plasma weapon was this, but an outright Particle Beam. It was a near-light-speed weapon, and the shields of the Dreadnaught came under horrific assault instantly. Even as their shields started to rapidly fail and the helmsman made desperate evasive maneuvers without orders, the last thing Edric Steinlish heard was a panicked follow-up cry from tactical.

"Missile trace! Multiple Missile traces! From directly behind us! God there's so many of…"

... ...

-LSF Deliverance - Flag Bridge-

Sail'ada smiled grimly as all three of the Dreadnaughts broke up under the dual-sided barrage. The ODP's went silent, overheated and needing at least thirty seconds to fire again, but that was fine. Between them and the missile storm that had erupted from the disguised missile pods the freighters had deployed, the three heaviest ships were gone and a dozen smaller ships were damaged. Each of the special one-shot pods had been entirely shut down, made mostly of tough ceramics and hidden inside very real rock that the freighters had dumped while drifting at minimal power. The only power to the pod's systems had been a tiny battery-powered receiver that needed only one simple command.

Turn on and fire at pre-designated targets.

Each of those disguised pods had contained ten extended-range concussion missiles, and there had been twenty such pods dropped around the zone the enemy had just passed through. A storm of 200 missiles erupted from directly behind the enemy formation, targeted primarily on the Dreadnaughts with secondary 'targets of opportunity.' With enough time to react and maneuver, the relatively long engagement window for extended range missiles would have given the enemy a chance. From ambush, while the ODPs were already thoroughly distracting everyone? The effect had been, predictably, devastating. In truth, they likely could have aimed them entirely at the frigates. But no one had yet actually used the ODP particle beams yet, and thus he'd doubled down for safety.

Now, those Dreadnaughts were so much chunky bits of glowing debris. A fair few smaller ships had taken hits from missiles with more distance to travel. Those missiles from the pods farther out of positions had noted distinct lack of their primary targets still existing before they reached attack range, causing them to shift targets to whatever they could hit.

"Engage as ordered, Captain Golfien!"

With that order to his Flag Captain, the taskforce began to accelerate in formation, angling to rake across the confused forward arc of their enemy. Between their own movement and the enemy's, they would reach firing range just in time for the ODP's to strike again, despite that enemy frantically attempting to put on the brakes. He had no intention of letting anything bigger than a starfighter escape the trap his first proper opponents had just blissfully walked into…

... ...

Bo-Katan was pissed off and her whole team knew it. She'd wanted to shoot the little bitch that had commented, with his comm off but close enough she could catch it, about her having forgotten her feminine care products. Sadly, said little bitch was their sapper, which meant she'd have to wait until after the mission was over to kick him in the dick hard enough he'd feel it through the armor. Grinding her teeth, she consoled herself that this whole mess was, at least, finally almost over. The pay for success would be enough to really push the Death Watch to a new level, as well. One they could sharpen farther on the Hutts' credits.

War was good for business, when you were in the business of making war.

Her current, incredibly frustrating mission had started with those same Hutt credits. Only ten percent up front, but the total pay off was…significant. It had seemed like a good deal, given that the Hutts didn't even have a specific target in mind. They just wanted the Death Watch to hit something on the planet of Tythe that would hurt the supposed 'League of Free Stars.' A blind retaliation as much as a calculated bid to slow the League down.

In truth, hitting something in the shipyards would have made more strategic sense, but Bo-Katan was at least happy the Hutts had been petty enough to make this as much a psychological attack as a physical one. It meant they'd wanted something on the planet itself, to show their reach. Which was a kriffing good thing considering just how good planetary security here was. It had been an absolute nightmare to get enough armor and explosives through security. Normally, they'd have just stealth dropped into some remote part of the planet. But the orbital security over Tythe was insane. Those scary as fuck Orbital Defense Platforms kept a mesh of active scans going constantly, with no holes in the net they'd been able to find. It was frankly more professionally done than most Core Worlds had.

That fact had reduced them to the slow trickle of materials that they could get through or around customs. Scan bafflers to cover a single armor piece hidden inside apparently solid molding of an industrial part, helmet electronics shipped through as hobbyist gear. That sort of thing. Irritatingly slow and clumsy, both things that grated on Bo Katan's nerves. All the more so since getting off the planet again would mean ditching a lot of it. Meaning no personal armors and no beskar, since they didn't want to lose anything like that.

Still, the mission was almost over. They'd managed to get into place near some sort of major industrial node. It was producing starfighters, mostly, from what they could tell. Which meant an excellent chance for secondary explosions. Not to mention it would satisfy the Hutts since it was a major 'war' target of a critical asset. The place was far more heavily automated than expected, which had been both good and bad. Ultimately, it meant they'd had a lot more in the way of sensors to deal with, but none of the unpredictable nature of organics to screw things up either. They'd gotten the demo charges in place, and now she was watching from a hidden bit of rock as she gleefully fingered the detonator.

"Everyone clear?"

She couldn't mask the excitement in her voice and was pleased as her personal team all reported back. The sapper didn't…but then she didn't care if he was clear or not. Call her a cunt, would he? Fucker could burn if he hadn't gotten clear. He wasn't part of her unit, was barely even a Mando at all as far as she was concerned. Grinning viciously, she pushed the button…and practically cheered as the fireworks started. The main production line went up in a glorious mushroom cloud, though oddly there were few secondary explosions. Well, the facility was a wreck anyway, so it didn't matter much that she didn't get everything. She signaled her team to start withdrawing, only to catch the blur of something out of the corner of her eye. She turned…

Bo-Katan Kryze never properly saw the multiple streams of fire from the completely independent security turrets that tore her and her unit apart. It had never occurred to her or her team that such a heavily automated facility might have layered security networks and multiple droid brains, and they'd never realized that the outer security they'd slipped through was controlled independently from the main control center. The droid brain in charge of outer security, processing the destruction of the facility, had called for a direct sensor pulse of the entire area by an overhead Orbital Defense Platform. Then it opened up with everything it could on the anomalous life signatures found within the exclusion zone enforced around the factory, the destruction of the facility having allowed it to trigger lethal protocols for anything within that zone.

As Mei would later state when reviewing how someone had bypassed security on one of her half dozen starfighter production lines, 'What sort of idiot would tie perimeter defenses into the central security station? Single points of failure are dumb. It's like no one reads the Evil Overlord List anymore.' While annoyed that someone had penetrated security far enough to plant charges, it would take less than three weeks for Mei's bots to rebuild the starfighter assembly line and a few extra runs at the other production lines would cover the temporary shortfall easily. Unlike their larger ships, they were nowhere near capacity for starfighter production, after all.

Still, it did technically count as the first Hutt victory of the war. Even if it failed to amount to much, and no one but the Hutts and the Death Watch would ever even figure out who'd done it…

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ...

A/N 1: So, in this chapter we see what I've warned you all was going to happen eventually start to actually happen. Izuku and Co pushed for a hell of an initial Blitz to secure a viable position for a war on the Hutts...but they control less than a tenth of Hutt Space. Eventually, their initial momentum was always going to play out and the Hutts would start hitting back. The first signs of this come in the assault on Nar Kreeta, which finally lets the League show off some of their more defensive systems. Yet, it also represents the first time the League fleets were forced to DEFEND rather than attack. A major shift in dynamic.

A/N 2: The same is true for the attack on Tythe. Sure it may not have done a ton of damage...but it DID do what the Hutts wanted. It proved that the League's own 'home' wasn't immune to their retaliation.

A/N 3: Bo-Katan. I know she has fans. No, I don't know why, as I haven't watched more recent Disney series. I personally don't like her and didn't feel even the slightest bit bad in killing her off. Whatever redeeming qualities she might have eventually developed? They didn't exist at this point in time. She willingly joined a terrorist group that regularly targeted civilians and sold their services to spice and slaver groups. All because she wanted an excuse to murder people in the glorious traditions of her people. I have a lot of respect for someone like Jaster's True Mandalorians...but none at all for the Death Watch and those that joined it.

AN 4: Yeah, you probably know this bit by now. Once per release, I point out that I have a  Page with Early Access content. In example, I just released chapters 75-78 of Displaced Hero there, adding just over another 14,500 words which will remain in Early Access until next month. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released. Typically, there are around 45,000-60,000 words of additional early access content for patrons. As well as chances to vote in polls that influence which stories are updated, pairings, and other such things.