FLEET ADMIRAL VORIN ZONILL
OBJECTIVE II: ACROSS THE STARS
ORBITING ATRISIA
Despite the tremendous amount of fire slamming into the bow of the
Conqueror's Bane and the damage that it had suffered as a result, the
Heimdall-Class Fast Battlecruiser was holding steady and would soon breach the forward lines of the enemy's defensive formation. More importantly, the formation that Zonill had elected to use had effectively shielded his
Imperial I-class Star Destroyers and
Vilifier-class Star Destroyer from any incoming fire, ensuring that they would be able to bring the full force of their armament against the enemy.
Though it had been a risky maneuver to perform against a smaller, more agile fleet, it seemed that Zonill's Ackbar Slash was going to pay off in the end, with only minor damage done to his flagship.
"T-minus two minutes and closing, sir", Sellferr reported to the Admiral as the
Conqueror's Bane continued to close the gap between itself and the enemy ships. "Looks like we have them, Admiral Zonill."
"It would appear so", the Admiral countered as he wiped his brow and breathed a sigh of relief. "Continue to intensify fire on their main ship. Once we eliminate it from the field, the rest of the enemy fleet should fall quickly", Zonill said absentmindedly.
"Still, I have to admit things were looking a bit hairy back that for a moment", Sellferr noted as he directed the crew of the
Conqueror's Bane to reload its
Plasma Cannon.
"Tell me Captain, are you familiar with the game of Pazaak?", Zonill asked Sellferr as he seemingly changed the subject out of nowhere.
"Not overly sir, though I am of course familiar with the concept", Sellferr remarked confusedly.
"Then I'm sure you're aware that in Pazaak, their are many different ways of winning. Reaching the number 20, forcing your opponent to go over that number, or using a special sort of 'tie-breaking' card. All equally valid and equally important. Yet, their is another way to win the game that is only seen in rather rare cases."
"And that would be-"
"I'm of course talking about filling the table", Zonill said as he cut Sellferr off. "In certain cases, its possible to win a game of Pazaak by placing enough cards on the table without going over 20. I believe that in Pazaak that number is 9. Now, if we take the rules of Pazaak and apply them to this battlefield, it becomes apparent that are enemy never had a chance at winning in the first place."
"And that would be because?"
"Because", Zonill said impatiently, "I can afford to fill the table with cards and our opponents cannot. It's simple math, Captain. We have far more ships than they do at the moment, and ours are far more powerful. It's a bad matchup, plain and simple, one that the enemy should have never taken. If they were smart, they would have waited for their reinforcements, assuming they even had any left, or at least tried to fight us on more favorable terms by breaking our battlegroup into smaller 'hands' as it were. At least that way they might be able to win a hand or two if they couldn't win the whole game", Zonill remarked as the column of ships reached the outer edge of the Empire's formation.
"I...I see. Can't say I ever cared much for that game", Sellferr said dryly as he refocused his attention back to the battle at hand.
"No matter, Captain. Game or not, it won't change our inevitable victory here."
"Of course, sir, of course. By the way, I hate to interrupt your monologue, but sensors are picking up a massive energy reading coming in from our allies."
"You mean Governor
Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory
's fleet?" Zonill asked.
Before he could get a response, a massive battlecruiser seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and fired some sort of frighteningly powerful energy cannon at the enemy's flagship. Zonill was glad they were on the same side, as he would have hated to have been on the receiving end of whatever weapon it was that they had fired.
The only problem? Zonill's fighters were still in the way.
"Are they
mad?!?!", Zonill hissed in anger as preliminary causality reports began coming in. Though the Governor had missed the bulk of his forces, some of his fighters had been caught up in the blast. While undeniably effective, Zonill was furious that the Governor would risk
his men in order to destroy the enemy's ships, regardless of their intent to hit friendly forces or not.
"Dammit! What the hell are they thinking?", Zonill fumed. When this was all over, he would have to track down the Governor and give her a piece of his mind.
"So be it. Let's finish this as soon as possible. I want to minimize-"
Zonill never finished the thought, as what happened next left him utterly dumbstruck.
It all happened so fast. One minute, the enemy fleet was there, right in front of him, waiting to be destroyed. Then, they simply weren't. Zonill didn't know how they did it, but the enemy had somehow successfully pulled off a high precision hyperspace jump right out from under his nose. Despite the shock of seeing what happened, Zonill recovered quickly.
"Damn it all! I want a hard turn to starboard! IMMEDIATELY!" Zonill roared as the Captain made the necessary maneuvers as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, that wasn't the last surprise the Empire had for Zonill's fleet.
"Wait, sir, we've got incoming...no, that can't be right...incoming frigates! They're moving at speed, coming right at us!"
His eyes widened in horror as he realized just what the enemy was trying to do.
"They're...they're...
they're going to ram us!", he managed to stammer out.
"Evasive maneuvers!", Zonill demanded, but it was too late.
One of the frigates slammed right into the side of the
Conqueror's Bane, detonating in a spectacular flash of fire. The
Conqueror's Bane's shields immediately flared and went offline, unable to handle taking so much damage at once. Scorch marks blanketed the side of Zonill's ship as a massive crater formed within the side of the
Conqueror's Bane's armored hull.
The other frigate probably would have done the same thing to the
Conqueror's Bane if not for the heroic actions of the
Starhammer. Angling itself in between the
Conqueror's Bane and the incoming frigate, it managed to catch the the enemy vessel from the front, taking the brunt of the impact and resulting explosion. Much like the
Conqueror's Bane, the
Starhammer too had taken heavy damage, with a massive chunk of the ship's hull now exposed to the harsh vacuum of space. The
Starhammer's engines began to flicker on and off as the
Imperial I-class Star Destroyer lost power, drifting lazily toward Supreme Commander
Marlon Sularen
. It nothing was done, it was likely to crash into the rest of the Imperial Fleet, taking friendly ships and their crews with it.
Zonill's head was ringing from the explosions as he gingerly picked himself off the floor, having been thrown across the room from the resulting detonation.
"Status...status report", Zonill coughed as he righted himself and sat back down in his seat. Blood was now trickling down from his forehead, the result of him having sustained a large gash from when he had fell.
"Multi...multiple breaches detected on the port side of the ship", Sellferr gasped as he also picked himself off the floor. "Fires spreading throughout bulkheads 5 to 8...causality projections in the thousands...heavy hull and structural damage has been sustained", he managed to squeak out.
It would seem that Zonill had just busted his hand of Pazaak.
"Seal off bulkheads 8 through 20, and have the rapid response teams take care of those fires", Zonill managed to get out as the trickle of blood began flowing more rapidly. "We need to fall back to Exarch
Karl Von Strauss
's position and get those breaches sealed, otherwise-"
The rest of Zonill's comment was drowned out by yet more alarms, those these were much different than the ones that had been blaring throughout the bridge during the course of the battle. An automated voice began speaking, heralding in a rather important annonucement.
<WARNING. WARNING. CATASTROPHIC HULL BREACH DETECTED. EMERGENCY HYPERSPACE JUMP PROTOCOL INITIATED. CALCULATING NEAREST JUMP COORDINATES TO FRIENDLY POSITIONS>
"
What?!?!", Zonill demanded upon hearing the voice. "Absolutely not! This is Fleet Admiral Vorin Zonill of the
Mahporeem Imperial Remnant", Zonill said as he directly addressed the voice. "I have not authorized any form of hyperspace retreat. Belay that order immediately!", Zonill demanded of the voice.
<CALCULATIONS 25% COMPLETE>
"Blast! Captain, I order you to override that command!", Zonill declared as he stumbled back out of his seat.
"Trying to sir, but we've been locked out of the command system! Although I don't believe that to be the worst decision we could make right now", Sellferr suggested as he began frantically pressing keys across the ship's command console.
"Absolutely not, Captain. I will not abandon my men in the middle of such an important battle!", Zonill declared. His hand momentarily drifted toward his holstered
SE-26p heavy blaster pistol, but he quickly decided against it. After all, as gratifying as it would be to blast the command console to bits, it probably wouldn't help his situation out very much.
<CALCULATIONS 66% COMPLETE>
"Sir, I can't override the jump", Sellferr said with a conciliatory tone. "But again, given the situation-"
"As I've said Captain, I will not abandon our men in their time of need, regardless of situation", Zonill snapped.
"And
I would not see you die here for some mistaken sense of pride or honor or anything else!", Sellferr retorted sharply. Despite the chaos going on inside the bridge, everyone stopped what they were doing as Zonill and Sellferr continued to argue. Normally, the idea of a Captain going back at his Admiral would be grounds for an immediate court-martial, but Zonill had known Sellferr for a long time, and he respected the man's opinions.
He touched the open wound on his head, which was now bleeding profusely by this point.
"We need to get you medical attention sir, and with the state that the
Conqueror's Bane is in, I'm not sure the medbay would be sufficient to treat you", Sellferr said far more gently.
Zonill sighed and slumped back into his seat, defeated. Sellferr was right, of course. If something happened to him as he tried to command his fleet, he might as well be more of a liability than an asset to his men.
"Very well, Captain. I want a message broadcast to our remaining forces."
"Of course, sir. The floor is yours."
"This is Fleet Admiral Vorin Zonill of the
Mahporeem Imperial Remnant. My flagship has taken heavy damage and I have received serious injury in the line of duty. I have no choice but to have my ship retreat to friendly territory. I authorize all ship commanders and captains full autonomy to use their vessels as they see fit in the defense of our operations. I will return to the field of battle as soon as I am able to. Good luck, any may the galaxy be with you all."
<CALCULATIONS 100% COMPLETE. EXECUTING HYPERSPACE JUMP IN 3...2...1...JUMPING>
With that, the
Conqueror's Bane sped off into space, seemingly headed for friendly territory. The
Bastion and the
Silent Watcher immediately began to turn around to engage the remainder of the enemy fleet as the
Pillager moved in to support them. From the far side of Atrisia, the rest of Zonill's fleet was moving back to the battle, having successfully completed their escort duties. They would move in from the other side of the enemy, effectively trapping it between both of Zonill's battlegroups, and would accept nothing less than the enemy's complete and total destruction.
TAGS:
Marlon Sularen
Karl Von Strauss
Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory
Odria Kaelthron
Domaric Mordane
Remus Adair
ADM. Reshmar
EMPIRE FORCES