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The tactical retreat from Manaan after Ossus had been the closest thing they had, the news that the mandalorians had taken the chance to attack the capital was there, wasn't to be believed but then silence came. The silence that wasn't being broken by contact and then the scouts had reported in. Ash clouds over the city and no sign of any life save the mandalorian fleet in orbit. The defenses were being destroyed but nothing else and that was why the Apotheosis was coming back now with the Manaan invasion force, with the Ossus fleet while the rest of the fleets formed up. Balaya kept a look on her face while turning to see the others on the ship.
Eruna stood nearby, a worried look on her face on the situation. Ossus was lost and now they were on the run from the Mandolorians. So much was going wrong for the Empire and they were short on forces left to defend themselves. Looking down she heard as her droid R7 beeped and wheed before she said "I know, R7. Just calm down and I'll see." She looked to her master @Balaya Zambrano and said "If need be I'll take a fighter out and handle who and what I can, master. Otherwise I'll follow your lead."
After the crushing defeat on Kalee, Krag took what fleets he could muster and returned to the Sith capital, only to find it in ruin. Krag's Star Destroyer hovered high above Kaas city which burned with the fires and ash of destruction. Krag had denied it at first, but looking upon the destruction of the capital, he knew that the reign of the Sith was coming to an end. With Kaine captured and the capital ransacked, the Sith were leaderless and that meant only one thing...the strong needed to rise. With a strong snort of the air, Krag sent a message to all the returning Sith Ships "This is Lord Krag of Sector I, I claim full military command of the Sith fleets. All ships are to deploy forces immediately to Kaas city and repeal whatever invaders are still present."
Several hours after the destruction of Dromund Kaas, Captain Rygel Larraq returned to Dromund Kaas. It was now nearly common knowledge that a Mandalorian fleet with an unknown commander had approached Dromund Kaas at high speeds and released asteroids that had destroyed most, if not all of the planet. Shortly after this act of unprecedented violence, the fleet had entered hyperspace and left the system, presumably to return to Mandalorian space. News agencies across the galaxy were already reporting the event on hundreds of HoloNet channels and experts from across the galaxy debated the issue. Some praised the event as a necessary evil to rid the galaxy of the evil and warlike Sith Empire. Others denounced the event as an act of unrivaled barbarism and called for the immediate blockade of all Mandalorian space from the Republic.
Tacticians and politicians debated the value of the planet and the choices the Mandalorians had made to pull out of the system before the inevitable counter-attack of the Sith. It was unanimously agreed upon that the Mandalorians were incapable of holding their own against the might of the Imperial Sith Navy. The Mandalorians had simply returned to their own boarders and quietly hid while the Republic waged their war to the galactic south.
There was little reason for the Mandalorians to attempt to plant their flag in Dromund Kaas. Especially not after what they had done to it. Experts across the galaxy were telling reporters that Dromund Kass would be experiencing an Ice Age for the next several hundred years. Possibly even the next few thousand years. It was a broken, battered, and soon-to-be frozen planet with few natural resources and little tactical value. So why would the Mandalorians try to take it?
The Mandalorian fleet exited hyperspace in the shadow of Dromund Kaas's farthest moon. It had been several hours since the initial assault of Mandalorian ships had taken advantage of the absent Sith forces and laid waste to the planet. What few in the galaxy knew though, was that the Mandalorians had far grander plans in mind than a simple smash and run operation. In the time it had taken the Mandalorians to take every available ship into hyperspace, assault Dromund Kaas, and retreat, a far more massive fleet had been gathered from all over Mandalorian space. Ships from every clan and from every planet had been pulled from active duty and donated to the service of the Mand'alor. Each of these ships immediately launched for Vaal and organized themselves for a second assault on the planet.
The initial assault was simply to buy time and wipe the planetary defenses from the equation. The second assault... The true assault... Was to show the galaxy that the Mandalorians were not to be trifled with. That the Mandalorians were a proud and mighty people that would destroy any that threatened them. It was also to test the commitment of their allies... Many had been called upon to stand between the shoulders of Mandalorian soldiers. Few were expected to arrive.
As the fleet disgorged itself from hyperspace and returned to realspace, the outline of two Heavy Star Destroyers blocked out the stars. In threes and fives, constellations of smaller ships quickly joined the two massive ships. To those who had seen the HoloNet broadcast of the Destruction of Dromund Kaas, the silhouette of the Mandalorian flagship was noticeably absent from from the formation. What few non-mandalorians knew, was that the Mythosaur had been too heavily damaged by its near-miss with a Sith suicide attack to join in the assault. In its current condition, it was too valuable of an asset to be risked in such an engagement. But the old girl had played her part. She had done what no other ship in the Mandalorian fleet could have done. Near single-handily, she had brought an Empire to its knees.
And now it was the rest of the fleet's job to sever its head.
Still hidden by the shadow of the moon, Larraq broadcast his orders to the Mandalorian fleet. All Mandalorian ships and all crews heard his voice. “Fleet Commander Alpha to all Mandalorian assets. The galaxy thinks us cowards. They think we've fled in terror before the Sith fleet. That we would run from a fight and hide in our beds while a mighty predator roars our name. Let us show them the truth, my brothers. Let us show them what a real predator looks like.”
On the HoloNet, a single transmission was broadcast on an encrypted channel. <On target. Transmitting coordinates now.>
Ember Rekali had last been seen in Kaas City, after having ripped the front off the Dromund Kaas Citadel and exposed the molten throne of the Sith Emperors. In the confusion, and the massive amounts of rubble, he had vanished.
With the shield down and Sith forces routed through rather unconventional methods the Mandalorians were able to begin their second wind if you will. Not two hours had gone by before orders were sent to send down the remaining troops, gunships, and bases that had been destined to fight in the initial battle. Now three of the Mandalorian tower bases stood around the perimeter of the palace that once belonged to the Sith emperor. But now, the Sith had returned to reclaim their world.
The Sith were coming in droves, but the Mandalorians had scavanged what defenses hadn't been destroyed or damaged beyond quick repair by the asteroids and the few surface to air guns they had had new firing solutions and had begun to fire on the incoming Sith dropships. The Stardestroyer above them though was a problem. "Get me Larraq!" he barked to one of the Mandalorians. With a quick nod he got a working com line and patched him to the Mythosaur. "Larraq! We've got a little bit of an issue here, get this Star Destroyer out of the sky!" The bases only had so much fire power themselves and the starfighter complement was no where near what a Star Destroyer could hold. Without that air support they were sunk.
The Republic fleet was in hyperspace and awaiting the moment when it came out, in the meditation chamber of the M180 Sarianna sat with her legs crossed and in the lotus position as possibly the seventh best battle mediator on the board prepared to augment and aid the fleet.
Arrbi Betna had hopped on the first shuttle he could find and had managed to make his way to Vaal where he'd linked up with the Mandalorian fleet.
His wounds were healed by a random Ithorian Jedi, but his armor was still scratched and dented and both dust and bloodstains were highly visible. He'd stashed his rifle and opted for a basic shotgun for the mission at hand. Apparently there would be fleet combat and, if there was anything to be held true of Mandos in space, there would be boarding actions aplenty.
Rygel Larraq cursed quietly as the Mand'alor spoke his name aloud over the communicator. It was an encrypted channel, sure, but still... Using real names was the ultimate taboo of even the most basic radio communication. Pressing a button, Larraq routed the communicator in his ear through the ship's communications transceiver and responded to the still-new Mand'alor. “Fleet Command to Ground Command. Message received.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Larraq closed his eyes and centered himself. His ship had no throne and his fleet had no flagship and the leader of the clans just tipped off the enemy fleet to his arrival. <This engagement is already going so well...> Larraq thought to himself as he stood at the commander's station. Looking at the two-dimensional display of the battlefield on the forward viewscreen, Larraq instantly missed the bridge of the Mythosaur and its HoloProjector. When this was all over, he would have to commission a more suitable command ship. Something much smaller than a Star Destroyer, but with all the necessary equipment to direct fleet engagements. And a chair. Somehow, he had grown fond of the captain's chair on the Mythosaur.
Still... Looking at the digital representation of his fleet on the forward viewscreen... the moon that currently hid them from the enemy fleet... and the formation of the enemy fleet (thanks to the sensor probes they had dropped before leaving the battlefield), Larraq had a glimmer of hope for this battle. The Sith had brought their best and biggest warships home for this. With the exception of some unknown classification of Light Cruiser that hid in the shadow of giants, the enemy fleet was comprised of nothing but Star Destroyers and Heavy Star Destroyers.
Even with all the ships at his command, he was still massively out gunned in this engagement. And even with the four carriers that had been scrounged up for this fight, the Sith formation would still drastically outnumber them in fighters and bombers. If the Mandalorians were to have a chance at all in this engagement, they would have to play this game very, very carfully.
He wouldn't have time to do the calculations himself in this battle. There would be too much going on far too fast. He would have to keep himself impartial to the movements of individual ships and focus solely on the fleet as a whole. Each ship was organized into a group. Each group had a lead ship and a commander focused just on the movements of that group. Each group was giving a priority rating and all commanders would follow the instructions of a higher priority group's commander when two or more groups were ordered to assume formations.
It was a highly effective delegation of command, but it relied heavily upon trust and the ability of each crew and commander to follow orders to the letter. Larraq prayed that their moral held up through the engagement. He would need the absolute best from his men. Each and every one of them knew what was at stake here. The Sith Empire had threatened their homes for far too long and harassed Mandalorian boarders for the last time.
Typing commands into the controls of the commanders station, Larraq began issuing orders to his fleet. “All ships prepare to receive orders. I want tight angles of approach moving past this moon, let its gravity pull you forward and quicken your acceleration. Core Alpha and Strike Alpha to Moon's North Pole. Core Bravo and Strike Bravo to South Pole. Strike Charlie, Strike Delta, and Support fleet to Moon's West. Standing orders for all ships is to prioritize speed above all else. Maintain speeds at maximum of slowest ship in formation. At no time is any ship to move directly towards a Star Destroyer. All ships are to assume hostile ships have an effective weapons range of a third again their own. This is step one people. Stay away from their guns and get in formation.”
On the forward viewscreen, Larraq watched as the constellations of warships shifted into three separate formations and began moving in opposite directions. The two formations that contained the largest ships moved directly away from eachother as they built up speed and launched themselves from the north and south tip of Dromund Kaas's farthest moon. The third formation, comprised of numerous small and medium ships, was actually the largest of the three formations. This third formation rounded the far western edge of the moon and began moving far faster than either of the other two fleets. Larraq watched numbers on the forward viewscreen count up and up as the three formations spread farther and farther from each other. From the perspective of the two dimensional viewscreen, it appeared as if the three formations were heading for three completely separate edges of the Sith world.
<Mandalorian world... When I am done here, this will be a Mandalorian world.> Rygel Larraq reminded himselfas he watched his fleet move towards the planet. Though as of yet, not a single one of them was moving towards the enemy fleet.
<Your move Sith.> Thought Larraq as his hands gripped the railing in front of him.
Coming in at 2.3 meters tall in his encasing Beskar'kandar armor, Grozurra sat next to @[member="Arrbi Betna"] on a bench as they silently awaited orders. No fur, foot, claw, or talon was exposed on Grozurra. The only indication that he might be a non-human was his sheer size and the unusual weapon that rested on his knees. A custom built bowcaster rested in the armored Mando'ad's lap, a cut-down blaster strapped to his left thigh-plate and a bundle of unique arrows was secured to his right thigh-plate. The tips of the arrows were secured in an armored pouch at the bottom of the casing that protected them from a possible glancing hit. Attached at his waste were two Beskar Ryyk Blades. Within a special compartment built into the left side of his pelvic plate was an ornate lightsaber that was hidden from view. A long and tattered cloak flowed from under his massive shoulder-pads and down to the floor. Between the cloth itself and the bulky frame of the thick Mandalorian Armor, whatever vulnerable points existed in this Mando'ad's protection could not be readily seen at a glance.
From elsewhere in the ship, music echoed down the hallway. The massive Mandalorian nodded his head slightly in beat with the music.
Ordo ran to his fighter when the orders were given to prepare for naval combat. His Vhe'viin Intercepter was primed and ready. Ordo shoved on his Buy'ce and scrambled up to the cockpit of his fighter and dropped into the seat. time was short and the orders as he understood them were clear. Stay close and move fast, even an old farm boy could manage that with out much fuss. he checked his crash webbing and then his instruments. All systems green.
"This is Striil leader to Striil squadron" he said in his best in charge voice, "Check in and sound off like you've got a pair I'm getting old."
"Striil 1 copy, Striil 2 copy, Striil three copy..." His squadron all checked in one by one until all were accounted for and finally Ordo's turn came.
"Aaand Striil leader copy," Ordo said into the squadron comm. "that is all copy. Flight control Striil squadron ready for launch."
The 12 fighters all activated their engines and the flight crews removed the ladders and drew back to the safe zone while Striil squadron began their final checks.
"Striil Squadron this is Striil leader I want everyone with their wing man." Ordo said giving final briefing reminders, "Stick close to the Carrier after launch and use the fleet as a hat to mask your signature until we get the signal to break. The Sith have a lot of little gnats to swat so stick close to the corvettes when we engage. Draw the little Chakkars right into our gunners. Got it!"
They did, Ordo knew they did and soon the Sith would too.
The 12 fighters exited the hanger bay rapidly and turned under the carrier to use it's sensor signature to mask theirs and follow the fleet matching it's speed for now.
@[member="Balaya Zambrano"] @[member="Grozurra"] @[member="Captain Larraq"] @[member="Arrbi Betna"] @[member="Sarianna Misarr"] @[member="Gilamar Skirata"] @[member="Ember Rekali"] @Krag ( @[member="Eruna Delmarra"] Come get Me)
The battle screen in the Throne room of the Apotheosis was something to behold, as the Mandalorian ships appeared all Balaya could see was their size. They were smaller then them but she wasn't going to debate somethings. From the looks a lesser fleet had literally decimated an entire planet and outright destroyed its population. She wasn't going to say they were going to win because of superior firepower and ships. Only a fool would do such a thing, no she needed to over power them and make them kneel to the might of the empire.
"This is Balaya, all ships prepare to engage the mandalorian fleets. I want you firing as soon as your within maximum range." Her eyes flicked over the screen while taking in the sights of it all and she used the tac pad to send the formation. The Tulaks framing the front of the invasion force as they spread out to frame the head. The one in the front the point as the Renators filling in the gaps and staggered themselves to allow the Pallaeons to close up the gap. In her head it looked good, not bunched up but a clear and precise formation taking on the appearance of a star destroyed. All ships and all guns able to fire towards the enemy and not get in the way of each other.
"Prepare to launch all fighters, I want as many bombers as we have prepared to target their flagship. I want boarding teams on their smaller ships and every fighter we have targeting their engines and life support systems. Once we are within range activate the overdrive banks and blitz their fleet with everything we have. Make them holy." For a moment she cursed herself because that.... was a terrible way to end orders as she sat there. Her hand gripping the arms of the throne and made a face while the fleets moved on the large holo projectors into position and reports of the fighters, gunships, boarding craft, bombers were all loading up.
"Patch me through to the mandalorian's commander. We may be enemies but they have already proven themselves a worthy enemy." A look was on her face as she slipped into that coldness, into that place she hadn't been for a long time before Kaine found her and gripping the hilt of her beskad Balaya gave every bit the look of herself all seven foot eight inches of bio implanted muscle and pink skin in crystasteel covered turadium bikini. Armored while the light put half her face in shadows and the indication that they were transmitting, not that the Mandalorian's would pick up but she could still speak and leave a message.
"Su cuy'gar mandalorian, I do not think I have had the pleasure of meeting you. A shame but on this battle field there has already been much brought." The reports had shown that the Maw fleet the great fleet had come and ran away with their tails between their legs. "I am Balaya formerly of the mandalorian clans and the Left Hand of Kaine Zambrano."
With the commands given Eruna rushed off with R7 to take one of the fighters. A decent TIE fighter was all she needed for this battle, the same as most other pilots. She let R7 hook into the systems before climbing into the cockpit and launching. Flying out of the hanger bay she grouped with the rest of the fighters and waited for the command to attack, hearing Master @Darth Praelior give her commands over the radio frequencies. R7 beeped something with Eruna saying "Steady, R7. We don't make a move until they fire on us or we're told so. Just been ready when it happens." He beeped a wheed again before she answered with "Good thinking. Put the coordinates for somewhere safe in case."
A hibridium-cloaked Mandalorian stealth fighter rose from Dromund Kaas. Inside the double-blind cloaking field, Ember Rekali flew with his eyes closed. The cloaking field deactivated briefly, and his sensors took a snapshot in the moment he was exposed.
He examined the fleet composition going on here, and a grim smile crossed his face as his Force presence vanished. He angled toward the Imperator-class vessel, known as the Imperator (Imperator to its friends).
Cloaked, he began flying through the battlefield by Force-enhanced instinct, toward the Imperator. It would take him some time to get there safely and without notice.
Shane had moved down to the planet when he heard the news and was searching with scanners for the survivors. Anyone that might be about and ready while the sounds from above and the scanners showed it. Two large fleets preparing to engage and fight and he wasn't in any of it as the sign of the sith citadel came into view and the reports of weapon firing. With a look at the helmsmen he spoke sitting there in the center of the bridge. "Then lets go in and help them. If they are sith rain holy fire, if it is our brothers, then rescue them." The man's eyes flickered over the screen while the ship moved to help out and he spoke. "This is Shane Skirata to all mandalorian forces, we are on the planet. If you can hear this head to the citadel and we'll be there for pick up."
Larraq watched from his station as the Sith Fleet reorganized into a V formation and began approaching the Mandalorian forces. They were coming at him from an off-center angle. They had been orbiting the planet directly over Kaas City, which was on the eastern side of the planet (from Larraq's viewpoint anyway). Now that they had chosen to engage their newly arrived opponents, the Sith fleet was slowly pulling further and further away from Kaas City in order to run Larraq and his fleet down.
“All formations. Nose-up 30 degrees from center. Rotate formations to keep Sith Fleet on dorsal side. Spread out from one another. And for sheb's sake, keep an eye on distances. Stay as far away from their guns as you can, for as long as you can.” Larraq said to his commanders on an encrypted channel.
Larraq watched on the viewscreen as numbers and icons adjusted as his brothers followed his orders. The three formations were slowly spreading further and further apart as they approached the planet. They were far to the west of where the Sith fleet was approaching from. And were already fairly far apart when they angled themselves to spread apart even faster. By the time the Sith fleet could get near any one of them, the other two fleets would be far enough away to not be threatened by the weapons of the Sith Star Destroyers. This planet was roughly 80,000km from end to end and left Larraq with plenty of space to maneuver around.
Larraq flipped through display options on the forward viewscreen. One showed the Dromund Kaas as a circle at the bottom of the screen and the moon as a much smaller circle at the top of the screen. On this viewing his formation looked like they were slowly spreading out like a cone, towards the edges of the planet. On another display option, Larraq could clearly see the Sith fleet approaching from the center-eastern area of the planet. The Sith Fleet and the numerous mandalorian formations still had a few hundred, thousand kilometers between each other. By the time they would be anywhere close to within weapons range of each other, each of his formations would be between 20 and 60 thousand kilometers from one another.
Larraq could easily make due with the humble display options he had installed in his current command post, but with every passing minute we has missing the bridge of the Mythosaur more and more. He was musing this over when the voice of a very voluptuous sounding woman broadcast from the ceiling.
"Su cuy'gar mandalorian, I do not think I have had the pleasure of meeting you. A shame but on this battle field there has already been much brought. I am Balaya formerly of the mandalorian clans and the Left Hand of Kaine Zambrano."
Larraq paused and thought for a moment before responding. “Ship commander... Encrypt my transmission and route it through the fleet. I want in bouncing randomly through our fleet before un-encrypting and transmitting on the frequency just used by the Sith.” He ordered to the commander of the vessel he currently occupied. When the commander signaled Captain Larraq that all was ready, only then did he respond to the woman. “Su Cuy'gar darjetti. Su Cuy'gar dar'manda. Su Cuy'gar Balaya.” Larraq said as he greeted the sith woman through the communicator. “I am Mando'ad. I am Captain. I am nobody. I welcome you to Manda'yaim's newest territory. Have you come to surrender?”
Tags
@[member="Balaya Zambrano"],
MANDALORIAN FLEET: (41 Ships)(21,000m) [spreading in three separate directions; staying out of range]
(Note: Where fighters are donated, this is in place of one or more 'standard' complements.)
Krag had moved to the shuttle bays and mounted up inside on of many Sith Gunships aimed to assault the Sith Palace and drive out the mandolorians who were there. Climbing aboard the the Sith gunship, Krag sat amongst a squad of stormtroopers who dared not look him in the eye as the ships ramp closed and the the piece of military hardware lifted high into the air and zipped out into the void of space. Coming in hot to the planet, the shuttle was already under fire from what remained of the captured Sith AA network. The laser rounds zipped by Krag's ship, impacting other Sith vessels which exploded into a brilliant display of colors.
As the shuttle approached the palace, Krag could see the Mandolorian pillars around the had-been Sith capital. The fact that these weaklings had captured the Sith palace made Krag sick to his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to descend upon them like a ungodly firestorm and light them ablaze with his powers of fire shaping. Before the ship could even get close for a landing, however, it was rocked by a blast of AA fire that punched a searing hole into the side of the vessel. Fire and smoke spewed everywhere as the shuttle came in to the ground and impacted in the front of the Sith palace, right outside the gates.
Kalordo dropped down from a ledge on the palace wall and landed amongst the billows of smoke and dust that hung in the air. His clawed toes dug into the duracrete slightly as he slowly rose errect and looked at the wreckage. His crimson Vonduun Crabshell armor was coated with dust and debris. He rarly showed his face among the mandalorians whom he had first met after his exile ended but for this he could spare his time. For the first time in years he wore his scarred Buy'ce. His long black braids stuck out from the Red helmet and fell on the Vongs broad shoulders.
He had his ampistaff on his waist and a bone spear from a zekkeg he'd killed ages ago. He waited from the beast to rise from the wreckage so he could test himself against one of the most brutal adversaries the galaxy could offer.
Kalordo Lah shook his head and beat his chest three times with his free hand but made no sound. If the beast wanted the Manda'lor he would have to go through the Warmaster.
Preliat stormed outside, and watched as the ship carrying @Krag landed, skidding along the ground and halting. Contrary to popular belief, downed ships rarely exploded. Preliat was thrown an M45 Rifle from one of the re-enforcing Mandalorians, and he pulled the bolt back, and took position along the entrances to the newly-acquired citadel. He wondered where Gil had run off to, but he was glad some Mandalorians had fallen back to the citadel, and had turned into a very defensible position. He found his question, when he saw the Mandalore barking into his comm.
Preliat looked up.
Preliat looked down.
Preliat became very sad.
And then he sighed."GIL, WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT HAZARD PAY AFTER THIS!"He bellowed, waiting for the Sith assault.
Betna nodded to the armored being next to him and heard the music in the distance. It wasn't really his type of tune, but it was better than nothing. He'd want to kill whoever was playing it afterwards though, because the tune was catchy and Betna would have it stuck in his head for a week or so.
The young Mandalorian listened in on the comm chatter for a moment, keeping his ear out for the good bits. He heard the exchange between the Mandalorian Fleet's admiral and the Sith's leader. From the sounds of it, and from the ballsy statement, Larraq was back and at it again. Betna had heard what had happened on Dromund Kaas and how Larraq had turned the planet from the Sith Capital to a giant, dead rock with a big mythosaur skull flag planted on it. Arrbi would have loved to see that sight. He loved a good explosion on occasion and that would have been one to see. He hoped someone had taped the thing so he could go back and watch it on his own time. Maybe sit back with a pint or two of netra'gal at the oyu'baat tapcaf later and watch the reruns. Hell, he might even get free beer for the evening if he snagged a holotape of the incident. Definitely worth trying.
Betna popped the seals on his helmet and set it on his lap for a moment. He then snagged a flavored ration bar from his webgear and unwrapped the thing. He took a bite, savoring the lovely taste of cardboard, unidentifiable crunchy bits, and an overpowering flavor of chemically produced fruit, and thought a moment. The Mandalorian snagged another bar and held it up, offering it to the wookiee. It never hurt to stock up on protein and carbs before a hairy and nasty upcoming fight.
