Via Dolorosa
Amans In Tenebris
"Captain," the young male com officer aboard a medium size freighter, whose cargo was destined to the planet of Geonosis, said with nervousness in his voice.
"What is it, Sal," came the Captain's reply as he tugged on his beard, shaggy and well overdo of a trim.
"It's are communication system, sir. I keep picking up interference, you know the kind, sir, the kind that someone is trying to jam us."
The Captain sat up from his worn out chair, moving toward the young man when out nowhere the ship was rocked, throwing all standing crew to the cold, unforgiving floor. Scrambling to his feet, the Captain turned toward the nav officer, a small human female with a name he never could pronounce correctly. As his mouth opened to spit out his words, the ship was hit a second time, sending the bridge into a nightmarish concert of alarms and red flashing lights.
"Captain! We lost all power to the back half of our ship," the First Mate screamed, then added, "Our shields have been depleted. Captain, we are under att...."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________The black and red flecked eyes of the Sith Lady known as Darth Venefica watched with delight as the freighter was turned into a ball of flame by a squadron of fighters, killing all hands on deck. The time to return from exile had finally taken it's first steps, as her fleet, the War Fleet Wraith, composed of five Neurio-Class Assault Frigates and three Excalibur-Class Assault Cruisers followed by several transport vessels carrying troops and machines of destruction left over from the collapse of the Black Rose moved toward the desert planet of Geonosis; with more constructs on the assembly line.
The planet was meaningless to her, like most of the galaxy these days, but she had thrown herself with another Darkside faction, whose goal was to install fear and empower weakness upon the galaxy; and if all plans went accordingly; the destruction of the Jedi Orders and all their paper governments will at last bend a broken knee to the Sith. Of course, she knew no Jedi would willingly bow to the Darkside, so she would be kind and give them a choice; join them or die. It was a very simple proposal. But before she could burn the galaxy into nothingness, she needed to make an example.
"Notify all Captains to order their squadrons to target all satellites....I want all communications incoming and outgoing from Geonosis cut-off," she ordered without taking her eyes off the fizzling out remains of the starship. "We are on a time schedule!"
"Then execute Operation Strangulation!"
Operation Strangulation wasn't about taking the planet, or simply pillaging what resources the planet could offer up to the armada; as it was more about making an example out of the Geonosians. She was not here to conquer, but to claim several test subjects, dwindle their population drastically, and if time permitted, steal all the resources they could muster, and finally leave the planet to recover if possible. She had a formidable force at her disposal, but what they needed was a planet from which they could grow and fortify their strength; and sadly for the winged-aliens, their planet was just another bug to be squashed.
"Commence with the ground attack," she said when the last reports of all destroyed satellites filtered in. "And give the order for the orbital bombardment to cover our troops as they go forth and introduce themselves."