The Cathulian Complex

[Cathul Thuku]

The Alliance was obsessed over the battlecruisers across the galaxy, and especially those of the First Order because they were the most likely to go to war against among the factions that fielded battlecruisers. Even though Cathul did, on one occasion, use an unescorted carrier, in her very first sortie as a naval commander, in fact, she'd realize that, among all the classes the NCMP aimed at countering, the very carrier she commanded was best suited for countering the Imperator-X. The Alliance had exactly one unit of that class, the ANS Hero of Coruscant. It was the flagship of Therapy Command, left behind on Inysh, while Cathul gets busy dealing with the patrol route of the new ship built using the schematics stolen from the Rogue One Sith on Castameer: the Procurator-X-class, even though, admittedly, the hull had more in common with the Mateus than with an Immortal. As a then-acting vice admiral, Cathul received, on behalf of Therapy Command, numerous reports concerning a number of rather worrisome Sith-allied admirals. Yet said Procurator-X unit, the ANS Excubitor, returned from its southern Core patrol covering the route from Hakassi to Atrisia, was still described as not being fully operational, but still have six squadrons of attack craft. Ideally she would like to bring the count to at least ten but weapons will have to come first, given the intended aim, that is, to counter the Darr Itah-class, which was in SIS reports regarding the Omega War.

"Commodore, we have just received word from the ANS Bestine that one of the enemy admirals involved in the Atrisia Campaign has been spotted over Lujo"

"This mission is time-sensitive. I will take the pilot's seat to Lujo"

"Roger"

With that said, Cathul didn't see much, if any, space combat in the Atrisia Campaign. Also she was to use Instinctive Astrogation Control to chart the route from Inysh to Lujo. Hopefully I can get it right, without the need for detours, as I did from Hakassi to Inysh, she thought. Once the process of using the Force to chart hyperspace trajectories was done, the white Twi'lek gave one final order:

"Jump to lightspeed!"

Ships:

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X -class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m

Attack craft (in hangar):
48 T-70 X-Wings
24 BB-2 bombers

[member="Jagger Fuga"]

 

[Jaster Awaud]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

The disaster at Atrisia forced both the Dominion Mikitary and Legions Leadership that the navy was far too weak and reliant on old world tech. Legionary Manufacturing was then ordered to construct new weapons for the Navy to use as both ship mounted and stationary armorments. Thus Admiral Jagger was sent to the Alliance Boarders to test out the new weapons. A plasma based Cannon that can launched projectiles across space and do more damage then Lazer Cannons or Rail Guns. Jagger had high hopes for these new weapons, but they needed to show that they did what they promised.

Three Hammerhead Class Frigates were modified and stripped to be replaced by three Plasma Cannons each. Jagger was aboard a Research Corvette that recorded everything on the Frigates. They had happened across a Scout Corvette and made quick work of it, though the ship was able to get a message off before they completely destroyed the craft and her crew. This was barely enough evidence to place before the Dominion Leadership. They needed something that could outclass the three Frigates. If he could prove that the ships lasted longer then the above average time before being destroyed, or even surviving entirely. Only then could the mission be considered a success and then construction of producing these Cannons can be accepted.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Therapy Command, this is the ANS Bestine. We're dealing with an enemy using plasma cannons"

The transmission was cut short when the communications console of the scout corvette exploded over Lujo, based on the enemy fire. Oh sure, Cathul brought the Excubitor, which was described as not being fully operational. But several among the Admiralty accused her of adhering to the One Sith's naval doctrine, while she knew that the biggest naval weakness One Sith was actually, more than the attack craft, their command ability, one she knew was not present in the First Order. They had one competent admiral and everyone else in the One Sith admiralty was similar to [member="Maizono"]: in the Alliance Navy, to be called a Maizono in the wake of the Atrisia Campaign is to be a bad commander. Oh, sure the One Sith has had a number of shortcomings, but they always wanted their capital ships to individually outclass their enemies'. With that said, the Mateus-class undertook two series of refits: after the second set of refits, the resulting ship was almost capable of fighting an Imperator-X Star Destroyer unescorted and it was no longer the carrier the Butcher of Korriban had for a flagship. Sure, it still had 10 squadrons, a hypervelocity cannon, and six dorsal turrets for the heavy weaponry. But trench weaponry was vastly upgraded, and a second HVC was added. As the battlecruiser made their approach towards Lujo, Cathul awakens, knowing that she needs rest between each use of Instinctive Astrogation Control, and returns to the bridge.

"That is going to hurt, commodore: the Bestine was destroyed with a volley of next-generation plasma cannons" the communications officer told the white Twi'lek.

"Therapy Command has been the single largest contributor to the NCMP, and we have to show High Command that the heavy units of Therapy Command should be built before we go to full-scale war against the First Order" the executive officer of the ANS Excubitor told Cathul.

"Battle stations!"

Ships:

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X -class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m

Attack craft (in hangar):
48 T-70 X-Wings
24 BB-2 bombers

[member="Jagger Fuga"]

 

[Jaster Awaud]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

Lujo was more of a backwater world to the Dominion then anything else. It held no strategic interest, was not along any major trade route, and held no real important Economic Value. Alliance Patrols however was often seen roaming outside their borders and as such were good test subjects for the weapons. Admiral Jagger was still sitting in his chair as the Conflict of Atrisia had crippled the Admiral and he was unable to walk for long periods of time. He looked into the depths of space and saw nothing of real importance other then the debris of the once Alliance Scout Ship.

Jagger turned his head to the Navigation Officer, his cold dark brown eyes just glued to the back of the Officers head. The man new Jagger was looking at him and what he would ask, so the Crewman responded, "Roger Sir, returning to Ambush Posistion."

The Hammerheads began to head back to the Command Corvette, that was when the Sensor Officer yelled out to the Admiral, "Admiral, ship exiting Hyperspace, it's a big one sir."

This peaked the Admirals mind as he was here to prove his ally's project was a success. He stood holding his cane to support his weight. In a calm voice, his rough accent could be heard. "Code 3 dash 1, Formation 12." That was all that needed to be said and the crew stated handing out commands. The Hammerheads tried to get into position, but the best they could do was face the ship as it exited Hyperspace.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Our attack craft outnumber theirs two to one. If they are using these plasma cannons on us, commodore, we will sustain hull damage" the chief engineer commented.

"Shall we deploy, commodore?" the wing commander asked.

"Not until they deployed their attack craft. They seem all too confident in their new plasma cannons"

"Firing solutions are complete, sighting is good" the missile crew leader told the bridge officers.

"Assault concussion missile launchers, prepare the first volley of missiles. Also, hypervelocity cannons, fire at will!"

The Excubitor was within long-range hypervelocity cannon range of the three frigates, which were rapidly closing on their position. With thirty assault concussion missiles in each of the three special Volksgrenadier launchers designed specifically for the long-range weapons, Cathul knew that the engagement would be rather quick if she fired all the weapons at will, so she decided to just test the newest toy installed on the Excubitor, and use the hypervelocity cannons, knowing that homing proton torpedoes would be deployed only a little beyond point-defense range. Only seven of those missiles can be the Volksgrenadier MIRV missiles. However, at that range it was rather easy for a long-range hypervelocity cannon to miss their target, since that one was dumb-fired. Thank the Force that the Volksgrenadiers' cloaking devices actually worked. It would take a while until the missiles approached the target but, unless the enemy knew how to track a missile's magnetic signature, the missiles would be safe for the time being. But she knew that even with the enemy's new toys, worth an estimated 12 turbolasers of firepower apiece, she still have to play her cards right.

Ships:

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X -class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m

Attack craft (in hangar):
48 T-70 X-Wings
24 BB-2 bombers

[member="Jagger Fuga"]

 

[Jaster Awaud]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

The crew of the Corvette were becoming frightened as soon as they saw the 3,000 meter Capital ship exit Hyperspace. Jagger however just stood there with his cane and stone figure. He felt luck was on his side that his previous formation was not been exicuted as it would have clumped them up. The formation would have been good to increase the firepower of the new weapons, but if one ship was destroyed the others would be damaged. "Formation 01 please Captain Newit?"

The Order was passed and the Hammerheads began to make a revers wedge formation, and began to close the distance between them and the Battlecruiser.

"Sir, the enemy ships shows an ignition of missiles, but no readings of Ion trail or Thermal Signiture, to be honest sir there is no sig-" The officer was interrupted by an explosion that ripped into the lead left vessel. This was acturally multiple missiles that shredded through the Hammerhead Frigate. The other ships saw this and took evasive actions to shoot decoys and flairs to distract the missiles. Because they were stripped down they were a bit faster then normals. This did not help the other Frigate as it was now dead in the water, the droid crew were still able to fire the Plasma Cannon.

The command Corvette was another 10,000 km from the Frigates so they were outside firing range of the Battlecruiser. Jagger only stood there and watched the chaos.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"We scored one kill but the other two missiles seem to be taken prey by the enemy anti-missile octets. Naturally, because we are so far from the targets, we have missed all of our hypervelocity cannon shots"

"We are taking damage to the bow of the ship, forward assault concussion missile launcher has been disabled" the chief engineer retorted.

"There are two frigates left. They haven't launched their attack craft"

"Don't deploy too quickly. The enemy is closing on us rather quickly"

With 220 point-defense weapons, the Excubitor is rather well-prepared to defend itself against the attack craft of the : on a ship that big, four fighter squadrons will be more useful as a screen than it would be for any offensive purpose. Two enemy ships were closing well within standard turbolaser range, and another volley of hypervelocity cannons was directed at both ships. But they are much more maneuverable than the Excubitor is, so it would be a hit-or-miss kind of thing. It's pretty much a shot in the dark at this point, but even so, no use trying to focus on both ships at full power, so the dorsal batteries, comprising 5 triple heavy turbolaser turrets, with each tube capable of shooting with the power of 12 standard turbolasers, and 2 more triple ion turrets with the firepower of 12 ion cannons in each tube, on each side. Also, the aft batteries comprised 9 triple rapid-fire turbolaser turrets, plus the possibility of firing proton torpedoes directed at enemies behind them. And the trench batteries had 28 triple rapid-fire turbolaser turrets apiece, and, by rapid-fire, they mean 4 times as fast as a standard turbolaser.

"Dorsal batteries, fire!"

Ships:

Spoiler

Capital ships:

ANS Excubitor (Procurator-X -class Grand Battlecruiser): 3000m

Attack craft (in hangar):
48 T-70 X-Wings
24 BB-2 bombers

[member="Jagger Fuga"]