Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

[Frater Astrotechnicus]

"I'm sure negotiations will go well once we reach Mon Calamari."

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Mon Calamari is the species and Mon Cala the world
so its either "reach Mon Cala" or " reach the Mon Calamari"
I think

 

[Yacov]

At least their weren't any Dark Sode shenanigans. Just regular betrayal.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 24

Teskit leaned over the table of the tactical room aboard the Inevitable. Watching the icons of shuttles and gunships transporting parts, droids, and personnel between the ships of the battlegroup. Sure, they'd moved plenty of people off of the Providence, but there were still more that were being transferred to the twin Starbolt's they'd captured.

The Glittering Prizes and Gold Standard were probably the best kept ships that the Ardan PDF possessed. They were relatively new construction, having been purchased by the PDF within the last decade, and while the fighters aboard them were old Z-95 Headhunters, everything else was in near-immaculate condition.

Even better, the two ships weren't in their stock configurations. As was the case with many Corellian manufactured ships, modularity was one of the things that was built in, and the PDF, possessing their minor shipyards for maintenance, shuttle manufacture, and any repairs for their ships, had made some upgrades to the ships.

Adding one more heavy turbolaser, and four lights, the firepower was almost doubled, bringing the Glittering Prizes to a total of three heavy turbolasers and eight lights. While it was at the expense of some speed when all the weapons fired, it would be a welcome addition to the light frigates and escorts. The Gold Standard, however, seemed to have been built around anti-fighter defenses. They'd actually stripped out the two heavy turbolasers and replaced them and the ion cannons with point defenses, quad laser cannons, and anything else that might be helpful against fighter swarms, up to and including an engine overhaul.

The problem lay in the shuffling of personnel around. While Battlegroup Huntress actually had the numbers required to crew the twin CEC light frigates, they'd be shifting well over half of the remaining crew from the Providence over to them.

Out of the 3502 crew members onboard the Dreadnought, they'd first lost three hundred to act as a skeleton crew for the Horizon (Not counting any of the GAR personnel that were aboard). Then, through damage from battles, they'd had another fifty to a hundred casualties before the skirmish in the void around Arda.

That, that had wrought nearly a thousand casualties. With hull breaches, the failure of electrostatic screens, it was a perfect storm that would have killed far more people had the Providence been an original model of the Dreadnought.

As it was, of the two thousand people that were left, more than two thirds were going to be split up among the Assault Carriers, with the last third remaining behind to supervise the now majority droid crew.

There had been nearly a million droids onboard the Adjusted Interest. They were mostly B-1s, with regiments of different models like the engineering droids taking up portions of the tightly packed space. Said engineering droids were the smartest of the droids they'd captured aboard the spherical DH-Omni and taken as war prizes from the factories on the ground of Ord Cestus. Well, them and the battalion of B-2 Super Battle droids that were quickly becoming a favorite of the ground forces.

Of course, Teskit also had the Starfury and Horizon keeping a close eye on the Voidbound. The Carrack that requested to join them hadn't acted suspicious yet, but Teskit didn't trust them in the slightest.

"Get the repair crews over to the Providence," Teskit ordered, stepping up to the communications station and asking for a headset. "Patch me through to Task."

"Aye sir!" The clone officer handed the headset over with one hand while setting things up with the other. "Communications channel established."

"Yes, Captain?" Commander CT-1972 replied.

"Commander. You have you need to get the primary hyperdrive and critical systems operational. We'll patch the holes that are critical and then start jumping. I want us in Lianna before the CIS start searching for us. Run a systems check and give me an ETA on when the repairs. We'll jump when you're ready."

"Yes, sir," Task's voice was filled with exhaustion. "We'll get it done."

"Make sure you cycle everyone through rest cycles," Teskit instructed. "People aren't droids, and we shouldn't expect them to work like it."

"I'll get the systems check and then rotate out, captain," Task replied. "Commander CT-1972, out."

---

The last few days had been a flurry of activity. Ronard had been pulled to go help with the Providence's repairs along with the majority of our engineering staff. Sure, it was basically what I had been doing beforehand, but there wasn't a buffer anymore. Any mistakes were ultimately on me.

Not that it changed the way I did things, because I'd always tried to take that kind of accountability. But I could feel the differing tension in my shoulders and gut.

So, when Aliya came to me with the idea of testing and checking out the grav well generator, I had a response ready.

"No," I looked up from my desk. "And you know why the answer is no."
"Look, we both know that these systems are so old they won't work on modern hyperdrives," She argued. "We should turn one on and check the power draw."

"No," I sighed. "Aliya, you're brilliant, and I know that you want to pull this tech apart to see what makes it tick, but we can't afford to do anything wrong at this point. If we fry any of the power conduits we've repaired, we're back to square one with regards to our defenses and weapons. Now, once we reach the next friendly port with a shipyard, I'll give you free rein to do whatever you want. But until then, keep it turned off."

"Fine," the redhead leaned back in her chair. "So, when are you being made the official captain of this antique?"

"No idea," I shrugged. "I'm fine with where I'm at now, anyway. Besides, Captain Teskit's in charge, if he wants me promoted again, he'll put me in for it."

"Fair enough," Aliya stretched and stood up. "I'll be in my cabin if you need me. Try not to blow anything up while I'm asleep."

"No promises," I chuckled, returning to my paperwork as she walked away. It didn't matter what time or place, the paperwork always seemed to endure.

–
–

Three days later…

"Shit, deploy fighters, move power from engines to shields, and get those turbolasers online!" I ordered, instinctively saying the instructions in English before switching to Basic.

Rhen Var, the first world on the standard hyperlanes that was on our route to Lianna, was filled with ships. Confederacy Munificents, Recusants, and a lone Recusant-Class Dreadnought fought against a fleet of Acclamators, Venators, and other interspersed Republic vessels.

And there was something else about this planet, something tugging at the memories of long-ago played video games in the back of my mind.

"Sir, Captain Teskit is ordering us to move to position 2 in Formation Besh!" Javin, the comms officer reported, interrupting my train of thought and refocusing me.

"You heard him!" I barked. "Take us to formation and fall into place!"

The Horizon shifted and moved to the left flank of the Inevitable, acting as a shield for the Providence behind her.

A few moments went by as Battlegroup Huntress fell into formation, launched fighters and began moving into the system, then the Inevitable was hailed by the local flagship and piped through to the other large ships.

"This is Admiral Wulf Yularen," a familiar voice greeted us. "Captain Teskit, I'm temporarily assuming command until the Separatists are dealt with."

I glanced at the tactical readout and winced. Yularen was barely holding his own, was outnumbered, and the enemy had clearly broken through his lines. There were a couple of ships down on the surface spitting out more and more droids to combat whatever ground forces the Republic had in place.

This system was lost. That was, unless we could do something about it.

"All ships, follow your designated courses," Teskit's voice was firm. "Execute further orders on my command. We're pulling their fleet out of the fire."

 

[Yacov]

I doubt the Admiral was expecting this traveling museum show to come to his aid.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Andrew1993]

That dreadnought is one tough old bit*ch hope she survives all the way through the war

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 25

"Horizon, Starfury, and Eclipse, I want you to focus on keeping the Munificents distracted," Teskit ordered. "I'll coordinate with Admiral Yularen to get you backup as soon as I can."

Said frigates were clustered in two 'wolfpacks' of four. Of the eight star frigates, four of them were busy sending streams of shuttles to the snowy planet below. Most of them were carrying droids, tanks, and other ground-based troops to support whatever operation was being conducted.

"We'll keep them plenty distracted," I replied. "Godspeed, Captain."

"Move power to the thrusters," I gave the command, glancing at the navigation officer. "And tie the Starfury and Eclipse into our comms."

The problem was that we were still so far away from the action. As with all battles in the void, distances weren't over come in an instant. But, I did still have a few cards to play.

Grabbing my datapad, I began running through calculations, plugging in the exact number and triple checking them before sending the encrypted message to the Starfury and Eclipse.

"Plug in these coordinates to the jump computer," I handed the datapad to the navigations tech. "We're going to microjump."

"But sir, that puts us right in the middle of the wolfpacks!" he protested.

"Droid brains always have issues processing without organics there to give them instructions," I replied. "The main brain for the enemy fleet is going to be the Recusant dreadnought over there," I pointed out the massive form of the ship. And it's going to be a bit busy dealing with Admiral Yularen and Captain Teskit. So, if we do this properly, we can take advantage of that time to cause some damage."

I paused.

"Recall all fighters and bombers," I looked at the comms tech. "We don't need them completely locked in, just enough to jump with us. We'll relaunch after we're done and then redeploy."

A few long moments went by, the bridge a flurry of activity as personnel went back and forth. The systems needed to be prepped for a micro-jump, and all of the personnel throughout the Horizon needed to be ready as well.

Micro-jumps in the heat of combat were always risky. For a brief moment, you were going to be fully exposed to the enemy. Your shields would need to be brought back online, and if you screwed up then you were essentially turning your exposed belly to the enemy. So, the entirety of what I had planned was reliant on a handful of known enemy errors. After this, the Separatists would probably patch the issue I was going to exploit, but until then, it was perfectly viable.

So, once the Eclipse, Starfury, and the Horizon were ready, I gave the signal to begin the jump. There was a lurch, then seconds later we were in between the two enemy wolfpacks. The Munificents frozen in indecision as my teams raced against time to reactive the weapons systems, shields, and check on our power systems.

We were faster than the Munificents, the Horizon's first targets weren't ready yet. For some reason, the four that were discharging troops to the ground had less shields, and as our pilots got closer, they reported less weapons emplacements as well.

"Remember to shift more power to the port deflectors," I instructed. "All gunners focus fire on the ships that react first."

"This is the Starfury," the Arquitens reported. "We're going to move in and hit the frigates supporting the ground troops. Requesting bomber squadrons to assist."

"You've got it, Starfury," I replied, the Horizon shaking underneath us as the first of the Munificents finally returned fire. Its turbolasers scattered harmlessly against our shields, the old tech holding strong. Unfortunately for the Separatists, their shields were not as resilient. Our return fire shredded their shields, and a lucky shot removed their dual-heavy turbolaser as a threat.

"Shields are down to eighty-five percent! Expected to stabilize at fifty-percent if we can eliminate one or more of the Munificents."

"Keep up the pressure," I replied. "Where are the Eclipse's concussion missiles?"

"They're still powering up," the sensors office replied. "Seems the repairs we made weren't as effective as reported."

"Move us in front of them. We'll take fire for them until they're online."

As I said that, the frigate that the Starfury and most of our bombers were focused on went down, the power to its thrusters failed and the frigate began the long fall and crash to the planet below. Leaving the Starfury and the fighters and bombers to shift targets to the next one.

If nothing else, we were definitely the distraction that Teskit had asked for. Because the oversized Recusant had shifted and started powering towards us. The four ultraheavy turbolasers attempted to reach out and hit us from extreme range, but missed. When it got into range though… Well, we'd burn that bridge when we got to it. I needed to worry about things I could control, first.

---

Teskit nodded as he watched the trio of ships disappear into a micro-jump, the sensors picking up them harassing the Munificents he'd assigned them a few moments later.

Now it was time to deal with the rest of the enemy fleet. Yularen had his ships organized in a good defensive position around the planet except for where they'd punched through. His trio of Venators were holding the line against nearly ten Recusants, the sensor feeds patched through to his tactical console told Teskit that it would take a while, but eventually the Venators would win. So, he dismissed that area and focused on where the line was struggling.

A group of Carracks, CR-90s, and Pelta-Class ships were struggling against a large cluster of Auxilia and Captor-class cruisers, and there were more star frigates and destroyers headed for that part of the line. If the Seppies broke through there, then there wouldn't be a point in holding the ground on Rhen Var, the vid would have been completely lost.

"Sir, Admiral Yularen is telling us to hold our position. There's a ground-based Ion-cannon firing!"

"Execute holding pattern then full ahead," Teskit replied, watching his tactical table as the red white line indicating the firing pattern moved across the void, impacting one of the Recusants fighting Yularen's Star Destroyers and stripping it of its shields.

The journey across the system took time, but eventually, they came into range of the oval-shaped cruisers and the Inevitable opened fire. Large red beams flowed from her heavy turbolasers shredding shields, scarring

"New contacts!" The clone maning the sensors reported. "We've got four Acclamators leaving the atmosphere."

"They must be moving to reinforce one of the parts of the line," Teskit nodded. "See if they can split off assistance to the Horizon. After we've dealt with these poor bastards, we're going to group up and eliminate that monster."

Teskit's eyes focused on the Recusant dreadnought. There must be some high-level officer present, or this ship wouldn't be here. The problem was, Teskit and Battlegroup Huntress didn't have the firepower to deal with the oversized craft. So, until Yularen was finished. The Horizon, Starfury and Eclipse were on their own.


Author's Note: I'm going to have to make some changes to the version of the Interdictor-Class cruiser I use here. Honestly, the stats on the wiki don't
make sense. Especially not when at the same time it says.

"The Sith warships made by the Star Forge rivaled Star Destroyers of the Imperial Period.[9]"​
So, I'll end up posting the modified stats once we've gotten to a Shipyard segment.​

 

[TheTurf]

"The Sith warships made by the Star Forge rivaled Star Destroyers of the Imperial Period.[9]"

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Star Wars lore is notoriously inconsistent. Especially when taking into account that "Force Bullshit" trumps physics in this setting.

I will note that the wiki specifically mentions Star Forge products. Could be another case of Force imbued materials simply being better than normal counterparts.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Star Wars lore is notoriously inconsistent. Especially when taking into account that "Force Bullshit" trumps physics in this setting.

I will note that the wiki specifically mentions Star Forge products. Could be another case of Force imbued materials simply being better than normal counterparts.

Click to shrink...

I'm probably still going to change it. Only having 5 turbo lasers doesn't make sense.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[bloodyparty]

I'm probably still going to change it. Only having 5 turbo lasers doesn't make sense.

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Multiple ways to take that:
In the wiki it says 5 medium turbo laser cannon "batteries" - could be that each battery consists of 4 cannons, but they can't fire as often as modern versions, or can't fire simultaneusly. Or the ship doesn't have enough energy to charge all of them at once.

In comparison the modern Immobilizer 418 heavy cruiser (same size and also classified as a cruiser) has 20 laser cannons, "some" being quad laser cannons, but if it's light/ medium/ heavy is i think mot mentioned.

The Sith warships made by the Star Forge rivaled Star Destroyers of the Imperial Period.[9]"

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This could also just be comparing the Centurion-class Battlecruiser and/ or the Harrower-class Dreadnought to the ISDs?


Ultimately just go with what feels right to you and the balance you want to portray. How effective do you think weapon RnD has been in the thousands of years of peace between ancient Sith Empire and Galactic Civil war.