The fleet held formation at the edge of the SDN system for days, while a steady stream of tankers, supply ships and replacement fighters prepared the ships for war. At last, everything was in readiness. The order of battle for the strike on the Cult of Travis would be;
Code: Select all
Task Force Assimilator
Fleet Combat Squadron
INS Big Stick - Peacemaker - Star Cruiser - Admiral Samuel
INS Loyalist - Victory - Star Destroyer - Captain Force
INS Thunder - Strike - Assault Frigate - Commander Ryan
INS Kali - Carrack - Heavy Gunship - Captain Knight
Deep Strike Squadron
INS Walk Softly - Peacemaker - Star Cruiser - Commodore Tithonus
INS 'Gripper' - Strike - Assault Frigate - Captain Darkevilme
Starship Studibaker - Strike - Assault Frigate - Commander Crossroads
INS Bush - Carrack - Heavy Gunship - Commander Stas
Starfighter Support Squadron
INS 'Resistance' - Venator - Space Control Ship - Captain Vanas
INS Revisionist - Venator - Space Control Ship - Commander Bluewolf
The hyperspace journey to Anaxes took only two hours. The fleet jumped back into realspace smoothly, the Imperial ships holding close formation as they approached the enemy force. Four enemy destroyers were clustered around a dangerous-looking light cruiser, the largest opponent the task force had faced to date. Numerous smaller gunships circled around the capital ships, while a vast space complex loomed the background. Streams of fighters were pouring out of the hangars and rushing forward like swarms of locusts.
“Flank them on each side, force them between our cruisers.” Admiral Samuel ordered. “Captain Vanas, have your bombers focus on their engines, I don't want them retreating into the cover of that station.”
The opposing fleets closed rapidly. The Admiral wondered why the enemy was advancing at all... forgoing the assistance of their station's guns reduced their chances of destroying any Imperial ships. That question was quickly answered.
“Sir, incoming transmission from the enemy flagship. Audio only.”
“Let's hear it.”
A wall of sound poured out of the speakers. “Bo-Bah-Fet! Bo-Bah-Fet! Travis show us the way! Mand-ah-loar For-ev-er!” The chanting voices kept repeated themselves, slightly out of time with each other, in a manner suggesting total absence of intelligent thought.
“Enough. Commodore Tithonus, do you have a solution on that cruiser yet?”
“Affirmative sir, coming in range... now.”
“Then by all means, silence those morons.”
Sheets of turbolaser fire lept from the two huge Imperial cruisers, pounding the shields of the blocky enemy cruiser. It continued to advance, firing strange blue beams and hypervelocity slugs along with the more conventional turbolaser bolts. Meanwhile the INS Loyalist and the INS Thunder focused their fire on the lead enemy destroyer. Fighters from both sides twisted and jinked all around the capital ships; the cultist fighters initially had the upper hand, but the arrival of multiple wings of Avengers from the two Venator class ships quickly swung the balance in favour of the Imperials. The Kali circled around the edges of the furball; Captain Knight's careful gunnery picked off cultist fighters every time one of their a squadrons separated from the melee.
Ninety seconds later the enemy cruiser was taking serious hull damage, while the Loyalist was delivering the coup de grâce to the lead destroyer. It promptly exploded in a brilliant flash of plasma. The only serious threat to the Imperials was a trio of enemy gunships, which had slipped through the formation and reached the INS Revisionist. They poured laser fire into the Venator's aft section; her shields began to falter and the thrust tubes took several ugly hits.
“Commander Bluewolf, fall back. We are turning to assist. Commodore Tithonius, you'll have to finish off their command ship for me.”
“Roger commander. Looks like the rear pair of destroyers are running for the station, just like you predicted. Lieutenant-Commander Redleader's bombers got the engines on the third destroyer and the cruiser, they aren't going anywhere.”
Captain Vanas was not going to take this attack on his squadron lying down. “Launch the reserve fighters! Helm, get us in close. I want barrage fire bracketing the Revisionist, switch to volley fire on the gunships once you've cleared those fighters.”
Energy lashed out from the Resistance Is Character Forming, destroying first one gunship, then the other. The Revisionist herself got the third. Her sublight drives had been hit badly, but the main body of the ship showed minimal damage.
Meanwhile Commodore Tithonus was delivering the last rites to the enemy cruiser. Explosions rippled across the whole two kilometre length of the ship, before it finally broke apart. The Grasping Hand Of Inevitable Destruction and the Starship Studibaker were having their own fun with the immobilised enemy destroyer, which also exploded in short order.
“Excellent work.” Commodore Tithonus smiled; in fact he barely resisted punching the air. “All stop. Admiral Samuel will want to form up before advancing on the station.”
“Yes sir.”
The commodore frowned. The Walk Softly did not seem to be slowing; if anything it was doing the opposite. The bulk of the enemy station was slowly filling the bridge windows.
“Confirm all stop?”
“Sir, there seems to be a problem... sir, definitely negative on helm control. She's running wild!”
“Switch to backups!”
“I've tried sir but it isn't working.”
“Tithonus to engineering. What the hell is going on with my engines?”
“Sir, we're investigating the system now, it looks like...”
The voice was cut off by an explosion. Up on the bridge deck, only a slight tremor could be felt. Alarms sounded, and a new, younger voice came on the comm. “Sir, this is Ensign Schuyler! We've been sabotaged sir! I think the primary and secondary plasma feeds were rigged...” The audio dissolved into static and cut out.
The Walk Softly was barrelling ahead now and the enemy station opened up on her, waves of turbolaser, ion, missile and mass driver fire thumping into the cruiser's shields.
“Tithonus, what the
hell are you doing?” Admiral Samuel sounded enraged.
“We've been sabotaged sir, lost all helm control. I've got my damage control teams trying to shut down the port engines and slew us away, but it's charlie foxtrot down in engineering, plasma leaks all over the place.”
Fresh waves of fighters launched from the station and zeroed in on the cruiser, launching waves of torpedoes at her engines. One by one they started to flicker and die. With agonising slowness the cruiser began to turn away from the station, but her shields were nearly gone. The Walk Softly was giving as good as she got, hammering the station's shields, but the enemy station was three times her size and mounted twice the weapons complement. Darkevilme and Crossroads did what they could to help the cruiser, focusing their fire on a mass driver turret and blowing it clean off the station. The INS Bhaal dove into the enemy bomber wings, trying desperately to destroy them before they could do any more damage to the Walks Softly. Even the Resistance is Character Forming managed to get in range, Captain Vanas pushing his engines to the point of overload and attempting long-range flak shots at the enemy fighters. It was a valiant effort, but it wasn't enough.
Commodore Tithonus hadn't bothered relocating to the CIC when the shields failed; under this onslaught, being deep in the hull would have only bought him a few extra seconds. He stood on the wrecked bridge and touched the comm panel for the last time. “Admiral, Captains, it's been an honour.”
The loss of the cruiser left the Travisites emboldened and looking for fresh targets. The station turned its fire on the INS Bush, which was caught exposed after chasing down the cultist fighters through the station's outlying superstructure. Meanwhile one of the remaining enemy destroyers was sallying out and throwing mass driver fire at the INS Resistance Is Character Forming. The hypervelocity slugs broke through the shielding, smashing the forward main turbolaser emplacement and ripping through her starboard thrust tubes.
“Damnit! Helm, get us over there! Can't this thing turn any faster?” Admiral Samuel was almost crying with frustration, forced to watch helplessly as his remaining ships took a beating. The INS Big Stick had turned almost about face to assist the Revisionist, and it was taking far too long to turn her back towards the enemy.
On the INS Bush, Commander Stas barely had time to register the full extent of his predicament. The little Carrack could be out of range of the station's guns in a mere twenty seconds, but it took only fifteen for the massed fire to knock down her shields and rip apart the hull. The gunship was almost completely vaporised by the waves of missiles detonating around her. Meanwhile the Gripper and the Studibaker were focusing their efforts on the enemy destroyer, trying to prevent it from doing any more damage to the Resistance. Darkevilme's ship got the upper mass drivers and Crossroads got the lower one, but the destroyer kept coming, continuing to fire turbolasers at the fleeting INS Resistance.
“Come on, a little closer...” A sudden movement off the starboard bow caught Admiral Samuel's attention. “Commander Bluewolf, what are you doing? Didn't you see what happened to the Walk Softly?”
Commander Bluewolf's damage control teams had achieved a minor miracle, and brought most of his Venator's engines back online. The Revisionist had recharged her shields and looped round to the far side of the station.
“Going after that last destroyer sir. I think we can handle it, Redleader's bomber wing took out the last of the station's hangars, so they won't be launching any more fighters. They seem to be focusing their fire on the main group.”
Admiral Samuel almost ordered him off, but he couldn't afford to let that destroyer add its fire to the main engagement. “Good hunting commander. I'm vectoring the Loyalist your way to assist, but she was chasing down those gunboats and is still a couple of minutes out.”
Revisionist fired mercilessly on the enemy destroyer, taking out her engines first so that she couldn't maneuver, then staying directly aft so that the enemy's mass drivers were useless. The destroyer's shields were still in bad shape from the initial engagement, and constant harrying from the Revisionist's fighters had prevented them from recharging. The enemy ship was soon on fire and starting to drift.
Back at the main engagement the cavalry had arrived. The enemy station was now firing on the Gripper, but the INS Thunder had arrived and had begun systematically disabling the station's missile tubes launchers. The Big Stick was close behind, firing long range volleys at the enemy destroyer.
The floor of the CIC was bucking and shaking, knocking two ensigns prone, but Darkevilme held her position with seemingly perfect balance. The ship's shields were down; the Strike was a tough ship, but it couldn't take this kind of fire for long.
“Captain, please, withdraw!” Commander Crossroad's voice came over intership. “We can handle it from here.”
Darkevilme considered her options. Unpalatable as retreat was, it would be even worse to spoil the perfect loss record of her Strike-class ships. The decision was made for her when a fresh enemy gunship blasted its way out of the tangled wreck of the station's main hanger. “Very well Commander. We are withdrawing.”
The Starship Studibaker kept firing, and with a little help from the Big Stick the enemy destroyer was toast. The enemy gunship turned out to be heavily damage, and soon expired under the Thunder's guns. Finally the Loyalist caught up with the Revisionist and delivered the final blow on the last enemy destroyer.
“Confirmed, all bandits down.” The only remaining threat was the badly damaged enemy station.
“All ships, target their remaining weapons.” Admiral Samuel was still a little shaken, but relieved that there would be no further losses. “We will focus on the main reactors.” Lieutenant Commander Redleader's bombers continued to launch torpedoes at any surface features that still looked intact. At last, the station's core structure gave way and the complex shattered into charred debris.
The price of victory had been heavy, but it could have been much worse.
The cultists still had a significant base on the planet, and as usual theatre shields made pinpoint bombardment impossible. Admiral Samuel was sorely tempted to just destroy the entire continent – a sustained bombardment from the Big Stick was easily sufficient for this – but Emperor Wong had stressed the need to capture production facilities and resource stockpiles wherever possible. What's more, Major Gaius was chomping at the bit to try out his new tanks. So the assault shuttles went in...
The landing zone was at the far end of a shallow valley, leading to a system of box canyons that concealed the enemy base. The tanks rolled out, easily outpacing Major Phongn's clumsy AT-AT. Five kilometres to the north, the village of Testingstan was taking the opportunity to show its displeasure at having to pay protection fees to the 'Mandos'. The citizens were determined to lodge a strong complaint, mainly in the form of blaster fire.
To the south, the tanks had engaged a group of floating vehicles and were quickly destroying them. A group of converted pleasure-craft slipped past, but Major Phongn blasted them apart with single shots from his AT-AT's chin guns. The repulsor tanks rolled forward towards an enemy defence bunker, only to discover that it was defended by a pair of anti-vehicle turrets. Combined fire from the two of them blew the lead tank into tiny pieces.
“Fuck!” shouted Major 'Brother' Gaius, “why can't they give us some proper tanks? How hard can it be? Strap a big gun on a durasteel shithouse and put it on some grindy tracks...” Another of his tanks exploded. “Withdraw! Withdraw!”
It was true that the new tanks took two shots from the AV turrets to kill, rather exploding on the first hit the way the TIE Maulers had, but that was small comfort. Major Gaius fumed as he waited for the bombers to arrive. At least that oversized walker wasn't going to... wait, what was it doing?
Major Phongn was in fact resorting to his fallback strategy of deploying stormtroopers to distract the enemy.
Their suicide charge on the enemy bunker did succeed in confusing the Travisites long enough for his AT-AT to destroy both turrets. Sadly there were no stormtroopers left to take the bunker itself, but Major Phongn soon had another set deployed.
“There there Major Gaius, it's ok. You can defend the drop zone while I handle the enemy for you.” The sarcasm was unbearable, but Major Gaius had no choice, the valley walls were lined with AV turrets and his so-called tanks would be massacred. The AT-AT on the other hand seemed to be armoured with neutronium and filled with an endless supply of expendable stormtroopers. A rocket squad managed to put a few dents in it, but that was it. With the aid of a single airstrike to take out the thickest concentration of turrets, Major Phongn single-handedly took out the entire enemy base.
“Hmm, still getting some life sign readings, somewhere to the north... and a signal. Interesting.” The major touched the comm panel.
“eed assistance! Imperial forces! This is President Uraniun of Testingstan. If you can hear me... the Mandos are slaughtering us! Please assist...”
Major Phongn switched channels and cut the paniced voice off. “Bomber wing? I'd like a second pass please, lock onto the signal on channel DX-72, that'll give you the location of the last of the cultists.” He closed the commlink. 'Testingstan eh?' he muttered to himself ' Another mercy killing, I'm sure.'
Testingstan was given a fine demonstration of Imperial Regulation 37-A : 'There is no such thing as overkill'.
As you can see, while we suffered minor attrition to the repulsortank squadron, no units of any importance were lost in the ground battle.
Imperial losses : Peacemaker-class Star Cruiser INS Walk Softly, Carrack-class Heavy Gunship INS Bush.
Enemy losses : One light cruiser, four destroyers, numerous gunships, one large defence station, assorted ground forces, many defence turrets and their 'Shrine to Boba'.
The burnt-out ruins of the enemy shrine were rebuilt as a monument to Commodore Tithonus and Commander Stas, who were buried on site with full military honours. The planet has been renamed 'Tithonus', and its moon has been renamed 'Stas'.
Director Weemadando is leading a full investigation into the cowardly sabotage of the INS Walk Softly. Her sister ship INS Big Stick has been sent back to the HPCA system for a detailed inspection, to counter any possible efforts to sabotage our other operational Star Cruiser. The INS Loyalist has been designated temporary flagship while the Big Stick is out of commission, but Task Force Assimilator has been disbanded pending further orders.
