StarDestroyer.Net BBS

A quick note, if Old Republic Dreadnoughts are ever taken, I'd like to be upgraded to one....Unless the stats for a Dreadnought are actually WORSE then the strike cruiser I currently have

Given my incoherent name, I'd like to request cultist duty.

Volunteering for Blasterfodder duty, anywhere, all the time.

Lt. Hit-Man must be given a role here. His performance would be bloody.

I seem to have been placed as a very strange feline alien lady with an unhealthy amount of enthusiasm and the emphasis on the alien part. I suspect i will go far, either due to that enthusiasm serving the emperor well or one of those space burial things with the launched coffins.

The conquest of Fresia and Felucia was an excellent start in expanding the Empire's production base, but the lopsided expansion had left the capital vulnerable. Mindful of the near rout at ASVS, the Emperor demanded the creation of a buffer zone, so that there would be enough warning to muster a defence fleet should the cultists try a decapitation strike.

"My lord, I have another report from Anaxes."



Task Force Assimilator came out of hyperspace at the planet's L2 point, which according to the scouts was the location that the cultists were using as their base. The damaged INS Ford had been left behind at Enigma, defended by the two surviving Tartan gunships. As SDN the fleet had picked up the INS Thunder, another of Darkevilme's curiously designed assault frigates captained by Commander Ryan. It had also collected INS Dharma, a Carrack-class heavy gunship. Commander Knight had been transferred to the new ship and was looking forward to trying out its extensive laser armament on a wing of cultist fighters.

"Enemy fighters inbound sir, four squadrons of bombers."

"Avenger squadrons, intercept." Commodore Samuel ordered confidently. "No sense letting them get hits in before we even get to their base. Dharma, hang back, they may try to flank."

The Avengers streaked forward and tore into the enemy squadrons. The fleet's TIE complement had been replenished at SDN and the new pilots were eager for action. After barely a minute of dogfighting the cultist pilots broke and ran, fleeing back towards their station. The TIE pilots followed."



'That's odd' Commodore Samuel thought 'they're normally more fanatical'. "Are there any signs of flankers yet?"

"Nothing on local scanners sir, but I am getting a reading on the hyperspace tracker, very diffuse, but it's heading straight for us... wait... enemy fighters at six o'clock!"

Eight squadrons of Y-wings supported by an equal number of X-wings dropped out of hyperspace directly behind the fleet and headed directly for the flagship. The weapons on the Victory class was optimised for long-range capital ship bombardment, and with its fighters drawn off it was highly vulnerable to torpedo runs.

"It's a trap! Recall all interceptor wings! Commander Knight, your assistance please. Helm, keep turning, don't give them an easy target."

Knight was all too happy to oblige. "Flank speed, fire at will." The Carrack gunship surged forward, spraying laser fire at the cultist fighters.



They weren't firing torpedoes though; the ramshackle-looking Y-shaped fighters were in fact armed with one-shot ion pulse canons. The blue energy streaked out and enfolded the INS Terix, surrounding her in an eerie crackling halo. The flagship's engines flickered and died... leaving her a sitting duck for the torpedo launchers on the X-wings.

“Take us right into them! We have to draw them away from the Terix. Comms, got a fix on the leaders yet?”

“Yes sir, I think so, that one... and that one.”

“Gunnery, focus fire on those targets.”



A laser bolt blew an engine clean off the lead Y-Wing, which cartwheeled wildly before breaking up. The lead X-Wing went down seconds later, blasted apart by a laser salvo. The cultist fighters wheeled about randomly for a few seconds, then turned as one and came after the INS Dharma like a swarm of angry hornets.

“Knight, good job! Fighter support is inbound, ninety seconds.”

“Too late Commodore, shields are...” the channel was filled with a burst of static, followed by thuds and bangs “...gone.”

“Dharma, this is Studibaker, we are closing to assist!” Commander Crossroad's ship was the closest, but she wasn't built for anti-fighter work, and her fire made little impact on the metal flies buzzing about the wounded gunship.

“Studibaker, listen closely. They're focusing on our reactor. I need you to fire a heavy turbolaser volley into this ship, directly amidships. Do you copy?”

'They're mad' Crossroads thought, 'the whole fleet is commanded by lunatics'. “Dharma, please confirm, you want us to fire on you?”

“Just do it! We're almost out of time.”

Crossroads blinked. There was no time to ask the Commodore for confirmation. “Gunnery, I'm designating a target for you, heavy turbo volley on my mark... mark!”



The green lances of energy ripped into the Carrack's midsection, shattering supports and splitting the elongated ship into two sections. Moments later, the reactor let go and the rear of the ship disappeared in a blue-white plasma explosion.



“Dharma? Do you copy? Damnit... did they have time to launch any escape pods?”

“Not detecting any sir, but still reading life signs... in the forward section, looks like it's still intact, and the fighters are ignoring it.”

Commander Crossroads let out a deep breath of relief. “Good shooting men!”

“Err, commander... those fighters are coming after us now.”

“Commander, hold on, we are giving you covering fire and the Avengers will be with you in fourty seconds.” Darkevilme was trying to sound reassuring, though her species's definition of 'reassuring' seemed to involve a lot more growls and snarls than the human version.



The rebel fighters unloaded the last of their torpedoes on the Studibaker, but they were down to a third of their original number. The TIEs arrived and made short work of the survivors.

“Helm control restored sir.” Commodore Samuel allowed himself to relax slightly as the threat was dealt with. “The Gripper and the Thunder are in range of the enemy station, Parasite will be in thirty seconds.”

“All ships, destroy that station. These cultists have wasted enough of our time already, we shall not give them the luxury of contemplating surrender.”

The rebel base was a storage platform with a few weapons and shield generators hastily welded onto the hull. It could offer no significant resistance to the Imperial fleet's firepower.



With space dominance assured, the fleet moved into close orbit and began intensive scans of the planet's surface. Vast factory complexes were dotted about the harsh, arid surface. Many of them were in ruins, but some still showed some kind of activity. The cultists seemed to be focusing their efforts on a single, nearly intact site. They had managed to get the local shield generators back on line, though fortunately not any of the primary planetary shield generators. The task force's ground troops were sent in, landing as close to the shield boundary as prudence allowed.



Given Stark's success in infiltrating the enemy base in the Fresia assault, he was sent ahead to scout and if possible reduce the defences.



It turned out that the rebels had not taken the time to set up any turrets. They had managed to reactivate two automated vehicle factories, which sat in a wide depression. A large group of armoured vehicles sat in the centre of the base; there didn't seem to be any patrols. Stark chuckled at their foolishness as he snapped on his laser designator.

“Terix, this is super-stealth-commando Solid Stark speaking, any of your flyboys found a way under the shield yet?”

“Affirmative. Bomber squadron ready, starting their run now.”



The destruction of one of their factories stirred up plenty of activity in the rebel base. The smaller vehicles glided around on antigrav repulsors, technology the Empire still couldn't manufacture cost-effectively, and they did so very fast indeed. In less than a minute a pair of light tanks had found Stark and opened fire. He returned the favour with his disintigrator carbine, but the tanks were shielded and the weapon had little effect.

“Screw this” Stark exclaimed, grunting as a blaster bolt ricoched off his chest plate. “this isn't my kind of party.”



“Gaius, get your ass over here, no turrets but plenty of tanks for you to shoot at.”



The Maulers rolled forwards, threading their way through piles of slag and rubble. The now standard ablative infantry armour was deployed, and the formation soon made contact with the enemy.



Surprisingly this did not result in massive casualties, as the Mauler's rapid-fire autoblasters proved very effective on the cultist vehicles. Once their shields were down they proved no more durable than the TIE crawlers, but with much less firepower. A mere two squads of Stormtroopers fell before the enemy vanguard were destroyed.

Further advance provoked a hail of long-range missile fire, descending from unseen launchers. “Fall back!” ordered Major Gaius – his Maulers would be shredded by that artillery if they got any closer. All tanks but one turned tail and fled - Master Sergeant Cards was not in the mood for retreat. He pushed his throttle to the stops and raced forward, swerving wildly between exploding missiles.

“Requesting fire support sir! I have their main building designated.”

“Son of a bitch!” Gaius exclaimed “Commodore, give us everything you've got.”



Turbolaser bolts fell like the wrath of angry gods, and the cultist HQ vanished in a massive series of detonations. Cards' tank was flipped into the air and thrown fifty metres across the metal plateau; still inverted, he slid into the wall and came to rest with a horrible crunch.

“Sergeant! All units, advance! Clean that place out.”

The few surviving cultists could do nothing but wander around in a shell-shocked daze. They were quickly dealt with, and Major Gaius rolled up in time to see a battered and scarred figure pulling himself out of the wrecked Mauler.



Imperial losses; One Carrack class heavy gunship, some stormtroopers, minor attrition to ground and space TIEs. Commander Knight and Master Sergeant Cards both survived but will be out of action for a while.

Cultist losses; numerous fighters, one small defence platform, manufacturing base including tanks and artillery.

We have taken Mechis III; tech teams are investigating the automated factories now. The system has been renamed 'SomethingAwful' – apparently this is due to a communications fault, which scrambled Stark's mission report such that it skipped from 'and I want this system to be called' to 'yeah, and I was shot up something awful'. As usual the bureaucrats at the Fleet Administration Office refuse to admit to (never mind correct) this mistake.

Moff Sea Skimmer has completed reconstruction of one of the old Strategic Space Command drydock facilities and is now working on a new project. Finally, our efforts to manufacture new walkers are starting to bear fruit;

Well this is damn entertaining. I'm up for any random position you have.

Ack, browser ate most of the first section of text. And of course now I can't edit it. Here is the full version:

---

The conquest of Fresia and Felucia was an excellent start in expanding the Empire's production base, but the lopsided expansion had left the capital vulnerable. Mindful of the near rout at ASVS, the Emperor demanded the creation of a buffer zone, so that there would be enough warning to muster a defence fleet should the cultists try a decapitation strike.

"My lord, I have another report from Anaxes. The Companion Cube droid we sent to that system finally bought it – we'll be sending a fresh one shortly. Before it was destroyed it managed to transmit a comm burst containing vital intelligence on the enemy force there... along with a rather poor philosophical rant about life, death and involuntary uploaded."

Director Weemadando paused to collect his thoughts. “There is good news and bad news...”

“Good, bad, indifferent, just spit it out.” The Emperor was not a man overburdened with patience.

“They have at least one light cruiser, four destroyers, six plus gunships, plus a space fortress twice the size of the one over our capital. That's the bad news, the good news is that the hyperdrives on their capital ships are out and they don't seem to be able to repair them.”

“Who is 'they'?”

“I was just getting to that sir, they call themselves the 'Cult of Travis'. They have at least one other base, but we haven't been able to pin down the co-ordinates yet...”

“Mobile or not, I won't have a force like that within a thousand light years of my capital. Grand Moff, when will you be ready to attack?”

“Well, now that Moff Skimmer has a SSC repair facility operational, we...”

“What? I haven't authorised any resources for that yet! I will not tolerate disobedience of this nature. I will have him brought up on treason charges...”

“My lord, please, we can deal with the issue of whatever Moff Sea Skimmer may or may not have done later.” Grand Moff Stuart privately sympathised with the man's position – the Empire did need a heavy mobile punch more than static defences right now – but he could not say that in public. He settled for changing the subject. “I have another option that deserves urgent consideration.”

Emperor Wong glared at him. “What is it?”

“Our long range hyperspace tracking array detected fleet movements into the Mechis III system. I sent a scouting force, and they detected heavy weapons fire. It turned out that a cultist strike force engaged the gangs holding the system. They were successful, but took heavy losses before wiping out the enemy. I believe it is almost undefended... and sir, comms intercepts suggest that these cultists are from the same group that attacked ASVS.”

“We cannot allow them access to the automated factories... and it's high time we added those facilities to our own arsenal. Very well Grand Moff. Assemble the fleet and prepare to deliver some payback.”

After that last mission Darkevilme requests a complementary Tartan frigate be attached to the Assault frigate squadron. Other than that the expansion of my children to the number of four pleases kitty.

So my First targeted kill is one of our own ships? Lucky things Carracks were built for survivability...
What ios our ship making production up to? As Acting Lord CEO I think I would like a status report on production levels as well as fiscal spending.

If your still taking enlistments then I'll sign for an AT-ST Company or whatever light warship your using.

As soon as you get another Victory assign me to it please.

If you are still recruiting, I'd like to command a strike cruiser - "Stalwart" or "Resurgence".

If I survive, may I have a destroyer ?

Which mod are you using ?

This is surely the finest LP in the SDN oeuvre

Raesene wrote:If you are still recruiting, I'd like to command a strike cruiser - "Stalwart" or "Resurgence".

If I survive, may I have a destroyer ?

Which mod are you using ?

http://empireatwar.filefront.com/file/z ... don;76364x

That with some other adjustments.

Admiral Samuel stared out across space at the giant boxy shape of the drydock, trying to make out the form of the starship nestled within. There was the suggestion of a rounded, two-lobed shape, but that was all he could make out through the gaps in the dense latticework. There was one thing he could make out very clearly though, as it was painted in half-kilometre-high letters on the side of the dock; 'PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION', and then in slightly smaller letters below it 'PLANET-KILLING IS JUST A HOBBY'. He shared the observation deck with Moff Sea Skimmer, an enigmatic figure with the curious habit of sticking a burning brown cylinder in his mouth constantly. The man rarely spoke except to bark orders at his general staff.

The front of the structure began to peel back, the giant clamshell doors slowly grinding outwards while moorings and umbilicals retracted. The long, blunt snout of the INS Big Stick began to move as the ship's thrusters came online.

“You're sure about the name, sir?”

“If you'd spent more time studying the historical databanks, you'd understand. Now Admiral, I am letting you borrow my ship. I expect you to take good care of her. Of course losses are inevitable in war, but you may only lose this ship on two conditions.”

The new Imperial flagship pulled further out of the dock, her four thousand metre length now almost fully revealed.

“Which are?”

“Inflicting losses of at least four times her own tonnage, and the captain going down with his command.” The Moff flicked some ash from his burning cylinder and stuffed it back into his mouth.

Samuel gulped. “Understood, sir.”

“Very good. Your shuttle is waiting. Dismissed, admiral.”

----

Fresh intelligence had confirmed that Kessel was the base for a loose federation of pirates and raiders who were terrorising fourteen minor systems in the local vicinity. No less than three robot clones of Companion Cube had been sent to monitor movements and communications. It was true that much time had been wasted in an impromptu group therapy session, but the probe droids had pulled through and delivered the time and co-ordinates of an upcoming meeting that would put two thirds of the pirates in the same location.

The opportunity to wipe out the threat and establish Imperial dominance over the region, not to mention capture the dormant mines and refineries in the Kessel system itself, was too good to miss. Admiral Samuel considers it the perfect test for his newly bolstered task force. Along with the new flagship, the INS Ford had been repaired and returned to active duty, plus the first of the newly refurbished Victory-class light destroyers had been put in commission. The INS Loyalist was commanded by Captain Lord Force and he was eager to show off his abilities.

The CIC of the INS Big Stick was considerably larger and better equipped than the command spaces of the INS Terix. Samuel used the space to paced impatiently as the fleet approached the target system. Just a few more seconds...

Instead of the smooth transition to real-space he was expecting, there was a bang, followed by a tortured whine. The ship shuddered and bucked, deck gravity going haywire for a few seconds before the system managed to reset.

“Report!”

“Something pulled us out of hyperspace sir! Got the whole fleet... but we're well out of formation.”

The admiral stared at the scanner display. “Oh, bugger...”. The enemy fleet had obviously expected this outcome, as it was holding close formation off the Big Stick's starboard bow. The bulk of Task Force Assimilator was trailing well behind the flagship, and a dense debris field of refinery slag shielded the enemy formation's near flank. There was one exception; the INS Thunder had the misfortune to drop out of hyperspace directly between the Big Stick and the enemy fleet. An avalanche of turbolaser fire sprayed out from the six enemy capital ships, while flocks of assault fighters streaked past them towards the Imperial assault frigate.

“Captain Ryan! You are to retreat immediately! We'll cover you as best we can.” The flagship seemed to wallow in space as she turned towards the enemy. He turned to his EWO. “Focus our ECM projection on a line through the Thunder to the enemy. She won't last two minutes if we can't disrupt their targetting”



From the bridge of the Grasping Hand Of Inevitable Destruction (she refused to use the bastardised human version) Captain Darkevilme had a panoramic view of the situation. The cat-woman stood at the very front of the deck, gripping the rail with her tail lashing and her striped mane of hair tumbling behind her.

“Maximum thrust!” she screamed “Commander Ryan, they are targetting your engines, jink and launch decoys!” Enemy heavy fighters closed on the Thunder and sprayed the back of the ship with laser fire, but their torpedoes failed to hit the primary engines.

“Captain, we'll take serious damage if we plough through that debris!” Commander Crossroad's ship was following close behind the 'Gripper'. “We still have hull damage from Mechis 3!”

“Silence!” Darkevilme snarled. “We will not abandon one of our pride to those barbarians!”

The Strike-class ships forced their way though the debris and began spitting fire at the enemy formation, followed closely by the two Acclamators. The bold maneuver seemed to spook the captains of the pirate light destroyers, who broke formation and began to turn away from the Imperial onslaught. Meanwhile both Victory class destroyers closed up on the flagship, which had nearly interposed itself between the enemy and the fleeing INS Thunder.

“Thanks you, everyone.” Commander Ryan was speaking on a fleet-wide channel. “We've taken some major hits, but we'll pull through.”



The enemy destroyers had not cut and run after all; they were merely taking a rear position to recharge their shields, allowing two of their own Accalamators to take the lead. They continued to provide cover fire, while the Acclamators ignored the heavily armored assault frigates and poured everything they had into their imperial counterparts. The two fleets clashed head on in a massive exchange of firepower. The chaos began to overwhelm the fire control computers and small explosions dotted space as the ordnance passed through the clouds of dogfighting fighters, making no distinction between friend and foe. The enemy shields faltered and failed, but they kept coming, unleashing ripples of missiles at the INS Parasite. One of the enemy Acclamators was finally overwhelmed and exploded in a shower of debris, but its last volley of missiles continued onward and struck the Parasite amidships.



“Co-ordinate fire! Get your patterns under control! Darkevilme, have your group take out that second Acclamator, we'll focus on the destroyers. Have the bombers take out the shield generators on the near destroyer, that'll leave them vulnerable.”

Redleader's had been hanging back, staring with horror as the interceptors getting blasted apart by stray turbolaser bolts as often as they got hit by enemy fighters. Orders were orders though, and with a grimace he ordered his TIE bombers forward into the fray. Several never made it to their targets, but most got through and started scanning for weak spots in the enemy shields. The heavy volleys from the Victories had opened up holes, and the bombers unloaded torpedoes through those holes directly into the enemy's shield nodes. After that the fate of the enemy was sealed; both ships were reduced to flaming fragments soon afterwards.



“Yes, yes, now you see the folly of hunting my ships!” Darkevilme rarely missed an opportunity to gloat; half of the enemy fleet was down and most of that was thanks to her assault frigates. “Parasite, what is your status?”

The comm channel was silent. “Parasite, do you read?”

“She's got major structural fires Captain. Detecting escape pods... looks like they're abandoning ship.”

Suddenly the comm crackled into life. “Parasite to Big Stick.... lost all coolant... and the backups... reactor supports are buckling... out.”

The wreck would continue to burn for another five minutes, but the Parasite was already done for. The ship contorted horribly as her skeleton became superheated. Eventually the stress was too much and the Accalamator literally tore itself to pieces.

“Err, Captain, if you'd care to look at the damage control board...”

“Hmm. Crossroads, what is your status?”

“Our shields are virtually gone Captain. About a third of our guns are out of commission.”

“Captain... Sunless-Malign-Person... or whatever it is. This is Prefect. I'll take the lead, you hang back and recharge your shields.”

Darkevilme glowered. “Very well, human.”

Meanwhile Admiral Samuel was having problems of his own. Four squadrons of enemy strike fighters had broken through and were focusing on the Terix, which had few point defence guns to counter them. It was almost impossible for the Big Stick's guns to assist without hitting their own escort. The surviving enemy destroyer was also targeting the former flagship and her shots slammed into top of the ship, smashing the long-range gun emplacements.

“Terix, pull back! Fighter support is inbound, hold on. Loyalty, see if you can assist.”



The fighters arrived, but it was too late for the Terix. The waves of torpedoes overwhelmed her defences and tore deep into the ship. Hull plating was blown off her frame as they exploded in her vitals. The destroyer died in a conflagration of secondary explosions.

Admiral Samuel clenched his teeth and almost shed a tear for his old ship... but it would not do to show such weakness in front of the men. “Continue firing. They will pay for that soon enough.”

In its eagerness to kill the Terix the enemy destroyer had closed to within point-blank range of Samuel's star cruiser. The heavy guns couldn't miss; their final broadside blasted the enemy ship into shrapnel.

The final two enemy ships were focusing everything they had on the INS Ford; they seemed determined to take one more Imperial ship with them. Captain Prefect considered the situation; another rescue was out of the question. The rest of the fleet was just too far away, and at close range the hail of fire from the enemy ships made it unlikely that escape pods would survive. They could try running, but the chances of success were slim.

“Scew it. Reactor to 120%, overload the guns! Focus on the closer target! By hell we're taking one of them with us!”

“Captain Prefect?' Admiral Samuel hoped he wouldn't have to watch another of his ships die. 'What are you doing?'

“Going out with a bang, sir! Give my regards to...”

A co-ordinated barrage hit the INS Ford and the transmission was cut off. The ship's bridge tower was a ruin, her engines a tangle wreck of ruined metal and leaking plasma. Somehow she continued to launch missiles though, which pounded one of the enemy Acclamators until it could take no more. The enemy ship broke up, but the final pirate ship kept firing. The INS Ford died in a blaze of light.



The enemy tried to turn, the wounded ship heeling over as she struggled to escape from the vengeful Imperial fleet. Her efforts were futile. Before she could accelerate, the Big Stick had approached to optimal turbolaser range. Her heavy guns made short work of the final enemy.



Imperial losses : The Victory-class INS Terix and the Acclamators INS Ford and INS Parasite. Major attrition to TIE interceptor wings.

Pirate losses : Two light destroyers, six Acclamators.

Post-battle clean-up operations revealed the cause of the hyperspace problem; the pirates used a jurry-rigged cluster of interdiction generators, taken from multiple Immobiliser wrecks. Tech teams are studying them in the hope that it will assist Imperial efforts to duplicate the technology. The remaining pirate forces were mopped up with negligable losses and the mining facilities captured.

Captain Prefect was given a full military funeral; Admiral Samuel lead the service in the primary hangar of the INS Big Stick. In accordance with recent tradition, the Kessel system has been renamed to the Prefect system.

Emperor Wong has decreed that Acclamator-class assault transports are no longer to be used in offensive fleet operations. The class is simply too vulnerable to enemy fire. However since the production line is mature and they are by far the cheapest capital ship we can currently construct, we will continue refurbishing hulls for use by planetary guard forces. Dropping the Acclamators from the fleet will leave us with a dangerously lack of fighter cover, as the Strike-class frigates lack fighter bays. Moff Skimmer has proposed a solution to this, but the first hulls will not be ready for another month;



As you can see we have also begun low-rate initial production of the Empire's first genuine tanks. Major Gaius is eager to use them in combat as soon as possible.

Assign me to a ship when you get the chance please.

Starglider wrote:Pirate losses : Two light destroyers, six Acclamators.

Gah. Should read 'four acclamators'. Damned edit time limit.

Bluewolf wrote:Assign me to a ship when you get the chance please.

Ah, but what the Empire really needs is a new TIE Avenger squadron commander. Now it's true that the attrition rate is approaching 50% per engagement and the last person to take the post was reduced to vapor in his first major battle, but that just sets the bar low for you to beat right?

Awesome job on keeping up the quality of the updates Starglider.

My my we do have a very high attrition rate for commanders in the fleet don't we.
So if i understand the reports correctly we're to go into battle in future with drastically reduced fighter cover and limited anti fighter weaponry.
I would like to reiterate the request for a Tartan anti fighter warship.
Though I have to say we are well pleased with the performance of the Strike Cruisers and were it not for the issue of most of our carrier capable ships being phased out i'd be pushing for another to be added to the pack.

Ah, but what the Empire really needs is a new TIE Avenger squadron commander. Now it's true that the attrition rate is approaching 50% per engagement and the last person to take the post was reduced to vapor in his first major battle, but that just sets the bar low for you to beat right?

I will take it, its not as if my ship loss rate in other sci fi games is low as some may know.

Oh and as said by someone else, what mods are you using for this?

Hmm, other than provide fighter support to INS Terix, I did nothing else of note. Of course, I'm only just getting started.

Darkevilme wrote:My my we do have a very high attrition rate for commanders in the fleet don't we.
So if i understand the reports correctly we're to go into battle in future with drastically reduced fighter cover and limited anti fighter weaponry.
I would like to reiterate the request for a Tartan anti fighter warship.
Though I have to say we are well pleased with the performance of the Strike Cruisers and were it not for the issue of most of our carrier capable ships being phased out i'd be pushing for another to be added to the pack.

Indeed my feline friend, that both yours and my ships have so far survived seem a bit of a minor miracle... In upcoming engagments I shudder to think if the two of us were ever broken up.. As long as you have my back I shall have your back!

The Parasite was destroyed? How unfortunate. Did I survive in the escape pods, and if so, what will I be reassigned to?

“Are you saying that I was wrong?” Emperor Wong dared the Grand Moff to continue.

“Frankly my Lord, yes I am. Sending out a task force without adequate fighter cover...”

“Well that's refreshing. No one around here seems to give me honest criticism any more. Not since I accidentally electrocuted that uppity Humanoid Resources manager. I thought we had solid intelligence that it was a minimal force?” Wong glared at Director Weemadando.

“We did my lord, but it seems that the local gang had outside help. They never would've been able to get that planetary ion cannon operational on their own.”

“Hmm. Lay it out for me then, what happened?”

Stuart tapped the touch panel, filling the main screen with flight recorder imagery.

“Admiral Samuel jumped the task force to Myrkr as you instructed. He agreed that it would be a good opportunity to practice joint cruiser operations, though he lodged a protest at being asked to deploy without fresh gunships. As you can see, without outside interference the fleet came out of the jump in a nice tight formation.”



“You can see Loyalist launching off her fighters there. The INS Indestructible II...” the Grand Moff paused to shake his head at the name, who had authorised that... “had a helm control glitch, but the bridge crew went to backup systems and got that straightened out.”

“The enemy had a pair of light destroyers, a handful of gunships and six wings of fighters. Admiral Samuel took his flagship and most of the force to intercept, while the INS Walk Softly went after their space station, escorted by the INS Thunder. She still had some damage from the last battle, so Commander Ryan didn't want to take her into a ship-to-ship fight.”



“The Big Stick and the Strikes quickly took out the enemy destroyers, but their gunships slipped through and cut our fighter screen to pieces. That gave the enemy fighters a clear run at the Indestructible. Now normally the shields would've held long enough for the Gripper and the Studibaker to clear the fighters before the Indestructible took serious damage. However this is the moment that the enemy chose to reveal their ace in the hole.”



“The planetary ion canon opened up and as you can see it did a number on the Indestructible. The INS Loyalty killed the last two gunships and the Strikes did what they could about the fighters, but they just took too long to die.”



"We lost the INS Indestructible II before the last of the enemy forces could be mopped up. By that time the Commodore Tithonus was in range of their station. The Walk Softly had no trouble taking it out on her own, took less than a minute in fact.”



The Emperor sat back in his chair. “The cruisers are sound then. With those new space control ships, we should have ample firepower to take out those Travisites at Anaxes. Annoying to lose another Victory though – did any of the crew make it off?”

“The Loyalty picked up a few from the wreckage, my lord, but none of the command staff survived. The fighters made sure to blast the bridge tower to scrap.”

“And I assume you want to name the system after Captain Decue?”

“It is good for morale my lord, with this attrition rate we're having trouble finding competent commanders.”

“Hmm. About that Weemadando, why hasn't there been any progress on the cloning program?”

“I believe their difficulties are genuine, Emperor, but not being a geneticist I don't understand the specifics. There is a possible alternative though... we've uncovered a lab that used to belong to Massad Thrumble, who developed...”

Grand Moff Stuart cut in. “With the greatest respect for the director, perhaps we could finish reviewing the battle before starting another debate over research priorities?”

The Emperor frowned. “Very well. I assume there was a ground invasion?”

“In a sense. Orbital scans detected no significant power sources other than one reactivated ion cannon, its reactor and local shielding. Major Phongn insisted on taking his AT-AT in alone...”

“Unsupported? Is the man suicidal?”

“I believe he wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of his new heavy walkers, my lord. In any case he was not exactly unsupported, as his vehicle was packed full of stormtroopers. He deployed three squads and they fanned out on scouting patrols. That's when we discovered that the natives were keen on guard animals.”



“Blaster carbines proved disturbingly ineffective, but the AT-ATs guns killed the creatures almost instantly.”



“Major Phongn deployed more troops, who also fanned out... and were also attacked by the guard animals. From the log, it appears he opened fire while some of his own troops were still alive... ah yes, he claims it was a 'mercy killing'. Anyway the third set of Stormtroopers located the ion cannon.”

On the cockpit voice recording the Major could be clearly heard shouting 'Maximum fire power!'. Emperor Wong got the impression that he'd been waiting to do that the whole mission.



“His vehicle is clearly effective, if horrible slow, but I must say that his careless use of stormtroopers was...”

“...in keeping with the finest traditions of the Imperial military?” Emperor Wong finished with a sarcastic smile. “Execute the standard fortification plan for the Myrkr... ah... Decue system, and prepare the fleet for Anaxes. I want those Travisites gone within the next fortnight.”