Star Wars : The New Sith Crisis

Confrontation at Kessel

From the Bridge of the Chimaera Grand Admiral Pellaeon watched as the massive droid energy pummels chewed their way through the blast doors. The Sullustans hadn't been cowering while his troops secured the surface, instead, they had changed the one entrance into the mine from a normal blast door into a wallof duracrete several meters thick. It was taking longer than expected to get through. Once into the mines, the droid army shouldn't have a problem. Sullustans may be good diggers, but the troops of the empire were nigh invincible. Despite this slight setback, he was in pretty good spirits. Kirkosh had already reported success on Neimoidia and he had just recieved a report from Sev'rannce Tann that the Wookies had given in after fierce fighting. He also was pleased to hear of the extra ore veins discovered in lower Kashyyyk. They might even be worth the cost of defending the mining outposts against the deadly ecology of lower Kashyyyk.
"Admiral Pellaeon, sir." A voice interrupted his thoughts, "The pummels have broken through. Your orders?"
"Send all troops into the minds. Instruct General Sifran to conduct the attack as he sees fit, but keep me updated on every new developement."
"As ordered, sir" The voice replied. Switching his viewscreen to the holocams on the planet, Pellaeon watched as a group of battle droids advanced. As they came forwards, blasterfire erupted from the entrance. The company of scouts, not equipped with the Empires vaunted Quantum Armor, was cut to ribbons. The survivors began firing as fresh troops came up. With them was an AT-AT Walker. Several blasts from the Walker's guns and the fire from the cave stopped. Led by q-armored droids, the Imperial Third Army advanced into the caves. As they dissappeared from the cameras view, a klaxon began baying. Red lights flashed and Pellaeon switched his screen to a command holo. What he saw was ship after ship exiting hyperspace. Somehow the Sullustans must have cracked his jamming. Or they used some other method of communication. Somehow, the Federation knew he was there. Exactly four point five seconds after the first klaxons began their sound, his comm was in his hand as he ordered, "All hands to battle stations. TIEs launch. Destroyers in formation D-Alpha-4." Looking at his status board, he saw the ships moving into position as the enemy fleet swept forward.

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As her ships arrived at Bastion, Sev'rannce Tann felt something in the force. The force at Kessel was in danger She grabbed a comm and sent a broadcast across all channels. "This is General Sev'rannce Tann. All Expeditionary force ships head for Kessel on the double. We have trouble." The crack Imperial crews, all of them still aboard their ships, immediately had the Kashyyyk armada moving. The Neimoidia force on Bastion was rushing to shuttles to get to their ships. The forces of the Empire were rallying to move against this new threat.

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On the deck of the Ralroost, Admiral Kre'fey let out a whoop as he watched Pellaeon's fleet scramble into a defensive position. This visit to Kessel had been planned for a while, ships and all, to check into the mining operations there. He had suspected that the Sullustans were participating in some marginally legal methods. In fact, the latest rumor had them planning some sort of big thing. He had come prepared, a force complete with ground troops. From what he could see, however, Kessel had lost all power stations and atmospheric generators to Pellaeon's attack. The ground forces would be useless. Still, he might be able to badly damage the Imperial fleet here. Maybe even capture its commander, Pellaeon himself. His fighters fannign out to form an advance screen, Kre'fey prepared for battle. As TIEs and Federation ships clashed, the capitol ships began exchanging ranging shots.

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Rather normal ranging shots, Pellaeon had something else in mind. He ordered each set of two destroyers to concentrate all fire on a smaller republic ship, Assault frigate at the largest. With no support ships the bigger Federation ships would be at a decided disadvantage. Streaks of green laser fire began filling space as TIEs swept the fighters aside. One group of X-wings, however, was giving lots of trouble. A squadron of TIE fighters moved against them, lasers flashing. The X-wings twisted and turned, dodging the TIEs lsers with ease and reducing more Imperila fighters to space junk. As the X-wings reassembled, two TIE Phantoms came up, firing. The Phantoms caught several X-wings right away, but one was especially tricky, spinning and dodging again and again, until it crossed paths with a TIE Interceptors laser blasts. The Star Destroyers had all but decimated the Federation support ships. Several of them began turning their guns on the undamaged Mon Cal Cruisers and Federation Star Destroyers. The Imperial ships, while having slightly lower shields, had more support ships left.

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At the Federation base of Ber Gundall, a ship emerged from hyperspace. It was a battle-scarred A-wing. The pilot sent a message the base.
"Federation troops, their is a major battle shaping up around Kessel. Your aid is required. Admiral Kre'fey is in need." The ships at the base began launching, eager to joi in the action. The A-wing docked with the bases biggest ship, a new Mon Cal Star Cruiser named Defender of Freedom. The reinforcements launched into hyperspace just after sending a message to the rest of Federation's fourth fleet: Converge on Kessel.

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The Imperial Expeditionary Force hurtled through hyperspace, pushing .6 to reach Kessel in time. Sev;rannce Tann could feel each minute bringing defeat for Pellaeon's ships closer and closer.

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The arrival of the Gundall ships on the Imeprial left flank had gone a long ways towards quashing Pellaeon's good mood. Though the Empire had had the advantage early, now the enemy fleet was systematically driving them back. His destroyers were all taking a pounding as wave after wave of Federation fighters swept agains the now-overwhelmed TIEs. Worse, the enemy was jamming all transmissions, as they had been since the first ships arrived. They were here and becasue of their position they were trapped in Kessel's gravity shadow. The Federation's Fourth Fleet was arriving, more ships every hour, and the Imperials wer now outnumbered two-to-one. Still, Pellaeon fought, though privately conceding that they needed Sev'rannce Tann to whistle up one of her force-aided miracles to save them. A burst of light caught his attention as another Nebulon B Frigate lost shields and had its engines blow. The doomed ship began raining escape pods as it fell planetwards.

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Admiral Kre'fey was nearly beside himself with joy as he watched Pellaeon finally concede disaster and move his ships into a last-ditch defense formation. The ships of the Fourth Fleet advanced, turbolasers flashing. We've got him Kre'fey thought triumphantly. We've got him

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Sev'rannce Tann, pushing her Defender faster than the rest of the fleet, arrived on the scene first to see the Imperial fleet in a last-ditch formation, being systematically battered by over 100 Federation warships. She could feel the confidence, even arrogance, dripping from the Federation crews as it began to sink in to them what they ahd here. She smiled eveilly. Won't they be surprised she thought. On cue, The ships of the Imperial Expeditionary Force swept out of hyperspace and to the rear of the Federation fleet. As the Federation rear ships turned and began firing at the oncoming Star Destroyers, their commanders fervently wishing for more fighters, Tann could feel elements of the Imperila Ninth Fleet arriving. She had personally ordered them to the battle. As the Expeditionary Fleet closed in from behind and the Ninth swept in from the right, Pellaeon's ships began moving forward as well. Caught in a three-way pincer, the Federation ships began rushing to the only open way. With TIEs sweeping ahead of them, the Exuberant Imperial forces pressed on. As the enemy ships began leaving into hyperspace, The Imperials started concentrating their fire on the largest ships. Four large Mon Cal Cruisers were destroyed in seconds as some captains began blind-jumping out of there to escape the victorious forces of the Empire. As if to put an exclamation point on the victory, a transm ission came from Kessel: Mission complete. The spice mines are in Imperial hands!

Posted by Jarlath Cadman at August 24, 2004 01:42 AM