Serenno
Imperial Moff Palace (formerly Dooku's Palace)
Tanya Zsinj
10 days following the battle of Dathomir.
As Tanya came to the study that once belonged to her father, she looked around at those gathered here, the few men and women she wholly trusted in this farce of an empire. Taking her seat at the head of the table, she brought up the holo board with a galaxy map and turned to look at each of her comrades.
"Everyone, I am going to be brutally honest with you all. The Zsinj empire is in the worst state it has ever been. Enemies surround us, and while they have been getting stronger over the last few years because of my father, we have just been getting weaker. If we don't make a turnaround soon, I do not believe we will survive till the end of the year. I have plans to turn this around, just like I believe you all also have plans. So first, we will go over everything available to our empire and then outline our options. First up, Vice Admiral Tryanda, what is the status of Iron Fist, and our special projects."
Standing up and clearing his throat, the bronzed skin man closely resembling the men from southern Ildoa from her previous life began his report. "Currently, the Iron Fist has been relocated to the sovereign shipyards. It managed to make the trip with minimal damage from the jumps. Sadly, that is where the good news ends. Iron Fist has taken critical damage from its encounters. If we focus on repairing the Iron Fist, we could have it repaired in 2 years in the best possible timeframe if we pull from other shipyards."
Waiting for that to set into everyone else for a few seconds, Tryanda continued with his report. "On the status of our special weapons per your orders, Tanya, all alien virus weapons and brainwashing has stopped, and all scientists associated with the programs have been redirected to stopping and finding cures for all the different bioweapons so that we can protect our citizens along with preventing any anti-human or alien bioweapon from the other states from affecting us."
At this point, a voice from behind one of the columns spoke with a smooth baritone, "So Tanya, you finally decided to ditch your father's and the empire's stupid human-centric laws then. Well, my people will be happy to hear about that, and maybe if you follow through on your word, we can give you a discount and help you out with about 25,000 volunteers ready and trained for duty on imperial vessels. Thus, fixing your manning problems that Seraph will be covering."
Seraph, the small woman with sandy blonde hair and green eyes wearing an Imperial Army General's uniform, bristled and spoke, "Hey, I have not even got to the manning issue. How could you know how many we need? Also, I have my plan that would cover the manning issue in any way that doesn't need your people Torrin. We don't need more smugglers and criminals filling our ranks. Now take a seat and let Tryanda finish his report."
At this point, Torrin stepped out from behind the pillar where he had been leaning, allowing Tanya to see what ridiculous getup he decided to wear today. It did not disappoint. A leather duster dyed a dark red with a black Stetson, and rounding it off was a gas mask that looked like what she had to wear in her first life. Taking the seat left out for him, he leaned back and put his feet on the table. "Fine, I'll wait my turn as well. You may continue, Admiral Tryanda."
Now that he had everyone's attention again, Tryanda brought the next image for everyone to view. "Now, before I was interrupted, I was about to speak about the current next project we have in store. We have three more refined ion bombs in storage. Still, with the production facility being destroyed, we will have to move the construction, and the only places which have the technology to build the bombs would be the sovereign shipyards or possibly Sienar fleet systems. To build up a new location would cost us at least three years, so currently, the ion bombs are extremely limited and must be used sparingly."
Once again, flipping to the next image, which was now displaying a ship that no one else in the room had seen before, he continued, "The Ship displayed is a secret ship that was being designed and built for the emperor as a new flagship to be used by the Empire replacing the Super Star destroyers, it is currently under construction in the Sovereign shipyards. When the Emperor was killed, we believe the lead foreman involved with the project had also been onboard the Death Star. All knowledge of the ship was lost until Zsinj traded information from Tyber Zahn following his raid on Kuat."
"Sadly, with the ongoing battles against the other groups, Zsinj did not have a way to finish construction on the ship before his death. Any major material movement would have surely alerted the Rebellion, or the empire and the shipyard would have been destroyed. Zsinj's original plan to make up for the material deficit was to use the Razor Kiss as spare parts to finish the construction of the Sovereign. With the Rebellion destroying the Razor Kiss, it was thought impossible to finish the construction of the Sovereign. Still, now that the Iron Fist is functionally worthless, I believe we should, instead of repairing the Iron Fist instead, use the Iron Fist as the parts needed to finish up the construction of the Sovereign. We could finish its construction in a year with the parts we can send saying it's for the Fist."
Deciding that he should raise the question, the highest-ranked person in their group Admiral Searrins spoke up, "Either the damage to the Fist is even worse than you made it out to be Tryanda, or there is something special about this ship that you think we should instead of repairing the Iron Fist which we know works using parts from this new ship. What is so great about it."
Tanya spoke, "That is simple, Admiral. The reason Tryanda wants to finish building the Sovereign is because of one thing it has a Super Laser. Tryanda, you have my permission to get the Sovereign working. Make sure you take two regiments of Raptors with you to ensure no one tries to take the ship, understood."
Tanya Turned to look at Tryanda. Tanya ordered, "Leave immediately and get the shipyard working on the Sovereign that is now your top priority. The faster we get that ship operational, the more chance we have of stabilizing our fronts."
As Tryanda left to return to the Judicator, Tanya turned to Admiral Searrins with his Silver hair, strong build, and mustache reminded her of the president of the Unifed States after he won his third term as leader of the Bull Moose Party. "Admiral, you are here to update us on our fleet composition and the Fighter replacement program. You may begin when ready."
Standing up, moving to where Tryanda had been, and plugging his holo pad into the table, he pulled up multiple images of the tie fighter, Zsinj's Tie Raptor, and a third ship that only Tanya and Torrin recognized. "Now, I know that the party line was that the Tie Fighter was perfectly adequate for our purposes as the Galatic powerhouse. However, it has been repeatedly shown that the Rebellion X-wing severely outclasses the Tie Fighter in almost every aspect. Our former leader tried to come up with a way to fix this with his unique design, the Tie Raptor, which, while correcting many flaws of the original Tie Fighter, does not fix the biggest ones, which are having no life support, no hyperdrive, having no shields to speak of and no means to land anywhere besides special docking bays. This is unacceptable if we want to retain good pilots and keep them alive long enough to get good enough to compete with the rebellion."
At this point, he directed everyone's attention to the last fighter on the Display, a long delta-shaped fighter. "This is the Aurek class Fighter. For over 4000 years, it was the main fighter of the Old Republic. What makes this ship special is that its acceleration, top speed in the atmosphere, and weapons improve it in every way over the Tie fighter. Its blueprints and all factories were thought lost until Torrin contacted Tanya and me about a factory and shipyard from the Sith wars that his people had found abandoned in excellent shape with the plans and materials needed to begin construction after updating the surprisingly modular design we have been able to upgrade the fighter to the standards of current vessels along with upgrading its hyperdrive from a class 2 to a class 1 along with mounting two additional heavy blaster cannons along the nose. With this ship, we have a space superiority fighter that can give our pilots a fighting chance against the Rebellion while allowing us to dominate the empire. We have manufactured around 3000 fighters and simulators to train our pilots. Now that we control the Empire, we can start producing them openly, allowing us to up construction. I believe at our current rate; we can have the Tie Fighter replaced within 2-5 years based on increased construction speeds now that we can convert more factories to building them."
"On the Fleet comp will be maintaining the current fleet comp while we have activated older Venator ships to carry the new Aurek fighters along with running all main fleets with at least two lancer frigates and, if not available, the Crusader corvettes we have bought from Mandel motors this will allow us to start countering the Rebellion's heavy fighter presence. Otherwise, our fleet comps will remain mostly the same currently."
As Searrin sat back down, Tanya waved to Seraph to give her report next. Standing up, Seraph started speaking. "The Imperial Army and Raptors are fully manned and ready to go. The major problem is the Navy has a massive deficit of qualified personnel. With Admiral Searrin's new fighters, we can minimize our personnel loss in the future, but this does not help us in our current position. What we need are crewmembers to man our ships. These ships are inefficient when it comes to running them, so we will either have to start conscripting more personnel which would allow more spies or chances of sabotage, figure out how to appeal to the masses so that we could drive up recruitment, or start automating most of the features on the ship."
"All of these features will be extremely cost prohibitive, but I believe I have found a way around both the conscript and automation while we wait to put ships into drydocks to begin the upgrades." Pausing for dramatic effect, she swept her arms wide, "Gentleman, the answer is droids. Now I know what you are saying. Droids are expensive droids require maintenance; Droids that don't are cheap and stupid. Well, you would normally be correct, but with the reprogramming we have been doing on the old Separatist B1-battle droids that were used, we have managed to raise the Droid's intelligence so they can be used. We also will not be using the droids for anything important the droids will be taking over positions that were done by the human crew that was monotonous and, while required to crew the ship, did not need critical thinking. With these droids, we could reduce manning required on imperial ships by at least 35 percent while only costing us 50 percent of what the replaced crews cost. With these droids, if the ship were badly damaged, the droids could even continue working, allowing the human crew to escape the ship, meaning we don't need to sacrifice anyone or trust the people Torrin would give us."
Seraph proceeded to sit back down while smirking at Torrin. Turning to Torrin, Tanya asked for his report. "All right, Torrin, give us a status on the underworld and how many of my father's businesses and fronts we could recoup and recover after his death."
Nodding at Tanya and flicking his Stetson hat back, "Well, Tanya, that's where I have both good and bad news for you. The good news is that your father's assets in the Empire and all non-Republic territory are still operating. The bad news is that over 50 percent of the businesses in the Republic have been shut down and seized by the Republic. I wouldn't bet on the rest staying open for another year. Luckily, the Republic never told the rest of the galaxy about Zsinj's little enterprise, so we should still be covered. The problem is that most of the smuggler community now knows about most of your father's fronts in the republic and have put together the dots and are starting to not take contracts from us. I don't know if this is temporary because they don't want to help someone who could collapse or if they just refused to work with you after discovering Zsinj's hypno slave program. It could also be because they are waiting to see what you do."
He continued, "That is the underworld right now, but my associates and I have another proposition for you. If your empire declares an end to non-human oppression, I have over 25000 well-trained personnel that can perform any task you need to help with your manning problem, or maybe they could help finish that Sovereign ship that you seem to want so badly. How does that sound?"
"Yes, I understand your continued support is cognizant of me officially ending state-supported discrimination in the Empire. I was already planning on doing it anyways. Now I was hoping you could contact the businesses in the New Republic and begin pulling all the money from them and shutting them down before the New Republic gets to them. After the meeting, we can discuss what to do next with the rest of the smugglers and your forces."
Turning to her holo pad which had a new message after reading for a minute, Tanya spoke up one final time, "Now remember, none of this is spoken outside this meeting. You all know what happens if it does. Now if you excuse me, I need to figure out how to continue with our new government and will talk with the governor. Everyone is dismissed." With that, Tanya left the room, almost running. The rest looked at each other and headed back to their respective commands, besides Seraph and Torrin, who followed after Tanya.
Hyperspace en route to Vandire's Folly
Victory star destroyer 13X Lead ship of Crimson Command
High Admiral Treuten Teradoc Co-Leader of the Teradoc Federation
18 days following the battle of Dathomir
Treuten Teradoc felt better than he had in years. Zsinj's daughter, even though he was reluctant to admit it, even in his thoughts, had been right. Leading the campaign from his flagship and taking care of his body did wonders for the morale of his forces. He had to face facts, and to win the propaganda victory; he had to change how he looked and acted. With the death of Zsinj over Dathomir, his forces should have broken up and been scattered to the winds, and it would have been easy for him to pick up and bind the powers to his command. Instead, Tanya had taken control, taking a devastating loss and turning it into a resounding propaganda victory after saving the fleet and the Iron Fist over Dathomir when all hope had seemed lost. What should have been a death knell for Zsinj's empire had given its second wind instead. With the campaign, he was about to wage he needed to present the best image if he wanted to pull this off, so he underwent surgery and changed his diet to keep the weight off. After the surgery, he felt better than in years and truly like Piethet Brighteyes.
After he defeated the brat in battle, he could make himself look magnanimous in front of his new forces by offering her the chance to serve under his protection. With the heir to Zsinj under his control, he would control the most powerful empire in the galaxy. With his new looks, he might even be able to convince her to be his bride. Emperor Teradoc had a nice ring to it.
He knew she had no experience in actual space combat. That was evident that after she retreated from Dathomir, instead of finishing the Hapan fleet off, the most significant thing he had to worry about was the raptors, and they were relegated to just ground assaults if he kept his distance and prevented boarders. Her wonder weapon the Ion bomb; his spies had already confirmed it to have been a prototype one-off, and even if she had lied, his ships had better sensors to detect the supposed stealth corvette. The way to beat such a device was simple: don't group up so much that your entire fleet is caught in the blast or doesn't have a fleet built around a massively important ship. No, he played it smart and kept her from using her strengths, and this campaign would be easy. Then he would have a new wife and the best ground General in the galaxy.
"Sir, we are exiting hyperspace in five minutes," came the timid voice of his navigations officer.
"Very well, Nav" Turning to his Ship's intercom and keying the mic, he spoke, "Crew, this is High Admiral Teradoc. In 5 minutes, we will drop out of hyperspace and kick off the most important campaign in the galaxy's history. Let's make sure we do it right. Though this upcoming battle may seem small, it will lead us to our Destiny. This is when the Teradoc Federation goes from a third-rate contender to the dominant force in the galaxy. Prepare for Battlestations and prepare for Victory."
Turning to his aide, he asked, "All preparations have been made for our arrival, correct? We can't let them know we have taken the planet before it's too late."
Checking his reports, the aide responded, "Yes, High Admiral, all is prepared." Teradoc turned back to the viewscreen to watch as the stars came back and Vandire's Folly came back into view.
Vandire's Folly
Raider III stealth corvette Errands
Commander Elisa Jeverrson
25 minutes before Teradoc's arrival
Jeverrson looked around her tiny stateroom that she had been granted when she took command of Errands. When she had heard she was being awarded for her actions when she took control of her previous ship, the Star Destroyer Olympus, after Captain Sarcs was executed for cowardice during an engagement with the Empire and managing to fight off the numerically superior force. Hell, she thought someone had recognized her greatness and would have given her the Olympus as part of the promotion. Instead, She had been shipped off to a brand new Raider Corvette and given command of Errands. She had gone from the Errand girl of Captain Sarcs to the CO of the Errands and posted to this stupid backwater, and she wasn't even allowed to let her former Star Destroyer and her friends on board know she was in the same system as her.
For the last month, she had been forced to watch her ship be controlled by someone who had no idea what he was doing after she had been denied her post. Sighing, she decided that that was enough depressing thoughts for the day. She was leaving her tiny quarters. Nodding to her crew as she headed to Control. As she entered, she waved off her crew. Before they could snap to attention, she turned to her XO and asked, "Evening Pressley, what are the daily messages, and are there any new priority orders while I was asleep?"
Turning to his CO Pressley ever, the snide little shit replied, "No, Ma'am, in the 8 hours you have been asleep, no new information or orders have come through the comm buoys. The Olympus has again not noticed us, making it the 30th day since we entered the system that the Olympus has not picked us up on sensors. We have waited long enough, tested the stealth systems, and shown they perform beyond expectations. There is no longer a reason to remain silent and not inform Olympus that we are in the system. It would not do for the Commander to be afraid of informing her former ship that she is in the system and ready to join up to provide support and recon."
"Well, Lieutenant Commander Pressley, I'll let you know when I deem the test of our stealth systems complete. Until then, you continue to do your job, and I will continue to do mine now. I was not asking for backtalk; I was asking for the daily message traffic from the rest of the empire."
Pressley responded, "Ma'am, as I said, there were no new messages from the Comm buoys today."
"Wait, did you say no new messages at all?" Elisa's mind started whirling as she thought about what that could mean if there was one constant factor about this outpost: the daily message traffic. The only reason that would stop would be if the comm buoy at Feluica were attacked or the comm buoys were sabotaged, and since Felucia was at the center of the Empire, that could only mean the buoys had been sabotaged.
"XO, wake up the crew. We are going to Ultra Quiet, turn off anything that could give us away, and have the ship start traveling to the jump point while prepping a hyperspace solution for Felucia Vandire's folly is about to be attacked. We need to be prepared to warn everyone."
Snorting, Pressley responded, "Ma'am, it's just a missed message. They probably just forgot to send it today, but if it makes you feel better, the crew needs the training anyways."
At this moment, the Sensor Officer said, "Captain, we are detecting multiple contacts coming from hyperspace. 5 no 7 ..8 …20 …. 45 contacts. 45 confirmed contacts. Leading the fleet is 13X, Ma'am."
Looking at the Holoboard showing the positions of the enemy fleet and how outnumbered the Olympus was, for once, Elisa was happy she was onboard her small stealth frigate instead of the ISD. "Well, Pressely, do you think we should still reveal our position to the Olympus."
"No, Ma'am, Orders, Ma'am." He then turned to the bridge crew to raise the stealth systems to the max and prep the ship for travel to the hyperspace point.
Elisa looking down at her map, noticing something off, spoke to her Sensor Officer, "Lieutenant Severns, where is the Aggregator? If they keep the Olympus from fleeing the system, they will need its interdictor fields. Currently, the Olympus will only have to survive long enough to reach the jump point to escape completely, ruining the point of sabotaging the comm buoys."
"I don't, Ma'am. Maybe Teradoc is worried about the Olympus attempting to destroy the Aggregator and fleeing afterward. Maybe they plan to have it jump in before Olympus escapes and activates its field so that Olympus is out of position and unable to target it before the fleet takes down Olympus."
She thought about what Severns said, but that didn't make sense. It would leave too much up to chance if the hyperspace jump was slightly off. The Aggregator would arrive too late and could not stop the Olympus from escaping. "Looking at the Holo table as the Olympus proceeded to start heading towards the jump point while over 25 Victory Star destroyers proceeded to open fire at extreme range while trying to chase her down before she could make the jump point while the rest of the fleet started to form up around the 3 ISDs in the rear of the fleet.
As the Errands slowly moved towards the jump point while being as quiet as possible, they had first-row seats to the fight between the Olympus and Teradoc's fleet. It came down to whether the Olympus could reach the jump point before Teradoc's fleet managed to take out her shields and engines.
Teradoc's fleet slowly grew closer while continuing to provide a barrage of fire at the rear of the Olympus. Thinking to herself while her ship continued to move toward the jump point, Elisa couldn't believe Teradoc would make such a massive mistake. He did everything to set up the system for an attack and prevent word of it from spreading, so why didn't he bring an interdictor? It made no sense. Sure, if he got an Interdictor, The Olympus might have tried to fight it out and targeted the Interdictor, possibly damaging it.
"Lieutenant, what are the sensors saying about the Olympus's hyperdrive? Was it damaged? Maybe they sabotaged it like what was done to the Iron Fist."
No Ma'am the Olympus hyperdrive is continuing to build up energy. The Olympus should be jumping in 30 seconds. And it looks like Teradoc's fleet will enter the optimal range in 45 seconds. She is going to make it."
"Hmm, maybe she will, but I have a bad feeling about this." Turning to her holo board, she noticed something "Lieutenant, this ISD labeled the JOKE is moving faster than the other ISDs. It seems to be moving faster than the ISD's top speed. Are these readings correct?"
"Yes, Ma'am, that must be a bug with the sensors, but the Olympus has reached the jump point and is engaging her hyperdrives." The whole bridge crew turned to watch as the Olympus started the Jump to hyperspace When an Interdictor field came from the JOKE. The moment the interdiction field went on, the Olympus was wrenched out of her jump and became a sitting duck for the rest of Teradoc's fleet, which had just entered range. Before the Olympus could turn around or do anything, the punishing broadsides from 25 victory star destroyers tore her apart and ended the Olympus in seconds. The bridge crew, which had just been about to celebrate the escape of the Olympus, became quiet and sullen.
Elisa looked at the JOKE, which was starting to fall apart, and she realized that Teradoc had built an ISD shell around the Aggregator to disguise her to prevent Olympus from turning her guns on his fleet.
The crew began to panic when they realized they were trapped in the system with an entire fleet, and the only thing protecting them was that the enemy fleet couldn't see them.
Looking at her Bridge crew, Elisa spoke, "Officers of the Empire, Silence though we may be trapped in the system for now. They can't detect our ship, as we proved with the Olympus last month. All we have to do is get to the hyperspace point and wait for the Aggregator to drop her interdiction field and make the jump so that we can inform the rest of the Empire about this attack and prepare them for the worst. Is this understood?"
Coruscant
Home One
Supreme Commander Gial Ackbar
20 days following the battle of Dathomir
Watching the resigned face of Mon Mothma and the smug look of Borsk Fey'lya through the hologram, Ackbar knew he was not going to like what the council had to say about his plans to invade Zsinj's Empire now that he was dead. He had to try. He knew now was the best time to strike and possibly their last chance to attack before the Zsinj Empire consolidated their forces.
Starting the meeting, Mon Mothma spoke first. "Admiral Ackbar, the council has decided after much thoughts to deny your request to invade Zsinj's empire." Raising her hand to forestall his protests, Mon Mothma continued speaking. Intelligence services believed it would be too dangerous for the Republic fleet to invade after losing the Hapans as allies against Zsinj following the battle of Dathomir. I understand why you wish to start the invasion with the damaged Iron Fist, but the New Republic does not have the supplies and ships necessary for that protracted campaign. Borsk has information on your next target."
Gritting his teeth, Ackbar turned to the Bothan and spoke, "Well, get on with it; what intelligence have the Bothans managed to turn up now? What is more important than for us to take advantage of the Zsinj's death and push on the Perlemian trade route and take out Teradoc."
Ackbar waited for a condescending statement from Borsk, and he did not disappoint. Borsk began speaking, "No, Ackbar, your plan to invade through Perlemian is a good idea with the very limited and militarily minded intel you have, but what you overlooked, and we have discovered, could tip the scales for every upcoming battle while costing very few casualties in the long run. The Empire and Teradoc, gearing up for their war with Tanya Zsinj, have pulled most of Kuat's defenses and the defense fleets they have pledged away from Kuat. With the insiders we have on Kuat, and most of the fleets away, now is our chance to capture the Empire's greatest Shipyard and remove their ability to replace and rebuild their ships." With the defenses at their weakest and sympathetic forces in the shipyard, this is our best chance to take Kuat. The council is calling off your attack, Ackbar, because we hoped you could lead our forces in taking Kuat. Do you think you could handle that?"
Ackbar knew he had just been put in an unwinnable position by Borsk. If he refused to do the job, it would go to someone incompetent under Borsk's circle of influence, and they would screw it up so bad the Republic would never recover. If he took the position and it failed, Borsk would have what he needed to remove Ackbar from Supreme Commander, and even if it were a success, Borsk would say it was only possible because of his spies and informants. The greedy little politician didn't care about defeating the Empire, just advancing his position. The worst part was that he was right. An attack on Kuat was the best decision, and if his insiders came through, they could take the whole shipyard. Then with KDY on their side, it would make defeating the rest of the imperials much easier.
Not deigning to talk to Borsk and give him more satisfaction, Ackbar turned to Mon Mothma and spoke, "If the council wills it, I will prepare the fleets and devise a plan to ensure the assault goes off without a hitch. Hopefully, we were given proper intel this time and will not walk into a trap again." With that, Ackbar cut the call and turned to go over his reports on Kuat and figure out how to make this attack work without damaging the shipyards too much.