02.01 : Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Chapter 2 : Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night​

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[21 BBY]

[Kuat Drive Yards Orbital Shipyards, Kuat System, The Core]

Kuat Drive Yards were one of the foremost starship construction firms in the galaxy, and as the great conflagration known as the Clone Wars began it became the beating heart of the Republic's great military expansion. Acclamator-class Assault ships, Venator-class Star Destroyers, and even the laid down hulls of the future Star Destroyer models were under construction in its great Ring shipyards alongside hundreds of smaller patrol boats, and thousands of star-fighters to feed the needs of the war-machine being assembled.

A thousand Acclamators alone had been ordered alongside other nearby systems, and with the diligence and work-ethic that were its business model KDY, and Kuat as a whole, committed itself to the Republic's cause and most importantly the cause of Chancellor Palpatine and his political allies. Kuat was well defended, three massive eight kilometre long Mandator-class Star Dreadnaughts standing at the heart of its forces, back up by a great force of Procurator-class Star Battlecruisers and a support fleet greater than any one other Core World's Defence Fleet.

Unfortunately for the Kuati System Defence Fleet this day they would not be hit by the equivalent of a Core system Fleet, but by three Fleets from the Colonies Region along with elements of the Trade Federation's Trade Defence Fleet, dozens of minor mercenary bands drawn by the fees and opportunity of loot, and the strengthened fleet formation of the mercenary Sabbaoth Squadron. Unexpected hyperspace flashes began to fill the system, mercenary saboteurs deployed weeks before setting off bombs on critical warning systems as the first droid control ships and battleships flashed back into existence....

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[Bridge, Mandator-class Star Dreadnought Fury of the Core, Kuat System, The Core]

Throwing on her uniform jacket even as she strode unto the bridge of her warship Admiral Arielle Durant was already shouting demands for information alongside orders "I want Deflector Shields to maximum, get those reactors to maximum and get power to forward batters!"

She gestured to the frantic looking Captain on duty while she'd been getting a well earned rest she'd thought till Black Alert alarms started screaming "Calvin, what the kriff is happening? I see multiple hostiles of screen?"

"Major Separatist Fleet elements are coming out of hyperspace right unto the Fleet Sir!" the normal stolid but currently frazzled appearing man shouted back from one of the consoles as the tactical display flickered constantly showing more and more Red Icons "...we're seeing Lucrehulks and Providence's with large numbers of Munificents in support....kriff....enemy launching droid-fighter swarms!"

One glance, and seeing thousands upon thousands of droid-fighter icons spring to life had her gesturing to the Flight Control "Get everything we have into space! Now! And contact Ground and Orbit Starfighter Command, tell them to launch everything that can fly"

Motioning to Captain Calvin Yanath "Contact the escorts, we are moving to engage the enemy, all power to anti-fighter batteries. Priority is droid control ships if we can locate their signals! And someone signal HQ to get Republic support immediately!"

The sheer volume of enemy ships was a shock she found coming up to the tactical display, and having to expand it to clear up the clutter of so many ships and fighters on the display. It was made worse when large scale sensor jamming started, but she wasn't worried as the Mandators had the finest systems in the galaxy and burn through was a matter of time, not more effort. The Fury of the Core rapidly brought it's firepower to bear, blasting apart a Munificent before starting to hammer upon the nearest Lucrehulk.

'They must have reinforced the shields' she noted as it stood up significantly longer than what they knew to be the standard tolerances of the heavier end of the class. Still it went down, torn in half as her Star Dreadnaught powered forward as the droid-fighter swarm swept over them in a mixture of bombers and fighters. Inflicting significant damage upon as the minutes of battle ticked by despite their heavy losses in return; though not a shudder came into her chair or the bridge buried deep inside the Star Dreadnaught. All three had been brought to bear now and the battle was well and truly joined.

"More hyperspace emergences"

She grit her teeth as Calvin called out the bad news that another round of Lucrehulks and Munificents came in behind the first wave to unleash another wave of droid-fighters just as the first wave were forced to return to recharge and rearm "Target the droid-fighters, kill as many before they can return to their carriers! Tell the rest of the Fleet to do the same!"

"More emergences!"

"I see them..." she called back expanding the display "....we're reading....that's a lot of Hardcells I'm reading...."

Admiral Arielle Durant frowned, calculating distance as more and more ships poured out just a little away from the battle under the protection of known mercenary destroyers and cruisers, along with star-fighter models known to be piloted by organics "Contact Ring Defence! Have them throw everything they have at those transports! Have them get security forces out to the ships..."

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[Bridge, Sabbaoth Squadron Destroyer Reaver, Kuat System, The Core]

Now Captain, Bella of Ryloth, ordered the Reaver to accelerate forward with the other ships playing escort to the assault transports racing towards the Ring of Kuat. Their prize, if they could but reach out and claim it in victory; and they were going all in on this gamble. All she could do was grin at all the bloodshed got her heart pumping and her spirits up, resting her lekku back into the seat and revelling in the chaos that, now Admiral, Cavik Toth had wroth upon this high and might Core world.

They'd persuaded the Neimodians to send in the dregs of their droid forces first; the Scarab-fighters, and older system defence ships, to take the brunt of the powerful Kuati defence forces. Then they'd jumped in the 'elite' of sorts of the Neimodian and Cato Neimodian fleets into battle just before the first wave needed a refuel and rearming and the Kuati would have concentrated. It always happened with inexperienced Defence Forces, and while the KDF were 'the finest' of the Core they had absolutely no experience with pirate raids so they didn't realise till too late what was happening.

"Fighters coming out Boss"

Bella nodded, an expected reaction from the KDF, so she gestured back to her fellow twi'lek "Good, send in the boys and girls. Butcher those Core bastards; make'em wet their human supremacist panties"

Sure the Boss himself was human, but he was an equal opportunities bastard and murdered just like her. Didn't matter who you were, or what your species, all that mattered was that the strong took what they wanted, when they wanted, and the weak got to suck it up or take a blater bolt to the face. And it went as she'd expected; they had surprise, numbers, and experience while the Kuatis only had their fancy technology; they were blasted out of the way, or forced off their vectors into dog-fights as this part of the fleet flew towards the Ring at maximum military speed. Turbolasers lashed out from the Ring, heat sources suddenly lighting up on her screens, but it was far too late as the first of the Hardcell's crash-landed and disgorged its droid commandoes.

She glanced over at her tactical officer, a vicious trandoshan named Grek "The Boss's ship?"

"Nearin' his target Bella"

"Okay, supporting fire, take out any defensive batteries..." she replied with a grin as the converted, and heavily up-armoured and shielded, the Boss had taken moved towards the nearly completed Mandator II class Star Dreadnaught under construction. Unfinished, unarmed....but her armour belt was finished, and most importantly her hyperdrives were fully operational "...and provide any fire support he needs. Keep me updated on the other assault groups"

"Priority targets first?"

"Of course" she replied watching the tactical display as the primary battle descended into a bloody melee as the Kuati forces attempted to breakaway and drive them away from the Ring rather than the strike towards the planet's primary fuel, mining, and delivery facilities. There was so much feeding into Kuat's shipyards that they'd assumed these were the primary target rather than the heavily defended and shielded Ring hard to damage with shipboard weapons; what they didn't expect was a ground assault and raid in space...

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[Kuat Drive Yards Orbital Shipyards 'The Ring', Kuat System, The Core]

Chief Engineering Marid Voch was shouting orders even though his brain was moving slower than the words at times he felt as he operated on instinct. The Central Security Office, and Backup Site, of Ring Security had been assaulted by assassin droids and neutralised; they left his office in the Secondary Maintenance Shell as the de-facto Command Station by the simple fact of being one of the armoured and shield testing areas for the orbital shipyards. Now he was falling back on soldier experience of decades past as the yards were being raided....raided of all things...as he watched on the screens another near completed Venator break from his rigging and burn for the system limit.

He'd already broken procedure to try slow the assault and mitigate the unfolding disaster; opening up the armouries on the ships under work remotely so the work crews and engineers aboard could try and defend them. Central Command planet-side had signed off on the idea a few minutes after he'd done it, as well as throwing LAAT's into the fray to try halt the disaster; anything that was armed and air proof was being sent out unto the ring to halt the droids the Seps were throwing at them. Luckily he'd managed to gather a company of Clone Troopers assigned to the Ring, and two companies of Kuati Marines to hold the facility as he ordered everyone from the engineers, to the work crews to arm themselves and defend their stations.

"Oh...Spirits....Hammer of the Light is breaking its rigging....full engine burn. Its....under control"

Marid closed his eyes a moment, clenching the edges of the console tightly a moment before calming and focusing on dealing with the disaster "Tell the Fleet to open fire, don't let it get it to the hyper limit if we can help it!"

"Sir it's a Mandator II, its...."

"I kriffing know that Yazid, now do your kriffing job!" he snapped back turning to the other display as defence lines began to collapse on Block A4 as hundreds of Separatist droids broke through alongside Mandalorian mercenaries in full battle fury. He grit his teeth as one of the berths containing a dozen top of the line Star Destroyers fell into enemy hands; what was worse, an area with several not having their hyperdrives up and running.

"Gareth, get Central Command on the horn..." he ground out, he'd worked on those ships "...tell them to open fire on Block A4 with planetary batteries..."

"Sir?"

"Gareth, they'll do another drop like Block E7..." he told him calmly, more than he felt "...and slam the sub-light only into the planetary construction. Tell them to open fire now and we can avoid another Ashendale Valley! Feed them targeting information..."

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