57 The fall of House Dredd 1
Aruum, home world of House Dredd 160BBY
-
Lilk Dredd walked through the gardens of Aruum's royal palace. Its lush greenery and ornate fountains calming her.
She had finished her morning training and was taking a break before her afternoon lessons. She had recently turned ten and so her farther had increased the amount of training she was doing.
She didn't mind the extra training as she new he was only doing it to prepare her for when she would have to take over from him as the leader of house Dredd when he no longer wanted to be its ruler.
Her days were mostly the same, wake up, train in her physical abilities, have a break, learning theoretical subjects, short break, training in force abilities, another break then sleep and repeat. She usually got weekends to do what she wanted, normally she would spend her free time wandering the palace gardens, reading, or hanging out with either warriors of the clan or some of the droids that worked for the clan.
Her routine had been interrupted a month ago when the clan had been visited by three jedi knights. The jedi had spent a few days on the planet and had spent most of it looking around or talking with her farther. They had seemed a bit shady, but they mostly kept to themselves and had left the planet, so she didn't think they had caused much harm.
She looked up at the peaceful blue sky, without knowing how much it would be changing very soon.
-
Qivlas Dal stood watching the preparations of the republic soldiers inside the large hangar of the republic battleship Titan, trying not to smirk.
He had been born on Kiffu before being discovered to be force sensitive at an early age and given to the jedi order. He was now twenty-nine and a knight in the order.
He thought of himself as the chosen one, the one who would become the greatest jedi of all time, so he couldn't figure out why the council refused to promote him to the rank of master. The only reason he could think of was he lacked a great victory, though that wasn't his fault, the council would only send him on simple missions so how was he supposed to participate in a great battle against good and evil.
He'd come up with his current genius plan when he'd been assigned with two other jedi knights to deliver a message to a rarely contacted planet from the council's grand master offering to start diplomatic relations. Apparently, the grand master couldn't go himself, so Dal and the others had been sent as couriers, the lack of respect to one as great as him made him sick.
While on the planet Dal had discovered the people living there could wield the force but didn't believe in the light side or the dark side. Seeing this Dal had a stroke of genius, if the council wouldn't assign him to fight in a great battle between good and evil, he would create one himself.
On the way back to Coruscant he convinced the two other jedi knights on the mission with him, who were in similar positions to him, to go along with his plan. After arriving back, they had told the jedi council and the republic senate that the planet they had been to was actually home to a secret sith enclave.
Fearing a resurfacing sith empire the jedi and republic had formed a task force to eradicate the sith. Dal had managed to persuade the republic chancellor, who he was friends with, to make him the leader of the jedi on the task force as the discover of the sith on the planet.
The jedi council had caved to the chancellor's request and Dal was made the jedi in charge and was allowed to pick nineteen jedi to accompany him. He chose the two who had journeyed to the planet with him and eighteen other jedi knights who he knew were weak willed or ambitious and so could be manipulated by him easily.
The Republic was also sending a task force made up of three battleships, eight cruisers, fourteen frigates, and twenty corvettes. They were also being followed by three large troop transports filled with republic soldiers and the battleships also had a large mix of soldiers and marines onboard.
Dal was currently on the lead battleship, the Titan and was waiting for them to exit hyperspace and destroy the people of the unsuspecting planet so he could get on with becoming a master and fulfilling his future of becoming the greatest jedi who ever lived.
-
Admiral Lessod Pryll stood on the bridge of the Titan, waiting for the fleet to come out of hyperspace. He knew the planet they were travelling to wasn't home to a sith enclave, it had been obvious from that jedi Dal's acting, but his career was stalled and knew the battle honours of stopping the potential rise of a new sith empire would help him when he tried to run for the senate after his military career was over.
He could almost see the holo-news headlines now. This coming victory would be broadcast to every home in the republic and he as the admiral in command of the fleet would be famous.
"Two minutes till arrival" one of the Titan's bridge crew called out.
"Good are we ready to deploy" Admiral Pryll said, trying to sound noble and imaging this moment played in holo-films in the years to come.
"All ships reporting ready. Sir" Another of the bridge crew reported.
"Excellent" Pryll said, suddenly regretting not bringing a journalist along to capture his greatness.
-
Lilk was sat on a bench in the palace gardens reading a book on her data pad. She had twenty minutes before her next lesson started and she was just trying to relax before that happened.
The sun shining down on her, the gently breeze and the soft chirping of birds calmed her as she read. She hoped her farther would be done with his work in time to join her for dinner tonight. He was usually busy with running the clan so she would eat dinner alone most nights, but he tried to set aside a few nights a week to join her for a family meal.
The peaceful atmosphere was shattered when sirens started blaring from all over the city.
Lilk looked around in alarm and noticed streaks of light and large shapes in orbit, there was a battle happening out in space.
Someone was attacking them.
-
Lead assault shuttle, 137 voidbourne assault battalion, republic army, one hundred thousand feet over unidentified Sith held planet.
Major Biv Donn looked around the assault shuttle at the members of number one company of the 137th Voidbourne assault battalion. The 137th were one of the most elite battalions in the republic army and were battle hardened from numerous skirmishes along the outer rim.
They were currently spread out between ten assault shuttles, one company in each, and hurtling down through the atmosphere of some no-name backwater to lay the hurt on some sith slimeballs.
The 137th would be the lead republic army elements arriving planet side and would be the tip of the spear for the task force. Several battalions were following them in, so if this whole battle wasn't done by dinner time major Donn would be one very unhappy commanding officer.
Donn was watching the tactical view of their descent from his data-pad, they had all been shut in the assault shuttles when the fleet had come out of hyperspace so he hadn't actually seen the planet below and wouldn't till his boots were on its surface.
He was fully expecting this to be like whenever they would raid pirate strongholds, with them having the advantage in both technology and firepower, so when his data-pad showed the shuttle carrying number seven company explode he almost didn't believe it.
A pit started building in Donn's stomach as another shuttle, this one carrying number five company, vanished from his data pad. 'No, it couldn't be' he thought 'We can't have just lost two companies just like that.'
Sweat started pouring down his face as he watched another shuttle, its engines damaged, collide with the one next to it, both being consumed in a giant fireball. A fifth shuttle exploded, and Donn started to panic, half his men were dead, and they weren't even on the ground yet.
The other men in the shuttle were looking around nervously now. They could hear the booms of distant artillery and they could see the fear on their normally calm major's face. They began wondering if their shuttle was about to be the next to be hit by anti-star ship fire.
They didn't have to worry long as barely half a minute later a hypersonic projectile, launched from a mass driver on the surface of the planet impacted the back of the shuttle, tearing it clean off.
By some miracle, or curse, the front of the shuttle remained intact. Forcing the remaining half of number one company to watch as they spun out of control towards the surface.
Donn watched in horror through the jagged hole in the back of the ship as he saw assault shuttles falling burning to the ground, and anti-air fire fling through the skies. Whoever said this was just an unknown insignificant backwater clearly wasn't given all the information.
-
Admiral Pryll ground his teeth. The planets defence fleet was a lot stronger than he had anticipated he'd already lost a corvette in the opening exchange and two others had sustained moderate to severe damage.
He ordered one of his battleships, The Sand Eater, to advance around the enemy supported by three frigates and four corvettes. His plan was that either the enemy would divide their forces match him or they would stay concentrated allowing him to hit them from two sides, either way his superior numbers gave him an advantage.
-
Lilk braced herself as two figures charged into the garden but calmed down when she recognised them as two of the warriors her farther assigned to look after her.
"Lady Lilk are you okay?" the first asked looking her over concerned she examined every inch of Lilk looking for any sign that she was hurt or in destress.
She fought the urge to roll her eyes at the warriors overly formal tone and her over-the-top concern, she had grown to expect it from being next in line to being the clan leader, but still didn't like it.
"I'm fine, what's going on" she asked them
"We are under attack my lady" The second said and this time Lilk couldn't help but give him a sarcastic 'Really?' look, as the distant sound of the anti-air batteries boomed. She knew he had given a purposefully vague answer to wind her up and was probably right now grinning behind his expressionless helmet.
"Lady Lilk, we need to escort you somewhere safe until we learn more of what is going on." The first warrior said ushering Lilk towards the relative safety of the palace.
-
Diz Dredd watched his clan preparing for the coming battle form the command post that he had set up in a square on the main road through Aria city, the capital and only real city on Aruum.
Aruum had a few smaller settlements scattered across the planet, but the only large city was its capital.
"Lord Dredd. The civilian evacuation is underway, we have our warriors helping to guide the civilians to the space port, but the space battle means we can't launch safely." A voice sounded from behind Diz, and he turned to see his second in command Rus.
"And the defences?" Diz asked
"We weren't prepared for an invasion so are forces are scattered at the moment. The anti-air batteries are shooting down the enemy drop ships, but some are getting through. We have a small force of our warriors as well as part of our droid army guarding the outer perimeter of the city. The rest of our forces will gather here so we can form an effective defensive line." Rus told him.
"Any word from the fleet in orbit?" Diz asked looking up at the sky concerned his younger brother Lan was the commander of the defence fleet and while he trusted him and his abilities, he couldn't help being concerned about his little brother.
"The defence fleet has engaged the invaders. From their reports they are outnumbered so things aren't looking good." Rus said.
"Its out of our hands. We can only do our part down here and trust that the defence fleet knows what its doing." Diz said solemnly.
He was concerned about his daughter Lilk but had to trust that the Warriors he had assigned to protect her would keep her safe. She also had her instructors with her in the palace who while retired now were once fearsome warriors of house Dredd.
And there was also the newly completed A.I. that he had given Lilk to help her with preparing to be the next clan leader. The A.I. might still be learning its own abilities but it was powerful and would try to protect Lilk as best it could.
-
Lan Dredd gritted his teeth as he glared at the republic fleet. He was the commander of the Aruum defence fleet and currently his fleet was being hammered by the enemy fleet's main guns.
His fleet was more technologically advanced, but the republic fleet had a massive advantage in numbers, the republic task force had forty-five ships including three battleships compared to house Dredd's fleet of five cruisers and ten corvettes.
House Dredd's warriors mainly operated independently or in small groups and because of that, along with Aruum being isolated and largely unknown to the rest of the galaxy, they didn't have a large navy. They were unprepared for a large hostile fleet to arrive without warning, but they would do their best to come out on top.
"Sir, one of the enemy battleships has left the formation and seems to be manoeuvring around us. I think they are trying to divide our fleet." The A.I. that assisted Lan in running the fleet, Wally, said from his perch on top of one of the bridge consoles.
Wally like all of house Dredd's A.I.'s was incredibly advanced and intelligent. However, unlike most of the other A.I.'s he had decided not to take a humanoid form for his avatar and instead had chosen a Womprat.
Lan grinned at Wally as a plan started forming in his head. The greatest strength of the Aruum defence fleet wasn't its ships, it was the warriors of house Dredd inside the ships. House Dredd's warriors were the toughest in the galaxy and a republic battleship had just separated itself from its fleet. House Dredd was about to show them why that was a bad idea.
"Have the fleet set course for that battleship. Leave two cruisers and four corvettes in reserve to protect the planet. Our remaining six corvettes will attack that battleships escorts, and we and the other two cruisers will get along side the battleship and board it." Lan said excitedly.
