Chapter 18 - The Fires of Ryloth [Continued 4] (1/2)
Part 6
Blue Squadron, en route to the CIS blockade on Ryloth
Two hundred and fifty Torrents raced toward the ungodly swarm of droid fighters milling around the CIS fleet. Below them, the capital ships were tearing at each other with bolts of energy more than powerful enough to vaporize any fighter deployed by either side.
The scanners of Ahsoka's Delta 7 beeped, announcing that they had detected heavy proton torpedoes passing under the fighters. She glanced at the readout and smiled.
”This is General Skywalker. Keep it steady, men. Be ready to execute Sucker Punch on my command.”
”General Skywalker comes with the most interesting names for the parts of this exercise,” muttered Blue Two, known to his friends as Ax.
”Nope. That wasn't Master's idea!” chirped Ahsoka. ”It was all General Veil's brainstorm!”
”That figures...” mumbled Blue Four. ”Who put that maniac in charge anyway?”
”Do you have problem with our overall commander, Sev?” asked Blue Five.
”Just with our tiny part of his plan,” quipped Blue Four. ”It requires us to piss off ten thousand or so Vultures. Nah. What possible issue could I have with such orders?” he deadpanned.
”Look it from the bright side, Sev. The General expect at least some of us to survive. After all we need to be in one piece in order to goad the droids to follow us.” said Ax.
”It may even work.” whispered Blue Three.
=RK=
While the fighters were closing in on their targets, the first salvo of Republic heavy torpedoes hit. Seven proton warheads made it through the last ditch defensive fire and the thick fighter screen. They were concentrated on only two ships, both of which were bathed in white hot plasma.
One frigate was struck by four torpedoes. The first three smashed into her armored nose milliseconds from each other, annihilating the forward third of the ship. The last one struck the junction where the bridge pylon and the main hull of the craft met. Its buried itself in the armored hull before detonating. The resulting explosion sent a shock-wave which shattered the whole bridge section and rent a massive crater in the remaining part of the ship. Series of internal explosions tore what was left of the ship apart.
The second Munificent was marginally luckier. The torpedoes hit her port side, with one colliding with the fin sticking from her nose. It blew up, vaporizing the offensive protuberance. The short ranged blast-wave stripped armor plates off the forward section, opening multiple compartments to space. Scores of unfortunate droids were either outright destroyed or suċkėd out to space.
A few minutes later, she was put out of her misery by a barrage of turbolaser fire from the Requiem, which got her sights on the frigate while traversing her guns to aim at her next chosen target.
=RK=
Light Cruiser Stalker, Arquitens-Class
Commander VLK-531 calmly surveyed the bridge of his ship, where his brethren were efficiently doing their jobs. He was newly promoted as a commanding officer of the Light Cruiser, which for all intents and purposes was a scaled down model of the Venator-Class.
However, he didn't care about that. Volk, as he was more commonly known, was proud of both his ship and crew.
”We are in missile range,” said the weapons office.
”Very well,” the Commander looked at one of the data feeds from the Flagship. Eight seconds later it blinked green, showing that all Arquitens were in range. That was his que. ”Flush all tubes. Maximum rate of fire!” ordered Volk.
It was time to see if the first phase of General Veil's plan was going to work.
A light tremor passed through the deck as the four missile launchers released their deadly contents at the clankers. They ware a part of a staggered salvo send by all of Stalker's sister ships.
Blue Squadron, near the CIS blockade, Ryloth
”Execute Sucker Punch!” barked Skywalker.
”You heard him boys! Go!” ordered Ahsoka.
Two hundred and fifty V-19 Torrents sent a pair of missiles each at the armada of enemy fighters, which were just outside of effective energy weapons range. Yet that didn't stop the machines from opening fire. In the next instant, the Republic Starfighters broke off their headlong charge at the enemy, and separated into two groups, which looped above and below their previous vector. Only two hundred and seventeen of them lived long enough to do so.
Four hundred twenty one droid fighters became prey to the missile strike, one moment ”living” and ready for battle and in the next becoming so much short lived stars.
More than a thousand Vultures separated from the swarm and flew in pursuit of the offending enemy Torrents. To their machine intelligence, the outcome was predetermined. Their enemies had made a mistake. By trying to loop back to their lines, the Republic craft had placed themselves in a vulnerable position, where the Vultures could easily out-accelerate and catch them from the rear. Or so they believed.
”Uh-oh...” was sent over the droid network by one of the Vultures leading the pursuit.
Its sensors revealed the truth and it sent the data to its brethren in the last moments of its existence. Not that it was going to do them any good.
The ninety two ”light” missiles from the first Light Cruiser salvo had changed their direction and flew in the teeth of the pursuing Vultures. They were followed by the third and fourth spread of heavy torpedoes launched by the Venators. All of which were rigged with proximity fuses.
Usually using such weapons against fighters would be a waste. Blast waves didn't propagate well in space. A warhead that could wipe out anything in the air for dozens of kilometers in atmosphere, was virtually useless in space beyond a few hundred meters, a kilometer at best.
That, however, didn't take into account the spread usually maintained between fighters. With the swarm chocking the space around the CIS capital ships, while flying in such vectors as to be clear from the barrages exchanged by the heavy combatants, the tactical picture was different. The Vultures were vulnerable to proximity kills.
The ordered formations pursuing the fleeing fighters which had executed Mirror Image, flew apart as the droids tried to evade the blast zones of the oncoming missiles.
It was too little too late. For brief seconds, more than a hundred suns were born, lived and died amongst the Vulture formations. When the glare of the proton explosions subdued, the tattered remains of the pursuing fighters could be seen. Eighty one battered droid fighters remained combat effective from one thousand strong.
”Great work men!” exclaimed Anakin. The odds were just evened a bit more.
Unfortunately he doubted that they would be able to do that ten more times. The Vulture swarm was already diffusing, so it wouldn't represent such an easy target again.
”That actually worked...” Blue Five wondered aloud.
=RK=
Luckrehulk Command ship Procurer, CIS Blockade
”This was creative.” muttered Captain Tuuk.
At the same time, three more of his frigates died but they took another enemy Dreadnought and couple of those missile armed Light Cruisers with them. While the exchange was nominally in the enemy's favor, that was only because the Republic capital ships were much tougher than his frigates. A state of affairs that won't last long when the enemy's shields failed.
He looked at the plot. Sure enough, one of the Venator was loosing its shields. The drop of the ships energy emissions was an obvious tell. The eight frigates pounding that cruiser would soon have her gone.
Tuuk checked the distance between the two fleets. They were still at long range from his ships. When the enemy closed to medium range, he would play one of his thump cards.
He watched as the Republic fighters which played bait for the trap reformed, receiving a couple of wings as reinforcements and flew to execute another stinging attack.
The CIS Captain lamented the fact that he had no missile armed interceptors in his fleet. He knew that they were on the drawing boards, but it would be few months at least before the Vulture modification which would be able to carry four missiles could be produced in numbers. At least the specs of the Confed fighter missiles made the ones used by the Republic look like pieces of obsolete junk in comparison.
Not that it helped his situation, when he lacked any of those ”wonder” weapons.
The enemy crawled closer, while another two Munificent died in exchange for an enemy light cruiser. Then, two important things happened in quick succession.
First, the shields of one of the Venators failed and the cruiser was promptly turned into a drifting burning hulk by the heavy guns of seven frigates. Second, the enemy fleet passed into medium range.
”The time is right. Call in the reserves. Send them here and here.” ordered Muuk, giving the relevant coordinates to his subordinate droids.
”Roger, roger!” answered a command B1, which had its head painted yellow.
”The moment our reserve attacks, send two thirds of our fighters at the heart of the Republic fleet.”
Now all Mar could do was wait for the Republic's commander answer, as well as for the right time to play his next card.
=RK=
Republic Cruiser Requiem, Task Force ”Retribution” Flagship
More than a hundred wings of Vultures were already gone. That was just a drop in the bucket. There were too damn many of the buggers remaining.