Almost immediately after the meeting the Geonosians Fleet was organised into the 1st Planetary Invasion System Army, or the 1st Invasion Army, supported by the 1st Veridian Attack Fleet.
I found myself in the briefing room, beside High General Plo Koon and High General Obi-Wan Kenobi, followed by his apprentice Anakin Skywalker.
The invasion fleet was followed by 500 Clone Bombers and their respective pilots, flying independently by using their own hyperdrives.
And 1500 V-19 Torrent Starfighters, piloted by Clone Pilots.
Those were put on the Lucrehulks.
Following that was 175 000 Clone Troopers, they suffered 17 000 casualties in the Battle of Geonosis.
So in total we had 175 000 Clone Soliders, 200 000 Veridian Soliders.
Additionally we had a total of 356 Fighter Squadrons in total,
Plus the independent 492 Clone Bombers or 41 Squadrons.
Or to be precise 83 Bomber Squadrons and 315 Fighter Squadrons.
Firstly, the attack plan was determined.
We had decided to take the Triellus Trade Route through Arkanis, Llanie, Zhar and then we'd prepare at Ryndelia.
Enarc would be our first obstacle.
It was a Trade Federation local headquarters, current reports indicated that the Trade Federation had a local garrison of 6 Lucrehulk -Class Battleships.
Our current fleet included:
2 Imperator-Class Star Destroyer
4 Valiant-Class Star Destroyer
12 Acclamator-Class Assault Ships
8 Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer
5 Munificent-Class Star Frigate
20 Cumulus Class Corsairs
40 DP20 Gunships
15 CR-90 Corvettes
75 Carrack Class Light Cruiser
The basic formation was divided into 3 lines.
The Heavy Forward Line
The 2nd Line
The 3rd Support Line.
The Heavy Forward Line included:
- 2 Imperator-Class Star Destroyers
- 4 Valiant-Class Star Deatroyers
- 8 Gladiator-Class Star Destroyers
The 2nd Line included:
- 5 Munificent-Class Star Frigates
- 12 Acclamator-Class Assault Ships
- 20 Cumulus-Class Corsairs
- 75 Carrack-Class Light Cruisers
The 3rd Line ( Support )
- 2 Lucrehulk-Class Battleships
- 15 CR-90 Corvettes
- 40 DP20 Gunships.
Now, to explain said order.
The 1st Forward Heavy Line would take majority of the damage output of the enemy fleets, they would be forced to have Heavy Shields and would entirely be Ship-to-ship oriented.
The 2 Imperator-Class and 4 Valiant-Class'es was a no-brainier.
Those 6 ships carried majority of naval firepower output and their shields would hold perfectly.
Although the Valiant's forward hangers would be a problem in the middle of the battle as the fighters would struggle to not get shot immediately after exiting and leaving.
Therefore standard procedure was to use the bottom and side hangars during battle and for bombers to either use the Lucrehulks or the Imperator's for new armament.
The Gladiators had the same problem, but they also possessed a bottom hangar.
Other than that the forward hangers allowed our fighters to get multiple seconds head-starts due to the forward hangars, which could be detrimental that to the battle.
Now, one may ask why I included the Gladiator's instead of the Munificent's and the Acclamators.
The Munificent-Star Frigates's hull are extremely weak, a single shot could break the entire ship in two, additionally the Munificent has a lot of powerful long range cannons, including 2 heavy ones and 2 heavy ion cannons.
Those could unleash devestating damage upon the incoming ships at long range.
But the Munificent's also served an extremely important role in terms of communications. Their long range jammers, cyber-hacking and defense equipment makes them unique.
Which is why I did not want to waste them in Battles.
The Acclamators really were one simple reason.
It carried too many clones, each of them carried 16 000 Clone Troopers, and even a single loss of Acclamator would be devestating to our attack forces.
The entire Battle of Geonosis, including the Catacomb wars ended in 17 000 casualties.
So for every ship we lost we'd be fighting Geonosis again with the same casualties.
Of course I could send 100 000 Clones to the Lucrehulks and have the remaining 75 000 put into 5 Acclamators, and have the remaining 7 join the battle.
But eventually the Lucrehulks would need to detach from the Fleet to gather new men and then the Clones would either be stuck on the Lucrehulk or any other Planet.
But, the Acclamatora also didn't have enough firepower for me to risk potentially having to leave Clones who would fight efficiently on a random planet.
Other than that I decided to keep the Carracks back as well, they had good Starfighter-counter weapons and could heavily damage any veichles at close range, but having them in the forward line would be asking for their destruction.
They would be more efficient to launch if we were decide on pincering their forces and then send the Carracks into the enemy lines.
After all 75 of them is dangerous to any ship and force.
The support line said itself.
All of those ships had nothing to do in the 1st Heavy or 2nd Attack lines, the DP20's would be effective against pure Starfighters swarms, but having them in the front would have the enemy formation target them first.
The same was with the CR90's, but the CR90's were efficient patrol ships for later when we capture more and more worlds.
The Lucrehulks were a mix of the Acclamators and fighter priority.
The Lucrehulks carried a massive 1500 Clone V-19 Torrents, and those fighters could wreck chaos across the Battlefield, they are our aces.
Additionally the 2 Lucrehulks carry 200 000 of our own forces, and it would be even more devestating to loose 100 000 soliders per
Lucrehulk than any Acclamators.
And that was the basic formation of the Fleet.
While I was talking to myself we had already set off, approximate time upon arrival is 12:32, 12 hours and 32 Minutes.
I don't know how, but somehow Padme has managed to get onto the campaign.
As a Republic Representative, of course.
She is to negotiate between the planets and the Republic.
Surprisingly the permission came directly from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
Either he knew about our relationship and wanted to appease us, or he wanted Anakin and Padme to get closer.
Padme had of course not told Anakin and as of yet they were spending time together, as Anakin was quite persistent.
Padme had stopped any of Anakin's approaches but he had decided to be friendly for now, while slowly trying to build a relationship.
But by looking at ship cameras I found that Anakin spent surprisingly more and more time with Sabe, Padme duplicate.
Although they weren't extremely much alike, Padme and Sabe had their similarities.
Padme had also tried to repeatedly explain that she was not interested in Anakin.
Each and every time I told her that I trusted her, which made her happy.
But deep within, I knew I was a bit cautious and doubtful.
After all I knew Padme had some resemblance of feelings towards Anakin, or at least should have.
But seeing as Padme was steadily stopping him I was beginning to relax.
…
I one again found myself on the bridge of the 'Invincible'.
We were currently on Ryndellia.
Most of the crew and soliders had gotten some good nights sleep during these last 12 hours and we were now all awake and prepared.
"Trench, this battle should be simple. 6 Lucrehulks will not stand a chance, demolish them and make sure none escapes." I told Trench.
He was the overall commander of the campaign while I oversaw it.
His skills in sunchronizing the fleets made him perfect for any straight up Battles.
Being assisted by Captain Pellaeon he'd do some great work.
"Tsk tsk tsk, they will cower in fear immediately after, why are we not tsk tsk tsk attacking?" Admiral Trench asked.
"Well, I happen to have a new toy, that will make sure nobody escapes." I told Trench as I smiled.
And immediately after a sensor Officer arrived.
"Sir, Cronau Radiation has been detected and sector 12.32.44 is having a gravity shift, signalling their arrival there." The officer said.
"Aim turrets at sector 12.32.44!" Trench exclaimed.
"Relax, it's one of ours." I said as I looked at the beeping communicator device.
And with that I turned, looking at sector 12.32.44
And with a sudden shift a new cruiser stood there.
It was in the famous V-style of the Veridian Army, it had a similar bridge to that of the Imperator and Gladiator-Classes.
But what stood out was it's 4 large balls coming out of the top of the cruiser, 2 on each side of the bridge, situated on top of the hull.
Reports indicated that it was 600 meters long, 300 meters in widt and 100 in height.
It supported 20 quad laser cannons focused on Starfighters and Small cruisers.
This was of course, the Immoblizer 418 Interdictor-class Heavy Cruiser.
And as I saw it a smile came to my face.
This would be one of our greatest support vessels, far superior to that of the Lucrehulks and Acclamators.
The Immoblizer had the capability to pull ships out of hyperspace and the ability to prevent ships from jumping.
It had a range of 3 light years in diameter, meaning 28 300 billion kilometres or 28.300 trillion kilometres.
Meaning that for any ships to escape it's interdiction field, one would need to go in one direction for 14 trillion kilometres.
Which in short, would not be possible.
An average ship would travel 1000 kilometres per hour.
Meaning to exit the field one would need to fly at 1000 km/h for 583 days.
Yeah, good luck doing that.
Meaning that the only way of escaping was destroying the fleet, which would be hard.
Additionally the Interdictor would allow us to use previously determined 'impossible' tactics.
Thrawn exploited this and became a renowned Admiral.
But I believe Trench would actually be suited to using it, perhaps even more than Thrawn.
After all, Trench's main strength was the efficiency of the fleet and to use surprise manoeuvres and traps to draw in his enemies and then deal a striking blow.
And now he could essentially spawn any ship on top, behind, beside, under ships.
This would be extremely dangerous for ships like the Venator.
The Venator had close to if not zero fighting capability from it's under side and if a ship spawned under it with sufficient firepower they'd be dead.
This is the true power of the Interdicition technology and I had invested heavily to ensure it's completion.
The scientist and workers had unlimited funds, whenever they asked they would receive precisely that and more, and I would not stop
I had been pressing hard on getting it completed by the war, and luckily it worked out and I now had 3 Immobilizer 403 Cruisers.
And with that, we jumped to hyperspace.
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