* Sullust System, The 'Invincible', Bridge, Holopod *
Overlooking the ever-changing HoloPod my eyes scowered each of the CIS Formations. The Lucrehulks held a steadfast formation, while the Munificent's were slowly crumbling, the majority of the fire had been focused on the Munificent in the 2nd level, looming over the 1st level.
Only 15 minutes into the Battle and 4 Munificents had been shot down, the Clone Pilots had gritted their teeth and fought through the hordes of Vulture-Class Starfighters relentlessly throwing themselves at them.
Plo Koon and Anakin Skywalker had been relentlessly crushing the opposition, saving multiple squadrons and flights.
Meanwhile, debriefs littered the CIS formation, remnants of the 4 destroyed Munificents.
I pressed a few buttons on the HoloPod or HoloTable as the Holographic Battlefield morphed into an individual.
Maarisa Zinsj,
The official Admiral of the Judicial Outer-Rim Fleet.
The previous, Governor-General Tarkin had already abandoned his positions to serve as an Admiral of the Republic Strategic Command, Zinsj was also in the process of joining the Republic High Command, but she temporarily served the Outer-Rim Fleet.
"Maarisa Zinsj, this is Grand Admiral Thalron Veridian. You are to take your fleet and join us in our siege of Sullust." I told her, a hinge of superiority in my voice.
She immediately became conflicted, and I expected said outcome.
My own Munificent-Class Star Frigates had intercepted an order from Tarkin to Zinsj, ordering them to remain on Eriadu and refrain from assisting us in any way.
Tarkin sensed a threat in my recent buildup and garrison of 'his' sector, and he should be.
"Sir, I am afraid I cannot. The CIS Forces has dispatched a fleet to Clak'dor. The only reason they have yet to lay siege to Eriadu is the presence of our fleet." Zinsj tried desperately.
"I do not care, the preservation of the Republic Attack Fleet far surpasses a potential 'if ' they attack, the Sullust Defense Force is the first major milestone, one which we must break through, we can then follow up with an attack down at Clak'dor or Eriadu if they attack." I told her, and I could see a slight frustration building up.
I was now the big, corrupt, self-preserved Military Guy in her story. The undeserved one.
Except I had all right, and my move could be seen as strategically accurate.
"I understand, I'll send my fleet there now." Zinsj said.
"Get to it. And that was an order, you do not get to refuse. If your fleet is not here within 30 minutes…" I told her dangerously before cutting the connection.
That's when I smiled and pressed a few more buttons.
Now the holographic view of Wulf Yularen, who was heading to Coruscant.
"Give Project-Y new orders, if the service-man leaves, attack and kill all Government and the 5 Family-related prospects, make it so it comes from Count Dooku himself." I told him, in a slightly coded message but not too much, enough for someone not to be able to convict me of it.
Project Y was a newly founded luck project, we managed to interpret a signal from Raxus on our way to Enarc, the only way we found it was complete luck.
It was sent to the Sullust Fleet and the message included a bunch of programmed orders, to a tactical droid.
After reading it we found out that it was an order for one of the Sullust Defense Fleet Tactical Droids to take 10 Munificents to Clak'Dor, to keep the Eriadu Fleet in place.
But luckly, due to my heavily invested area of cyber-hacking, we managed to input a virus into the command.
Now we essentially had the ability to give the droids orders that he believes comes from Raxus.
Essentially, we had our own CIS puppet fleet.
The order was, if the Eriadu Fleet left, attack and kill the entire official sector, Government, police, Military, and Political Parties. Everything.
I had essentially check mated Tarkin.
He could order Zinsj to keep position, and after the Battle, I'd have grounds to demote him and permanently keep him from any command positions, additionally, I could fire or court-marshal all members of the Outer-Rim Fleet Officers and Command, crippling Tarkins influence.
And if he sent his fleet then Eriadu would be taken over and all of his heavily corrupted Government would be gone, setting the stage for a new Veridian-influenced Government.
And the genius of it all, he didn't know it.
He might suggest a nice retaliation for keeping his fleet in position but I'd be stupid to use up a lot of influence to give him the harshest punishment and cripple a Republic Fleet,
Additionally, if he sent his Fleet then he could never know that the CIS would completely cripple his entire hold on his world.
His choice was simple, cripple his hold on Eriadu, or cipple his hold on the Military, but he would never know that he got those two choices now.
And do you know what's even better, one of our spy stations had been placed to precisely intercept any calls between Tarkin and Eriadu.
Yes, we had spy stations.
Grievous had one and it proved detrimental to an entire Oversector, and as such we had secretly created multiple.
And they proved extremely efficient to manipulate, blackmailing, and attacking Senators, a single spy station to intercept a planet to its senator for a few weeks would give me a lot of shit on them.
While the Spy stations couldn't catch every talk or message between a planet and its senator, it got more than it didn't.
And one usually didn't ensure a lot of secrecy when they're desperate.
So only a few seconds after I cut my connection with Yularen I walked into a meeting room on the bridge.
I pressed a few buttons and put in my own personal communications device,
And on the Hologram appeared two individuals.
Zinsj and Wihulf Tarkin.
Of course, they could not see me, but I could hear and see their entire conversation.
"Sir, Grand Admiral Thalron has ordered us to support him, he sounds as if he is losing," Zinsj told her Tarkin, in a neutral tone. Tarkin did not appreciate un-composed individuals.
"Hmm, do not support him. His Fleet would be a good riddance, I'll prepare countermeasures for any retaliation of his." Tarkin said with a smirk, thinking he'd won.
"Understood, Governor Tarkin. Merissa out." And with that, it ended.
I smiled, no I straight out grinned at that.
However, I turned around and walked out, heading to the main bridge.
But as I entered the communications command room behind the bridge, where the HoloPod lies, what awaited me was not as expected.
I had completely zoned out the battle these last 10 minutes as I contacted multiple individuals and prepared plans.
And what awaited me was their entire 2nd line in chaos.
Bombers zooming across their entire 2nd line.
I turned to an officer beside me, working on the crystal walls.
"What happened, Lieutenant." I ordered.
"My Lord, the Clone Pilots ended up winning the early Starfighter engagement, and as Admiral Trench faked a bomb run with about 2 squadrons and a lot of fighters, the enemy panicked and sent out all their Starfighters." The Officer said.
"Trench responded by launching all our fighters, but as they engaged all our bombers jumped out of hyperspace, I do not know how but they jumped in perfect synchronization and were in bombing positions, and with all fighters gone they wrecked chaos across the 2nd line." He said again.
Trench had truly outdone himself again, but I would not think a genetic Admiral would be so stupid to leave his shit undefended.
I guess he was cocky enough to think the Vulture whom outnumber our pilots over 10-1 would easily win and didn't think we would fight back.
Turning my eyes back to the Hologram.
I saw our entire fleet charging at the Separatist Formation, the Imperators and Valiant's leading the charge, 1 Lucrehulk and 1 Providence was already downed due to the relentless attack of all our forces, the Munificent held off our entire 2nd line quite efficiently and with them gone we could focus on the first line.
The Vultures however still proved a dangerous wall, but the panicking CIS Admiral had ordered about half of the Vulture's back to deal with the bombers.
But by the time they arrived the bombers had destroyed both the top and bottom levels of the 2nd line and jumped into hyperspace.
And our 125 Squadrons of Clone Pilots and 148 Squadrons of Veridian Fighter quickly began handing the ass to the Vultures in 5v1's.
The Royal Wing led by Fenn Rau leaving a patch of destruction, taking on multiple Attack Wings on at once.
Meanwhile I saw the CIS remaining forces take those Vulture having been sent to deal with the bombers onto their ships and tried to escape into hyperspace, but of course it wouldn't work.
And by the time they realized that, our fighters were already upon on cruisers and the bombers had jumped back into the Battlefield.
Additionally the CR90's, Cumulus, DP20's, Carracks all had sped ahead and were now engaging the ships between their lines, too small for them to hit them.
The Acclamators launched their remaining 4 waves of cruiser proton torpedoes, wrecking even further chaos.
And the Imperators and Valiants did not give the CIS some slack either.
I heard Trench scream about overloading the reactors as all fire were directed upon the retreating CIS ships.
The Lucrehulks were the first to fall, the Vultures still held some semblance of a threat if perfectly executed and as such the hangars fell, Starfighters camped on the Vultures streaming out, destroying majority of them.
In less than 5 minutes the remaining 11 Lucrehulks were completely destroyed.
The Providence then performed a suicide attack, attempting to ram our flagship, Imperator-Class Star Destroyer the 'Invincible'
But of course that did not work and they were completely fried into a crisp by the time they reached the 1/5th mark, even with the Imperator running at full speed towards them as well.
Immediately after I got a call from the remaining 5 Dreadnaughts, 13 Carracks, 20 DP20's and 9 CR90 Corvettes of the Sullust Defense Guard surrendered, their ships were quickly boarded by Kenobi and the Clone Legions, Kenobi taking charge of the negotiation of surrender on the flagship of the Sullust Defense Guard.
Meanwhile, on the 12 Acclamator-Class Assault Ships, red flares rang across the ships as Clones ran into the large hangars and landing areas, forming into formations and awaiting surface landing or LAAT's.
As the last CIS ship was destroyed, all of our LAAT's were launched simultaneously, most sent into the Acclamators to pick up Clones.
And through the collective use of both factions LAAT's all 175 000 Clones were rushed down to the Sullust Surface, escorted by V-19 Torrents and Clone Bombers.
LAAT/I's from both Acclamators and Lucrehulks were launched as well, those coming out of the Lucrehulks carried the AV-7 Vehicle Artillery Pieces while those coming out of the Acclamators carried AT-TE's and other ground vehicles.
A Veridian Officer ran up to me.
"Sir, a connection from the Sullust Government!" He exclaimed, preparing to put them through at my order.
"Let them be, continue the invasion. Focus on key Military and Government targets." I told the officer.
He was originally shocked but kept it inside as he rushed out.
"Send Veridian Soldiers to the SoroSuub Factories and Shipyards, the order is to kill all officials, but only capture the workers, we'll need them." I told a second.
I saw Trench walked up to me.
"Great job, Admiral, no Fleet Admiral Trench." I said with a smile.
Trench just got a promotion, a well deserved one on that. He had served me faithfully and perfectly for close to a decade now, and he deserved it.
"Tsk tsk tsk, thank you, My Lord. It is a tsk tsk honor to serve you, and tsk tsk House Veridian." Trench said and I smiled.
"You know, this isn't the end of your career. You might gain a noble status." I told him quietly.
That was not widely known and only I and the Council knew it, later when my Kingdom is established, we'd officialize the ability to become a noble through sacrifices and merits.
Trench looked shocked originally before turning around and continuing with his duty, ordering a blockade formation, Corsairs down to the surface for artillery support or orbital bombardment.
And with that, the Battle of Sullust was over, now we just needed to get as many bonuses as possible.
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