(Coruscant System, 30 seconds later)
I had to give it to Admiral Dron. Despite the fact the Malevolence and the rest of the Coalition fleet must have seemed to appear out of thin air due to their having jumped in-system while the interference from the annihilation of the two suicide-ships was still fogging the instrumentation of much of the Coruscant Defense Fleet, he hadn't wasted any time.
Ordering every fighter and bomber at his disposal scrambled, rather than trying to first move the Venators now spread out in a cordon over Coruscant back into an order-of-battle.
That one decision revealed the man was keenly aware of the nature of the threat facing his fleet. The CDF might outnumber the C.I.S task-group twenty-to-one, but many of the vessels belonging to the defense-fleet couldn't harm the the Coalition juggernaut even if it's shields were down.
Worse, as I studied the nav-display, I saw the C.I.S superweapon wasn't the only monstrosity present. Anchoring each of the two wing-formations to either side of the great cruiser was a Separatist Dreadnaught. The pair of them likely built as the Quarrens' attempt to conceal the construction of the Malevolence and her hopefully still incomplete sister ship.
Toward the rear of each C.I.S wing-formation were ten of the twenty-five hundred meter-long variants of the Recusant-class Light Destroyers, their extensive inset hangars already pouring swarms of Vulture Droids, and a lesser number of Commerce Guild Bombers into space from their flanks.
Each of the formations flanking the Malevolence contained a fairly even mix of the more conventional Recusants and Munificent-class Star Frigates numbering perhaps thirty-five all told for each wing.
Finally, there were ten or twelve Commerce Guild corvettes screening for each flank-force, and that brought the total number of C.I.S capital ships to a number in the mid-to-high eighties.
It was a truly impressive amount of war material, but with the exception of the Malevolence, these weren't the ships which had me pursing my lips in a tight line. Admiral Dron had more than eighty Venators and nearly three dozen slave-rigged Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers alone in-system, after all, and the Force alone knew how many smaller vessels.
None of these cruisers being subject to the limits of the Reformation because of the Military Mirror Sanctions Act, plus the truly awesome number of fighters and bombers he could expect were even now racing into orbit from the planet below. All of which said nothing of Coruscant's orbital and static planetary defense assets.
No, it was the fifty-plus drop-ships, hardened droid-transport vessels, and boarding craft now moving to hug the rear of each formation that had me glaring at the nav-display. They'd all arrived as a second wave, seconds after the C.I.S fleet began pouring all those vultures and CGMs into space, and those ships made the Coalition's strategic goal crystal clear.
"This isn't an out and out attack. It's a raid, meant to prove the Republic can't even protect it's holdings here in the very heart of it's power. At least I hope that's all this is, anyways." I explained in the same short, clipped tone I'd used earlier.
Padme, being a politician, was the first to grasp the implications. When she did, it was easy to hear the concern in her voice.
"The C.I.S could hide almost anything within that kind of chaos and destruction, even if only a quarter of those forces are allowed to reach the surface! Bomb a corporate headquarters, and whose to say what information was stolen from their servers first? Accidentally strafe a hotel, and a dead shipping magnate is just one among many unfortunate casualties.
The possibilities are as endless as they are horrible! Bad enough, the loss of faith in the Republic's ability to safeguard it's member worlds after an attack like this, without having to spend a tremendous amount of time and resources trying to separate simple tragedies from ongoing threats to our security."
My left hand had already depressed the touch-plate which was a distinctly technological addition to the console.
Causing a low thrumming sound to echo throughout the elongated teardrop-shaped vessel's interior for several moments, as a throbbing tremor ran throughout Seraph's superstructure. Lowering Seraph's nose, I pushed the scion of a sentient world into a steep curving descent along the z-axis at a screaming ninety percent of her maximum sublight speed.
Banking in such a way as to put us about a million and a half kilometers below and away from the Malevolence. Only then did I answer the question I was certain was on both their minds.
"The enemy fleet isn't simply ignoring us. Seraph has a state-of-the-art cloaking device, which I engaged right before moving us into position to shadow that monster." I kept my voice calm and matter of fact, as I banked out of the path of a squadron of vulture-droids obviously taking the low road on their way to a target among the CDF.
Padme was the first to respond to that revelation, but she ignored the obvious and completely irrelevant question as to the provenance of our present means of concealment, in favor of the far more pressing inquiry.
"What are we doing here, Anakin? There are so many droid-craft leaving that fleet, we could get easily get rammed by accident. I want to stop this terrible attack as much as you do, but it doesn't seem we're in any position to do so."
Without looking up from my instruments, I explained "Seraph isn't simply a ghost-ship. She's the near-sapient product of extremely advanced bio-technology, and as such, her weaponry is as advanced as her flight capabilities.
There are four meteor-cannons set flush into her hull, and each one can fire variable-yield ordinance up to the destructive potential of six or seven proton torpedoes apiece.
The Force revealed those great ion cannon emplacements on the flanks of the C.I.S superweapon are incredibly vulnerable where they meet the vessel's hull as they charge to fire, but it's not like I can simply transmit that information to the CDF mid-battle.
Admiral Dron would have every reason to consider such an intelligence windfall more than a little suspicious, and that's if we could even get through. Both sides are doing their level best to jam each other's communication frequencies to disrupt C&C."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a thoughtful look on the ex-queen's face, as she replied without a trace of the fear I could sense she had almost entirely in hand "You want to attack the Separatist flagship by surprise when it charges it's main cannon to fire? If that's the plan, why aren't we moving into position to do so?"
"I was ordered to protect you, Padme, and I don't have the right to make this kind of decision for my apprentice. Seraph's deflector-shield is impressive for a vessel of her size, but only for her size. Her best defense is and always will be her speed and maneuverability. Making a run on the Malevolence isn't a suicide mission, but it's not far from one, either.
We could probably survive a glancing hit by one of the dreadnaught's point-defense batteries, but if one of it's many hundreds of twin turbolaser batteries strike us squarely, there won't be anything left of us but a cloud of slowly cooling gases."
I didn't sugarcoat the situation for either of them, as I continued to weave, climb or descend to avoid passing droids. We seemed to be on the very tail-end of the C.I.S fleet's release of said droid-craft, but there was a substantial number of them circling just above and below the fleet-killer.
Ahsoka was the first one to reply. Her voice filled with the confidence of youth, as she urged "We have to try, Master! If there's even a chance we can save the people down there, or some of the JF troopers up here, we, we just have to!"
I took my eyes off the nav-display for a fraction of a second to glance in Padme's direction, but I needn't have bothered. I could feel her determination and resolve to prevent needless suffering and loss of life like a steady, unbroken drumbeat. Vital as any heartbeat, as she answered.
"I abhor what this battle will mean for the people, but the sooner it's brought to a close, the better it will be for everyone. It's as Ahsoka said, we have to try."
I nodded my agreement, but felt the need to point out a few more critical details. "Seraph expended all of her meteor-rounds clearing away asteroids during our recent escape from Cato Neimoidia.
Meaning all we've got is the explosive material she's produced in the last eighteen to twenty hours. Material she'll need to compress fashioning maximum-yield rounds. We'll get four of those, and maybe another four equivalent to a proton torpedo apiece.
The cloak will fall as we fire, we won't be able to reengage it for five very long seconds, and I'll need to drop the deflector shield to recloak. Last chance to reconsider."
No one bothered to add to what they'd already said, so my fingers began tapping pads in the middle of Seraph's control-yoke.
Ordering her internal chemical processors to begin preparing the meteor-cannon rounds of the requisite yield, as I nosed up slowly and began moving into position. I kept the acceleration down to minimize any tell-tale thermal blooms, and that gave us time to really take in the battle already ongoing.
A churning furball of V-19 Torrents, and a great many of the older Z-95 Headhunters up from Coruscant airfields contested the area around the planet's orbital defense-platforms with the swarming vulture-droids.
Always willing to make suicide-runs on targets of value, the vultures also acted as shield-formations for the bombers trailing them. Although ultimately outnumbered for a change, I could see that the handful of platforms the bombers were focusing on had already sustained an alarming amount of damage.
Wings of Republic starfighters were doing their best to keep the CGBs at bay, but it was difficult to stonewall an enemy which was entirely indifferent to it's losses, so long as the tactical objective was achieved.
In ten seconds, I lost count of the number of CGBs followed right in on their runs by starfighters who would inevitably turn them into scrap moments after they'd flushed their racks.
Platform point-defenses and deflectors defied many of these hits, but as I watched, long gouts of vented atmosphere from two badly-holed platforms sent momentary plumes of debris outward to be captured by the planet's gravity-well before emergency forcefields sealed many of the breaches.
Likewise, the Malevolence had borne down on the wedge the Coalition was trying to drive into the defenses. Standing off only a few hundred thousand kilometers from high orbit, it was beginning a threatening turn which would line it up on nearly twenty Dreadnaught cruisers fearlessly advancing on the behemoth.
It's respective wings had drawn in closer and fanned out somewhat as wings of Venators with their screening elements advanced to begin pouring a truly withering amount of fire into their opposite numbers, but I had to wince regardless.
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