Open Invasion Breaking the 7th - Dennon

[Darth Caelestis]

The bridge of the Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer The Morgana flashed with streaks of blue as the ship hurtled through hyperspace. Men, women and droids danced across the floors behind the tranisparisteel making sure all was in order and ready for what awaited them on the other side, navigation, communications, weapons teams, damage control, shield monitors, flight control they all had their final tasks to complete. Behind them the rest of the Avillion Royal Fleet flew in formation, the combined might of every ship Exegol had produced for Darth Caelestis, a fleet of eight Resurgent-Class and six Onager-Class Star Destoyers flanked by cruisers and corvettes, it was truly a sight to behold perhaps the single most powerful fleet the Sith had put to war in a hundred years. It was joyous to be apart of it and euphoric to lead it.

Atop the bridge, before the tranisparisteel, stood Darth Caelestis, Sith Lord and King of Avillion. His medium black hair was pulled back behind his ears, his uniform was immaculate, pressed by his groomsman only this morning. His hand rested upon the hilt of his ancient Sith blade, forged Millenia ago for a great Sith Lord, the blade hummed with the energy of the Dark Side. Caelestis stood alone, all those serving aboard the bridge giving the Sith Noble a wide berth as they passed him by. The only person who dares approach him was the ships Captain Avalhorn. "Mi'King, we are about to drop out of hyperspace above Dennon." Artorigas turned to the man and gave him a small nod. "Thank you Avalhorn, set the ship and fleet to action stations." He said in a calm voice, though that calm was not passed to the Captain who immediately turned round and shouted 'Action Stations' those men, women and droids who were moving behind him now shifted into overdrive as the tonoi repeated the command followed by the siren signalling its activation.

Within a few moments of the call, the flashing blue lights disappeared as the ship and all those in the fleet once again appeared in real space above Dennon. The sight of the planet filled most of the starboard side of the screen, even from here Darth Caelestis could see the smouldering fires that littered the planets surface, large pockets of blackened city scape. Straight ahead lay the main collection of the Republic's 7th Fleet, Artorigas and the Avillion Royal Navies commanders had received information surrounding the fleets composition and personnel from those still loyal upon the planets surface and hidden inside the The Republic. This information is what made it clear that he needed to pull the full force of his small navy together to break through this blockade. They had travelled almost a week the planet sat on the wrong side of the Galactic Core to Exegol and Namadii, he hoped it was not to late for those still loyal upon Dennons surface.

"Open a system wide broadcast." He called from the front of the bridge, after a moment the lead communications officer confirmed the broadcast was ready. "Grand Admiral Brum of the seventh Fleet, you have attacked a sovereign holding of the Sith Empire. You have fifteen minutes to retreat from this system before we will unleash the full might of Avillion upon you." He closed the open comm with a hand signal then turned to face the bridge crew. "Deploy all Starfighters. Have Defiance, Warspite, Vanguard, Lancer concentrate there Composite Cannons on the lead ship, let us remove Brum from this war." He said turning back towards the window. "Give him five minutes, lets be polite at least."

 

[The Storyteller]

"Sir," a deck officer roared up at Grand Admiral Brum moments before the Sith ships emerged from hyperspace. "We're detecting multiple Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace!"

Brum glanced out the viewport of the Resolute, the flagship of the Seventh Fleet. He had expected the Sith to retaliate but had to admit surprise that they made their move so quickly and with a force that was fairly even in size to the Seventh itself. The audacity of the enemy commander, whoever he was, was considerable and amusing. "All ships to battle stations. All Starhawks are to move back. Let them come to us. Have the tractor beam arrays ready. The second any one of those Star Destroyers come within firing range, capture them and disable them with ion cannons."

"They're deploying starfighters, Grand Admiral," another voice from the bridge pit informed him.

"Follow suit," Brum commanded. "And have the carriers deploy their starfighters as well. Nebulon-D frigates to the front to deal with any starfighters that come within range of the blockade. Keep them off the capital ships as much as possible." He looked down at the bridge communication officer. "Open me a channel to the enemy commander."

"Yes sir!"

Brum stepped forward and waited for the signal that he was connected. Then, he gathered his breath and spoke. "This is Grand Admiral Brum of the New Republic Defense Forces. This world was never Sith territory to begin with. If you think you can break our blockade with your centuries old tech, go ahead and make my day. Otherwise, I recommend turning tail and scurrying back into whatever rathole you crawled out of."

He cut the channel. Already, the black skies above Denon were filling with lances of laser blasts as the dueling fleets began their engagement. Brum signaled again to the deck communication officer. "Get a transmission out to the Chancellor. Inform him of what's happening."

The order was received with a nod, and Brum turned his attention back to managing the battle.

@Braden Drake

 

[Darth Caelestis]

Artorigas smiled onboard The Morgana as he heard the Admiral's shrill voice come over the tanoy, yes the basis of these ships was older than the little Starhawk that sat before him. But these ships were state of the art back then and are still so. No singular weapon had been placed on a Starship in almost a hundred years which was as powerful as the Kyber Crystal enhanced Composite Cannons that sat upon the six Onager Destroyers arrayed across the fleet. They were known as both planet and ship cracker and four of them were aimed at the lead ship. There range almost twice that of a standard heavy turbolaser.

"Keep the fleet in position, use our greater range. Have all Onager's fire at anything in range." Perhaps the five minutes was a foolish mistake as the Starhawks' were moving back behind there screen of smaller ships, but that just meant that the Sith Fleet had more targets to take down.

Outside the window dozens of Starfighters and Starbombers held still in unison with the Fleet, as the small manoeuvring thrusters moved the Six Onager's into firing position. Resolute was out of range, but the poor Nebulon's that replaced its whole in the line were not. Three of the Republic's ship were lined up in Composite Cannon's sights and with a pair of shots each they would not survive. Central splits within the six ships lit up a dark blue colour which quickly grew brighter until the Kyber enhanced shot let loose across the darkness of space into its target.

A single shot would disable a ship of the Nebulon's size, a pair would remove all living matter from inside. The Republic forces had three options, sit there and continue to take the pounding, move in closer and have the Starhawks within range, or retreat and leave the world to the Sith and Darth Caelestis.

@Mockingjay

 

[Emil Ro]

Today was a migraine. The news of President Thorne's kidnapping was rattling enough. Now the Sith had launched a counteroffensive at Denon, much swifter than the Chancellor had expected. When news arrived from the Seventh Fleet, Emil had suspected at once that Grand Admiral Brum would attempt to fight and push the Sith back. But Emil had no intention of sacrificing lives and ships to protect a world the Free Worlds Alliance seemed determined to abandon. He had been repeatedly called upon to withdraw his ships, and he had repeatedly refused. Now, he had an excuse. One that would make the Alliance look even more inept.

From the Situation Room on Coruscant, the Chancellor beamed his presence on a secure channel to the bridge of the Seventh Fleet's flagship. The Grand Admiral's own visage appeared on the smaller holoprojector in the room. "Grand Admiral, I want you to withdraw the Seventh Fleet from Denon at once," Emil said. "Fall back to Byblos and reinforce the local fleet there."

Brum's consternation was immediately apparent. "Sir, we have the means to break the Sith armada. The starfighters can easily deal with those cannons. After that, their ships are no match for a Starhawk."

"I am playing a longer game, Grand Admiral," Emil replied. "The intergalactic community wishes your ships to depart from Denon so that the Free Worlds Alliance can continue to do nothing but posture while the Sith re-occupy the planet. We will grant this wish. The Sith's return proves the points I made at the recent Galactic Senate meeting on Naboo."

The Grand Admiral did not like that answer at all. "They will attack the Republic next," he spat. "They will not be content—"

"I'm counting on their attack," Emil said, cutting across him. "When the Sith inevitably take the bait and attack, I will have all the proof I need that my actions were justified. In the meantime, I've put all border systems on high alert and the Seventh will standby to reinforce whichever system the Sith decide to strike at. We will be ready for them, Admiral. There will be no surprise bombardments on my watch."

"My oath compels me to obey. But I must make my disagreement with your plans known, Chancellor. Playing politics with a war is a dangerous course of action."

"Your complaints are duly note, Grand Admiral." Emil leaned back and steepled his fingers. "Rest assured, all military installations on the surface have been obliterated and the chaos of the political fallout has left unrest across the planet. The Sith will have quite the job on their hands re-establishing control. In the meantime, we will prepare for them."

The Chancellor could see that Brum wanted to ask how else he planned to prepare for the Sith invasion. Emil would not answer him if he did. The Star Dreadnought over Byss was the Republic Navy's best kept secret. When he unleashed it upon the Sith, the press would forget Denon ever happened, and this boy king would regret sending a single ship across Republic borders.

Moments later, the Grand Admiral complied with his orders. The Seventh Fleet moved out of range, recalling its starfighters, and jumped to lightspeed, leaving Denon to the Sith once more.

/exit thread @Braden Drake

 

[Darth Caelestis]

Two of the Onagers were able to get there shots off removing one small ship from the field of play before the Republic Fleet began to move. Darth Caelestis spotted the manoeuvring thrusters on the nearest Onager Warspite begin to fire as it tried to track its own target, but the speedy Frigates were moving away at a speed to great for the ship to keep in firing range without breaking formation. Captain Avalhorn stepped up along side the Sith Lord once again. "Mi'King, it appears that the Republic Fleet is retreating, we are getting power signals relative with Hyperspace drives."

A grimace came across the Sith Lord's face, as much as he had told the Republic to retreat he had wanted a fight, the flash of Turbolasers the scream of fighters and the burning of ships. But alas today was not that day, he would have to battle it out with Brum on another day. The first of the ships began to disappear into Hyperspace a few moments later, casualties were light, a single Frigate on the Republic side and a couple of over zealous Fighter Pilots from the Sith who had broken ranks.

"Have there Squadron Commanders stripped of rank, any who broke and survived are to be punished." Caelestis spoke as he spotted a sparking and damaged fighter return to The Morgana's hanger bay. "Mi'King." Avalhorn responded. "Our next steps?" "We proceed as planned, The Exegol Fleet will stay to help secure the system. Avillion will return home, us and the Royal Fleet are going to Ossus."

______
End Thread