Skirmish over Sullust

[Demek Jast]

1700. Battlegroup Nova reverted to real space well before the gravity well generated by Sullust's planetary mass, and exactly where the Imperials had predicted. Seconds after the Alliance's arrival the Imperial ships sent to reinforce those already in defense of the planet came out of hyperspace, closer to the planet, and ahead of the Rebels on their assault vector.

Demek leaned forward, pressed his lips tight together, and clamped down on his armrests. He turned his head to communications and demanded a feed be relayed from the Warrick to his screen.

This turn of events presented a small problem for the incoming planetary assault teams. He'd have to engage these new Imperial ships immediately to draw their attention away from the soon to arrive dropships. The odds still played in favour of the Alliance though.

"Launch all X-Wing squadrons, have them engage enemy fighters. Dreadnaughts Rapture and Purity, along with gunship squadron Peacebringer, are to blow passed these Imperial dogs and assault orbital defense, doing whatever damage they can manage to those two enemy vessels along the way. They are then to continue with the original plan and launch their Y-Wing and A-Wing squadrons as directed. The Nebulon-B2 Condor, and MC40s Juno and Luciel, are to engage the Vic. We take on the Deuce. Warrick is to remain behind us as we blast that ship to dust." Demek barked.

"Aye, Sir. Orders relayed and the ships are underway. Our fighters are clearing the bays and moving ahead." A Mon Cal officer said.

"ETA on General Forlon and his men?" Jast asked.

"Ten minutes." The lieutenant beside him replied.

Demek played out scenarios in his head. Many things could go wrong in this situation. So very wrong.

[General Forlon]

"General on the bridge!" General Forlon walked into the war room of the massive battlecruiser Endeviour. Around his officers stood at attention and awaited his command.

"At Ease" The officers relaxed and went back to preparing for the mission to come. Endeavor had rallied with the rest of the assault group outside the Sullust system. Hyper com had just informed them of the arrival of Admiral Jast and his group. He walked to his command chair and sat next to captain Bishop. Bishop was talking to a female officer about the air wing readiness and looking over the report on his data pad. Once he had finished he slide the pad into its docking port on his chair and handed a pad to Forlon.

"Thank you captain, What is our status? The captain turned and began informing him of the current status of the assault fleet. Off in the distance forlon saw the two liberator cruiser which carried the assault personnel. to their flanks an assault frigate and two Nebulon Firgates moved into position to cover the assault ships once in system.

"All ships report they are in position and ready to jump. Forlon looked over the reports one last time then turned to the captain.

"I can handle it here captain. Report to the Bridge and prepare to jump to Sullust." Captain Bishop stood and saluted then walked to the lift. General Forlon stood and walked to the massive halo projector display in the center of the war room. With a wave the display came to life and showed a three dimensional display of the are. He could see small representations of the ships assembled. At the head of the formation the two figates sat posed to intercept any incoming small craft. Aft of their position was the assault frigate flanked on each side by the Liberator Cruisers. Then the giant shape of the Bulwark Battlecruiser sat in the center of the display. Aft of it sat twelve tiny transports. The entire sum of 3 Corps lay ready to assault the Imperial forces on Sullust.
Never before has such a large ground force been assembled for one mission. The importance of Sullust to the battered Rebel Alliance could not be disputed. They needed this world. and they had moved a third of the entire armed forces of the rebels to this one mission. Only Endor had been more of an undertaking and this time the ending would be different.
Captain Bishop radioed down to the war room and informed Forlon he was ready to jump. General Forlon looked down at his wrist Chronometer and then to the Communications station.
"Lieutenant, send word to all vessels to link their hyperdrives to ours. We jump in five minutes." The Comm officer informed the ships gathered around the Endeavor the order then nodded an affirmative back to Forlon. Forlon turned and waited for the timer to count down. The time seemed to last forever. As the timer counted down to zero Forlon gave the order to jump. the eighteen ships of the 3rd assault fleet accelerated and disappeared into hyperspace en route for Sullust.

[Bette Davis]

"They're scrambling fighters!"

"Bogeys approaching!"

"Stay calm, boys, we were waiting for this party." Davis adjusted her targeting computer, leading her wing of four TIE Defenders out towards the Rebel ships. She could see the little specks that were the Alliance fighters swarming out of the larger ships. Looked like all X-wings.

Nothing the Empire couldn't handle. Nothing the Shadows couldn't handle. Well, taking the number of enemy ships into consideration, it was a good thing there were quite a few other squadrons involved in today's activity.

"Stay in position, we need to keep this screen in place for a while longer!" The Imperial fighters screamed through space between the two battle groups.

[Vince]

"Activating scanners," he called. The screen lit up with a large number of blips. In spite of himself, his eyes widened. Geor's reaction was a bit more outspoken.

"That's a lot o' bogeys," he whistled, and paused for a moment. "Are those Defenders? Well, damn me to the Corellian hells, I'd never thought I'd even get to see one of those!"

Trix grinned. "I agree. And keep the chatter down. Get in formation with the other fighters, and let's make ourselves some Aces tonight, eh?"

With enthusiastic replies, Trix and his flight moved up to intercept the incoming Rebel X-Wings.

[Saul Karzai]

"Shadow Three. This is Shadow Four." Karzai stared at his scanners as his three wing flight of TIE Advanced moved in towards the Rebels. "I got a group of B-Wings coming towards us. Looks like they may be taking a run at the Termagant. Moving to intercept."

'Sithspit' had a small smile on his face as the TIEs changed course to engage the Rebel bombers. It wasn't often he got action, in fact, he was surprised when he got promoted to Lieutenant Commander after transferring into the squadron so quickly. The old man must've pulled some strings...Can't he let me lead my own life for once.

He checked his scanners. "Frack. Outcast. Watch your spacing. I don't want to have to explain to Deathstick how we lost two members because they collided with each other while moving to intercept." Karzai got two quick "Yes sirs" as replies. "Getting ready to engage. Targets coming up."

One of the B-Wings suddenly fired. "Aw shi-. Termagant this is Shadow Four. The B-Wings have heavy rockets. Repeat, the B-Wings have heavy rockets. They just fired on you. Engaging...Now!"