21 Storm of Blood and Steel [Continued 2]

Part 3

Republic Cruiser Requiem, Task Force "Retribution" Flagship

"Skywalker! Guide the SAR bird to Ahsoka and then get your ass back to the Requiem. We still have clankers to deal with." I snapped into my comm.

Ever since the threat of the massive Vulture wave had passed, he had been frantically calling for someone to rescue the kid. It was getting irritating, and even besides that the moment I noticed that she was shot down I had sent a shuttle to retrieve landing in the Requiem, I took the scenic route so to speak, noting the state of my capital ships.

It was a bloody disaster. I didn't really believe that the damn Vultures would be a major threat if it wasn't for those never sufficiently damned exposed bridges! I was wrong. Two thirds of my fleet was stripped off its heavy guns, and had its armor either weakened or shattered. How the hell the damn fighters had managed to blow up the Onderon, I'll never know.

I thought about my remaining forces. There were at least a few escorts that would do what I ordered them to do without screwing it up. And the Requiem, while missing a third of her weapons was still combat capable. Further, I had one intact Dreadnought as well as Conviction and Coruscant's Pride, which were virtually untouched aside from the total loss of their bridges and command staff.

That left those two Venators in interesting positions. They no longer had nav computers or central control, but still could fight... if not all that well. There was no one left to coordinate their weapons. But if their engineering received coordinates from another ship, they could still jump...

Before reaching the CIC I ordered recall for what remained of "Hammer."I went next to Pellaeon, who was examining the fleets status report. After the Relentless lost its bridge, command of the fleet had went to the Commodore, at least until Yularen, who had thankfully survived, could make his way here."

We took a hammering, sir." stated Gilad.

"That we did." I said studying the fleet's status for a few seconds I had a very rough plan in place.

"I want the three Guardian equipped Acclamators as well as escorts to jump at maximum missile range of those two battleships. Their targets are the remaining Vultures. Our surviving Torrents will support them. Once what's left of our bombers rearm aboard of this ship, we'll execute a tactical jump and cover them while they attack the battleships. When the heavy guns of those behemoths are gone, they will be easy to take down."

"Sir! General Kenobi hailing us." Spoke the lieutenant manning the comm station.

"Patch him through." Answered Pellaeon.

The image on one of the screens, which was showing a camera feed, was replaced by Obi-Wan and Cody, who had mostly recovered from the crash. My fellow general's face was grim.

"I'm glad to see you made it. We watched the live feed of the battle." he shook his head in exasperation. "What assistance can we provide?"I glanced at the sensor readouts of the remaining CIS space forces.

"We can use the Negotiator when taking out those battlewagons. You have seventy two bombers, right?"

"That's right. Also forty two Torrents and the rest of the ground units of the 221st. "

"I can definitely use that. Besides, we might need your boys for those six freighters. While lightly armed and shielded, they may have locals on board." I smart thing to do would have been to get those big fat targets out of the battlezone.

"Here is what we are going to do..."

=RK=

Assault Ship Dauntless, approaching CIS blockade of Ryloth

Admiral Yularen, who had insisted on taking command over the force which would deal with the remaining Vultures, had taken his flag to the Dauntless.

Meanwhile, the main body of the fleet with more than half of the remaining escorts was under the command of General Veil and Commodore Pellaeon, who were coordinating battlefield the last half hour, the mostly intact Venators had taken pounding, while they dueled with the two battleships. That at least had proved to all that the remaining CIS forces were under the command of droids, not particularly bright ones too.

Any commander worth his salt, would have concentrated on the disabled republic cruisers, denying their further use to the enemy. It wasn't like the three Venators still retaining most of their heavy weapons could deplete the massive shields of the battleships any time was a mistake the Separatists would regret.

The Dauntless, Warspite and Honor, bracketed by their escorts, which consisted by the light ships with the best captains and crew, executed a tactical jump a short distance outside of effective missile range of the remaining escorts tightened their formation around their charges, and the Republic ship moved slowly forward.

"Open fire." ordered Yularen.

By the time the order came, the Guardian systems had scanned the enemy fleet, shared data and assigned targets for their weapons. Missiles jumped from their VLS launchers and raced towards their prey.

At the same time, the surviving and rearmed Torrents, which were reconstituted in makeshift squadrons after the brutal mauling they suffered during the previous engagements of the battle, emerged out of hyperspace behind the Republic flotilla attacking the Vultures.

An organic commander, might have decided that cutting out his losses and getting away might be the prudent thing to do. Especially when he figured out that his remaining fighters were going to be droids in charge of the CIS fleet's remnants had other ideas. Their orders were to defeat the Republic fleet. So that was what they were going to do. Or at least try. The Vultures were ordered to soften up the attacking force, while the battleships maneuvered to get better firing angles at the new contacts which were well into their engagement envelopes.

Over Ryloth, hundreds of short lived stars could be seen appearing and blinking out of existence. For a second time the Guardian systems proved their worth, reaping a frightful harvest from the enemy fighters. The Torrents flew above the Republic formation and headed towards their CIS equivalents, ready to salvo their own missiles in a repeat of the earlier harassing tactic used by their brethren.

Before the V-19's engaged within gun range, the Vultures were cut almost in half, demonstrating for all to see the great disadvantage the Droid had. It was their glaring lack of longer ranged weaponry than their built in laser cannons. The missile strike sent by the Republic small craft shattered what was left by the enemy squadrons, before the Torrents looped to the side, leaving the tattered remnants of the once two thousand strong force to smash against the fire of eleven Carrack's and the AA guns of the Acclamators.

Before the surviving Vultures could ram the three Assault Ships, the V-19s fell over them like a hammer, sending a second salvo at their tails. This time the enemy craft had not build in enough speed to escape the Torrents engagement envelope before striking the fleet.

Only eleven Droid fighters were lucky enough to kamikaze the Republic ships, none of which hit a critical location. The Acclamators could manage well enough without couple of heavy guns and few missing AA emplacements, especially now, when the CIS fighter force was gone.

"The Battle for Ryloth (its space component) will enter the history as the point when both Starfighter and bomber doctrines had to change. The widespread use of the Guardian system by the Republic and the Defense Net introduced by the Confederation of Independent systems two months later (which was based on stolen Guardian plans) would change the face of Naval warfare during the next year of the conflict know as the Clone Wars..."

Extract from "Naval Warfare History Volume XXVIII", published by the Axxanis military academy

=RK=

Red Squadron, 71st Bomber Wing, CIS blockade over Ryloth

Lieutenant FLK-256, who was usually called Falk, pushed a level and his Y-Wing jumped out of hyperspace. He glanced at his sensors readouts, confirming that his craft was at the correct coordinates, and that the surviving bombers from "Hammer" flight were around him.

"Lets do it once again boys." He said in his comm unit.

In the next moment Falk forced his bird's engines, and the Y-Wing flew forward, accelerating towards its target. The battleship grew closer, its lighter guns opening fire at the scratch force heading its way.

The forty one bombers, all that survived the initial anti-shipping strike, hurled themselves at the of the Lieutenant's craft were obliterated by laser cannons while closing to the huge Luckrehulk. The rest of his scratch force darted near the behemoth's hull, sending proton torpedoes and energy blasts at vulnerable areas.

The heavy turbolaser guns were singled out with extreme prejudice, each receiving a warhead or two, turning them in so much flaming confetti. Secondary targets were the lighter anti-ship guns and AA weapons, which were struck with the Y-Wings' cannons or the odd the bombers finished their attack run, they pulled away from their burning target, and jumped into hyperspace, evading the impotent fire from the crippled leviathan and its sister ship.

At the same time, the seventy two bombers which rode out the battle in the safety of Negotiator's hangers, jumped near the other battlewagon. They repeated the exercise, delivering even more damage to the second both bomber forces left the battlefield, they left behind fifteen of their number, and two crippled capital ships.

Meanwhile, all Republic warships capable of it moved into weapon range of the two ships, and continued to bombard the battleships. One of the Acclamators was moderately damaged, a Venator, Coruscant's Pride received additional light damage, and three escorts were mission killed – one unfortunate Carrack, which was mauled by a damaged heavy turbolaser cannon, which was brought back online at the precisely the wrong time, and a pair of CR90.

Before Wat Tambor, who was the senior Confed leader on Ryloth finally gave the retreat order, only one, heavily damaged battleship managed to fight its way through the Republic fleet which was tearing the behemoths down piece by piece.

Its fellow mountain of steel wasn't so fortunate. It took another fifteen minutes for the depleted Republic ships to pound it into impotence, and then, what was presumed to be its droid commander, scuttled the vessel instead of letting it fall into enemy Blockade of Ryloth was over, at a heavy price for both path to the planet and all the CIS forces waiting there was now open.

=RK=

Cruiser Requiem, Task Force "Retribution" Flagship

"Confirm that!" exclaimed Pellaeon.

I looked inquisitively at his reaction. I was in the other side of the bridge, going over the list of lost ships. Too many of the ships under my command had been lost.

I cursed my arrogance. Despite their huge number, I didn't truly believe that the Vulture swarm could be a serious threat for my capital ships, besides their obvious exposed bridges!

I was proven wrong. Smashed escorts, destroyed weapons, shattered armor, not to mention the lost lives... The list was long. The the two heavy ships what were lost with all hands, to the only Force knows what freak combination of circumstances, only added salt to the wound.

I glanced at one of the close by monitors, which was showing the sorry state of the Executrix. She was powerful ship, that much she had proven. However, being taken out by fighters, something her designers were swearing won't be possible. Heh. I knew better when I attached her to my fleet. Her heavy firepower and the three hundred Torrents she carried were good enough reason why I was glad for her presence, despite the fact that now Executrix was a yard job. She won't see combat for months, perhaps a year. Still, she was in far better shape than the enemy battleship that escaped. That thing might have to be scrapped.

I returned my attention to my, hmm, friend, Gilad. And wasn't this an admission I was reluctant to make!He came to my side with a grim expression on his face.

"Admiral Yularen has a report for you, sir." he reported.I suppressed a grimace and nodded.

"What is it, Commodore?"

"The freighters were scanned by both fighters and recon corvettes, to confirm it. There are nearly quarter of a million life-signs between them."

"Slaves." I hissed.

Before I could place my fury back under control, the air around me rippled with a wave of telekinetic energy, which caused Pellaeon to flinch.

"Further, all our hails for surrender remain unanswered."I thought for a moment.

"If those are stock freighters, then we have their schematics. I want their hyperdrives taken out. I'll speak with General Kenobi and we'll figure out how to capture those ships. It's time for the ground forces to start liberating Ryloth at any rate. We'll just have to add this to the list."

=RK=

Republic and CIS losses during the Battle for Ryloth

Task Force "Retribution"

Venators:

3 Destroyed – Defender, Redeemer, Onderon

Relentless, Conviction, Coruscant's Pride, and Requiem: destroyed bridge towers; moderate to heavy damage over armor and weapon systems; Victory – intact bridge but lost 90% of her weapons

Dreadnoughts: 2 destroyed; 4 crippled

Acclamators: Leveler, Victorious – lost; Warspite – moderately damaged

Carracks CL: 9 destroyed; 4 crippled; 6 moderately damaged

Arquitens CL: 8 destroyed; 1 crippled; 3 moderately damaged

PLC 27 Escort Carriers: 1 Destroyed: Remember Coruscant

CR90: 19 Destroyed; 4 moderately damaged

V-19 Torrent: 1578 lost

Y-Wing bombers: 488 lost

CIS losses:

Luckrehulk Command ships: 1 lost: Procurer

Luckrehulk Battleships: 2 lost; 1 crippled and fled to hyperspace

Munificent frigates: 40 lost

Vulture fighters: 12,000 lost