74 The Confederacy strikes back [Finale]

Part 8

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CIC

Mandalorian cruiser Avenger

20 light seconds from Mandalore

"I need to know the status of the fleet!" Pellaeon ordered.

"We're working on it, sir. We've lost one Venator – Offensive at Dawn.Six light cruisers and..." The staff lieutenant paused. "We've got only sixteen frigates on sensors. Twenty CR90 are presumed lost. Damage reports are still coming in..."

"Those battleships made a number on us." Trek grumbled. "At point blank range..." The captain shook his head.

"I want emergency repairs complete ASAP." The admiral ordered. "Give me a status update on the damage the fleet took when you have it, staff lieutenant. Comms, I want an update from Mandalore on what the clanker are doing. Sensors – the same from both the fleet and the sensor platforms in the inner system. Captain, I need to know the status of the Silencers. Findlong can they continue firing at the current rate before something breaks."

"I'll talk with the engineers." Trek confirmed and went for his comm unit.

Pellaeon turned away and called the sensor logs on the main holotank. He needed to re-examine the engagement so he could judge both how effective the Silencer was without being distracted by the rest of the battle.

A minute later, Gilad was interrupted by a status update.

"Admiral, the enemy fleet is firming up their formation and continuing towards Mandalore."

"Keep me apprised of any changes. I want a continuous update of hyperspace insertion coordinates at the back of their formation. Turn the fleet on the appropriate vectors once the damage assessment is complete." Pellaeon ordered and continued studying the engagement.

Gilad's initial impression appeared to be correct – the Silencer was simply devastating against lightly protected targets like the Munificents. As his test suggested, it was useful to break even battleship defenses – that stunt was the only thing that allowed Eight Fleet to cripple one of the Luckehulks in such a short engagement.

Pellaeon slammed a fist in the armrest of his seat – which conveniently lacked any electronics and was well padded for just such occasions. If he had just two more, perhaps three Silencers, Gilad was confident that he could have won. He was reasonably sure that he could still cripple the enemy fleet if he got lucky and one of the super weapons wasn't taken out by the enemy any time soon. Once he knew the status of his fleet, he would be able to refine his plans and assumptions. Perhaps if he could keep striking the edges of the enemy formation and getting away before they could properly concentrate their firepower…

The admiral reset the recording and began examining it again. Splitting his force in two groups each centered around a Silencer might work, however with the way his fleet arrived – in bits and pieces, Gilad knew that he would be unable to keep proper tactical command of both units. The fleet simply didn't have enough time to train as a single unit so any particular clever maneuvers were simply out of the question.

However, there were all those light ships brought by the Mandalorians waiting on the other side of the planet. He could use them. It was going to be very ugly, but it might just work.

"Sir, I've got the status update. One moderately damaged Venator: Midnight Blade. Two lightly damaged: Praetorian and Coruscant Dawn. Two moderately damaged Acclamators: Lighting and Majestic. Three light cruisers in the same state and one reporting light damage. The CR90's fared worse – five moderately damaged and three lightly damaged. The captains need at least two hours to repair important systems easy to fix with shipboard resources." The flag lieutenant reported.

"Tell them to carry on. We'll be engaging the enemy in two hours. Get the onduty shift take hour and half of downtime – the same goes for the captains." Pellaeon ordered after digesting the report.

It was painful to hear, though not unexpected. There were consequences of engaging multiple battleships and their escorts at point blank range.

"Fighter loses?" The admiral asked.

"Still compiling them. Torrents were landing at the closest ships when we jumped. Preliminary estimates are a third of our fighter strength. Can be a bit better or worse."

"Give me the numbers when you have them. Comms, I need a secure line with Skirata. Use a direct beam through the sensor platforms away from the enemy fleet."

=RK=

Staging Area 7-1

Sundari City

Mandalore

"All units in the AO, he enemy fleet has broken through. Expect Separatist assault within the next twenty minutes." Control's voice came over the comms of the forces dug in and around the capital.

Among them was a certain Commando unit attached to the only Force Adept on the planet.

"You heard command. Lazy time's over. Check your gear and get to the transports. We'll be reinforcing any position that cannot hold!" Niner ordered.

"You know, I almost pity the clankers." Dev chuckled before began checking his grenade launcher.

"What gave you that idea?" Aria snorted. The Sith in training looked over the skyscraper roof where they were stationed. The place used to be a civilian landing pad converted for military use. It was quite large too – it had more than enough space for ten LAATs and a unit of Basilisk war droids and it was all properly utilized.

All of them were a part of the QRF to be dispatched once the primary enemy landing sites and likely targets could be established.

"I want one of those." Aria whined while watching the five war droids stand up after their pilots got on board.

"Isn't your Master making them?" Fi asked. "Can you just ask for one?"

"I did!" Aria grumbled. "The first production runs are promised to the Mandalorians. Perhaps I should ask my Master to adopt me in his Clan so I can get my hands on one faster?" The Chiss woman frowned.

"I want one too! We can all pass for proper Mandalorians, right?" Atin asked.

"Well, general Skirata and his people certainly did their best..." Fi stopped checking his sniper after voicing that thought. "I wonder if they have long range fire support variants"

"Focus people. You can drool over the Basilisks after we've dealt with the clankers." Niner shook his head in exasperation. They were Commandos – special operations. While those war-droids were nice, they weren't exactly fitting with Omega's job description.

However that didn't meant he didn't want to get one for himself.

"All units in the Sundari AO, be advised. The Separatist fleet executed a hyperspace insertion in high orbit. They've began launching landing craft and fighters..."

"So it begins." Niner noted. "Get on board, we'll be deploying soon." He pointed at the waiting transport.

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Sundari airspace

Mandalore

A year of war can be a long time when the leadership of of an army is willing to learn. Since the beginning of the conflict, the Confederacy had attacked thousands of worlds and successfully taken a lot of them. They had lost planets too. However until they experienced a change of leadership, there was no institutional drive to learn from their mistakes – that was left to individual commanders; those who survived after kriffing up anyway.

Yet the leadership was replaced. Both victories and defeats were examined. The enemy tactics too. Conclusions were made and finally the Confederate military as a whole began putting in practice the lessons it should have learned months earlier.

Duro and Mandalore were among the first places where the Confederate army was able to demonstrate how they've changed. Of those two assaults, the latter was undoubtedly the harder. First, the system wasn't secure – the majority of admiral Pellaeon's fleet was still operational and presented moderate to high threat for the CIS navy in orbit. Second, Mandalore was one of the places in the galaxy which anyone reasonable would have thought twice before invading.

The Confederate military did precisely that and they reached the conclusion that the changes in tactics and doctrine implemented across both the army and navy would be sufficient to at least secure a foothold on Mandalore with the forces given to TF-1726. It was at noon Sundari time when that belief was put to the test.

The Siege of Mandalore began with ten thousand fighters diving through the planetary shield followed by fifteen hundred strike craft, thousands of assault ships and hundreds of transport. A not insignificant percentage of those craft were disabled by the energy field protecting the planet. Nearly a fifth of the Vultures and a hundred and twenty seven of the strike craft malfunctioned and crashed. Almost twenty percent of the transports had to make emergency landing where they could with a lot of them hitting the ground at velocities even their droid crews couldn't survive.

Yet, the bulk of the invasion force made it through the first line of defense largely intact. Their first act on entering the atmosphere came from the large transports. They were outfitted with both jammers and missile pods. Suddenly the incoming contacts doubled thanks to Confederacy EW efforts. Thousands of missiles were launched to seek any active sensor platforms they could find. Some were attack birds, however the majority were sophisticated decoys.

AA emplacements, proton and laser cannons arose from their hiding places and opened fire at the invaders. Thousands of Mandalorian fighters rose from the surface to meet the incoming Vulture swarm and the skies were set afire.

The defenders did their best. Things might have been different if Kraken hadn't chosen to attack the region bombarded by general Grievous months ago. If the Republic had provided more material or financial support the defense network around the capital might have been better equipped to face the onslaught coming their way.

The defenders extracted heavy price from the machines coming to invade their world anyway. However, it was a price that Kraken's army could afford to pay. By the time the last transport hit the ground – either landing on its own or shot down, two thirds of the Vultures were destroyed, yet the skies were clear from Mandalorian fighters. Only the surviving AA emplacements made sure that Confederate strike craft and assault ships didn't achieve a total aerial superiority.

The majority of surviving Vultures pulled up to provide CAP and intercept any fighter or bomber flights attempting to enter the region. The assault ships dived at the entrenched defenders on the heels of all remaining strike craft. Blaster fire and missiles crossed in the air seeking their targets. Whole squads were torn apart in their trenches. Unshielded bunkers were blown open by heavy fire. While destroyed ships rained from the sky, assault transport dropped Commando units behind the Mandalorian lines. Some of them even survived to pull back to the closest Confederate staging grounds where engineers were busy setting up shield generators and AA of their own.

One hour after the landings began, CIS tank columns backed by mechanized infantry and artillery struck the Mandalorian forward defenses around Sundari while Commando units were still doing their best to disrupt enemy enemy attempts to reinforce. At the same time rearmed assault ships headed for the still existing breaches in the dome protecting the capital loaded with fresh droids.

The Siege of Mandalore had began.

=RK=

CIC

Mandalorian cruiser Avenger

High orbit above Mandalore

Coordinating the second strike upon the Separatist fleet was anything but easy. The timing had to be perfect, the hyperspace jump executed by Eight Fleet flawless and they had to minimize the time in contact with the enemy.

Doing it all in just couple of hours was a testament to the skills of general Skirata and Pellaeon's own staffs. Without them, Gilad was sure that his brainstorm would have been impossible. In theory the plan was simple – the Mandalorian light ships would divide in two equal groups, then use the planets gravity well to swing around and strike the Separatist flanks skimming just above the planetary shield. Just as they were getting into range, after the enemy would have time to detect them and react,Eight fleet would execute a hyperspace jump and engage the Separatists'center from below, shoot up as many of the Confederate shipsthey couldthen get out of range as fast as possible. After that, the survivors would regroup, check their status and plan how to make the enemy's life miserable.

It was simple in theory. Pulling it off in practice, especially when you consider that most of the Mandalorians crewing the light ships weren't navy or even experienced ship-masters, much less trained to properly work together, was anything but. In reality, getting all those ships moving in the same direction at the same time was a feat by itself and all of Skirata's people who made it possible by coordinating things from the ground deserved free drinks for as long as they wanted.

When Pellaeon's fleet returned to real space and began targeting the enemy, the admiral stared intently at the holotank and waited for an update. It took precious seconds for the sensors to process the raw data and feed it into the tactical display. The admiral frowned at what he saw. In the short time it took to give the order to jump and for the Eight Fleet to comply, the more or less ordered Mandalorian advance had fallen apart. Instead of hitting the Confederacy as two large groups, the light ships had spread out. It was unclear if it was just ship-masters seeking glory, their inexperience or simply some ships being unable to main the same speed and direction under the conditions they were flying in due to technical difficulties. It was probably a combination of those factors.

It didn't really matter. The leading ships were simply blown to pieces by the Munificents on the flanks,which began peeling off to meet the of fighters flew to intercept them too and each one of those was one less to go after Eight Fleet.

The rest of the plan simply didn't work. The Confederate commander refused to be baited and instead kept the formation intact with the exception of the frigates at the edge of its flanks. Even worse, the enemy had put a swarm of weapon platforms in front of its ships and they were covered by the fleet's ECM and fighter patrols until Eight Fleet found them the hard way when they unleashed their proton torpedoes.

Pellaeon's leading elements staggered under dozens of hits. He lost most of his remaining frigates and three light cruisers before anyone knew what hit them. Locating and targeting the new threat took precious seconds in which the platforms continued to pour fire in his fleet. Even worse, the shift in priorities meant that more of the Vultures coming to swarm the fleet ware going to get through.

However, none of that changed a thing as far as the heavy firepower of Eight Fleet was concerned. After all, fighters and weapon platforms were too small to be effectively targeted by either the turbo-laser cannons or the Silencer and those unleashed their fury upon the enemy as planned.

Twenty five Munificents vanished when the super-weapon spoke. Even more shattered under the concentrated fire of Eight Fleet's capital ships.

For long seconds the Confederate fleet refused to respond. Then its guns spoke as one and they had just two targets – Avenger and Vengeance. It was fortunate that Pellaeon had planned for such an outcome. The moment after the Silencers fired, the hangar doors above the weapons began to close and multiple ships maneuvered to interpose themselves between the cruisers carrying them and the enemy.

Meanwhile the Mandalorians reached attack range. A third of their number died getting this far, yet they were finally able to respond. Makeshift weapons bolted to the rag tag fleet spoke in a ragged barrage and scores of concussion missiles and proton torpedoes flew at the Separatist fleet. They were followed by laser, rail-gun and the odd turbo-laser battery shooting for all they were worth.

As if that wasn't enough, warriors seeking either glory, redemption or both aimed their ships at the closest Confederate target, redlined the engines and overrode the safeties of their reactors.

Only twenty one of the Mandalorian ships lived long enough to escape the gravity well and enter hyperspace. However their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Ten frigates died under their fire or thanks to ramming attacks. Four more were damaged along with two battleships which were struck by kamikazes despite all the Umbrella could do to protect them.

Things in the center were mixed bag. Before escaping in hyperspace, Eight Fleet managed to destroy forty six frigates, damage two more. More importantly they gutted another Lucrehulk.

That victory came at a steep price. All escorts but a nearly crippled light cruiser and another moderately damaged were simply annihilated. Another Venator was lost along with an Acclamator. Most damning was Vengeance'sfate. After she utilized her Silencer for the second time and before it could be protecting by the closing hangar doors, a pair of Separatist strike craft slipped through everything Eight Fleet could throw their way. They unleashed their load out of proton torpedoes and followed them through in a suicide attack.

Vengeance was crippled by energy feedback sent by the Silencer's destruction. While most of the shunts meant to prevent such an event acted as advertised a handful failed and the resulting chain reaction scrammed the cruisers hypermatter reactor feeding the super-weapon with energy. Vengeance fell out of formation and Pellaeon was forced to abandon her or risk the annihilation of his remaining fleet.

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Siege of Mandalore, Naval losses so far:

1. Republic Eight Fleet and Mandalorian volunteer forces:

3 Venators lost: Vengeance, Offensive at Dawn and Midnight Blade; Coruscant dawn – heavy damage; Avenger – light damage;

1 Acclamator lost – Lighting; Majestic – heavy damage; Echo – moderate damage;

9 light cruisers destroyed; 1 heavy, near crippling damage; 1 moderate damage;

36 CR90 frigates;

138 Mandalorian volunteer ships – light freighters and corvettes;

2. Fifth Confederacy fleet:

2 Luckehulks wrecked; 1 moderate damage; 2 light damage;

106 Munificents destroyed; 6 moderate to high damage;

33,000 fighters lost – naval and surface action;

2596 strike craft lost – naval and surface action;

367 weapon platforms lost;

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Interlude: The liberation of Ryloth

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"Its still argued when the first stage of the Clone Wars ended. Some believe it was after the Confederacy Council executed a successful coup and radically changed the nature of the enemy facing the Republic. However, some believe that event to be the beginning of the conflict's third stage – a sentiment shared by the authors of this book.

It is generally accepted by the Anaxes military academy that the first phase of the Clone Wars ended after the Raid on Coruscant. That event led to General Delkatar Veil becoming the commander of all combat forces in the Republic. Among his first acts was the tall order of restructuring GAR High Command after it was practically destroyed after an attack on their HQ.

That period is notable for the overhaul of the military command structure that saw two third of the Jedi who were in practice running the war effort be either demoted or removed from command positions. Many exchanged the command of whole armies with that of battalions, companies or even platoons. Others were attached to Commando strike teams and not always put in charge. This change was one of the most visible and effective ones implemented by the general and his supporters…

The first major operation carried by the Republic military under Veil's command was the Liberation of Ryloth. Even today, the strategic feasibility liberating the Twi'lek homeworld is questioned, though even its biggest detractors agree that the Republic was bound to act by the political realities of the time not to mention the moral imperative to do something about the enslavement of a whole Republic world…

It wasn't before the battle was concluded and intelligence gathered on the ground examined, that it became clear that Ryloth had been conceivedas a trap by certain elements of the Confederate military. Whole droid armies along with significant numbers of heavy proton artillery capable of damaging Acclamator Assault ships in the atmosphere had been deployed by the Separatists. The Confederacy navy was present in strength too, along with a large contingent of ships under Hutt flag sent to collect the first batch of slaves promised to them by Wat Tambor – the leader of the Techno Union. It wasn't until years later before the particulars of the deal he cut with the Hutt became clear…

The space battle above Ryloth was notable for two things. First was the successful implementation of novel and unorthodox tactics by general Veil, many of which became standard later in the conflict. The other change had equally strong impact – the introduction of the first iteration of the Guardian system, which in less than a year would make the deployment of standard starfighters and bombers a losing proposition, however that stage wouldn't be reached until after the third phase of the Clone Wars was concluded with the end of Operation Deep Strike aimed at…

The ground component of the liberation was notable for number of reasons. The most notable among them is a major change in the ROEs employed by Republic forces when assaulting a planet, though it wouldn't be until moths later during Second Geonosis that the full effects would become obvious… After the infantry assault on CIS artillery positions protected from orbital bombardments by Ryloth citizens captured by the confederacy achieved moderate success, general Veil called Ion strike from the fleet in orbit. The bombardment was nominally successful – it resulted in the destruction of the CIS proton artillery preventing the GAR landing in numbers. However it was carried out while the army units who failed to achieve their objectives were still in the affected area along with all the hostages at those separatist positions. Aftereffects from the massive energy released by the bombardment caused the death or severe injury of multiple civilians and GAR personnel including Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi…

It was only during Second Geonosis that it became clear to everyone that the GAR no longer was restrained by fear of causing heavy collateral damage and civilian casualties when taking out military installations or such with dual use through orbital bombardment. While controversal, such tactics met universal approval among the Clone Army and more limited one among regular personnel. It is notable that any attempt of changing back the GAR ROEs to what they were before the Raid on Coruscant by elements within the Republic Senate were blocked by…

The military and political consequences of the Liberation of Ryloth cannot be overstated. That victory represented one of the biggest setbacks for the Confederacy during the Second stage of the Clone Wars and its understandable why some historians note it as the beginning of that period of the conflict…

One of the biggest effects of the GAR victory is often overlooked. Prior to Ryloth, the Confederate Droid armies were universally outfitted with switch off codes possessed by the highest ranking Separatists leaders. Thus the capture of Wat Tambor and his agreement to hand over his personal codes were vital for the liberation of Ryloth. Instead of fighting through massive droid armies, the GAR won by simply switching them out. It's still unclear when the switch off codes were universally removed from the Confederate armies. What we know for certain is that shortly after the Confederate Council seized power, the CIS no longer produced droids which could be turned off with a mere signal. Undoubtedly that was one of the major event making possible the…

Another major consequence of the Confederate defeat at Ryloth was that their military leadership at the time – Count Dooku and General Grievous conceived a trap aimed at taking out general Veil and fully regaining the initiative. The details surrounding their decisions were lost during the Confederate Council coup, however we can infer their general intentions by examining the tactics employed by admiral Dua Ningo and General Grievous in space and Count Poggle the Lesser on the surface…

The political consequences were equally if not more important. Until Ryloth the Republic has been on the defense and under siege all across the galaxy. There were questions in the Senate if the war could be won. Many systems were neutral to the point refusing to trade war related materials to the Republic. Further, even after the Raid on Coruscant and the bio-weapon attack on Naboo, there were voices supporting the Confederacy, out of fear if not because they agreed with the Separatist cause. After all, as far as anyone could see, the CIS was winning the war.

Ryloth changed that perception and later Geonosis shattered it until Operations Deep Strike and Southern Star were launched as the two primary components of the biggest Confederate offensive since the war began. The most notable and direct consequence of the liberation and getting proof of the attempt to enslave the whole planet, combined with the outrage after Naboo, led to Corellia leaving their neutrality behind. While the Corellians didn't formally became a part of the GAR, they allied themselves with the Republic for the duration of the conflict and put their considerable industrial and economic power on the armed forces disposal. In the short term, the addition of Corellian naval units to the war effort was actually more important. Corellian ships would play key roles during Second Geonosis, the Assault on Mandalore as well as Operations Southern Star and Deep Strike…"

Extract from "History of the Clone Wars,

Volume II: The road to total war"

published by Anaxes' military academy