119 Chapter 108

"Sooo, how was the wedding?"

A playful voice sounded from across the table and Renn looked up from his data pad to see the grinning face of the newly promoted commadore Cecelin.

"You make it sound like it was my wedding," Renn said rolling his eyes, "Besides I'm sure you already know everything that happened."

The grin on Cecelin's face widened as she gently placed the cup of tea she had been sipping on the desk between them.

Renn had recently returned to New Aruum Commonwealth space after journeying to Naboo to attend the secret wedding ceremony of Anakin and Padme.

The ceremony had been held in private, due to the fact that both Anakin and Padme would be the centre of a galactic scandal if it was revealed, with Padme facing problems in the senate and Anakin probably being booted out of the jedi order.

The only people in attendance, apart from the bride and groom, had been Anakin's mother, Renn, Opal, Shae, and Seela, plus the two droids that the couple exchanged in leu of rings.

Opal had been very excited and happy for her friend and Renn had congratulated his friend. The ceremony had been nice, but the wedding had also led to some problems for Renn. Problems that Cecelin found very amusing.

"Oh?" She said raising an eyebrow in mock surprise, "I heard more about the journey home than any details about the wedding."

Renn sighed as he tried to avoid reliving the awkwardness that had resulted from the not-so-subtle hints from Opal, Seela, and Shae about a wedding of their own.

Cecelin was evidently able to read is mind as she immediately started laughing at him while ignoring his grumblings about technically being her boss.

"Don't worry," She started saying when she had finally calmed down enough to stop laughing, "Shae and the others aren't upset, they are just a bit frustrated by you taking so long."

Renn sighed again as he looked away. He had known for a long time that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his three girlfriends, but he had been waiting till they were older to propose.

He and Opal had only recently turned eighteen, which was considered the age when one reached adulthood by most galactic cultures, and Seela had yet to reach that age as she was a year younger.

Renn had wanted to wait until they had all been adults for a while before they all got married, they didn't exactly need to rush things, but the girls seemed to have other ideas.

He had explained all that to them and it seemed that Shae had then relayed that information to Cecelin, probably when she was complaining to her friend.

"Well… as much as I enjoy you making fun of me, that isn't what I came here for. How's your fleet doing?" Renn asked changing the subject and Cecelin flashed him a knowing grin.

Commadore Slace'celi'Nuruodo, or Cecelin as she was known to non chiss, had joined the New Aruum commonwealth several years earlier and despite some initial suspicion about her origins had since become one of its most trusted members.

 When a small freighter with only a single occupant, a Chiss female in her late teens in a military uniform, had drifted into their territory the leadership of the New Aruum commonwealth had suspected she might be a spy or maybe a scout for the chiss ascendency.

But after some investigation by Sapphire and Neo she was cleared and the two A.I. were very insistent that Renn try to recruit her to their side.

Apparently, she had been a raising star in one of the chiss military academies until she had had a 'disagreement' with someone which had led to her fleeing the chiss ascendency and trying to start a new life.

Renn didn't know what the disagreement was about, but Sapphire, Neo and Shae knew and had told him not to worry about it.

And after some convincing Cecelin had agreed to join Renn and the New Aruum commonwealth and had quickly proved how skilled she was at commanding ships, which had led to Neo basically demanding that she be given command of house Dredd's newly constructed dreadnought the revenant.

There had been a few other officers concerned about her getting such a sort after command at such a young age, Cecelin was only three years older than Renn and had developed a close friendship with Shae through their shared love of military matters and some people had worried that she had been given the position because of that.

But it hadn't taken long for Cecelin to prove everyone who doubted her wrong and when she had been promoted to commodore those same people had been wondering why she had only been promoted to commadore and not been made a full admiral.

"We've taken some ships from some of the various system defence fleets, as well as some that are straight from the shipyards to create this fleet and so far, we have twelve frigates, ten destroyers, four cruisers, two escort carriers, three assault carriers, the dreadnought your currently sat on, and ten supply ships, plus five stealth corvettes.

I've detached a few of the destroyers and frigates for some anti-piracy raids and three stealth ships are out scouting for any, tempting targets and I think we've found one." Cecelin said proudly as she gave Renn an update on her fleet.

"Oh? What kind of target?" Renn asked as he leaned forwards in his seat and Cecelin grinned widely.

"The confederacy of independent systems has decided that in response to the republics assault on their droid factories on geonosis, a retaliatory strike on the republics clone production facilities is warranted.

But due to the republics in system defences a larger fleet is needed to assault the system, a larger fleet than they currently have. And so, they have decided to combine three of their fleets from different sectors to create their invasion force.

One of which just so happens to be on course to pass through the edge of our territory, a system known for gravity and navigational anomalies, one which if a fleet went missing in no one would find too suspicious." Cecelin said with a wicked glint in her eye and Renn smiled.

"So, you're suggesting we attack this fleet?" Renn said but Cecelin shook her head.

"I'm suggesting we obliterate this fleet, board and seize any ship that might prove valuable and turn the rest into scrap metal to be salvaged and repurposed to expand our own forces." Cecelin said grandly and Renn grinned.

"I like the sound of that."

-

"Ma'am multiple sensor contacts, the enemy fleet has just jumped into the system!" an excited young sensor officer reported from the depths of the Revenants expansive command bridge.

"Good, have the Surprise and the Aria close and keep tabs on them," Cecelin said as she stood in the centre of the bridge next to Renn.

The house Dredd fleet was currently hidden behind a moon to shield them from the separatist ships' sensors.

"Both stealth corvettes are reporting in, the enemy ships have no idea we're here." One of the comm officers reported and Commadore Cecelin nodded.

"Excellent what's the status of the enemy fleet," She asked the bridge and the sensor officer jumped to attention.

"Three lucrehulks, four battleships, ten frigates, and fourteen troop transports, they're recharging jump drives and don't seem to be expecting anyone to be out here," The officer reported and Cecelin grinned.

"So, Lord Dredd, what do you think? Reckon we could take them." She said turning to glance over her shoulder to smile at Renn.

"I think so," Renn smiled back at her, "you have permission to engage at your discretion commadore."

Cecelin's smile widened at that, and she turned back to her survey the bridge, "You heard him, Lord Dredd has given us permission to destroy these fools, do you want to disappoint him?"

"NO, MA'AM!" the bridge crew shouted as one.

"Are we going to show him that we are the greatest fleet the galaxy will ever, see?" She asked again.

"YES, MA'AM!" her crew answered in unison again.

"Good, good, glad we cleared that up," she said and heard a few snickers from her crew.

"Order the Aria to begin jamming the enemy's communications and have the Surprise start laying mines.

Start bringing the main gun online, the enemy flagship will be the perfect target to test it in real combat.

And have the carriers stand by. They'll deploy the swords of Kalee to lucrehulks two and three and send our own droid troops to any disabled enemy ship."

A flurry of activity overtook the bridge as Cecelin's crew rushed to obey her orders and soon the commonwealth fleet began to move into an attack formation.

"If you could, try and send the cultists to one of those Munificent-class frigates. I sort of promised them a ship and they're probably strong enough to take one of them." Renn said, phrasing it like a request so as not to undermine Cecelin's authority.

"I can arrange that. We were going to test their combat abilities anyway so they're onboard on of the carriers, and from the sounds of things I'm sure general Alpha would appreciate getting rid of them." Cecelin said with a small laugh and Renn smiled at her.

The droid cultists that Renn had found on Tatooine had become part of the new Aruum Commonwealth's droid army, under Alpha's command, but everyone knew that the serious assassin droid found their 'unique' outlook on the universe frustrating.

"Ma'am, the Surprise has finished its mine laying. Its captain is requesting permission to withdraw and re-arm." A comms officer reported and Cecelin nodded before agreeing.

"Permission granted but have them hang back. We don't want them to get caught up in the crossfire."

Once the commonwealth fleet manoeuvred past the moon, they had been hidden behind they began accelerating towards the oblivious separatists.

"The Aria reports that the enemy has detected us, they're bringing their weapons online and trying to contact reinforcements, but the Aria is successfully blocking them." A sensor operator shouted and Renn watched a grin spread across Cecelin's face.

"Fire the main gun, let's see what this thing can do." She said grinning and the red holographic avatar of Neo popped into existence beside her.

"Hehe, this is fun," the A.I. laughed, "Firing main cannon."