The fall of House Dredd 8
Lilk Dredd sat on the bridge of the ship they had used to escape the palace and chewed the inside of her mouth nervously.
Sabine was sat in the pilots seat and was jinking the craft wildly from side to side as she tried to avoid the massive anti-ship blaster bolts the ships in orbit were sending their way.
They had managed to avoid the squadron of starfighters down in the atmosphere thanks to help from an unseen AA gun operator but once they got into orbit the real danger started as they began trying to dodge the republic fleet.
"I'm projecting the route with the highest probability for us to successfully reach hyperspace on the viewscreen" Sapphire's avatar said from her position on the console in front of Lilk, who if the ship was crewed without the help of a super powerful A.I. would be sat in the navigation officer's seat.
"Thanks" Sabine said through gritted teeth as she glared out the viewscreen and held the pilots controls in a death grip, "What's the probability of success?"
"You don't want to know," Sapphire said evasively, "it would probably bum you out."
"Fan-bloody-tastic," Sabine growled in frustration.
"Hehe, sorry" Sapphire told the annoyed warrior, before focusing on the best ways to keep them all alive.
The ship rocked violently and Lilk was thrown against her safety harness. The firm straps keeping her in place but digging into her chest as they fought against the forces of momentum acting on her body.
"Glancing hit! Hull integrity is holding, please try and be more careful though." Sapphire said after she assessed the damage caused by the blaster bolt that just hit them.
"That's the plan lightbulb woman!" Sabine irritatedly told the A.I.
"There's no need to be rude," Sapphire muttered and Lilk grinned despite the prospect of impending doom that was hanging over them.
They flew fast between two republic frigates, using the smaller ships as cover from the larger capital ships in the republic fleet. Before moving evasively and trying to get clear of the fleet to calculate a jump to hyperspace.
A shuddering vibration started rippling through the ship and Lilk looked around worriedly before turning to Sapphire's Avatar looking for an answer.
"Damn it! That hit was more serious than I originally thought. Some circuitry was damaged and that combined with the stress we are putting on the reactor at the moment has caused a cascade failure.
If we go to hyperspace now the reactor might overload." Sapphire cursed as she analysed the problem.
"I've sent a message to the repair droids onboard, hopefully they can deal with the problem soon." Sapphire said.
"And if they can't?" Lilk asked although she already knew the answer.
"…Don't worry about it." Sabine said after a moment of silence.
-
"I want that ship destroyed! Send two Corvettes and a squadron of starfighters after it! Don't let it reach hyperspace!" Admiral Pryll yelled at his bridge crew as he watched the enemy ship dodge around a frigate as it tried to evade the republic fleet.
The republic task force had destroyed all the ships belonging to the planetary defence fleet and was now manoeuvring into position above the planet. The republic bombers that the battleships had launched had rearmed and where now flying back to the planet to deliver another devastating bombing run.
Pryll ground his teeth as he looked at the casualty reports from the fighting on the ground. The republic forces on the ground were taking heavy casualties, according to the reports in front of Pryll over seventy percent of all republic forces including all twenty of the jedi deployed to the surface had perished.
While the planets defenders had also taken heavy losses it was clear to Pryll that they wouldn't be able to take control of the planet easily. The republic task force had been badly damaged by the fighting and so had Pryll's dreams of a perfect victory that would propel his career from the naval upper echelons to the senate.
Reaching the senate was Pryll's ultimate career goal, sitting back and relaxing while he embezzled taxpayer credits and manipulated government contracts to increase his wealth sounded like a dream.
He had planned on using this battle to further his career and try and achieve his lofty goal but the devastating losses the task force had taken were standing in the way of that. He was now planning to do some 'damage limitation'.
He needed to spin his own narrative of events from the battle to make it seem like he was a valiant hero. To achieve this, he would need to make sure everyone would support his versions of events.
The naval crew's would be easy to control, the smaller ships had been focused on the space battle and so hadn't been focusing on the wider battle and had been relying on the bridge crews of the three battleships to provide them with that information.
The destruction of the Sand Eater and the loss of the Remembrance's bridge had led to the Titan being the only ship in the fleet that had a full picture of what was happening on the planets surface and the battle as a whole.
Pryll knew how to control his bridge crew. He could manipulate and coerce most of them, and the had plenty of loyal people to 'deal' with those who might cause problems.
The remaining problems were now the people on the planet's surface, they could cause his plans significant damage if they decided to tell the truth about what had happened on the planet. But he had a solution.
"Begin an orbital bombardment. I want an Indiscriminate bombardment, leave nothing but dust behind." Pryll told the quiet bridge.
"Sir, we still have troops down on the surface." A nervous bridge officer spoke up.
"And their sacrifice will be noted." Pryll said magnanimously, "Order all batteries to begin firing."
Pryll wanted there to be no survivors.
-
Red flashing lights and alarms filled the engine room of the ship belonging to House Dredd that Lilk and the others where escaping on.
Three droids raced into the room and immediately began trying to fix the damage to the ship. They were led by a T7 series astromech called Bolt who was supported by two T3 repair droids called Tinker and Drillbit.
Bolt urgently chirped out a string of beeps and whistles in binary, the peculiar language unique to all droid kind. Tinker and Drillbit responded in kind as they spread out to assess the damage to the ship.
The reactor let out a spray of vapours as the droids began working on a way to stabilise it before they jumped to hyperspace.
Drillbit found the problem with the reactor and began repairing it while Bolt and Tinker attempted to repair the circuitry that had been damaged by the overload caused by the hit the ship had taken.
The droids worked feverously, unwilling to allow a problem with the ship that might risk the safety of the crew to persist.
-
The remaining two republic battleships hovered over the planet, their massive forms silhouetted against the backdrop of the sky.
The republic troops on the ground and the surviving warriors of house Dredd looked up in horror as they realised what was about to happen.
Some republic soldiers tried to run back to their transport shuttles in the hope that they could escape in time, but most knew that it was too late.
Other republic soldiers collapsed where they stood, some cried while others just watched the battleships with a grim resignation.
The warriors of house Dredd ignoring their impending doom and, although they knew that their efforts would be useless in the next few moments, were trying to save as many civilians from the ruined spaceport as possible.
Some of the republic soldiers who had given up the fighting when it had become clear that the republic navy was going to raze the planet began helping the warriors of house Dredd, deciding that they would spend their last moments helping people.
Major Biv Donn of the 137th voidbourne assault battalion of the republic army sat on the ruins of a low wall and chewed on a foul-tasting ration pack he had tucked away inside his armour before the battle. He had decided if he was going to die, it would be with a full stomach.
Donn and the few other survivors of the first wave to drop onto the planet had been assigned to help protect one of the massive republic main battle tanks during the battle to take the city centre.
And now by some miracle he had survived the meatgrinder of house Dredd's defensive effort only to be killed by his own side launching giant blaster bolts at him from orbit. At least that stuck up jedi who had started this whole mess was dead too.
Donn had seen the self-righteous fool try to challenge the leader of the armoured warriors, who after fighting against Donn had quickly realised weren't Sith, to a duel. The duel went about as Donn expected, with the jedi quickly and effortlessly being killed.
"Alright there?" a voice sounded from behind Donn and he looked back over his shoulder to see the same armoured warrior who had killed the leader of the jedi.
"…. Yeah…. you?" Donn said slightly awkwardly after swallowing the mouthful of food in his mouth.
"Eh, I've been better," the armoured man shrugged and Donn just nodded not knowing what he was supposed to say.
"Takin their time aren't they." The armoured man commented dryly while looking up at the fleet and Donn looked at him wide eyed as he sound like someone moaning about a transport shuttle being late rather than someone about to be killed in a fiery explosion.
"… I suppose," Donn said confused by everything that was happening.
"Thing you could tell them to get a move on, I haven't got all day." The armoured man joked before walking off, leaving a open mouthed Major Donn in his wake.
Moments later blinding flashes of light rained down from the battleships in orbit, sending great clouds of dust, debris and death in all directions as they impacted the ground in violent explosions.
Buildings crumbled to the ground as the battleships main guns began transforming the once beautiful planet into a fiery hellscape.
The sustained bombardment caused the planets crust to become molten slag. The atmosphere burning off and rendering the planet uninhabitable.
-
"WE NEED TO JUMP AWAY NOW!" Sabine yelled as she sent their ship spinning out of the way of a pair of republic fighters, "IS THE REACTOR FIXED!"
"The repair droids say its as good as its going to be, calculating the jump now." Sapphire said to the stressed warrior.
"JUST HURRY AND GET US A WAY OUT OF HERE!" Sabine yelled at the A.I.
"Hey if you want to calculate the complexities of making a jump that won't send us slamming straight into an obstacle when there is this much debris and so many ships all over the place be my guest," Sapphire shot back at the woman before humming happily a moment later and saying, "Okay I'm done."
Sabine jerked the ship to the side, barely avoiding the barrage a republic corvette sent their way, before following the route Sapphire had projected onto the view screen.
"Okay your clear, jump now!" Sapphire ordered Sabine and the woman didn't hesitate.
She pushed the handles of the hyperspace controls all the way forward and watched as the distant stars extended from tiny pinpricks of light into solid lines running across the viewscreen.
The ship jumped away, leaving nothing but destruction behind it.