bullyxtreme Chapter 166: Retreat
Chapter 166: Retreat
I pace the bridge as reports come in one after another. Krugwolt had decided to stay on the surface, trusting in the shields that had protected the world for eons. And while sure, his men who stayed and the citizens of Argai who had evacuated to the fortresses may be able to live on for a handful of months, they were already dead. Unless the Imperials let up from their bombardment, something I highly doubted, it would only be a matter of weeks until the shields broke one by one and the people who had stayed perished to orbital fire.And the evacuation effort? The thing which had delayed us and likely cost the lives of another eighty thousand sailors and pilots on top of the hundred and ninety thousand already lost? The thing which delayed our departure and crippled most of the taskforce? Of the two billion people who had called Argai home over the last dozen years or so, we had managed to save a bit more than ten million.
Not even a full percent. Barely over half a percent.
I inhale deeply as the swirls of hyperspace recede to spit us out between Argai and Corlass. I had work to do.
“Have we successfully transmitted my orders for the Fortress Protocols?” I inquire.
“Yessir.” Comes the reply from Commander Slas.
“Good, I am enacting version five of the Fortress Protocols. We are abandoning every world between here and Caluula to their own devices. Previous taskforce operations divisions are disbanded, can the Little Revenge take on bad odds?”
“Negative, sir.” Mi-Kus answers, “Hull breaches on our lower deck and hangar bay as well as a knocked out engine. Flack efficacy down by a third and two batteries need to be replaced.”
“Closest yard able to manage critical repairs in a suitable timeframe?” I request.
“For us?” Mi-Kus requests clarification.
“For us and any smaller vessel that can get it done in the same timeframe.”
“Nyny.”
“Alright. Every ship above seventy percent efficacy not currently beholden to the needs of the refugees is to join the rearguard. They are to slow Honor as much as possible, however possible. If they lack inspiration, see my actions before Argai, though they aren’t beholden to them. I am also lifting any restrictions on naval warfare.” I order.
“That only leaves Five Venators, two Corellian Destroyers, an MC80 Home One Type, a dozen Dreadnoughts, twenty Hammerhead cruisers and fifty corvettes excluding the IPV-1 pickets who remain undamaged.” Commander Hursk reads off a consolidated report.
“Alright then.” I mutter, “Highest ranking officer whose flagship numbers among those?”
“Admiral Baraka, sir.” An Adjutant reports.
“Alright then.” I reply, “Rear Admiral Baraka has command of our rearguard. Instruct him to waylay Honor’s scouts and vanguard, he may skirmish, he may maul, but he will not engage in any battle outright, not with so few ships and not without my express permission. Rest of us, make for the closest shipyard or repairyard available. Make sure to coordinate destinations, we do not need half a dozen ships to swarm a single drydock.”
“I’ll see to it personally, sir.” Mi-Kus answers.
“Do we have a report on our starfighter losses? I know we’ll have to restructure most of the squadrons and wings, but do we have any hard numbers yet?” I ask.
“Colonel Solo is tabulating the losses now, sir. She’ll have a report with you as-”
The doors open to reveal the very Colonel charging at me with malicious intent, upper half of her flightsuit tied around her hips and helmet in the crook of her arm: “Half, Dericote, we lost half.”
“Of all our strikecraft?” I request the clarification just before she slams her helmet into my chest, taking me off guard and making me curl up before she slugs me across the face.
“Ma’am distance yourself from the Admiral.” The arms-men Lieutenant on the bridge orders, blaster raised and hopefully set to stun.
“Demote me.”
“What?” I exhale as I take a step back to right myself and hopefully get out of range from the crazy Corellian, rubbing the bruise forming on my cheek as I do.
“I can’t take this anymore! I told you a dozen times that I wasn’t made out for this level of command! I can’t continue to work like this if these are the losses my command is causing! Half, Thraken! Fifty percent! And sure, we manage to nab three dozen pilots after they got shot down, but that still barely puts a dent into it! We don’t have the men, materials or morale to fight another battle like that, not with someone like me in command.”
I inhale deeply, moving the hand that had been rubbing at he bruise to rub my forehead. This was the last thing I needed to leak. I exhale slowly before speaking: “Little Squadron will be joining us on escort duty to Nyny. I know you still want to fly and dammit Solo you may not think that you’re good enough for the job, but you are. Do you think anyone else could have done better? You were busy dogfighting and coordinating multi squadron attack vectors you didn’t even notice that wherever you were fighting there were fewer requests for reinforcements?You are the longest serving pilot under me and more importantly, I trust you to be real with me and know you’re more competent than you believe you are. So I will not demote you, but I will be placing you on mandatory rest between Caluula and Nyny.”
“Fuck you Dericote.” Solo spits before stealing her helmet back, turning on her heel and quickmarching out of the bridge.
I sigh. Last thing I needed was my most trusted officer in the Starfighter Corps to go rogue after getting her confidence issues back. I had hoped she had gotten over herself.
Putting my Starfighter Corps Liaison’s issues aside for the moment, my bridge had rapidly turned into a series of conference calls. The local systems outraged at my decision to abandoning them and requesting assistance in their own evacuations, for which I had to deploy multiple arms-men companies and Marine squads to commandeer various civilian transports to do exactly that. Then various pirate allies requested immediate payouts for their work so far, something which I arranged promptly.
And now, there was a full impromptu meeting of all Admirals and Generals within our pretty little Coalition.
“- General Gillmunn, the leader of the Jabiimi forces, spits.
“What choice do I have? My fleet is battered beyond use and Caluula is a natural chokepoint.”
“ Raddus asks, “
“ Senator Toora inquires, the Sy Myrthian politician stroking one of her beards as she speaks.
“ Admiral Slocum adds.
“ A new voice speaks. General Ambigene, the so-called First Separatist and leader of the Bryx Freedom Front, was a tentative ally and newly minted member of our coalition who had primarily been convinced to throw his hat in with us through our vague final goals and promise of support for all members.
“” High Commodoer A’baht speaks, the Dornean twisting his mustache as he speaks.
“ The old man spits.
“ Senator Toora asks.
“ The General spits, “
“ General Bvinsk asks behind a poor mask for his cold rage, “
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“Ambigene barks back, “
“Calm down, both of you.” I order, voice stone cold, “Bvinsk apologize to the General, your words were overly harsh. And while they may not be entirely untrue, the matter of speaking brings dishonor to your department, your allies and the Republic we served. General Ambigene, perhaps falling back on petty insults is not the best way to conduct yourself when arguing for your position? Understand that I sympathize with your position greatly, the problem is simply that my force cannot survive an engagement at this time. My rearguard is holding Honor’s scouts and vanguard off as well as possible while I ferry the various refugees to safe harbor and repair my forces.”
“ Ambigene replies, though I can tell he could go on if he desired it, “
“ Bvinsk says, more hesitantly than Ambigene, “
“” Ambigene replies gruffly.
“With that done, we need to figure out how to ensure Caluula does not fall.”
“ General Kota reveals, “
“ Green adds.
“Could the 17th be moved to reinforce us then?” I ask, “Perhaps moving a portion of the Jabiimi squadron and the Sy Myrthian fleet to cover for them at Wyndigal?”
“ Slocum agrees.
“ Hatha suggests.
“ Rear Admiral Praut suggests, “
“ High Commodore A’baht points out, “
“ Slocum agrees.
“Alright then. I would have Raddus continue his move towards Lianna to pressure Honor’s supply lines and buy us more time. Green, Bvinsk, we need more starfighters asap, see what can be bought up and what bush pilots you can nab.”
“ Green says.
“” Bvinsk promises.
“Good, last thing on the agenda. I am hereby authorizing the Partisan Protocols. Pending confirmation by the Coalition Council, any and all Merchant and Civilian space faring vessel now has a carte blanche for militarization retrofits if they agree to take on the responsibility in defending home and hearth and assist in emergency duties such as resupply and evacuation if demanded of them in times of crisis. These demands will be in value of the retrofits completed and standard pay for merchant contracts after such value has been paid. As this conflict is becoming more and more dire, such a state of emergency is all but assured to be in effect and I shall bring the motion to the Council during an emergency session to occur once my ships are heading to Caluula from Nyny, even if I cannot appear in person.”
“ Bvinsk asks curiously, likely thinking of all the ways he could use a massed civilian formation to resupply in times of need without having to pay them for a couple missions.
“No.”
“ Slocum points out.
“A risk I am willing to take.” I reply.
“ Raddus points out.
“ A’baht adds.
“Then it is good that none of us have any intentions of degrading our limited institutions. As for the merchants, their ships are still their own, only their services would be adjusted.” I reply.
“ Sykes sighs, finally adding something to the conversation, “
“ Bvinsk agrees.
“Any major oppositions?”
“
“
“
“Alright then. We’ll push our engines hard. Long live the Republic.”
“
The Nyny repair yards were in a flurry of action as Bvinsk gazes at them, Brigadier General Green by his side looking over a datapad instead of the hurrying movements of men, ships and material. This was likely the biggest single logistical operation of Bvinsk’s career and all the Intelligence officer cared for was the next round of petty assassinations.
The Lusitania, an Invincible retrofitted to act as an emergency repair-vessel, lumbers about to gather replacement durasteel plates to hold within its carved open superstructure. Her sister-ship, Halifax, currently filling herself with transparasteel panes and spare munitions on another dock. If only they had another dozen of them Bvinsk could have ordered them to be used by Dericote at Caluula instead of at Nyny. Though at least Nyny actually had the depots and yards to store the materials Dericote’s detachment would need.
In the end, it all came down to timing.
“Last round of removals went well.” Green says, “Nabbed the Governor of Lianna and a couple Stormtrooper officers there too. Though Lianna alone may need its own platoon within the brigade soon.”
“Are you expanding so much already?”
“More or less.” Green replies, “Mostly by absorbing old Sepy intel officers who either haven’t gone to ground yet or swapped over to us once we made it clear we weren’t just empty promises. At this rate we may actually want to skip over division to form a corps.”
“I’ll make a note of it. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if our colleagues decided a division would suit us just fine. Not like you have multiple divisions worth of manpower on standby.”
“Not yet at least.” Green replies, “Though again, I am rapidly approaching a full division’s worth of agents and informants. Honestly I’m mostly lacking analysts to comb over the data we keep getting.”
“Then you should bring it up during the emergency conference.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“Sir?” A knock interrupts the two Generals’ conversation.
“What is it Jerjerrod?” Bvinsk asks.
“Unknown ship has entered system. A luxury yacht. Model S-161 XL.” Jerjerrod says, “Its codes check out, but they’re requesting a meeting with Admiral Dericote himself.”
“One of yours?” Bvinsk asks Green.
“They wouldn’t be calling on Dericote.”
“One of his then?”
“Possible, though his associates usually run in more rugged ships. Sphyrnas, Corellian freighters and practical light freighters.” Green replies.
“Seize the ship and impound its crew. We’ll figure out what they are and who they serve soon enough.” Bvinsk orders.
“Understood, sir. I’ll have one of the local corvettes move them to a docking hatch and cordon them off from escape.” Jerjerrod answers.
“Better make it two.” Green suggests.
“And send in a platoon of arms-men to ensure the seizure. Last thing we need is a luxury yacht’s worth of imps to try and snag us.” Bvinsk agrees.
“I’ll send a squad of my enforcers to help with that.” Bvinsk says as he types his order into his datapad, then handing it over to his second most competent underling.
“Very good, sirs.” Jerjerrod says before punching in the orders into a datapad.
“We’ll need to prepare the defenses at Mintooine soon. I’ll see about requesting some spare Golans from Mantan, Ruisto and Pinperu. It’ll be a pain, but I would rather be prepared than caught flat footed.” Bvinsk mutters.
“A solid idea.” Green replies.
“Did you get anything positive from the Virujansi Aircav yet?”
“In fact I have. Half a wing’s worth of veterans, now defectors, lead by their two senior-most officers. Seems the Empire’s full nationalization of their planetary defense forces did them in.”
“Not bad, though finding rides for them all could be problematic.”
“That’s the best part. They’ve brought their own. Modernized Headhunters all.” Green replies with a smirk, “Plus an old modified Dreadnought that used to be their primary hangar bay and enough support staff to keep them all running relatively smoothly.”
“That Dreadnought have anything good other than hangaspace?”
“It follows the Leviathan in design, so according to the navy men I asked it’s mostly just good for picket duty and logistical support at about an M2, maybe two point five in internals, shields and sensors, decent enough armor though.”
“Not bad though. I’ll have them and the local reinforcements gathering here deployed to Caluula to ensure there’s still a defensive position to hold once the repairs are done.”
“They will take time to get here.” Green cautions.
“Then have them sent to Mintooine instead. As I said before, we may very well have to make a stand there.”
“Very well.”