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The J'rathi fighter, JDF
Three, glides through the gasses of the nebula swiftly on it's patrol.
The disk-like shape of the ship seems to be designed to handle the
gasses and almost ride them as if it were flying inside a planet's
atmosphere. The single ion turret on the top of the ship constantly
turns, as if tracking an orbiting target. A strong human voice comes
from the J'rathi's communications array, "This is JDF Three,
completing our patrol.. looks like nothing's out here today." he says
simply, angling the ship around to begin the long trek back to the
J'rathi home planet.
At first, nothing *is* out there in the
swirling expanse of the nebula. But company soon arrives just behind
JDF Three in the form of a Victory-class star destroyer, emerging from
hyperspace in a flash of blue light. Dozens of TIE fighters spill from
the belly of the wedge-shaped warship like deadly stinging insects
from a massive hive, and they swarm after the departing J'rathi
fighter. For the moment, most likely due to the interference to
sensors from the nebula cloud, the star destroyer holds its fire.
"What the--" comes a female voice, obviously
that of a copilot, as the pilot already begins evasive manuevers,
ducking in behind a wisp of nebula gasses. The communication resumes
after the fighter fades from sight momentarily. "Three here, looks
like I spoke too early. We've got dozens of fighters, and a
Victory-class Star Destroyer out here. We're bringing them back home,
give them a warm welcome." she explains, as the slow fighter continues
to power through the gasses. It's ion cannon swivels about to lock on
to it's pursuers, and powerful blue-white blasts of energy are
unleashed at one of the TIEs.
The targeted TIE fighter is struck, crackling
with tendrils of sparking blue-white energy as it spirals out of
control and strikes another pursuing fighter. Angled wing panels twirl
off in different directions as the fighters explode from the
collision. But the numbers simply aren't on JDF Three's side. The TIE
pilots in at least three fighters are able to get a visual on the
enemy fighter, and they open fire with their laser cannons, crimson
beams lancing inevitably toward the aft quadrant of JDF Three.
The J'rathi fighter dissappears behind
another cloud of nebula gasses, only to emerge with it's aft engines
torn away by the combined firepower from the three TIE Fighters.
Sparks flying, it spins out of control deeper into the thick nebula.
As it dissappears, however, new shapes knife out in a chevron
formation. A J'rathi Djalin-class cruiser spearheads a retribution
against the first wave of fighters, flanked on either side by a pair
of J'rathi fighters. The five vessels each choose different targets,
and thin azure beams lance out from their hulls towards several of the
TIE Fighters. The Cruiser fades from sight after this salvo is
delivered, the only evidence of it's presence being the hole it left
in the formation, which quickly breaks apart to pursue various other
of the ample targets.
Now that the J'rathi starships and fighters
are engaging the star destroyer and its swarming TIEs, new flashes of
blue light start puffing through the roiling nebula clouds, like
summer lightning ... or colorful flak explosions. The intermittent
illumination occurs in a rough circle around the J'rathi worldship and
its parent planet. Emerging from the swirling dust clouds come the
looming wedge shapes of 30 star destroyers - each one painted a sleek,
matte-black: The nefarious Sith Fleet. They array themselves into a
tighter circle, a metal noose, around the worldship, and open fire
with turbolaser batteries. They seem intent on battering the worldship
and destroying anything that might get in the crossfire. Meanwhile,
dozens of TIE fighters come spiraling out from the bays of each star
destroyer, prepared to engage the J'rathi fleet.
The J'rathi fleet, however, seems not to
have engaged in full just yet. While the first small group of fighters
is entangled in a battle with the TIEs, the other fighters have yet to
be seen. That is, until one of the Star Destroyers of the Sith Fleet
is gutted by a neat cross-section of azure beams, and a J'rathi
Dreadnaught passes past it, it's turbolasers already accurately
blasting TIE Fighters as it passes on the outside of the chaos. The
first Victory-class Star Destroyer that appeared now finds it's way
blocked by a similar foreboding shape as a dreadnaught moves down to
take up a path directly in front of it, it's bow already glowing the
bright blue color that foreshadows it's firing sequence.
The Worldship, however, seems to be holding
up fairly well against this combined firepower. Although it's main
shield is down, hundreds of thin azure beams slice at the angry clouds
of TIE fighters, while similarily huge numbers of J'rathi torpedoes
spew out of it's massive flight decks, most getting caught in the
crossfire.
The Victory-class star destroyer initially
engages evasive action, its flight crew struggling to drive it nose
downward relative to the J'rathi dreadnaught. But it's not fast
enough. The deadly beams of the dreadnaught scorch through the hull of
the star destroyer, gutting it viciously, ripping through life support
controls and power stations under searing flashes of blue light. The
star destroyer, lifeless and dark, descends in a slow spiral into the
swirling miasma of dust and plasma like a sinking sea vessel plunging
beneath the waves. Then, from out of the clouds behind where the VSD
had been, comes a blue-gray wedge of metal that just keeps on coming -
a sleek, exceedingly long needle of terror: The super star destroyer
Executor, which opens fire on the dreadnaught with turbolaser
batteries.
The dreadnaught, in turn, fires it's own
turbolaser batteries at the Executor, which have a similar effect to
launching spitballs at the massive ship. It attempts to dive away,
following the wreckage of the VSD, but the blasts just continually
hammer away at the much smaller ship's shields until they finally
break through, ripping massive holes in the dreadnaught's
superstructure. As the dreadnaught begins to finally build up another
blast from it's pulse cannons, several ion bolts from the Executor
crackle against the dreadnaught's pulse cannon emitters. The entire
ship goes black for a moment, before erupting in several vicious
explosions which send charred and twisted metal in all directions.
Two other Dreadnaughts knife from hidden
positions around the Imperial fleet, making attack runs against the
overwhelming numbers of black-painted Star Destroyers. Another two
fall lifelessly from the bombardment circle, and a third succumbs to
miniscule blasts from dozens of J'rathi torpedoes finding their marks.
The Worldship, however, begins to go dark as more and more of the
turbolaser blasts reach it's hull and tear armor plating apart.
The encircling star destroyers of the Sith
Fleet, now fewer in number but still numerous enough to keep pounding
at the worldship if their commanders chose to do so, cease firing and
start arcing around, turning their thrust cones to the planet J'ra and
rumbling away into the quagmire of the nebula. The TIE fighters also
silence their guns and match courses with their home destroyers,
leaving the crippled worldship, the planet and the surviving defenders
behind.
Confusion is evident from the defenders as
comm chatter breaks out across all of the military frequencies. "What
are they doing?" is one of the more common expressions from the pilots
and commanders, and a strong Imperial-accent comes from the worldship,
beginning to feed instructions to the ships. The J'rathi defenders of
all classes begin assembling under the cover of the nebula, all three
of the surviving Dreadnaughts and all of the other defense ships
moving into formation.
From the Worldship, a new ship emerges from
the flight deck. An additional dreadnaught-class vessel, shielded from
prying sensors by the nebula, begins making it's way around the planet
and out towards space.
Until now, the deadly geometry of the
Imperial battle fleet assaulting the J'rathi worldship and its
defending fleet has been largely angular and sharp-edged. Until now.
Out of the roiling nebula cloud to the galactic west of the planet
J'ra emerges a curved arc of gray metal, part of a massive vessel of
some kind - so huge that it has its own equator, marked by a narrow
access trench studded with turbolasers. The curved surface rotates
until a disc-shaped depression manifests along the upper hemisphere,
aimed at the worldship.
The worldship lashes out with it's large
spiderlike tendrils, as if to swat away the smaller sphere. Instead,
the dozens of pulse cannons on each of the arms try to pick off
Turbolasers on it's surface, mostly just causing narrow scars to be
drawn across it's surface. An act of desperation, as the defender's
fleet still continues it's regrouping maneuver in the cover of the
nebula, cloaked vessels beginning to decloak as they reach their
positions in the once-proud J'rathi battle-line.
The clipped, cold voice of Grand Moff Tarkin
can be heard over the open comm channels: "In the name of Emperor
Palpatine, in the name of peace and order, the Galactic Empire hereby
initiates the termination of the treacherous J'rathi." A pause, then
he can be heard telling someone: "You may fire when ready."
The J'rathi commander begins to respond, his
own accent betraying his Imperial background, "You will reg--" is all
he gets out before the Death Star's main weapon fires, seven thin
green beams combining to form a superlaser that blasts right through
the center of the Worldship and continues through to blast the planet
to the core. The blast triggers shockwaves which rip the planet apart,
and also tear the surrounding worldship into shreds. There is a
massive ripple that is sent through the nebula, which then rushes in
to fill the gap the planet left, as if it was just tidying itself up.
A few moments later, the assembled J'rathi
Defense Fleet angles in for an attack run on the Executor. The lead
pair of Dreadnaughts fire their pulse cannons onto the ship's hull,
punching through the ship's shields and tearing massive scars down the
ship's hull, venting the contents of several decks into the nebula as
they continue down the ship's long hull. The fighters skim along the
surface, using their weapons to pick off turbolasers with little
success. The cruisers duck under the hull, losing one member of their
formation to engine wash from the Executor. The final dreadnaught
follows the first two, but approaches the primary bridge. It's pulse
cannons scissor across the 'neck' of the bridge, slicing clean through
it and sending the primary bridge tumbling off into the nebula before
continuing it's attack run down the hull.
At this point, the badly damaged Executor is
arcing around to lick its wounds when the remnants of the Sith Fleet
and their accompanying fighters come out of the morasse of the nebula
expanse to enclose the J'rathi ships in a circle. The TIE fighter
squadrons sweep in toward the defense fleet, engines howling and
lasers lancing outward as cover fire for the Executor. Then the black
Sith Fleet destroyers start opening fire with their turbolasers,
targeting the dreadnaughts.
The J'rathi battle
fleet turns to make another pass at the Executor, but as the
Dreadnaughts turn, they are torn to shreds by the firepower of the
Sith Fleet. For a few hectic moments, the defenders fire in vain at
the clouds of enemies, pulse cannons lashing out in every direction
before the ships succumb to the torrential green blasts. After a few
minutes, there is only silence. The J'rathi defenders are completely
wiped out, and the only shreds that remain of the race are hundreds of
hull panels that have the faded and battle-worn symbol of the J'rathi
Defensive Forces on them, which float amongst the corpses. |
