Chapter 59

Yag’Dhul Orbit, Yag’Dhul System

Harrin Sector

“Our reconnaissance craft has reported the defeat of the Twentieth Armada, General,” Admiral Jerjerrod reported, a slither of trepidation sneaking into his voice, “By the time it arrived, the fight was already over. The enemy is now attempting to circumnavigate the moon towards our port quarter.”

“So General Grant’s assessment of the situation was ultimately the correct one,” Jedi General Empatojayos Brand murmured, “Has the recon ship been detected?”

“Apparently not,” Jerjerrod straightened his shoulders, “They are now tracking the enemy fleet’s movements. That is our one advantage.”

“Can we contact the Open Circle?”

“Not so, General. Commander Esterhazy’s force is on the opposite side of Yag’Dhul; without the Twentieth Armada acting as a bridge... we are isolated.”

There was no time to reel from shock, even after the pivotal change of circumstances. As General Brand received the datapad and traced the Separatist vector, he could only conclude that the Battle Hydra had no intention of escaping using the breakthrough they had just created, and was instead circling around the far side of Yag’Dhul’s second moon in order to strike Taskforce Swift Justice from their port quarter.

It was just as Skywalker’s apprentice, Tallisibeth, had predicted they would do–only that her assessment of their initial target was incorrect. Nevertheless, they would be upon Brand’s fleet within a matter of moments, and thus a prompt reaction was in order. Jedi General Brand analysed the enemy’s projected movements, then came to a decisive verdict that was no small part influenced by his origins.

“We will bring the fleet around a full hundred-eighty,” Empatojayos Brand commanded, “And ambush the Separatist fleet as they round the moon.”

“Ambush?” Admiral Jerjerrod questioned, reproach evident in his tone, “We are to go on the offensive?”

“The Hydra has failed to realise we have discovered their intentions,” the Jedi General placed his fist in his palm, “And it is obvious their intentions are to use the moon to cover his flanking manoeuvre, then push us into the asteroid field where they can undo us piecemeal. However, in doing so they will stick closely to the moon, so as to remain in our blindspot for as long as possible.”

“You intend on mirroring their manoeuvre?” the Admiral caught on quickly.

“Correct,” General Brand grinned, “We will seize the initiative, and the advantage. When they complete their circumnavigation of the moon, they will not find unsuspecting, easy pickings, but the full frontal might of our fleet, ready and waiting to meet them.”

Admiral Jerjerrod did not share the Jedi’s optimism, irritation and impatience rearing their troublesome heads at the Onderonian Jedi’s brash naivete–at least, from his perspective. This tense state between the two opposing flag commanders did not go unnoticed by the crew of the Swift Justice, themselves split between the two judgements, and the air on the bridge felt charged with electricity.

“Disclose your reservations, Admiral,” nor did it go unnoticed to the Jedi General, “I do not bite.”

Empatojayos Brand said so jokingly, in an attempt to ease up the tension, but Admiral Jerjerrod did not look upon it kindly–or rather, may not have noticed the jest at all in his apprehension. Do not presume to frighten me with your mysticism, Jedi, appeared to be the prevailing thought running through his mind then.

“It is true there is an advantage afforded to the side that strikes the initial blow,” the Admiral made his statement loudly, boldly opposing the Jedi General, “However, the Separatists number two-hundred, and we half that number. We may seize the element of surprise, but it is not enough to overcome such a numerically superior foe.”

“We are not fighting alone, Admiral,” General Brand admonished his counterpart, “The Open Circle is coming to our aid. You must recall the original mission of this battle; to eliminate the Perlemian Coalition’s Armada. If we deal a decisive blow–albeit incomplete–blow to the Separatists here, the Open Circle’s total victory is all but assured! We must merely delay them long enough for Commander Esterhazy to reach us, which she already intends to do.”

“However,” Admiral Jerjerrod stomped down, ferociously jabbing at the ground, “You cannot deny that we will be destroyed in the process. The original plan was for the Twentieth to come to our aid first–the possibility of the Open Circle even reaching us in time is perishingly minimal!”

The crew of the Swift Justice was torn between their two leaders, just as they were torn between their desire for victory, desire for vengeance, against the Separatist menace–and their own basic instinct for self-preservation. Unbeknownst–but subconsciously aware–to the General and the Admiral, the support of the crew hinges upon their every word, and the arguments they make.

“Do you fear death, Admiral?” General Brand challenged, “If so, fear not, for this not death, but only the Force’s willing embrace. Do not allow your loyalty to the Republic only extend as far as your life. If we deal a crippling blow to the Battle Hydra here, we will send the Separatist State reeling, and crush their renewed offensive in the crib!”

The balance of influence moved in favour of the Jedi General. They would be martyrs, but to the many young souls who enlisted in the Loyalist cause to become heroes, it was admittedly an enticing prospect in the moment where their fates were uncertain. Admiral Jerjerrod once again, however, did not appreciate the Jedi General’s perspective.

“...Do you have a family, General?”

If Empatojayos Brand was taken aback, he did not show it, and the confident grin he wore never left his face, “The only woman who could possibly constitute as such is with the Force.”

“I do, however,” Admiral Jerjerrod’s eyes were cold, “You may think someone as old as I would be more than willing to throw his life in service of the Republic, but I do have a family, and I have a grandson, of whom I possess every intention of seeing his face again.”

“What is his name?”

“Tiaan. He must be fourteen now,” Admiral Jerjerrod split his mouth into a quiet snarl, “I made a promise to return, Jedi, and I harbour every intention to uphold that promise. A dispassionate mystic like you may not begin to understand what I feel, but do not dare begin to injure the loyalty I bear to my family as disloyalty to the Republic. Seek death, Jedi. Do not force those of us who treasure something real to follow you.”

And the balance of influence swung the other away. Unconsciously, the Jedi General knew his hold on the crew’s confidence was fragile.

“...Orderly. How much time do we have?” Brand’s expression and tone of voice seemed indifferent, much to the Admiral’s chagrin.

“–Two hours, sir. Give or take.”

“Very well,” the Jedi General folded his arms before him, clenching and unclenching his fists just out of view, “What do you propose, Admiral?”

“We move to battlespace to one most advantageous for us,” Admiral Jerjerrod tapped his datapad veraciously, “We hasten, which the Separatists will not expect, and force our way through the asteroid field. Upon emerging on the other side, we may reopen communications with the Open Circle. The Separatists will have no choice but to follow us through the asteroid field, as any attempt to circumnavigate it will give time for the Open Circle to rendezvous with us. The asteroid field will naturally break up their formations, and their numerical advantage will be thwarted.”

“You intend to say we can defeat them as they emerge from the asteroid field after us?”

“It is certainly a more sound course of action compared to your frankly foolhardy plan to ‘ambush’ them.”

The accumulated store of unease aboard the Swift Justice was just about to reach saturation point. Like many Jedi Order–Republic Navy relationships, the one between General Brand and Admiral Jerjerrod had never been ‘friendly’ and bordered on ‘sour’ even on better days. But at this crucial juncture, the two stubborn personalities had come to a breaking point, an invisible thunderhead brewing right over the heads of the many spacers trapped between them.

So which would snap first? Such thought unwittingly came to the minds of many men and women.

When Jedi Command and Republic Strategic Command first decided upon Jedi-Navy cooperation, there had always been the question; would the Jedi General or the Admiral outrank the other? It was a question with no simple answer, especially when dealing with parallel chains of command.

In most cases, the answer to this question usually boils down to which personality overpowered the other. The more reserved Admiral Wullf Yularen, for example, usually deferred to Jedi General Anakin Skywalker’s loud and overwhelming force of personality. On the other hand, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi preferred to let Admiral Block’s actual military experience take command, especially after his mistake at Christophsis.

But when both Admiral and Jedi General were equally stubborn? Well, sometimes a rare friendship could bloom, where both personalities complimented the other well. The late Admiral Cede Wieler and General Rees Alrix was one case, and a reason why the latter went to such great lengths to avenge his death, among others. Another surprising case was between General Mace Windu and Admiral Shoan Kilian, both hard individuals who possessed a degree of warm respect for each other.ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

Unfortunately, such cases were perishingly rare, despite High Command’s best efforts. Rather, the cold, conflicting relationship between Admiral Jerjerrod and General Empatojayos Brand was a microcosm of the greater interservice rivalry that plagued the Republic Navy.

Ultimately, and perhaps thankfully, seeing the situation not particularly develop in his favour–or anyone’s favour, rather–Empatojayos Brand relented first; “Very well, we will prioritise rendezvousing with the Open Circle.”

Admiral Jerjerrod, and the whole crew with him, deflated in relief.

“We will not go through the asteroid field, however.”

And the Admiral unwillingly tensed again, “Then how do you propose we do so, General?”

Inadvertently, however, this meant that with the Open Circle Fleet now veered to starboard and headed up the eastern side of the star system, both Swift Justice and the Open Circle were directed on counter-clockwise orbital vectors around the planet. In other words, as Swift Justice raced south to find an open communications corridor from which they can contact the Open Circle, the Open Circle was simultaneously racing north to the 20th Armada, keeping Yag’Dhul squarely between them, like opposing ends of an unfortunate carnival carousel.

Such was the situation as Taskforce Swift Justice made their mad dash for the western edge of the northern asteroid field, four hours into their transit and the seventy-five warships of the Coalition Armada hot on their drive plumes. General Empatojayos Brand observed their progress closely. It was an established fact that in a straight race, the Star Destroyers of the Republic far outpaced the battlecruisers of the Separatist State–with one exception, it seemed.

As if anticipating precisely this scenario, the pursuers Swift Justice had on her tail were not any ordinary battlecruisers, but the solar-sailers of the Tion Hegemony. More specifically, the ‘3rd Battle Division of the 28th Mobile Fleet, whose crews and ships could proudly say were born and built in the systems of the Commonality. Far away from home as they may be, there was no ship of equivalent tonnage in the galaxy that could hope to match their truly furious swiftness, their radar signature made two-to-three times larger due to their expansive solar sails.

It was due to these solar sails that reflected and smeared solar radiation across Swift Justice’s sensor displays, in addition with the tight pursuit formation the Separatists had adopted, that prevented the Jedi from accurately counting the exact number of drive cones present in the enemy fleet. Despite that, thanks to his instincts, finely tuned by the Force, Empatojayos Brand still realised there were far less vessels behind them then there should be.

If I were to guess... there’s only a hundred ships after us. Either Octavian Grant mauled the Battle Hydra far more than I had given him credit for... or there’s another hundred ships unaccounted for. Now, General Brand found himself in the very same position General Grant did, upon the discovery of this discrepancy within the enemy numbers.

We’re fighting the Battle Hydra, the Onderonian Jedi closed his eyes, we’re fighting an enemy with multiple heads.

“Admiral,” he alerted Jerjerrod quietly, so as to not alarm the crew, “Our enemy has split his fleet in two, and if my suspicions are correct, then the other half of the Coalition Armada is shadowing us on the other side of the asteroid field.”

Admiral Jerjerrod’s eyes sharpened darkly, regarding the Jedi General with a wary stare, before consulting his own datapad. Half a minute later, that wary stance was now poised towards Swift Justice lefthand viewport, towards the asteroid field on their port beam. The Admiral was squinting, as if trying to make out the fiery glows of starship drive plumes through the thick cloud of interstellar rock and dust.

“In that case,” Admiral Jerjerrod returned, just as quietly, “We had been checkmated from the start. No action would have resulted in our victory.”

“Not anymore,” the Jedi corrected, “But if we had ambushed the half of the enemy force now behind us as I advised, we would not be in such dire straits. Look at those ships; Tionese luxury yachts. We could have beaten them back and then some.”

Despite the tacit understanding of ‘I told you so’ hanging in the air, the Jedi Knight let none of the sentiment bleed into his tone of voice. At that moment, Admiral Jerjerrod had never been more appreciative of the Jedi’s impassivity.

“We couldn’t have known Bonteri had split his fleet like this,” Jerjerrod argued weakly, regardless, “But I admit... following your instinct may have been the correct play.”

“No matter now,” Brand waved dismissively, “We must decide on our next course of action. Can we escape?”

It took a moment for the Admiral to calculate his answer, “Not so. The enemy would intercept us before we reached the nearest jumpzone... and the astronomical turbulence of the Yag’Dhul quaternary system won’t allow us to make an emergency jump to lightspeed–not without unforeseen effects and undoubtedly heavy casualties. If we had the local system astronavigation services on our side, the situation would be different.”

The Givin provided an astronavigational service to all vessels transiting the star system, especially around the planet and its tidal chaos, as they were the only ones capable of traversing the quaternary system with ease. The Battle Hydra’s impressive facility of manoeuvres was undoubtedly an effect of the Mathematocracy’s invisible hand at their back. A great boon the Republic allied fleets unfortunately did not share. As Brand had established in the initial strategy conference, they were playing in the enemy’s home turf.

And in the Yag’Dhul quaternary system, that home turf advantage was far more prominent and tangible than anywhere else in the galaxy.

“Then there is but one course of action,” Empatojayos Brand declared, their dire situation making no effect on his steady confidence, “We take as many Separatists with us to the grave. Let’s make the end memorable, Admiral.”

Admiral Jerjerrod squeezed his eyes tightly shut, his lips thinned into a pale sliver, and murmured a prayer... or an apology. Then, he said as such, in rare agreement with his assigned Jedi General;

“Let’s.”

On the fourth hour of their transit, Taskforce Swift Justice finally reached the western edge of the asteroid field, breaths held tightly and communication arrays primed and aimed at the corridor between Yag’Dhul and its first moon. As they rounded the corner however... there was only empty space where the Open Circle Fleet should have been. If the Open Circle had maintained their original vector, or even moved to rendezvous with the Swift Justice, then the two fleets should be seeing eye-to-eye.

However, the Open Circle had veered east, and was still on the complete opposite side of Yag’Dhul to Swift Justice. It was not a fatal error anybody could have predicted, if one didn’t consider Octavian Grant’s now prophetic warning that the loss of his 20th Armada communications uplink would be the undoing of all three allied fleets. Nor did Brand or Jerjerrod have any time to consider that fact; only that the last light hope was crushed in their chest as they wondered where their last ally had disappeared to.

“Enemy fleet to our port bow! W-We’re looking at a hundred-fifty warships, sir!”

“Orders, General!? They’re bearing down on us!”

Separatist battlecruiser Crying Sun emerged from behind the curtain of asteroids with the full might of the ‘4th Battle Division of the 28th Mobile Fleet. Right behind Taskforce Swift Justice, the Kronprinz was already folding her sails into battle configuration, and Chimeratica close behind her. The Republic fleet had themselves caught in a pincer.

“Orders?” Empatojayos Brand drew himself to his full height, his presence in the Force filling his crew with fighting spirit against all odds, “Fight back!”

⁂

Scout could feel the tremor in the Force, and looked up abruptly, as if expecting to find the source of it right before her. She knew, however, in her heart of hearts, that Jedi Knight Empatojayos Brand had just perished, and returned to the Force. She also knew that in attempting to save one ally, she had just condemned the other to this fate.

Admiral Yularen, despite not being Force-sensitive, was well-versed enough with the Jedi to extrapolate what Scout was experiencing just then.

“We couldn’t have possibly reached them in time.”

They couldn’t. One glance at the ticking chrono could have proven that.

“I know,” Scout whispered.

Just like the Swift Justice before its demise, the Open Circle was now four hours into their circumferential transit around Yag’Dhul’s eastern asteroid field. ‘Asteroid field’ was an understatement. The field was one of asteroids, indeed, but it was also a boiling mass of atmosphere trapped between two gravitational bodies–the moon and the planet–flung out and sucked in erratically as the three moons orbited the planet, and each other. It was a near-impenetrable curtain that blocked all but the most powerful signals from piercing through.

The Open Circle was more isolated than ever, but it was also safer than ever, as presumably no enemy force could now intercept them. This was further reinforced by Scout’s vision, who saw Master Alrix’s fire burning brightly as the Battle Hydra and Swift Justice clashed nearly two-hundred thousand klicks away. That meant, Scout believed, that the enemy was as far away from them as they could possibly be. Jedi Knight Empatojayos Brand’s sacrifice would buy the Open Circle time to not only rescue what of the 20th Armada as they could, but also prepare a new battlespace in the sector.

She was mistaken.

Tallisibeth had unwittingly fallen for the same mental trap that undid Rees Alrix; over-reliance on the Force. The late Jedi Knight’s passing gift was in reality, a curse in disguise. The Force, on its own, was a tool, and a brutally effective one. The Force informed the user of information that was unknown to even the most advanced sensor suites; but such information was still useless in the hands of an inexperienced commander.

An inexperienced commander would take such information at face value, and lead them to make dangerous assumptions. Fatal assumptions. Over-reliance on the Force, ultimately, makes an inexperienced commander forgo their conventional tactical wisdom and training in preference of the ‘easy way out.’ Such an effect was only made worse in the hands of Jedi; the Jedi, who had been trained from birth to view the Force as the ultimate answer to all things, and trust it over all.

In the end, that trust was mercilessly exploited at the Seven Battles at Sullust. And, perhaps, history would repeat itself at Yag’Dhul. After all, Scout had already dismissed Octavian Grant’s greater experience and wisdom in favour of formulating a strategy–albeit a sound strategy–around the information she could glean from Jedi Knight Alrix’s latent ability. A dismissal that resulted in disastrous consequences for the allied fleets’ chances of eliminating the Battle Hydra.

And, for the second time in the same battle, she made another assumption using that ability. It was the assumption that the Open Circle Fleet could not be intercepted. ‘The Force tells me the enemy is on the opposite side of the system,’ Tallisibeth drew such a natural conclusion, ‘thus the enemy is not here.’ It was as simple a mistake as taking incomplete information for complete information.

Seventy Givin starships exploded out of the asteroid field, ice-blue drives glowing as boiling atmosphere curled off their streamlined, fin-shaped hulls. Harbinger’s scanners identified them almost instantaneously–they were the crown jewel of the Yag’Dhul Shipyards, and the backbone of the Givin Defense Fleet: the Wavecrest-class frigate. With two Republic fleets now dealt with, the Body Calculus has finally committed the full might of their personal fleet to the cause.

Scout could only watch as the swift and nimble Wavecrests joined the battle, coming crashing out of the supposedly impenetrable asteroid field and crossing the ‘T’ forward of the Open Circle Fleet. Hundreds, thousands more bright pinpricks appeared on the tactical holos; the Givin frigates were launching an uncountable number of seeker mines onto their vector, before disappearing back into the chaos of the atmospheric anomaly as quickly as they emerged.

Then, in her peripheral vision, the Hydra’s flame began to move once more.

The Open Circle Fleet was not safe. The Open Circle Fleet’s momentum had ostensibly been killed in a single action, and there was a wild beast back on the hunt.

⁂

“Two down, one to go.”