Armada Campiagn Narrative Rounds 5 and 6

Task Force Zekkog moved slowly through the Sabhering Asteroid Belt, searching for the Rebel base that existed therein.  Tiaan's ships had been dispatched to try and root out the intrusion, since the ISB had reported an extensive ship works there.  Striking this resource rich area would certainly go a long way to reducing the rebel threat in sector, and allowing the Imperial Navy to drive them out.  Tiaan's ships had spread out to navigate the dense set of asteroids and to try to detect the rebel presence better.  His sensor teams were straining with the amount of metal and background radiation in the belt to find anything that could be a base.

Several hours later, Tiaan was awakened by the chirp of his comm system.  "Sir, we've got the Rebel base ahead.  Their defense fleet is moving out to intercept us."  Tiaan replied "On my way.  Order fighters launched, and prepare the grav shift to clear the asteroids for us."  Moments later Tiaan was on Unforgiving's bridge, ordering his forces into some semblance of a firing line.  The Rebel fleet and the asteroids had already prevented him from being able to cross the T and bring his best guns to bear and keep the Rebel broadsides from firing into his ships. So Tiaan decided to try and catch the enemy in the rear, shifting Khopesh and Obedience from their positions to his right into a more trailing position.  He had to be conservative with his fighters here, because the base was able to provide more ample fighter coverage than the opposing fleet could typically. The rebels knew this and their fighters dove in quickly as the broadsides began to hit the spread out Imperials ships. The Imperial fighters got the better of these rebel pilots early on despite some losses. Obedience though was getting battered by successive waves of ship fire. It had been positioned poorly to start the battle and was taking the brunt of fire from an MC 80 cruiser. The firing teams on board Obedience had decided to first destroy a set of support vessels that were coordinating the enemy fighters. Tiaan could see the wisdom but feared that not doing enough damage to the  big flagship.  The rebel transports were obliterated by the carrier's turbolasers.
 

As if on cue though, the big rebel flagship let loose a debilitating line of fire into obedience, as the older carrier tried to also avoid the large asteroids that had ambled into its path. The combination turned deadly as one of the larger asteroids struck shielding conduits. Unforgiving's engineering crews began extending shields to the carrier to help overcome the damage. Due to positioning Obedience was still taking a majority of fire.  Its shield capacitor had become misaligned, so a majority of the ship had become vulnerable to fire.

The CR90 that had been trailing its flag ship had maneuvered into a perfect position to add fire to the now crippled Obedience.  The targeting scramblers onboard Unforgiving weren't going to be able to protect it from that fire at that range.  Tiaan feared he'd lose the carrier and perhaps the tide of battle would turn.  But, in front of him he saw a flash of steel as Khopesh sped across into the teeth of the Corvettes fire, shielding Obedience.  That stroke of brilliance would have to be rewarded Tiaan thought to himself.  Unforgiving was able to add its fire into the corvette and drive it away from the carrier, as the Imperial fighters continued to best their rebel counterparts.  With the extra time, the engineering crews had been able to get the shield capacitor back into working order.  The rebel commander must have suspected the battle was turning against him, because they broke off their engagement and scattered themselves into the Asteroid belt.


Epilogue

The Imperial forces were now firmly in control of the area, and set about decomissiong the Rebel base.  The Rebels had left scant bits of Intel, or usable parts, but the docks there allowed Obedience to get repaired quickly.  The rebel fleet poked around their former base, probing the Imperials for the next few weeks.  But with their fighter losses in the previous battle, and Unforgiving's grav shift throwing debris and rocks into the mix, forced them to withdraw.  Tiaan heard through the holonet news that Motti had won a resounding victory against another rebel fleet above Correlia, and then had pursed them to Corfai where has able to dislodge them.

With these victories, it appeared as if the rebel threat in the sector had been pacified, and that Tiaan would be moving on to a special assignment as a reward for his work here.  A star base command that would potentially change the universe and end this horrid rebellion.