The war between the Empire and the Coalition is about to enter its bloodiest phase as 2227 will go down as the 'year of battles'. Meanwhile the Jedi Order keeps fighting a parallel war against the Sith and the Imperial Federation is entangled with a...
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January 16, 2227.
Just as expected, after only ten days of refitting and preparations, Task Force 89 was ready to move and the 101st to deliver the killing blow at the right moment. Iulius observed as Octis' group jumped to hyperspace from the waypoint of space they were traversing to reach Spice Terminus.
He had faith in his new Captain. Octis was smart and quick to adapt. In fact, he was the embodiment of a phenomenon that Iulius had started noticing and was making him optimistic in the perspectives for the war: many young officers had finally started to understand what it actually meant to be a soldier, since now the academies spent less time indoctrinating the cadets and used that time to prepare them for war.
It would still take a lot of time for this generation to make a real difference in the conduct of the war, but at least the seed was there. If the elite of the Empire didn't make anything incredibly stupid again, there was a chance to slowly and steadily retake the whole galaxy.
He took a look behind him. Nash, as his new Commander, was standing at the end of the gangplank, waiting for orders to deliver. The Minder was floating a few km away from the starboard side of the Admonitor's bridge, as her position of leader of the escort squadron demanded.
A few minutes passed until Nash received a notification on his datapad and promptly reported it.
"Grand Admiral, the 89th has made contact with the enemy at Spice Terminus."
Iulius calmly turned around and headed for the holo-projector. "On screen." he ordered with his usual collected voice.
The operator brought up the reconstruction that STEVE was providing with the shared sensors of the 89th.
Octis' new flagship, the ISD Revenant, was protected by two rings made of the other ships. The Vindicator frigates and Arquitens light cruisers formed the outer strata, while the Gladiator cruisers and the Victory-II were right next to the Revenant, ready to protect it or thrust forward according to the Captain's orders.
For this attack, Iulius had lent a Procursator heavy cruiser with an ion loadout to provide additional support. And it was going to be useful since it quickly became apparent that the Commonwealth had militarized the station.
Spice Terminus was originally a simple outpost in the middle of a waypoint on its trade route. The station was bigger than the others of its category, but still a small one. Now, the rebels had moved four asteroids around it and built bases upon it, while disseminating the area with defensive satellites.
A thing that Iulius noticed immediately was that the garrison fleet of the rebels was waiting on the opposite side of the space complex: knowing that the enemy could arrive only from a certain direction, they had taken the necessary precautions so they would not be jumped upon right at the start of the confrontation. It didn't matter how much intel the imperials had, that positioning made sure that the Revenant and the 89th had to go through or around the space station first.
