"Eta of the second wave?" Phoenix asked, watching the bombers rapidly approaching their fleet.
"Point zero 4 minutes, sir."
'Fuck, those god damn Imperials are gonna have a field time on our support vessels.' Phoenix thought. He knew very well that both Providences would most likely be fine, their hulls had little to no obvious weaknesses, and their shields would hold.
But the Munficient's were different, they were not designed for war. And there was a clear weak point in their aft superstructure.
"Order all Munificents to initiate order zerk-19 ." Phoenix spoke, as the eyes of the officers on the Munificents widened. Colour draining from their faces.
"No, surely you cannot mean to sacrifice them?" One of the commanders aboard the Providence spoke. "I do, and I will." Was Phoenix's sharp reply, and the two organic commanders lost all their hope.
"No, we will not adhere to this order. I will contact the Chancello-" He tried, but Phoenix removed him from the holo-connect.
"He will be dealt with, now execute the command. For Riflor." Phoenix spoke in a cold voice, and the last Munificent's commanding officer sighed before saluting his fellows. "It shall be done, for Riflor."
"For Riflor" The fellow officers responded, but Phoenix did not.
...
"Arg! The balls of this man." The Officer that had been thrown out of the meeting shouted, slamming his fists into the desk. "Hard to port, transfer all power to rear shields, we will return to the ship."
The organics onboard the bridge naturally followed the man's order, as they too wanted to survive.
But unknown to the officer on deck, and the organics. In a room beside the bridge, 12 pair of red eyes would suddenly flicker to light. As they fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
They were efficient, as they sprinted out of the room and headed for the bridge. Intending to deal with the traitor, as their C.O had commanded.
The ship's entire solider compliment were droids, except for the Captain's own guard. But they would not hinder these droids, and their mission.
Meanwhile, on the bridge. The Captain stood with his back to the wall, his eyes travelling across space as they began turning. Sighing at the realisation that he might still survive, confident that the rest of his detachement would draw the fighters away.
However, suddenly the blast door opened. And a Commando Droid stepped through, vibroblade in hand.
And it took a step forward, only for it to fall to the ground, black smoke coming from the back of it's head.
And 8 men stepped out from behind the fallen Commando Droid, each of them carrying heavy repeating rifles, that too were smoking. Due to overheat.
"As you said, m'lord. The Commando Droids came for you." The one at the forefront spoke, and the Captain nodded.
"Very good, Phoenix is most certainly stupid if he thinks I would not predict his little assassination attempt. Now set up defensive positions along the bridge, he may command the droids but they cannot move without this ship's systems, which we control." He spoke, only for the light to suddenly flicker off. As the Captain's eyes widen.
And the next second, a door in the roof opened. One that led directly towards the vast void of space, and it immediately sucked everyone in. As every organic was thrown out of their seats, and sucked into the void.
And 30 seconds later, a OOM-Command Droid walked through a side door, it's feet magnetically locked to the ground.
Following him, was two dozen other OOM droids. OOM-Bridge Droids as they were known as, and they began settling down at their stations. The OOM-Command Droid walking to the command seat. Muttering something about 'Stupid, arrogant organics.'
...
"Alpha Team, access encrypted deepcomms on my call. 3, 2, 1, mark." A man in fully black armor spoke, as he and 5 men around him pressed their wrist controls at the same time, their helmet's making a hissing sound as it was sealed, preventing sound from getting out.
'Deploy.' A command rang through all 6 of the men's helmet, a command that none but them could recognise.
And all 6 of them jumped down, surpisingly falling down a hole that landed them securely in a room.
This was the Alpha Team, a squad of 6 individuals underneath the Umbrella of the Onyx Operations Departement, yet these men were specifically under the Spectre Division. One of 6 teams that was trained to operate in groups of six.
ACI Troopers - Active Combat Inflitration Troopers.
And the Alpha Team, was designated to the Lucrehulk.
'Initiate operations, split up and handle designated tasks.' Alpha-1 spoke into his helmet, as all 6 of them suddenly split up, each heading for their own designated target.
....
Phoenix sighed as he saw his Munificent's getting struggling under the concentrated power of 4 Bomber Squadrons, and with next to no fighter support they were essentially doomed.
Additionally, there was a pair of TIE-Defender Squadrons running wild on the remnants of the starfighter cover, utilising tactics that reminded Phoenix of the clone wars-
Specially designed tactics meant to handle droids, the ones that only the very best pilots were taught. And with the advanced TIE-Fighters, these men were accomplishing feats that no clone squadron could even dream of matching.
Yet it was not the destruction of Munificents or Vulture's that brought Phoenix stress, as it was an annoyingly predictable outcome. He knew that would be the destiny of the Munificent's the second the saw the blue rays of destruction.
No, it was the sheer lack of strategy.
Phoenix had expected Rysell to try another one of his trick's, or perhaps even the slight actual strategy.
But no, Rysell's flagship was just continuing steady, as if it was the simplest thing in the world, as if Phoenix did not have a far larger fleet behind him, one that could not be destroyed by meagre sesmic charges.
Especially when Rysell seemed intent on a 2v1 with his ISD 'Leviathan', and it puzzled Phoenix to a great degree.
Phoenix knew his genius and tactical strength could easily match that of Rysell, Phoenix had studied strategies his entire life, he knew every move in the history of the Galactic Republic.
He had studied Rysell's previous battles, and he knew he could have handled Rysell in almost 90% of them. But here, he felt like it was no use. Rysell was just forcing a standard face-off with a bomb trick, and Phoenix knew another one was coming, there had to be.
However, he was brought out of his thoughts by the green bolts of laser flying past his bridge, most of them slamming into the blue rays of his deflector shields.
"How far out are they from our firing arc?" Phoenix asked, still in his holotransmission, appearing on the bridge of the last Munificent.
"Point zero three seconds."
'30 seconds, not ba-' He thought, when his instincs suddenly screamed at him, as if danger was rapidly approaching. And Phoenix had learned to trust his instincs, as he jumped to the side. Exiting his transmission as the room return to the standard one.
Where he found himself facing a black figure in scout-trooper armor, wielding a vibroblade and rushing at him.
Phoenix reacted quickly, avoiding to the side of a strike as he slammed his elbow into the attackers hands, attempting to disarm him. However he was thrown back without notice, sent flying into a nearby wall.
And before Phoenix could react, a knife planted itself firmly in his hearth.
'How... did I let myself.... get played like this.' He thought, as the blade of the attacker pierced through his forehead, ending him once and for all.
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