**Chapter 833: Shadows Before the Storm**
**Scene 1: Stealth Corvette Tuna – Neimoidia Orbit**
Second Lieutenant Iwing Sallian glanced with a grin at Midshipman Fabio Narveld, who kept stealing glances at the observation panels of the stealth ship's wheelhouse.
"What's up, Midshipman, are you itching?" Sallian said with a smile.
"Sir," the young man snapped, "it's not that they're itching. But there they are, the bastards. They're just asking for a torpedo salvo!"
At that moment, they were flying literally a hundred and fifty meters from the enemy "Baryshnik," and the second lieutenant understood his subordinate's zeal. Deep down, he, too, longed for something similar. But unlike Narveld, he understood both the cost of responsibility and the importance of their mission.
'Even if we fire, the torpedoes won't be powerful enough. There are only four in a salvo, and the torpedoes are light. We'll cause practically no damage, but they'll spot us immediately because the camouflage will wear off after firing. It's not designed for firing… It's a miracle we haven't been spotted yet.'
"We have to stay invisible," Sallian reminded quietly. "The Neimoidia blockade isn't perfect, but it's enough to force the locals to conserve resources. After all, there aren't a single patrol squadron of Vultures—only the occasional Shkanevs."
"Releasing them is a matter of minutes. For those ships hanging in low orbit, deep in the gravity well, time is no problem at all. By the time the enemy—that is, us—gets to them, they'll have time to lift off their entire air wing. And about a third of those ships are like that. But then again, those are mostly LH-1740s. The Lucrehulks hang higher, two hundred, two hundred and twenty kilometers, almost at the edge of the gravity well."
Looking at the monitors, the lieutenant gave the command.
"We're ready. We're approaching the last square."
The midshipman turned back to his panel.
"Northern sector zero-zero. Initiating scan. Confirming presence of five ships. One LH-1740 modification… pre-war. Two Baryshnik-class ships. Modifications one and two. Two Shkanev-class ships. Calculating coordinates…"
"Begin monitoring patrol frigate movements. Enter coordinates into the database. Astromechs—get moving," Iwing muttered, marking targets on the datapad screen.
"Hutt, another pre-war modification of the LH-1740. Packed with light laser cannons—two hundred and eighty of them. A nasty thing for aircraft… We're marking them with a priority marker… The Lucrehulk Mk-1 is also a pre-war model, from the Naboo era. Forty-two retractable quadruple light turbolaser mounts. Given the hull shape and the placement of the guns, it can fire at most forty percent in any direction. An easy target for our ships. Even the Endorsers could go toe-to-toe with these troughs at the beginning of the war. But just before the war, the Trade Federation beefed up the armament of some ships, which became known as Mk-2s. With fifty-eight heavy turbolasers on board, they outclassed the landing ships but barely matched the Hunters. The quality of the CIS heavy turbolasers was atrocious. However, they have to be taken into account… Priority marker on target… It's a good thing the CIS fleet didn't have many fully fledged Mk-3 'battleships' carrying fifty-two heavy turbolasers, five hundred and eighty-six medium turbolasers, and eight hundred and eight quadruple light turbolasers. At least, their stealth ship didn't encounter a single one of these ships. And intelligence pointed to only three such ships near Neimoidia."
The second lieutenant glanced at the frigate icons and grinned.
"Antediluvian old thing. Just over two hundred meters away, crew of four Neimoidians and forty B-1 droids. Carries fifty B-1s and twenty-five B-2s as boarding party. The hangar—if you can call it a hangar—can accommodate twenty-five Vultures. Armed with two medium laser cannons. It has no chance against any of our corvettes… unless you count the droid fighters."
"Orbital parameters have been recorded. Coordinates have been entered into the astromech droids…"
The stealth corvette *Tuna* slipped silently through the shadows of Neimoidia's orbital traffic, its advanced cloaking systems holding firm. Sallian allowed himself a small, tense smile. Every piece of data they gathered would make the difference when the hammer fell.
**Scene 2: Devastation Bridge – Anakin POV**
"All bets are off. All bets are off."
"Move out! Fleet jump!" Kinaun commanded.
"Countdown… five… four… three… two… one… Jump."
As soon as the captivating picture of hyperspace appeared behind the viewing panels, Anakin let out a sigh of relief, unnoticed by those around him.
Three days of preparation—and the Mern-13 and 501st were moving into position to strike Neimoidia. All squadrons had received their orders, everyone was prepared for the upcoming mission: pilots were undergoing their final briefing, and although Aurek Hour was still thirty hours away, some squadrons would move into position somewhat earlier, leaving their hangars at subsequent staging points where, among other things, the entire fleet would be divided, parts of which would advance toward Balmorra through uninhabited systems.
Yes, Anakin's idea of confusing the enemy by switching communications providers had to be abandoned: it was too complicated for a number of reasons, and could have gone negative—meaning it could have caused harm.
Dagon's new unified weapon system that Sienar-Jaemus designed was working overtime.
AATIS (Anti-Air Targeting Interception System or Anti-Aircraft Terrestrial Iron Shield) synced everything from the Guardian defense systems to the ships' main turbolasers to fighters' screen formation.
So, instead, with the help of the regular scout Santorini, a different cover story was developed. Officially, the Mern-13 fleet was being sent to a nearby uninhabited system for target practice, due to the rotation of the ships' personnel. Indeed, they were sent new recruits—something like five hundred—and the same number were transferred to other units. This was common practice in the GAR. This rotation didn't significantly harm the combat effectiveness of existing units, as the Hunter, for example, received two or three new recruits at a time. At the same time, the newly created units with new ships weren't exactly green—at least five to ten percent of the crew were experienced, having seen combat. So, a small correction—and they already had five thousand new recruits. A significant number, and target practice, in comparison, wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
But all their large landing ships and a number of small ships remained on Coruscant. The clones were in the barracks, busy with routine duties. There was no point in dragging a landing force along; it was simply unnecessary in the early stages. And the Endorsers could arrive at Neimoidia in one hour tops, including the troop loading.
Although there wouldn't be many of them. According to intelligence, Neimoidia had two hundred and eighty-three Lucrehulk-class battleships, including one hundred and thirty-six class A and sixty class B and class C; forty-nine LH-1740 "balls," all pre-war models; and seventy-eight Neimoidian Shkanev-class frigates. Very, very impressive numbers. Even allowing for surprise, it would be difficult to avoid significant losses despite the reinforcements under their command.
In total, they had approximately two hundred ships plus extras participating in the operation.
18 Resurgent-class Battlecruisers, 20 Allegiance-class Battlecruisers, 40 Assault Frigates Mark I, 50 Venators, 30 Silencer-equipped Venators, 80 Lancers, 40 Blood Light Carriers, 25 Nebulas, 8 Liberator-class Battlecruisers, 50 Accumulator Dauntless variants, 70 standard Accumulators, 30 Pelta-class Frigates, 40 Aegis Hammerhead-class Light Cruisers, 30 Triumphs, 40 Victory-class Star Destroyers, 20 Vector-class Star Destroyers, 20 Bothan Assault Cruisers, 30 Arquitens-class Command Cruisers, 40 Arquitens-class Light Cruisers.
Furthermore, if successful, two Mandator ships could be deployed from Kuat—and that was a serious eight-kilometer argument! And two… They'd be covered by thirty-six Venators and about a hundred Pelta frigates. From Balmorra, if necessary, two dozen modified Invincible-class Dreadnoughts, fifty CR-90s, and three dozen Marauders could be dispatched to Neimoidia. And finally, twenty-four Venators and the same number of Assault Frigates Mark I, supported by fifty corvettes and frigates, could be dispatched from Komenor…
But all this would happen if they did not fail the first stages of their plan, which was quite simple—and complex.
The first air wave would consist of nine hundred and thirty-six fighters and bombers. The second, arriving in a minute but from different directions, numbered one thousand two hundred and eighty-eight aircraft. That's one hundred and eighty-five squadrons and one flight. Every two squadrons would take on one target, meaning, with a very, very lucky combination of circumstances, they could count on forty destroyed and forty damaged Baryshniks. Some of the bombers would attack the LH-1740s, as they posed a threat to their air force with their rapid-fire guns.
The aircraft would frolic in orbit around Neimoidia for exactly seven minutes, after which the "big brothers"—meaning them—would leap toward the planet. The first wave would be the Mern-13 fleet. Shiranyu swore he'd launch all the small fry in two strides, but even so, they'd only have about two hundred and fifty squadrons of TIE Advanced, Fury-class Bombers, and TIE Defender fighters, which paled in comparison to the tens of thousands of Vultures the enemy could launch in the first few minutes.
True, by this point they should already have shot down a certain number of the "Baryshniks" before they launched even half of their "Vultures." And then things would be easier. Half of fifteen hundred was significant. The remaining droid fighters would put a strain on the surviving ships. The Neimoidians could still rotate their air wing, albeit a huge one, but adding another couple hundred aircraft per ship would cause delays and problems.
Of course, there was a risk of being detected on approach—but that's where Muunilinst-10 and the Puck came into play. An elite squad of clones should already have been deployed to the Neimoidian planet via a stealth ship, and at the right moment, they'd carefully disable the tracking system. They'd got one guy there who could handle an ice pick… And Alpha-Seventeen would handle the planetary shield. A baradium charge planted on the projector tower would provide them with a small window of time to deploy the vanguard—the clone troopers, some of whom would perform a stratospheric jump.
"Sir, all ships have entered hyperspace," Sumeragi reported.
"Excellent. Begin preparing for maneuvers one through ten," Anakin ordered, heading for the turbolift. It was time to meditate.
The fleet streaked through hyperspace, a silent blade aimed at the heart of the Trade Federation. Anakin closed his eyes, feeling the Force flow around him. The weight of command settled on his shoulders, but so did the fire of purpose. This was what he had trained for. This was what the Chosen One had been born to do.