“Join the stormtrooper corps, they said. You’ll see the galaxy, they said.” A trooper on patrol co.palined. “Come on, it's not that bad.” His friend tried to cheer him up. “All I have seen is just gray and white. The cargo ships are more interesting than the navy ships coming through everyday.” The man rebuked. Just then alarms blared all around. “All men to your stations! This is not a drill!” A voice called over the intercom.

Positioned just beyond the protection offered by the shipyards’ own weapons were five CIS warships. A strange sight to nearly all present.

The parked star destroyers not undergoing were put on full alert but told to hold their position as a man named General Rubric took charge of the Fondor defensive efforts.

“Status report!” Rubric demanded. “Five confederate ships General. One larger Recusant along with four Munificents.” The Radar Lieutenant replied.

Rubric pondered on why would the Rebel Alliance send such an old squadron to attack Fondor with. ‘They had to have been rebels. All CIS holdouts were snuffed out two decades ago.’ He thought.

“General, they have begun long range bombardment on our exposed vessels!” Another Lieutenant reported. “Raise shields!” He ordered, giving him time to properly strategize.

“Call for a council.” Rubric told his communications officer as he himself exited the room.

“Admiral, they have raised their shields.” The now Captain Qishik of the Scutum informed Sigil. “Wouldn’t expect anything else.” He commented. “What of the raids I ordered?” He asked.

“They proceeded as planned with no major setbacks. Secor fleet nineteen of the Imperial navy is headed to Fondor along with the native sector twenty.” Qishik reported. “Here goes nothing.” Sigil replied.

“Are we not going to change position?” Qishik wondered. “There is no inhabited world system behind us from which a navy task force could come aside Phu which is where we are.” Sigil reminded.

“Thank you all for attending this meeting. As you all know, we are locked down…” Rubric began. “By a minor rebel taskforce.” He finished. 

“And you haven’t made a move against them?!” A member of the Fondor board demanded. “They have super heavy armaments that were targeting our ships before I had the shields raised.” He reminded the businessman.

“Nonsense! The Imperial navy shall not be harassed by such a mino-” “Enough! I, being the highest ranking officer here, declare martial law across the entire world and her shipyards. And when I called for a council I failed to inform the Lieutenant that I needed a war council. Get out!” Rubric’s voice echoed through the room as all the businessmen and women left the room so now only Imperial officers remained.

“Now how do w-” Rubric had started to talk again after calming himself down but was interrupted again by an incoming transmission. “Put it through.” He huffed.

Just then the image of Darth Vader popped to life and all in the room straightened on instinct. “Lord Vader.” Rubric acknowledged with a bow, his voice tense. “General Rubric.” Vader began.

“There have been attacks in sector’s twenty and nineteen funneling towards Fondor. Sections of both sector fleets are headed there where you are to mount a defense.” Vader explained.

“My lord they are already.” Rubric informed. “How many.” Vader asked, his breathing sending a shiver down the spines of everybody as he exhaled. “Five warships.” He replied.

“That is not it. Stay alert for more and remember, do not fail.” Vader warned, ending the transmission.

“Great, just great!” Rubric yelled, slamming his hand on the table. “I say we head out to meet them.” A Lieutenant spoke up. “With what?! Ships they’ll bomb?!” Rubric scolded.

“If you allow me, General.” The same woman said. Rubric signaled for her to continue.

“Using ships on the other side of Fondor we can assault their task force before more of them arrive.” She elaborated. “I do not see how they won’t exploit our unraised deflector shields to bomb facilities on the other side.” He reminded.

“She has a point General, we could keep the ships away while the shield is down and only engage once they’re up again.” A Major added. “And they won’t notice a drop in energy?” He questioned.

“All in all, General, we will be taking losses. Our fleets are slower than theirs on average. They will be reinforced a day or two before us.” A Captain from the back spoke up.

Rubric sighed in frustration. “Order all available warships on the other side to launch but hold their position until the shields are back up. Council dismissed.” He said, heading back to his command center.

“Energy signals are lower on the other side, Admiral.” Qishik informed. “Send in a flight of Y-wings. Have them target the largest ship available and remember three per star destroyer.” Sigil responded.

“Hammer squadron to your stations, prepare to bomb the ships in the designated location!” Qiahik announced over the intercom to the hangar of the Scutum.

“You heard the Captain! Get going!” Commander Yurik Berntal told her squad mates, who all eagerly jumped into their Y-wings and flew off in an inverted crescent.

“This is Commander Yurik. Reporting successful departure.” She reported directly to the command room.

“Copied. Head parallel to the equator for eighty-five hundred clicks. Remember star destroyers take priority.” Sigil responded. “Copy that Admiral.” Brental replied, yanking on her steering yoke and changing direction to the designated target area. 

“Four groups, two groups per ship. Ion carriers fly forwards!” She announced to her squadron as they neared the location, spotting eight imperial II class star destroyers as designated by their octuple barbettes with a task force comprising dozens of smaller ships approaching.

“We let anything with laser cannons come close, we're toast. Speed up!” She yelled out as ties flew out of the hanger of the star destroyers.

“Initiate area denial.” She ordered as her squadron expanded with some ships moving up and down, beginning to fire their frontal cannons at a slow rate to deny the Tie fighters a direct line of fire.

Just as they blew their way through the cloud of fighters, they split up as previously designated, with two groups of ion equipped bombers bombing the star destroyers to lower their shield and a follow up of proton weapon equipped bombers.

They were under orders to target the neck which supported the bridge so when it fell, it caused even more damage.

Each group had brought with them enough for two star destroyers so when they retreated, losing two bombers, they had disabled four star destroyers and thirteen tie fighters, using the same area denial method but with the rear gunners to cover their retreat.

“This is Commander Brental reporting. Four star destroyers are disabled but we’ve lost two.” She reported in on her way to the hanger. “Great job and I’m sorry for your loss Commander. I say this on behalf of the entire Alliance. Those pilot’s service won’t be forgotten.” Sigil said, offering his condolences.

“Admiral, we got group jeem and aleph coming out of hyperspace.” Qishik informed. “Wonderful. Have the Mon Calamari cruisers cross the T on our flanks once they exit hyperspace. Have they used the secret route we’ve used to get here?” Sigil asked.

“Judging by their approach, they have.” Qishik responded. “Great. Oh, on another note, have the Munificents line up for an ion volley on the shipyards.” Sigil ordered, remembering with Qishik complying as the room fell into silence afterwards.

“Um, Admiral, may I ask you something?” Qishik asked. “Go for it.” Sigik encouraged.

“What do you think will happen on Endor? You know with you and battle meditation here?” Qisjik asked nervously.

Sigil let out a sigh, “I trust Admiral Ackbar and General Organa's plan for taking down the second death star, if, and I repeat if they fail, we will have to bail out of here and do it ourselves. Away from that Captain, the ground team should have already begun their operation.” Sigil replied, voicing his thoughts to the worried Captain.

“I have no doubt in the ground team…" Qishik clarified. "What I am concerned with is the space battle." He finished. "Indeed that is where we are at a disadvantage and where we need to win but quality crews and officers outweigh numerical advantage. Remember, a sniper is only a sniper in the hands of a marksman, not a new recruit." He replied, trying to soothe his Captain.

"Sir, half of our star destroyers have been disabled." A lieutenant nervously informed Rubric. "Move the fleet forwards in preparation for battle, remember battle formation five." He gave a defeated sigh, telling his Lieutenant off.

"Another report just came in, more rebel ships are exiting hyperspace." The Lieutenant said. "How do you know they are rebels?" he questioned, suspicion rising as he rested his hand on the blaster pistol at his hip. "Sir, they are approaching the formation from the rear! We don't have any hyperspace routes in that direction!" The lieutenant said, putting his hands in front of his face when he saw what Rubric was doing.

"Had me concerned there for a second." Rubric said, letting go of his blaster pistol. "Tell the fleet to hold  a defensive line in front of the shipyards within shipyard defensive range and shield." He issued a new set of orders. "Of course General." the Lieutenant replied in a shaky voice, leaving the room.

“Admiral, groups Jeem and Aleph are lined up as you instructed previously. All are in position.” Qishik informed. “Have them begin firing in five minutes, five shots per minute.” Sihil ordered.

“Isn’t that a bit slow?” Qishik questioned. “We aren’t in a rush and besides, we can concentrate six guns in one spot. Have all fire at different intervals, every two seconds. Let them not have recovery time.” Sigil ordered. “Yes Admiral.” Qishik said.

“Sir we’ve detected a surge in energy of the enemy.” Rubric heard over the com. “Report more clearly. I know they have new additions to their strike force but where is their surge coming from?” He asked.

“Their Munificents.” The Lieutenant responded. “Pull up the schematics of the class.” He ordered and before him on the holi terminal, the schematics and blueprints of the CIS frigate came into view.

Doing a quick inspection, he saw underneath the frontal armor plates, he saw the twin super heavy cannons mounted in the ship's prow. One turbolaser and the other ion. ‘They are planning to strike our shields.’ He thought.

“Lieutenant, divert all power to shields, they are planning an ion bombardment.” He ordered, coming to the realization. “Yes sir.” The Lieutenant’s voice came hesitantly.

“Admiral, cannons are ready and awaiting your signal.” Qishik said. “Commence firing sequence starting 3, 2, 1, fire.” He said calmly and watched from the tactical display as the first bolts of ion particles slammed against the shipyard shields of Fondor.

Bolt after bolt of ionized particles slammed against the shield generator as it held strong against the initial onslaught but began to weight and falter under the onslaught after half an hour of continuous bombardment, opening up the way for the Scutum along with the Munificents to open fire on the soon to be exposed facilities and ships.

“Sir our shields will falter any minute.” The Lieutenant said. Rubric rubbed his beard while in thought, staring at the tactical display in front of him. Whoever this Rebel Commander was, was not to be trifled with. He had crossed the T using six cruisers on his flanks and had his super heavy weapons bombard the shields and the confined Fondor defense fleet until sector fleets nineteen and twenty could arrive to relieve the vital Imperial center.

Staring at the shield statistics one last time, he ordered the assembled fleet to charge the Rebel strike force. “Lieutenant, charge their blockade.” He ordered.

“That is madness!” The man protested. “As I said, charge their blockade, this is our only way out until we are reinforced.” He elaborates sternly. “Yes General.” The Lieutenant said bitterly.

Looking at his tactical display, Rubric could see the Fleet move into position for a general advance upon the strike force. They were using nine star destroyers alliagned in three delta formations with smaller ships filling in the gaps.

“Admiral, they are assembling for a general advance on our position.” Qishik informed. “I could sense it and I need you to go back to the bridge while I commence battle meditation.” He ordered. “Yes Admiral.” Qishik said, departing the command room for the bridge as Sigil took position to command the fleet.

Moving his CIS ships to the bottom and crossing the T using all six of his cruisers, Sigil needed to wait before dropping a hidden task force of Victory star destroyers and the Luckerhulk upon the Imperial rear.

The ships’ crews were of lower quality however because manpower shortages resulted in them replacing all but the bridge, hanger crews and pilots with older droids from fleet Indomitable.

Rubric made final adjustments and saw his rival do so in return. Placing his super heavy cannons on the belly of the Imperial flotilla. He couldn’t move his ships to strike at that side; however, he would just adjust his cruisers to counter.

Sigil ordered hammer squadron along with three other Y-wing squadrons to depart; escorted by X-wings from the Mon Calamari cruisers while his super heavy turbolasers began shooting the smaller picket ships who could counter his star fighters.

His strike force of bombers was met with swarms of Tie fighters from all directions. The rebel pilots showed resilience and the battle meditation of their Admiral, prevented the ties from forming a cohesive and organized defense allowing the rebels to blast holes through the weak points. 

All disabled ships were easy pickings for the super heavy cannons who only shot once, prioritizing ships that were yet to be disabled or couldn’t be.

Battle mediation, could only work to counter such heavy and fierce resistance for so long as one squadron of X-wings and two squadrons of Y-wings along with a Munificent were lost to the Imperial flotilla with two cruisers needing repairs as Sigil slowly withdrew his forces back, distancing the imperials from the shipyards and it’s defenses.

Once outside of Fondor’s mass shadow, Sigil sprung his trap; unleashing a Luckerhulk and three fully loaded Victory class star destroyers to the Imperial rear.

Imperial resistance crumbled under the weight of the encirclement. Surrendering under the orders of Captain Nikona, having lost a third of her star destroyers and three fifths of her picket ships. Much to the dismay of Rubric where he now had to await the sector fleets while the rebels maintained their blockade turned siege.

Rubric had however finished his mission, he had placed gravity mines all over the system, escape was impossible for them now.

Getting to his intercom, he saw the arrivals. Grand Moff Zsinj along with Grand Admirals Osvald Teshik and Josef Grunger, showing the vitality of Fondor.

Palpatine was sending a hundred and fifty star destroyers of the Imperial II class, fifty- five of the Imperial I class, Three Executors, twenty-five Victory class star destroyers and fifteen battle cruisers and heavy star destroyers to deal with the rebels.

Then it struck Rubric as to why the Emperor would send so large a force; he had been feeling dizzy and somewhat drunk during the entire engagement, a side effect of battle meditation as described by those who have fought the Rebel Admiral Sigil Trial. It wasn’t the Emperor just relieving Fondor but trying to take out the greatest strategist of the entire alliance.