[Azatol]

The Pendulum Swings

Queen Laraina convinced the archivist that a general retreat was in order, with one ship from each fleet staying to maintain the blockade as long as could be done. The fleets must resupply, and also get out of range of an Imperial counterattack. The colony ship on its way to Polaris won't arive for several years yet. The ships set out on 2422.2, as the last of the fighting on Polaris IV for some time was dying down, and once again the Droid manufacturing would resume there.

The Monarchy had a new long term troop plan, with the new and most powerful mechanized troop, Alaudae. The new armies of the Monarchy would be totally mechanized, and Queen Laraina set a production goal of 10 megatons of troop transport capacity, which came to 500 Alaudae mechanized units.

The new plan for the Collective was to get the supply situation in order and begin heavy bombardment of the Polaris homeworld, however before that could happen, both allied fleets needed to resupply and reassert their naval dominance.

The long war against the Empire went into yet another dormant stage, while the Empire was constructing fuelers, and the allies were rebuilding and rethinking their troops.

With the Empire's new Black Sword design, they finally had caught up to the hulls of the Initiative, with four heavy mount lasers, eight missile defense cannons and 1200 points of shielding, this would be a very powerful ship against both fleets they'd be going up against.

The only question that remains is the Empire's ability to make enough of them. Without a significant production base, each of these could be overwhelmed by the Collective's missiles. While the Empire outproduced the Monarchy, the diversion of Polaris's production to troops meant in Naval production, the Empire was lacking compared to the very industrious Collective.

Eighteen Basilisk II's gave the Empire a definite punch, since while the allies had been scrambling for troops, the Empire steadily rebuilt its navy. Now only refuelers were neaded before the next chapter of space warfare could begin.

After a considerable production run, the Monarchy troop unit Alaudae was upgraded to Alaudae II with the addition of an advanced cockpit to the mech. The Colonies in Listra were working on producing these troops as well, with a couple transports due to pick them up. Estimated completion time for the full transport load was 3-4 years still.

The Colony ship coming to Polaris was diverted to a small planet in Dinara a neighboring system, since it would arrive there shortly before the Collective fleet enters the system.

2423.0

The Monarchy fleet was slowly approaching Chelkibar, the Collective home system. The fleet had some extra supplies after all which enabled them to get quickly away from the Polaris system before running out. Meanwhile the Collective fleet is still in Polaris, almost into Dinara, and hoping to make use of the colony ship when it arrives, as the unsupplied fleet would not arrive back in Chelkibar for several years.

The Empire is ready to attack in the coming months however, as only one fueler ship remains to be construction.

2423.1

The fleet moves out, and the first of the Black Swords enter construction. The warship manifest of the Imperial fleet is:

2 Badlands Cruisers
1 Banthar Heavy Cruiser
18 Basilisk II Heavy Cruisers

The Banthar is the pre-missile defense warship based on the Heavy Cruiser hull. Each Basilisk II has 8 missile defense cannons.

2423.5

The Imperial fleet enters the Polaris system, reasserting control of it. The last of the fleeting Collective ships have warped out, troops on planet inform Darth Vader of their heavier losses during the second ground war. They also tell Vader that the allied fleets have fled to resupply.

The Imperial fleet resupplies and orders the continuing construction of droids on planet instead of shifting to naval production. The Empire doubts the capacity of the allies to bombing its droid troops, and therefore, they act as insurance better than the fleet itself.

The fleet then continues onward to strike at collective operations, and by Vader's reckoning, to chase down the fleeing allied fleets.

2423.8

The Imperial fleet has caught up to the lagging Collective ships. It is likely the entire Collective fleet will be engaged and destroyed by next month.

2423.9

The Imperial fleet engages the first group of unsupplied Collective warships. Unable to fire their missiles nor able to move quickly enough to use ramming tactics they are quickly cut down.

After defeating the rear elements, the fleet went on to eviscerate the rest of the Collective forces, leaving only a few newly constructed ships left.

The next test for the allies was whether the Monarchy fleet would escape. They had just entered the Chelikbar system, but would take some time to arrive at the homeworld and resupply. If the Monarchy fleet fell as well, the Empire could blockade the Collective homeworld. Without any troop transports nor sufficient firepower however, the Empire can not do any more than blockading and destroying colonies of the Collective.

The Imperial fleet will likely not be able to catch the Monarchy since its current supply levels are reaching one third full, they will have to turn back, allowing the Monarchy to reach the Collective homeworld safely. Then the question is which of the two fleets is superior. The Boarding ships of the Monarchy may tip things in their favor, but against so much point defense, the fighters of the Monarchy fleet will be devastated.

Stopping to destroy the new military colony the Collective had built, Vader then ordered the fleet to return to Polaris and resupply. Production on Polaris IV shifted to Troop transports to make use of the vast quantity of droids produced there, for the coming offensive campaign against the Collective...