Star Wars ficbit
May. 8th, 2014 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardThis is why I shouldn't be left to my own devices. I write stuff like this. ”Oh, hey, I’m a historian,” I say to myself. “Maybe I should try plotting out the big stuff in Gambit like I’m writing a history paper, then once I’ve figured out where the chess pieces need to go I can write the rest.”
Yeah, apparently I forgot how I actually write history papers. I didn’t even get past the first major event, but hey, at least I got some backstory and world-building done. (This technically describes an event that takes place after the most recent chapter of Gambit; it’s mentioned in Gambit 10 and will probably actually occur on or offscreen in Gambit 11, but I don’t really consider it spoilery because it doesn’t involve any of the main characters. There is some interesting stuff about Naboo during the Occupation.)
There's a fair amount of outside media in Gambit, but this probably won't be part of it. But, you know, fun times, and fictional history is the sort of thing I love writing. (Also, straight up, with the exception of the names, this is essentially original fiction since it's really, really AU from actual canon. What's that, Bedlam has been reading a lot of military sci-fi lately? You don't say.)
Originally posted on Tumblr.
*
After Nute Gunray’s ill-conceived attack on Naboo, events began moving much more quickly than either Dooku or Amidala intended. Less than a day after the bombardment, with civilians still trapped in the rubble of Theed and the Naboo planetary defense grid in tatters, a flotilla of forty warships broke off from the Naboo Second Fleet and took off for the Serenno System, home of Supreme Chancellor Dooku.
Much digital ink has been spent on debating whether Strike Group Five, as the flotilla was officially designated, was sent on a retaliatory mission by Queen Amidala or whether Commodore Celador Nanda independently made the rather dramatic decision to attack Serenno. A number of transmissions from the days immediately following the bombardment still remain classified by the Special Operations Bureau, but what it is known is that within hours of Strike Group Five’s departure Amidala called a meeting of all flag and general officers in the Naboo planetary defense forces. One of the matters under discussion was retaliation against the Trade Federation.
Rash decisions were certainly in Commodore Nanda’s character. At the age of thirty-two, Celador Nanda was, like many of Naboo’s flag and general officers, young for her position, part of the generation that had come too quickly to adulthood under the Occupation. Thirteen years earlier she had been a cadet in the Royal Security Forces Academy at Parrlay. When Trade Federation forces occupied the planet, she, along with the other cadets at RSFA Parrlay, were interned at Internment Center 953TR5 in the Teras-Luun Hills. Nanda and the other internees spent almost six months in IC 953TR5 before they were liberated by Obi-Wan Kenobi and a strike team from Theed. Nanda, along with many of the cadets that would later become her fellow fleet and army officers, joined the Naboo resistance. Like most of her generation – which included both Amidala and Kenobi – she bore a deep and lasting resentment towards the Trade Federation and the Republic and was an outspoken proponent of retaliatory action against both for their parts in the Occupation.
After the Liberation of Naboo, Nanda returned to RSFA Parrlay and three years later was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Naboo Security Forces. Brilliant, vivacious, and talented, she volunteered for the newly-created Naboo Home Fleet, serving as a junior officer on the battlestar Constellation before becoming captain of the light cruiser Resolve. On Constellation, and later on Resolve, the destroyer Integrity, and the heavy cruiser Fearless, she served in all of Naboo’s major engagements before the declaration of planetary sovereignty. Shortly after the formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, she was given command of the battlestar Intrepid and promoted to captain. Her promotion to commodore two years later came along with command of Strike Group Five, which, although technically under the command of Admiral Niko Hamilcar, often operated independently of the Second Fleet.
In the wake of the Second Battle of Naboo, news of the attack spread quickly through the armed forces of the Confederacy. Amidala’s broadcast to the people of Naboo, meant only to be a holdover until more information about the attack could be gathered, was transmitted over the Confederate HoloNet. Within forty-two hours, every member of the Naboo armed forces serving abroad had heard about the attack on their home system. Reprisal was the word on everyone’s lips, and questions about retaliation were flying fast and furious between Naboo and the commanding officers of the First and Second Fleets and their associated strike groups. Scarcely less urgent were the transmissions from other planetary leaders, delegates to the Confederate Congress, and non-Naboo military officers. Amidala was being pressured on all sides to act and act quickly – and preferably bloodily.
In this context, Strike Group Five’s departure from the Second Fleet seems logical. The slowest ship in Strike Group Five was Intrepid herself and the battlestar was the fastest of her generation, able to keep up with a heavy cruiser squadron, if not destroyers and light cruisers at full speed. Nanda was used to commanding fast fleet actions and blitzkrieg attacks against orbital stations and planetary establishments, though it was for the defense of a civilian convoy that she received her final promotion to commodore. At thirty-two years old, when officers in most other space navies were still years away from their first commands, she was the seventh highest-ranking officer in the Royal Naboo Navy, which was distinguished for the youth of its officers. With Aimil Agathon and Yfandé Locha with the Home Fleet, Cimon Rioni and Jaime Osuna with the First Fleet, Yuilé Katherie on Dac, and Niko Hamilcar commanding the Second Fleet, Celador Nanda was the rational choice to command a blitz attack on the Supreme Chancellor’s home planet. She was a personal friend of Queen Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi, both of whom preferred assigning dangerous missions to those they knew and trusted. Her loyalty to Amidala was exceptional even among the Naboo officer corps, the majority of whom had worked directly with the Queen during the Occupation. Although absolutely ruthless, especially when faced with commerce guild warships, she was no more so than other survivors of the Federation Occupation. The suggestion that she might have gone rogue and taken matters into her own hands seems absurd at best, slanderous at worst.
After all military targets on Serenno had been reduced to smoking craters and Strike Group Five had rejoined the Second Fleet, Queen Amidala claimed responsibility for the blitzkrieg attack. Yet the orders, though signed by the Queen, are suspiciously post-dated, their digital trail leading to the days after attack rather than those before it. Moreover, not all the ships assigned to Strike Group Five accompanied Intrepid, while the Eighth Heavy Cruiser Squadron left its assigned position in the Second Fleet to join the flotilla. Post-dated orders excuse this discrepancy, but most damning are the scattering of escort warships that joined Strike Group Five without the accompaniment of their squadrons. Although the content itself has been scrubbed, timestamps from the message traffic in captured Second Fleet warships suggest that transmissions were flying fast and heavy not only between Admiral Hamilcar’s flagship, Steadfast, and Intrepid, but also between individual ships in the fleet, including broadcasts from both Steadfast and Intrepid to the fleet.
It is easy to imagine the chaos that must have occurred after the Second Fleet, light-years away from their homeworld, heard about the attack on Naboo. First the official announcement by Admiral Hamilcar, who addressed the fleet personally, then the HoloNews coverage and Queen Amidala’s broadcast. Tempers were running high; nearly all of the Naboo personnel had friends or family still living in the system, and even those who didn’t hail from Naboo were hollering for blood. Hamilcar’s assertions that they would get it sooner rather than later must not have been enough for Nanda, who had a long history of rash actions that usually fell just under the letter of her orders, if not quite in the spirit. For Amidala and Kenobi, this was usually enough. Either alone or in conjunction with the captains under her command, Nanda made the decision to retaliate against the Galactic Republic for their attack on Naboo. Whether or not she knew that the Trade Federation had acted without the blessing of the Galactic Senate was inconsequential. The Republic had attacked her homeworld; she was going to return the favor. With Cato Neimodia and Coruscant out of reach, she took the next best – and most powerfully symbolic – option. Serenno, homeworld of Supreme Chancellor Dooku.
- Ghirry, I. Asunder: A History of the Clone Wars, Volume II. Alderaan: University of Alderaan Press.
Yeah, apparently I forgot how I actually write history papers. I didn’t even get past the first major event, but hey, at least I got some backstory and world-building done. (This technically describes an event that takes place after the most recent chapter of Gambit; it’s mentioned in Gambit 10 and will probably actually occur on or offscreen in Gambit 11, but I don’t really consider it spoilery because it doesn’t involve any of the main characters. There is some interesting stuff about Naboo during the Occupation.)
There's a fair amount of outside media in Gambit, but this probably won't be part of it. But, you know, fun times, and fictional history is the sort of thing I love writing. (Also, straight up, with the exception of the names, this is essentially original fiction since it's really, really AU from actual canon. What's that, Bedlam has been reading a lot of military sci-fi lately? You don't say.)
Originally posted on Tumblr.
*
After Nute Gunray’s ill-conceived attack on Naboo, events began moving much more quickly than either Dooku or Amidala intended. Less than a day after the bombardment, with civilians still trapped in the rubble of Theed and the Naboo planetary defense grid in tatters, a flotilla of forty warships broke off from the Naboo Second Fleet and took off for the Serenno System, home of Supreme Chancellor Dooku.
Much digital ink has been spent on debating whether Strike Group Five, as the flotilla was officially designated, was sent on a retaliatory mission by Queen Amidala or whether Commodore Celador Nanda independently made the rather dramatic decision to attack Serenno. A number of transmissions from the days immediately following the bombardment still remain classified by the Special Operations Bureau, but what it is known is that within hours of Strike Group Five’s departure Amidala called a meeting of all flag and general officers in the Naboo planetary defense forces. One of the matters under discussion was retaliation against the Trade Federation.
Rash decisions were certainly in Commodore Nanda’s character. At the age of thirty-two, Celador Nanda was, like many of Naboo’s flag and general officers, young for her position, part of the generation that had come too quickly to adulthood under the Occupation. Thirteen years earlier she had been a cadet in the Royal Security Forces Academy at Parrlay. When Trade Federation forces occupied the planet, she, along with the other cadets at RSFA Parrlay, were interned at Internment Center 953TR5 in the Teras-Luun Hills. Nanda and the other internees spent almost six months in IC 953TR5 before they were liberated by Obi-Wan Kenobi and a strike team from Theed. Nanda, along with many of the cadets that would later become her fellow fleet and army officers, joined the Naboo resistance. Like most of her generation – which included both Amidala and Kenobi – she bore a deep and lasting resentment towards the Trade Federation and the Republic and was an outspoken proponent of retaliatory action against both for their parts in the Occupation.
After the Liberation of Naboo, Nanda returned to RSFA Parrlay and three years later was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Naboo Security Forces. Brilliant, vivacious, and talented, she volunteered for the newly-created Naboo Home Fleet, serving as a junior officer on the battlestar Constellation before becoming captain of the light cruiser Resolve. On Constellation, and later on Resolve, the destroyer Integrity, and the heavy cruiser Fearless, she served in all of Naboo’s major engagements before the declaration of planetary sovereignty. Shortly after the formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, she was given command of the battlestar Intrepid and promoted to captain. Her promotion to commodore two years later came along with command of Strike Group Five, which, although technically under the command of Admiral Niko Hamilcar, often operated independently of the Second Fleet.
In the wake of the Second Battle of Naboo, news of the attack spread quickly through the armed forces of the Confederacy. Amidala’s broadcast to the people of Naboo, meant only to be a holdover until more information about the attack could be gathered, was transmitted over the Confederate HoloNet. Within forty-two hours, every member of the Naboo armed forces serving abroad had heard about the attack on their home system. Reprisal was the word on everyone’s lips, and questions about retaliation were flying fast and furious between Naboo and the commanding officers of the First and Second Fleets and their associated strike groups. Scarcely less urgent were the transmissions from other planetary leaders, delegates to the Confederate Congress, and non-Naboo military officers. Amidala was being pressured on all sides to act and act quickly – and preferably bloodily.
In this context, Strike Group Five’s departure from the Second Fleet seems logical. The slowest ship in Strike Group Five was Intrepid herself and the battlestar was the fastest of her generation, able to keep up with a heavy cruiser squadron, if not destroyers and light cruisers at full speed. Nanda was used to commanding fast fleet actions and blitzkrieg attacks against orbital stations and planetary establishments, though it was for the defense of a civilian convoy that she received her final promotion to commodore. At thirty-two years old, when officers in most other space navies were still years away from their first commands, she was the seventh highest-ranking officer in the Royal Naboo Navy, which was distinguished for the youth of its officers. With Aimil Agathon and Yfandé Locha with the Home Fleet, Cimon Rioni and Jaime Osuna with the First Fleet, Yuilé Katherie on Dac, and Niko Hamilcar commanding the Second Fleet, Celador Nanda was the rational choice to command a blitz attack on the Supreme Chancellor’s home planet. She was a personal friend of Queen Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi, both of whom preferred assigning dangerous missions to those they knew and trusted. Her loyalty to Amidala was exceptional even among the Naboo officer corps, the majority of whom had worked directly with the Queen during the Occupation. Although absolutely ruthless, especially when faced with commerce guild warships, she was no more so than other survivors of the Federation Occupation. The suggestion that she might have gone rogue and taken matters into her own hands seems absurd at best, slanderous at worst.
After all military targets on Serenno had been reduced to smoking craters and Strike Group Five had rejoined the Second Fleet, Queen Amidala claimed responsibility for the blitzkrieg attack. Yet the orders, though signed by the Queen, are suspiciously post-dated, their digital trail leading to the days after attack rather than those before it. Moreover, not all the ships assigned to Strike Group Five accompanied Intrepid, while the Eighth Heavy Cruiser Squadron left its assigned position in the Second Fleet to join the flotilla. Post-dated orders excuse this discrepancy, but most damning are the scattering of escort warships that joined Strike Group Five without the accompaniment of their squadrons. Although the content itself has been scrubbed, timestamps from the message traffic in captured Second Fleet warships suggest that transmissions were flying fast and heavy not only between Admiral Hamilcar’s flagship, Steadfast, and Intrepid, but also between individual ships in the fleet, including broadcasts from both Steadfast and Intrepid to the fleet.
It is easy to imagine the chaos that must have occurred after the Second Fleet, light-years away from their homeworld, heard about the attack on Naboo. First the official announcement by Admiral Hamilcar, who addressed the fleet personally, then the HoloNews coverage and Queen Amidala’s broadcast. Tempers were running high; nearly all of the Naboo personnel had friends or family still living in the system, and even those who didn’t hail from Naboo were hollering for blood. Hamilcar’s assertions that they would get it sooner rather than later must not have been enough for Nanda, who had a long history of rash actions that usually fell just under the letter of her orders, if not quite in the spirit. For Amidala and Kenobi, this was usually enough. Either alone or in conjunction with the captains under her command, Nanda made the decision to retaliate against the Galactic Republic for their attack on Naboo. Whether or not she knew that the Trade Federation had acted without the blessing of the Galactic Senate was inconsequential. The Republic had attacked her homeworld; she was going to return the favor. With Cato Neimodia and Coruscant out of reach, she took the next best – and most powerfully symbolic – option. Serenno, homeworld of Supreme Chancellor Dooku.
- Ghirry, I. Asunder: A History of the Clone Wars, Volume II. Alderaan: University of Alderaan Press.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-09 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-09 11:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-10 04:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-11 08:04 am (UTC)Fake history and fake media are two of my favorite things in fiction.