Battle of Kamino (Astragon Uprising)

The Battle of Kamino (Astragon Uprising) was the second battle in the rise of the Astragon Empire.

Prelude
The leader and founder of the group that would eventually become the Astragon Empire, Ckasaron, listened in on Imperial communications via a new Lucrehulk-class battlesphere, or giant listening post, orbiting over the new home base of Mustafar. He picked up an encrypted transmission to the surviving 501st, mentioning a "clone rebellion on Kamino" once it was deciphered.

Due to the fact that the new Mustafar base would need a large fleet to defend it, Ckasaron did not have many ships to spare to send to Kamino. The force sent to aid the Anti-Troopers on Kamino was fairly small, consisting of one Droid Control Ship (serving as both a command ship and war coordinator), six light destroyers, and four frigates. The orbiting Star Destroyer was caught completely off-guard, as the ten light warships all opened fire simultaneously with thier heavy weapons. Meanwhile, the fighters on both sides engaged on either side of the capital-scale weapons' fire.

Even with enhanced droid brains, they were still evenly matched in dogfights. The wear from the withering fire of ten prow heavy turbolaser cannons was beginning to show, however, as the Star Destroyer was seriously outgunned. Fighter-wise, it was also outnumbered. As soon as the dogfight was drawing to a close, the Star Destroyer's shields went down, allowing fighters to hit the generators so they wouldn't come back online.

Just like the previous encounter, fighters hit the reactor bulb, sensor arrays, life support, and engines. The four frigates worked together to use their other strength - powerful jamming antennas - to prevent any distress signal from getting out. Eventually, after about one and a half hours, the Star Destroyer was little more than vaporized metal and scrap parts. Ckasaron's fleet lost about fifty fighters and one of its destroyers was seriously damaged, its main hyperdrive non-functional.

The wounded destroyer limped away and used its backup to get back to base, while the Droid Control Ship began disgorging its massive landing ships - all fifty of them. It also began using its powerful jamming antennas to prevent distress signals from leaving the planet. The only other craft it launched was an armed Stealthipede-class shuttle, with Ckasaron himself on-board.

The drab colors of the landing craft were not noticed by either side fighting for Kamino. Only when both sides felt a "whump" through the metal under their feet did they notice. Both sides went into a sort of panic, as the landing craft began to disgorge armored and lighter, unarmored troopships loaded with hundreds of intelligent, upgraded battle droids. Security Droids stayed near thier landing craft, and almost started firing when a lone scout Anti-Trooper ran up to them, and asked, "Why are you here still?"

A droid commander replied, "We came to aid you against the Empire that is trying to destroy you. Tell the rest of your forces to not fire on us immediately!"

For the first time ever, clone and droid worked in unison, and they were brutally efficient at murdering the landed stormtroopers. As more landing craft took their places on Tipoca City's many landing platforms, Ckasaron, personally piloting his shuttle, used its three laser cannons to destroy the landed Imperial Shuttle. It then landed where it once stood.

Ckasaron got out of his ship, he immediately drew one of his many lightsabaers he built, and began to massacre the surrounded Stormtroopers. He happened to run into someone he did not expect - the famous bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Ckasaron called for Fett to stop leading the stormtroopers, but he did not answer anything else except, "Pay me more than what they're paying and I'll switch sides." Ckasaron said nothing but threw him an ingot of Aurodium, one of the most valueable metals in the galaxy. Since Fett, like any bounty hunter, will go wherever the more money is, he quickly changed sides (as aurodium is worth 350 million credits per ingot).

With no leader and more droids deploying from their landing ships all the time, the stormtroopers were quickly surrounded, while the as-of-yet-unseen Rail-class ARC Troopers equipped with chainguns charged out of the cloning facilities to further surround the stormtroopers. Vulture Droids and Beak-wings dogfighted with TIE Fighters and Interceptors in the skies, while two LAAT/i gunships began to bombard scattered stortrooper scouts. Even when the few survivors dropped their weapons to try and surrender, Ckasaron knew that they would send a distress signal the second a droid or clone wasn't looking, so Ckasaron personally slew the last one with a cortosis-weave vibrorapier unmercifully.

With all remaining stormtroopers out of the way, Ckasaron immediately began to make preparations for the arrival of reinforcements to transport the cloning facility out of the system. He would need a core ship, maybe two, to transport the whole facility to a new planet he found before confronting Vader at Mustafar.

Immediately, he signaled the Control Ship, but it did not respond. All he got were flickers of a signal and static. He told the Kaminoans and Anti-Troopers to stay where they were, since there was a problem. He took his shuttle up to the Control Ship, only to find it and the rest of his ships in heavy combat with a massive Imperial Fleet.

Two Venator-class Star Destroyers served as fighter carriers, while six Victory I-class Star Destroyers served as the main punch of the fighting force. Two Emancipator-class Star Destroyers served as the backbone of the fleet, while a rare and unusual ship was commanding the Imperial Fleet.

A Venator-class Star Destroyer Mk. II, a sort of "stepping stone" design between the old Venators and modern Emancipators, was leading them from the middle of the fleet. It was also quite rare, with only a handful being made before the Emancipator-type went into full production.

Rather than destroy it, Ckasaron wanted it as his own. However, he would need more ships to beat them back. Using the independent communication system on his shuttle, he managed to get a message across to bring in the whole fleet, except the supply ships.

His forces fought conservatively, using their long-range prow heavy turbolaser cannons to focus firepower on one ship at a time. Even so, the Droids and Imps were essentially matched in numbers, even fighters.

A wave of fighter/bomber TIE g/t starfighters was closing in around the Control Ship, until a hail of turbolaser fire came in from behind the Control Ship. A fleet, though not his, arrived. A Rebel Alliance Fleet came in, and the Imperials immediately turned to engage them. Most of the gunfire was now directed at the rebels, so he could finally get to his command ship.

Upon reaching the bridge, Ckasaron immediately contacted the Rebel Fleet, asking them why they were here, of all places. They said that they got some very good info about Imperial cloning operations and said that one of them was here, on this remote world. So they came to at least halt the production, and then they nearly ran into the Droid Control Ship.

This was good news for Ckasaron, as he saw X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings, and B-wings all launch from their ships or have arrived via their hyperdrives. Most of the TIEs were diverted towards the Rebels, as they had been a pain in the Empire's neck far longer than Ckasaron ever had.

Meanwhile, Ckasaron ordered his ships to move behind the Rebel Fleet, using them as cover while his own ships were licking their wounds. Only a handful of fighters did not follow, as they were keeping the few TIEs that still chased them away from the damaged warships.

His warships were in fairly bad shape, with the shield systems on all of them nearly depleted and about half their fighter complements destroyed. Only his Droid Control Ship was unscathed, and that was only due to the legendary shields of the massive ships.

Most of the Imperials' firepower was diverted towards the pair of Mon Calamari Star Cruisers leading the Rebel Fleet. Multiple CR90 corvettes and four Nebulon-B frigates were also present. However, the most unusual ship in their fleet was a familiar ship.

A single Recusant-class light destroyer, albeit heavily modified for a 1,040-person organic crew, was situated behind and between a pair of Nebulon-Bs, using them as effective fighter cover.

Ckasaron opened a comm channel, asking, "We lost a ship during an earlier firefight over Kamino. Mind if we take command of that light destroyer you have with you?"

At first there was nothing, but eventually an "OK" message arrived, and Ckasaron ordered the ship to get in formation with his five destroyers. The rebel fleet also brought a Sagina-class Interdiction Cruiser to prevent the Imperial fleet from leaving. Ckasaron asked the Rebels to move the gravity wave cone to the starboard side of the Imperial fleet. All six light destroyers, five normal and one modified, flew out to the left of the rebels, then reoriented to face the Imperial Fleet. All six ships then activated their hyperdrives, briefly entering hyperspace and coming out right next to the two Emancipators, firing their prow heavy turbolaser cannons at point-blank range, destroying them both before either could raise their shields.

Then, ordering the interdictor to move the cone to the port side of the Imperial fleet, ordered his four Munificent star frigates to do the same, and they took out three of the four Victory-class Star Destroyers, which had about half the shield power of an Emancipator. Once most of the escorts were down, both the frigates and light destroyers opened fire on the two Venators from both sides, destroying them, while his own Droid Control Ship exchanged massive broadsides with the final Victory Star Destroyer.

Once most of the escorting ships with the Venator Mk. II were destroyed, three of the four frigates and both Rebel Star Cruisers were ordered by Ckasaron to open fire on the Mk. II, but only with ion cannons. He also ordered the Interdictor to focus its projectors on the Mk. II. Meanwhile, the fourth frigate and the Droid Control Ship continued exchanging broadsides with the final Victory Star Destroyer. The frigate used its dual turbolasers and four of its eight flak guns to puncture deep wounds in its side, while the sheer power of the Control Ship's quad heavy turbolaser batteries was beginning to show on the other side.

By the time the Mk. II was disabled, the Victory SD made a last-ditch effort to escape, but before it could activate its hyperdrive, the continuing fire from the control ship caused it to explode. Ckasaron launched his four intact boarding ships with his droid marines, commando droids, and other skilled infantry.

Finally, after almost two hours, Ckasaron seized the ship and killed everyone on board. He thanked the Rebels for their assistance, relinquishing command of the modified light destroyer. However, he told them that the cloning facilities were now under his control, not the Empire's, so the Alliance Fleet turned and left.

With a rare and powerful ship under his command, Ckasaron then turned to see the rest of his fleet move into orbit. Two of the battleships detached their cores, which went down to the planet to collect the cloning facilities and transport them elsewhere. Even so, the individual circular clone pod clusters had to be carefully taken out of the buildings and fitted into the hangars on the sides of each core ship.

Once all traces of the Tipoca city facility were removed and taken into orbit, the one remaining landing ship rejoined the Droid Control Ship, and now Ckasaron's fleet was making its way to their newly discovered base planet.