Eraidu - Twelve hours after the events of Operation: Shadow Strike

The stars started twinkling before alarms aboard various vessels alerted the system authorities to the ships exiting hyperspace. Those alarms were automatically silenced as IFF beacons announced the arriving ships as friendly. First to arrive were the faster Carrack and Strike class cruisers, and then came the Imperial Star Destroyers, followed finally by the older and slower Dreadnoughts.

As per the original agreement, the various sections of the Imperial fleet had jumped for the rendezvous point at Eraidu as they withdrew from the Sullust system, rather then waiting for the entire fleet to reform. First to arrive would've been the Interdictor cruisers, then the remaining destroyers in Hunter, Fearsome, and Terror, followed finally by the combined ships in Apex, Predator, Stalker, and the Skirmish screen.

Aboard the Suppressor, Admiral Kraken reviewed the damage statistics compiled by his ship commanders in the main force, even as reports filtered in from the other groups. Star fighter losses had been higher than predicted, ranging at about 40% for the entire force, or 750 TIE star fighters. Losses among the capital ships was about what had been predicted, two destroyers lost, along with three heavy cruisers, four medium cruisers, and twelve light cruisers. Although he might forget the numbers, the names would always stay with him; Merciless, Velvet Sunderer, Constellation, Temeraire, Freedom's Demise, Elongator, Banisher, Conquistador, Dominatrix, Destructor, Detractor, Garrote, Gallows, Death Flash, Caravel, Carrack, Battleaxe, Inferno's Womb, Shadow's Touch, Hatchet's Hatred, and Swift Kill.

Nor were all the crew losses consigned to the ships listed as destroyed. Indomitable, Right to Rule, and Dragon's Claw all sustained heavy damage during the withdrawal phase of the battle, with much of the Skirmish screen and several of the destroyers taking damage of some kind that resulted in sailors or troops killed, not to mention the near one hundred percent fatality rate for the pilots. In fact, a very large portion of the Velvet Sunderer's crew had survived, to where her stated losses were more in line for a moderately damaged destroyer. But overall, roughly eighty thousand Imperial Naval personnel had perished in the attack, close to the roughly one hundred thousand estimated losses for the attack.

About half of the personnel losses had come from the destroyed Dreadnoughts, Vladimir saw. The Rebels had their Assault Frigates with reduced crew capacity while retaining the same firepower; he would have to see if Imperial R&D could come up with a similar modification to reduce the fatalities when one of the powerful ships was destroyed. The rebuilds should produce basically a new combat ship in half the time of new construction for a ship of similar size. He would fire up a report to HQ with his recommendations on that one.

For now though he had orders to give. It was time to temporarily dissolve the Task Force and send their ships home for repairs, and replacement of losses. Before that the ship crews would be allowed three days leave on Eraidu, to begin right after memorial services had concluded for those killed whose bodies had been recovered. He himself would attend a private memorial service for the twenty captains killed.