Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

So, this will cover the aftermath of the Imperial attack on Earth, which I will be referring to by its Imperial codename, Operation Nightcloak.

Let's get to it.

anthonyapodaca63: I envision it as the same general design as an Executor, but much larger, without the cityscape on top of it like an Executor, and a straight wedge shape instead of the hull cutting inwards close to the stern.

rangerhero: TO answer your question, I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

CT7567Rules: In-universe, they're not named after him. But as for why I chose to give them that name, I will admit it was inspired in part, but also because I liked the name given the missile's concept.

Dalej0523: Not sure.

Guest DCDGojira: Haven't thought of titles yet. I'm not even done with the plots for most of them.

Chapter 52- Aftermath

(March 19, 2016)

Hall and Ahsoka sigh a bit as they walk through the front doors of the Pentagon. They've been helping clear out the final pockets of Imperial forces around Washington DC following the closure of the planetary shield. At the time the shield closed, there were still about 40,000 stormtroopers around the city. It had taken hours for the defenders to eliminate the threat. After hours, they had finally killed all the stormtroopers who would not surrender, and taken the remainder, numbering about 6,000, prisoner.

Hall and Ahsoka make their way through the halls of the Pentagon, heading to a specific lift that will take them down to the International Military Command Center. After entering it, they begin the ride down.

After a few minutes, the lift door opens, and they walk out of the lift. As they enter the Command Center, they see many of the men of the Joint Command, as well as Thrawn, standing around the central conference table, looking over various reports.

Grand General Dempsey looks over at them as they approach. "General Hall. General Tano," he says in greeting.

"General Dempsey," Hall says in response.

"Good to see you both made it out in good shape," Dempsey says.

"What's our status? How well did we make it out of this?" Hall asks.

"If we're talking just about DC, not too bad. There was heavy damage on the other side of the Potomac where most of the fighting took place. But our troops and civilian defenders held them off very well. The damage to infrastructure was more extensive than casualties. Right now, estimates of casualties between troops and civilian defenders are around 4,000 dead and about 10,000 wounded," Dempsey says.

"Have we received word from other parts of the world?" Hall asks.

"Yes. We've received word of landings around Baltimore, in northern Utah, central Texas, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Myanmar, central Thailand and near Hanoi. Reports suggest that across the world, there were at least 150,000 stormtroopers still on the ground at the time we raised the shield. Most of them are now either dead or in custody. We have troops trying to clean the last few pockets of Imperial troops, mainly in south-east Asia. Reports suggest that defenders across the planet have sustained at last 80,000 casualties, and reports are still coming in," Dempsey says.

"What about in orbit?" Hall asks.

"It was a struggle to begin with. Task Force 1 was facing almost 4 to 1 odds. They lost over 60 ships before reinforcements arrived," Roughead says.

"Did the plan work?" Hall asks.

"Like a champ. Wish we could've executed it a bit sooner to minimize losses, but once it closed on the Imps, it was slaughter. Final reports show less than 100 ships of the original fleet, which was almost 800 ships, managed to escape. We took a few more losses, but it worked," Roughead says.

"How many ships did we lose?" Hall asks.

"71. Six Interdiction cruisers, 19 light cruisers, 16 heavy cruisers, and 30 London class Star Destroyers. The Rebels also lost 7 of their cruisers. Almost all of the remaining ships in Task Force 1 took moderate to heavy damage, and many of them are going to need months of repairs, so right now our number of operational combat ready ships is about half of what it was before the battle. It's going to set back some of our invasion plans at least a few months, but we're already adapting our plans. Thankfully we didn't lose any of our capital ships, though," Roughead says.

Hall nods, a little grim. If the Empire tries a second invasion, of a similar size to what they just tried, it could be devastating for Earth. However, if the Imperial command has any brains, they wouldn't try another invasion of Earth so soon after the first failed so spectacularly.

(New York City)

Luke and Kelly slowly walk in hand along one of the ruined streets in Merrick, one of the towns along the coast of Long Island. Merrick took heavy damage during the battle. It was subjected to fierce air attacks by CAS aircraft, shellfire from American tanks and artillery, and was subjected to heavy bombardment from the New Jersey and Wisconsin. Thankfully, civilians were evacuated after it became clear that Imperials were landing on Long Island, so there were no civilian casualties.

Clean up operations had already begun. Cleanup crews were working to clear debris, wreckage, and unexploded ordnance from the streets. Crews of troops were also working to recover the bodies of the dead from the battle. Remains of defenders were being gathered and taken to La Guardia Airport for temporary storage until they could be identified and returned to their families for burial. Any remains of stormtroopers that were recovered were taken out to sea and buried at sea.

"So much damage," Kelly says as she looks at a row of apartment buildings that was levelled by a shell from the Wisconsin.

"I know," Luke says. After a moments of silence, he says, "At least there were no civilian casualties. Destroyed and damaged buildings can be rebuilt."

Kelly smiles and gives Luke a kiss on the cheek. "You always being concerned about others is one of the things I love most about you," she says.

Luke smiles at her. Right then, Kelly's commlink starts to beep. Kelly pulls it out and holds it up before activating it, and an image of her brother comes up.

"Hey, Calvin," she says.

"Hey, sis. Good to see you're in one piece," Calvin says.

"I'm okay. We both are," Kelly says, twisting her commlink slightly so Luke can be seen to.

Calvin smiles. "Good. If you hadn't made it and Luke had, I would have had to kill him for not protecting you," he says, and the three laugh.

"How's it going down in New York?" Calvin asks.

"Alright. All Imperial resistance is long gone. They're working on early stages of clean up right now. We decided we wanted to take a walk out on Long Island and inspect the damage. See how bad it is," Kelly says. She pauses for a moment, then says, "What about you?"

"Well, since Baltimore is totally empty, they sent me out to Utah to help hunt down the few Imperial forces that escaped Park City. I just finished tracking them down near Logan," Calvin says.

"Good. I talked to dad a little while ago. It seems like almost all of the remaining Imperial forces trapped on Earth have either been destroyed or captured," Kelly says.

"Yeah. Now we get to work rebuilding and recovering," Calvin says.

"The hardest part," Kelly says.

"You're right on that, sis. I'll probably be out here for a week or two. But once I'm done out here, I'll come back to the East Coast, and we'll get dinner somewhere in Manhattan," Calvin says with a smile.

"Sounds good to me, brother," Kelly says.

Calvin smiles, then the transmission cuts off. Kelly returns the commlink to its place on her belt.

Kelly then turns to Luke. "After we're done with all this, you and me are going on vacation to Hawaii," she says.

Luke chuckles and says, "Sounds good to me."

(Secret command bunker in Utah)

In his secret command bunker deep under the Rocky Mountains of Utah, President Obama, along with President Putin, look over the reports sent from the Pentagon.

The battles to defend Earth went much better this time than they did in the Separatist invasion. Not only were they dealing with less ground forces this time around, but they were even more defenses set up, and the Alliance understood their enemy even better. There were a multitude of small and large scale ground battles in the US, western Russia, and south-east Asia. Estimates currently showed around 100,000 casualties among the defenders, while all of the Imperial forces that landed that were not able to escape before the shield closed, which were estimated at about 350,000, were either dead or had been taken prisoner.

The Home Fleet had successfully defeated the Imperial fleet, thanks to Thrawn's trap. However, while the Empire had lost almost their entire fleet, a total of about 7 times the number of lost ships as the Home Fleet, it was bigger blow to the overall Starfleet than the Imperial losses were for the Empire. The Empire still had tens of thousands of various ships in their fleet. However, the number of ships the Starfleet represented about a sixth of their entire fleet. It was going to be tough for the Alliance to fight the Empire as effectively while also defending Terra with such losses. However, the good thing was that they had not lost any capital ships during the battle. That would make a huge difference for the Starfleet's ability to deal with the Empire after this battle.

However, one thing is now clear to Obama. And that thought is what makes it out of his mouth as he turns to Putin.

"We've lost a sixth of our fleet. We need to be able to bring more power to bear against the Empire in future operations. We will need to discuss this with the Admiralty, but I think it's about time we send the Freedom to the Andromeda Galaxy," Obama says.

"I agree," Putin replies simply.

"We also owe our survival greatly to Thrawn and his tactics. I believe that his effectiveness would be greater in the field. I think it is time to assign him a fleet command instead of keeping him in the Admiralty," Obama says.

"Agreed. If Thrawn is in the field commanding our forces, it will give us an even greater advantage," Putin says.

(Somewhere in the Outer Rim, Executor)

"You attacked with 788 ships and only escaped with 64?" the Emperor yells.

"Yes, my master. When we attacked, the fleet was only a quarter the size of ours. We began the landings and were working to destroy their fleet. But their ground defenses were better than we anticipated. The Terrans then raised a planetary shield to trap our ground forces on the planet, and three more fleets jumped into the system to reinforce the Terrans. With their reinforcements and their nuclear weapons, they devastated our fleet. They also used their computer systems to take control of a number of our ships and disable them. We were only able to escape by destroying their interdiction cruisers," Vader says.

"How could the Terrans come up with such a fleet?" the Emperor asks.

"I do not know. When I last visited the planet, they had hardly the resources to build a few dozen small ships. They must have found some way to build a greater fleet. How, I do not know. But, I believe I have discovered how they came up with a battle plan that so devastated our fleet. Some of the tactics, I recognized. While I cannot say for certain, I now belief that, somehow, Grand Admiral Thrawn is now working for the Terran Alliance," Vader replies.

The Emperor is silent for several moments, visibly stunned. Then, he asks, "Thrawn is working for the Terran Alliance?"

"I believe so. They used some very specific tactics I recognize as tactics Thrawn devised. And the overall genius of the plan further reinforced this to me. I now firmly believe Thrawn somehow travelled to the Terran system and at some point pledged them his loyalty. I believe that also explains the recent rise in Terran aggressiveness and effectiveness of their forces," Vader says.

The Emperor is silent for a few moments before he says, "Do you believe we should attempt another attack on Earth?"

"I do not, my master. They will now be even more wary, and will have fortified Earth more extensively. And we have no idea as of yet where other worlds of the Alliance are. With Thrawn helping them, another attack on Earth would be suicidal unless we committed every ship and resource we could," Vader says.

The Emperor is again quiet for a moment before saying, "We are left with once choice. We will resist the Terran Alliance as strongly as we can. Then, once the new battlestation is completed, we will send it to Earth and destroy them once and for all."

Vader personally has some reservations about this, worried that the Terrans may yet have weapons they have not yet revealed, and that the weapons they have so far revealed could still cause heavy damage to the new Death Star. However, he does not voice these concerns.

"Return to Coruscant, Lord Vader, and we will discuss our next move," the Emperor says.

"Yes, my master," Vader says, bowing himself before the Emperor as his image dissipates.

Alright, I'll end the chapter there.

So, yes, the Empire lost over 700 of their ships in the attack on Earth. And Thrawn is the one really responsible for that.

Now, I want to address my plans for side stories. Most of my side stories take place after the events of this story, and for that reason, I will begin writing the side stories once I finish this story, including the ones that take place during the time between this story and the first. However, there is one story I will be posting soon. That story, which I have already mostly written, will be a story about 9/11, and how the events of that day played out in this universe. I will be posting the first chapter on September 10, so you can look forward to that.

Next chapter will be up soon. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned.