Saga of the Bridgers-Year 3

Epilogue: Change of strategy

Thrawn was extremely frustrated, even if he was managing not to show it too much.

He had them. He had the rebel leaders just where he wanted them, trying to leave only when everybody else did, and then a damn storm caused by a creature of unfathomable matter just had to come in and ruin everything. At the very least, he had a good intuition when he ordered his men to fire at the center of the storm, and the creature fell on the ground, but the following confrontation with it had only managed to unsettle him even more.

All his work, months of preparations and careful planning all wiped out by something he couldn't predict or understand. He was sure the Jedi, Kanan Jarrus, had something to do with it, but Thrawn knew nothing about the Force, so all he could do was speculate.

He also felt miserable partially on behalf of Captain Tanis. During the flight back to the Chimaera, he could read the frustration in the Captain's eyes. Iulius was specifically frustrated because they had lost so many men only to have victory snatched away by an unknown force.

Is not that Iulius fraternized with his men, he wasn't frustrated for the fact that they lost 122 stormtroopers and the crew of the Alpon in itself, he hated that those men, by now, had died for nothing.

Iulius had accepted the losses at Mykapo, because he wasn't supposed to win, but only study the capabilities of the Alliance Marines. An experience that he clearly learned from, because Iulius had managed to leave 32 marines on the ground of Atollon and 4 rebel troopers by adapting his tactics from the lessons of Mykapo. He had actually shown that he learned by ambushing and capturing the INS Athens, a ship that was, supposedly, impossible to track down!

Yes, Captain Tanis did everything he was expected to do perfectly. From the flanking maneuver in the space battle to leading the ground assault from the frontline. He had followed Thrawn's plans with diligence and competence and even adapted them on the spot to get better results than the Grand Admiral had anticipated.

He had been a perfect subordinate, but even he could do nothing against that storm.

Pryce and Konstantine, on the other hand, were another story entirely. Konstantine had followed glory rather than orders and let himself get pulverized along with his Interdictor cruiser, leaving a path for Ezra Bridger to get reinforcements and destroy the second Interdictor, that Pryce was unable to defend.

Perhaps, he thought, he should've let Captain Tanis to command the blockade instead of Pryce, he would have most likely anticipated the possibility of rebel reinforcements.

But that was just speculation. Thrawn had learned the harsh truth: competent officers in the Empire were very rare. Most of the admirals in the Imperial Navy were much like Konstantine, unable to adapt their tactics, always underestimating the enemy and seeking glory rather than do what was strategically sound.

And then there was the problem of dealing with the Marines of the Imperial Federation. This was the second time that those soldiers had shown tactical superiority over the imperial soldiers. If it wasn't for Captain Tanis leading the stormtroopers, adapting the tactics of attack, they would've simply bumped their heads repeatedly against the Federation's defenses, because that was the only thing the stormtroopers were indoctrinated to do: charge in front unless an officer ordered them to do something more clever.

The Federation's Marines were definitely better equipped and had much more tactical flexibility than the stormtroopers, or the Imperial Army at large.

Even with numerical disadvantages, the Marines knew how to exploit the terrain they were defending, they rarely missed a shot and the fact that they were fighting at night with low visibility didn't affect them much, because every single one of them had been given the instruments to see at night.