The Xen'Chi Invasion: Rogue Fleet

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The Xen'Chi Invasion: Rogue Fleet

Post by Halomek »

Deep in space an armada waited patiently. The pale gray hulls of Imperial designs formed a protective barrier around an onyx command ship that was twice the length of the average Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The command ship was known as the Enforcer, designed and commanded by one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy: Reng Kasr, a former Grand Admiral of the Empire and founder of the secret organization known as Oremin.

The ships Kasr had drawn away from protecting Oremin to create the fleet were a diverse array of powers and designs, more than capable of wreaking havoc on any target Kasr set his sights upon. Unfortunately for the Xen’Chi, Kasr planned to aim for the heart of their territory to sever the veins of supply lines that carried resources towards their war effort. In the hands of a lesser man, it would be a suicide mission. Under Kasr, all bets were off.

He had so far liberated Mechis III and humiliated the Xen’Chi at Borleias, but these were trifles – mere warm ups – for the campaign to come. Very shortly he would have the resources to cause some real damage.

“Ships incoming from hyperspace.”

Kasr nodded as Vice Admiral Dolomar Daktren’s task force abruptly reverted to real space. “Open a channel.”

Daktren was an excellent officer, with years of command at his disposal and a well-trained crew that came partly through efficient drills and partly through past combat experience. With his recent promotion to Vice Admiral, Daktren had been given the formidable task of cleaning up the Empire. Few had thought a decent man like Daktren had the stuff to do the job properly, but after his dismantling of the ISS such talk quickly dried up. Now Daktren was one of the most feared and respected men in the Empire and was proving over and over that his success with the ISS was not a one-time fluke, having recently exposed a secret society within the Empire that had tried to sell an Imperial Order of Battle to the Xen’Chi.

Kasr was glad to have Daktren with him. He knew the man would prove to be invaluable.

“Kasr,” Daktren said with a smile as his face appeared on screen. “You can imagine my surprise when I received my new orders from Grand Admiral Thrawn. It will be a rare pleasure to finally see you in action, sir.”

“It has been awhile since I’ve had the pleasure of commanding a force this large in battle,” Kasr agreed. “Admiral Dreskul should be arriving shortly with rest of the Imperial contingent. As you’re already aware, I will be in command of the entire fleet, but Dreskul will have priority over the Imperial division.”

Daktren nodded. “Of course. We’ll serve you both to the best of our abilities.”

“I know you will,” Kasr said confidently. “In the meantime, have your ships form up with the fleet and take a shuttle to the Enforcer. The first briefing will occur as soon as Dreskul arrives.”

OCC: For the current composition of the Rogue Fleet, please go here: http://starwars-exodus.wikia.com/wiki/Rogue_Fleet
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Post by corsos »

ooc I had to rush this a little, but it gets the job done.
Ooc A little surprise here Hal ;) I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to keep Ghost Squadron with me, and have command of the fighters onboard the Insidious. I wanted to leave Loraq with

“We’re approaching the rendezvous coordinates sir. Reversion within minutes.”

Dreskul nodded, watching the twirling spirals of blue and white light flash all around the Insidious and its battlegroup. He received a welcome surprise before leaving Coruscant, they would not only be rendezvousing with Oremin’s fleet and Vice Admiral Daktren, but also Ghost Squadron. Vasax Loraq had led the squadron since the death of the legend, Walter Sames, at the Battle of Corellia. He had requested a transfer and would serve under Dolomar Daktren, leaving the Ghosts in the hands of Khal Arunson, the person that Dreskul thought should have been given it to begin with. He had flown with Walter Sames since the inception of the Ghosts almost a decade ago.

The Ghosts would make the wing of fighters onboard the Insidious absolutely deadly. It now contained three TIE Defender squadrons, two squadrons of shielded TIE Interceptors and the noted Assault Gunboat group known as Plague Squadron. The Strike Cruiser Wraith and frigate New Dawn added four more squadrons, one more TIE Defender, two more shielded TIE Interceptor squadrons and a TIE Bomber Squadron. It provided a rather balanced force set that Dreskul would recommend to any fleet commander. The Ghosts alone accounted for at least one normal squadron, with their experience and skills.

“Reversion sir.”

Dreskul stopped his musings and looked up at the viewport and watched as the stars turned from spiraling blue light into lines and then simply white dots on a black canvas. Not only did Kasr’s fleet wait there, so did, Daktrens.

These two ARE close. I must watch them closely.

“Sir, we are being hailed by the Enforcer, Mr. Kasr requests your presence aboard his ship for a briefing.”

“Tell them I’ll be there shortly.”

Dreskul departed the bridge and made his way towards the hangar. During the jump, he had done a thorough study of both Kasr’s and Daktren’s careers and he felt he knew what do expect from both. Then again, nothing was like meeting written histories in the flesh.

* * *

Khal shifted in his TIE Defender, struggling to get his left leg to stop being numb. He hated the fighters with a passion, but only when he traveled long distances onboard them. He and the other eleven Defenders in his squadron, plus Loraq reverted from hyperspace at precisely the same time, revealing a rather impressive fleet before them.

Immediately after reversion Khal and Loraq were commed by the Star Destroyer Enforcer, requesting them for a briefing. The thirteen Defenders soared towards the Star Destroyer and before long the two Commanders were walking into the conference room, where Kasr, Daktren and Dreskul awaited them.

“Sorry it took so long.” Khal quipped. “I assure you we’ll be much fast in the future. Commander Arunson and Loraq reporting for duty.”
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Post by Halomek »

“You’re just in time,” Kasr assured them as he motioned for them to take a seat with the other squadron commanders.

There were three other squadron commanders present, but only two that Vasax Loraq could identify off the top of his head: Fen Palka of the Dark Star’s Midnight Squadron and Yoris Ryhmer of the Kismet’s Sith Squadron. The last one, by process of elimination, had to be Kolton Lei of the Enforcer’s own Assassin Squadron. Vasax didn’t know anything about Lei other than the brief primer he had been given, but if his skills were anything like the others already assembled, the combined talents in the room were already something unheard of since Endor.

And that wasn’t even taking into consideration the other officers assembled.

Vasax looked around as he and Khal sat down. Of course there was Kasr and Dreskul, the leaders of the new combined fleet. Vice Admiral Daktren was also present - Vasax had never heard a negative thing about the man, except from those who had reason to fear him. The distinguished track record of Daktren’s Dark Star was also fairly well known. It was one of the reasons Vasax had requested a transfer under Daktren’s command.

On Oremin’s side was Admiral Jer Roviditian, a wizened old man who had to be approaching one hundred. Vasax knew from experience that Roviditian’s mind was still a durasteel trap even if his body wasn’t. The Admiral had served with distinction before and during the Clone Wars. He had helped instruct many of the old guard of the Empire before disappearing after Yavin with the Kismet. Only when Oremin had approached Captain Chamberlain a decade later to help fight Emperor Damascus did Roviditian reappear to the galaxy at large.

Sitting next to Roviditian was a young woman, Captain Sashu Jurarth, the daughter of the legendary Vorcise Jurarth of the Tsunami. Vasax didn’t know if Sashu was anything like her father, but the fact that she was sitting among such distinguished company, when the other captains of the fleet weren’t, certainly implied she wasn’t to be taken lightly.

Of course the person he truly wanted to see present was absent, his older brother, Kasav, who commanded the Kismet’s Rapier Squadron. Since Plague Squadron wasn’t represented at the meeting either, Vasax had to assume that this briefing was only for the fleet’s very top people.

He had never really had a chance to talk with his brother when the Kismet had aided Chamberlain, but Vasax vowed this time would be different. Kasav was all business, and in many ways he reminded Vasax of Walter Sames - if a little colder, always putting duty before pleasure. With them about to head into the unknown against a fearsome enemy, Vasax wasn’t about to let his brother shrug off what could be their last chance to see each other.

As everyone settled in, Kasr cleared his throat and looked around the room, his ice blue eyes measuring each and every person who fell under his gaze.

“I trust you’ve all had a chance by now to take in who you’ll be working with,” Kasr said in his deep, cultured voice. “The experience and skills assembled together here are some of the best in the galaxy. Every member of this fleet is important, but we are the people who they will be looking to for strength and guidance when things are at their worst. To tell any of you this is redundant, but I feel it’s important enough to note for posterity. It is up to us to see to it that this fleet makes it back, because the reality is that nothing can prepare us for what we are about to do.”

“We are going to enter enemy territory, most of which is completely unknown to galactic starcharts, and sever supply lines, uncover enemy secrets, and do everything within our power to disrupt the Xen’Chi war effort so the galaxy can recover enough to mount a real offensive. We are doing this without any foreseeable support. The ships assembled are all we have to work with right now.”

To Vasax’s surprise, Kasr smiled. It wasn’t a particularly friendly smile, but it was a proud one. “I could not ask for a better group of commanders to oversee this fleet. The Xen’Chi have no idea what’s in store for them.”

“Now then…” Kasr continued as the lights in the room dimmed and a holographic projector sprung to life. “On with the mission…”

OOC: Actual briefing in the next post, just wanted to get the bulk of the principle characters all introduced first.
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Post by corsos »

Dreskul looked on all the officers present and realized that spare perhaps one or two of the squadron commanders he was the youngest man in the room. It was not something that was necessarily unique, but it made him feel somewhat uncomfortable especially considering he was representing the entire Galactic Empire in this endeavor, a personal choice of Grand Admiral Thrawn. MIstakes would not be allowed, and the only way he would be judged was success, by both his superiors and the other far more senior commanders there with him. It would also be an opportunity to learn. Dreskul had served under both Ardin and Banner Ton, and saw Thrawn, Trobane, and Dreadstar all in action commanding their fleets. Now he would see the unflappable Daktren who did such a good job ridding the Empire of corruption as head of the ISS. And he would see a man that once held the rank of Grand Admiral, Reng Kasr, and see how he thought and acted in a complex scenario like this, with commander of various organizations and governments working together towards a common goal.

Dreskul also suspected that by some he would underestimated, perhaps some of the lower officers that hadn't taken the time to review his service time. Kasr would have already studied his record to the letter, seeing his experience in Naval Intelligence and then Fleet Command. It was not a long career, but an impressive one for someone his age for sure. And Daktren likely knew his record by heart, from his time in the ISS. Being the executive officer to Banner Ton no doubt had raised his eyebrows until he saw the other loyalty he held to Ardin.

"Come a long way kid." Khal elbowed Dreskul, grinning and winking at the Admiral. "Sir, I mean." Khal kept the smirk before focusing back on Kasr. Dreskul was typically sensitive to comments like that but from Arunson things like that were expected. And besides, Khal had the right, he was already part of the best squadron in the galaxy when Dreskul first met him. If he hadn't teased him, then Dreskul would be concerned. Retreating from his thoughts, Dreskul began to listen to Kasr's briefing...

* * *

Trevan Prescott was not happy, sitting in his ready room onboard the Wraith. Yes, he only held the rank of Captain, but that was prefunctory to his rank of Inquisitor in Imperial Intelligence. He had moved from the Ubiquorate, to Naval Intelligence and then to Fleet Command when the Wraith's command had been abdicated. It was his personal favorite ship in the entire Imperial fleet, with its improved sensor suite and stealth capabilities. He was ten years Dreskul's senior, and all the hard work he had done over the years showed. HIs face was thin and drawn tightly around his jaw, his black hair thinning, combed straight back over his increasingly showing scalp. He should have been on the Enforcer right now, either with Dreskul or instead of him. So should the man sitting across from him.

Commander Xeverin had lead PLague Squadron for a decade, a sister to Ghost Squadron for years. When the Ghosts cut like a sharp knife, Plague Squadron bludgeoned like an ogre's club with their impressive torpedo payload. But with their added size they also were able to deliver other interesting suprises that typical fighters couldn't. That is why they would serve well in some of Prescott's plans. Lucky for him, Xeverin liked creativity and wanted every opportunity for his squadron to be used to its fullest.

"So you were granted the squadron's transfer to the Wraith?"

"Aye sir, they bought your reasoning completely."

"Good. Return to the hangar and settle your men down. Soon we will speak on my plans."

"Aye, SIr."

The COmmander left the ready room and Prescott followed him, but instead veered right onto the birdge. He eyed the Enforcer, imagining the meeting going on there at this very moment and it angered him further. He wondered why he was not invited. Perhaps it was just a matter of rank, but his gut told him otherwise. Daktren was on that ship, and he was sure the former head of the ISS had no love for him. Theoretically, Prescott was the exact type of man that he would have been tasked with removing from the Empire. Prescott would do anything for the Empire to prosper, and he learned many of those things in Intelligence. He learned more in the Ubiquorate under Damascus, and more in his stint at Pandora station under Gandel. Then he served under Damasus as Emperor, the same way he would serve anyone ruled the great galactic Empire, even if it was an alien. And that was why Daktren never came for him, Prescott served loyallt anyone that ruled the Empire, and he would now.

It is all for the glory of the Empire, at any cost, by any means.

ooc introduced a sub-character here = Prescott, who I like the more and more I write about him. He's going to eventually do something nasty. :)
Last edited by corsos on Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Halomek »

OOC: A note of clarification, Daktren was never a part of the ISS until after he restructured them following his promotion from Thrawn.

IC: “Our first mission will be our most important,” Kasr said as a computer generated 3D image of a spheroid with irregular spiky protrusions came to life in the center of the room. “Our best chance of success and survival will be by controlling the flow of information. What you see here is a Xen’Chi deep space communications hub, they’re roughly half the size of a Star Destroyer and carry out the same functions as our own hubs, however, they’re much more heavily armed. The aliens have been setting these up throughout their newly conquered territory to strengthen their communications network in our space.”

The image changed to real life shots of a Xen’Chi communications hub. “These images were taken by one of the many probe droids Oremin has sent into their newly acquired territory.” The images changed to a video from the probe droid’s point of view. Within moments, the droid was set upon by the distinctive Xen’Chi starfighters and destroyed. When the video was over, the still images popped back up.

“As you can see, the Xen’Chi are very protective of their hubs. They know the value of information quite well. This particular hub was being protected by a small thrall fleet and a handful of Xen’Chi ships to act as overseers. You can imagine that the other hubs they’ve installed are likewise protected.” Kasr folded his hands behind his back. “Our mission will not be to destroy the hub, but to take it. With one of their hubs under our control, we’ll have an ear into their network which will give us ideas on where to strike and also tip us off to any fleets that will undoubtedly try to track us once we really start wreaking havoc.”

“Now, just taking the hub will do us little good as the Xen’Chi can simply retake it once we leave. I’m positive that they’d also have the capability to track the hub’s transmissions straight to us when they do. No, for this plan to work, the Xen’Chi must believe we’ve destroyed their hub completely. To do this, we must destroy every ship guarding it. Not a single one of them can be allowed to escape or survive. Once we’ve safely taken the hub, a very dirty nuclear device will be detonated to irradiate and scatter the debris, which should amply cover up the fact that their hub has disappeared. By the time they piece together the puzzle of what really happened, if they can at all, it will be far too late to do anything about it.”

The lights brightened a bit as Kasr looked at the assembled officers. “Before I get into the strategy of our attack, are there any questions or concerns? If so, voice them now.”
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Post by ValynDyral »

OOC: I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering - how do the Imperials know the Xen'Chi language? To my knowledge, the known galaxy has had no contact with the Xen'Chi that wasn't violent contact - they have no translations on record to use to even begin to decipher the language.

I'm just asking because I don't see what good a communication node would do if you don't know the language being transmitted through it.
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Post by corsos »

ooc The Imperials, thanks to raids by Oremin and the Mandalorians captured a large group of Xen Chi outside of Mechis III - Imperial "scientists" are in the process of working on that.

ANd Hal - yes, I know about Daktren - we're all on the same page.

IC

"If their communication works like ours do sir, their main system will be able to detect the hub still on their network." Dreskul said. "If not inactively, an active search would certainly reveal it. We would have to find a way to alter their technology to prevent them from detecting the hub on their network, especially if they run an active diagnostic."

Khal looked at Dreskul with a "how the hell do you know that" look.

"Naval Intelligence deals with communication more than it does in human intelligence. And if their protocol is anything like ours, they won't just assume their hub was destroyed no matter how much circumstantial evidence there is. In short, we'll need a way to black out the hub's sensor signal so they stay blind to our eavesdropping. I, with the help of one of my other officers, Trevan Prescott, may be able to develop something if we get any data from the Imperial Center in regards to the captured vessels they are researching there."
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Post by Halomek »

OOC: Oremin captured one of their ships at Mechis III (with prisoners). This is in a galaxy with technology that allows droids to walk around with over six million forms of communication in their head (C-3PO is old tech I might add). I don't think deciphering a humanoid language like the Xen'Chi's would be very difficult.

EDIT: Corsos got to it right before me. :P
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Post by Halomek »

OOC: In my earlier post I didn't even think of the most obvious way for the Empire to decode the Xen'Chi language, the Empire's ace-in-the-hole, Thrawn. More on that in the post... :P

IC: Jer Roviditian kept his smile to himself as he noticed a gleam in Kasr’s eye. He knew his old friend too well. Kasr was always testing his people, keeping them on their toes. One didn’t get to be a secret organization as large as Oremin without knowing the facts Dreskul had put forward.

Kasr was seeing just how smart his people were and Dreskul had passed this one with flying colors.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Admiral,” Kasr agreed. “From the studies Oremin has been conducting, we’ve been able to conclude that Xen’Chi technology isn’t all that fundamentally different from our own at its core. Modifying the hub as you suggest should not be too difficult. I’ll have one of my people join you and Captain Prescott, she has experience in this area and is up to date on the information we’ve compiled on Xen’Chi tech - which includes the Empire’s findings that Thrawn released to me just prior to this meeting. You’ll find her quite valuable.”

“This includes a translator program, I assume?” Roviditian piped up. “Listening to Xen’Chi gook does us little good if we can’t understand it.”

“Of course,” Kasr confirmed. “Thrawn’s notes are quite illuminating and I’ll see that you all get a copy after this briefing. It seems as though the Xen’Chi and the Chiss - Thrawn’s race - share a common ancestry, as such the Xen’Chi language is similar to Cheunh, which is the Chiss language, and Minnisiat, which is their trade language. With that added to the information we’ve already acquired, a translator program was able to easily decode the rest. We’ll know everything they have to say.”

Kasr looked around expectantly. “If that’s all, I’ll continue with the plan…”
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Post by corsos »

ooc go right ahead Hal
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Post by Halomek »

Satisfied that the relevant questions had been addressed, Kasr continued. The projection changed to show a map of a section of the galaxy with a red X between Cathar and Taloran.

“Out target will be a hub that has been located here,” he said as he indicated the X. “Preliminary reports indicate that it is not as heavily defended as the hubs situated closer to Xen’Chi territory. With any luck, striking here will also draw their eyes away from our true objective of penetrating their sovereign borders later on.”

The display changed once again to show a rotating diagram of a modular taskforce cruiser. “Oremin has developed a new variant of taskforce cruiser designed entirely for counterintelligence. These ships are to communications and sensors what interdictors are to hyperdrives. These will keep the Xen’Chi from calling for help and disrupt their fighting coordination by blocking their sensors. Our ships will not be affected since they will have access to a special encryption that will bypass the cruisers’ interference. As you can imagine, these ships will be one of our most valuable tools against the enemy.”

The image of the Xen’Chi hub replaced the taskforce cruiser as small icons winked into existence to represent the ships of the fleet. “The hub is located in deep space, so we don’t have to worry about a gravity well. With that being the case, the bulk of the fleet will jump to the far side of the battlefield. Admiral Roviditian will be in command of this group. Taskforce cruisers Threshold and Anzi are to show up first and blanket the area with interference so any enemy transmissions that manage to make it out within the first few moments before they can be blocked can’t report our true fleet strength. Roviditian, your job will be to draw as many as the enemy as possible away from the hub.”

The display changed to show Roviditian’s ships engaged with most of the Xen’Chi forces. “It will also be your duty to inform the second group when to arrive. If the Xen’Chi don’t fall for the bait it will be crucial that we know about it.”

Roviditian nodded thoughtfully and Kasr could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he went over the possible scenarios.

“Given their aggressive nature, it is highly likely that most of the Xen’Chi and thrall vessels will move to engage Roviditian’s command. The Xen’Chi won’t be foolish enough to leave their hub completely unguarded though. This plan works under the assumption that their most powerful ships will be held in reserve.”

The display changed to show a much smaller group arriving on the other end to challenge the remainder of the Xen’Chi vessels. “The second group, consisting of the Enforcer, the Insidious, the Tsunami, the Wraith, the Grappler, and arc ship Zeta, will have the objective of trapping and engaging these ships. The Tsunami’s Black Water Taskforce, with the aid of Plague Squadron, will take down the hub’s shields with mag pulse warheads and clear the way for the Wraith’s team to secure and subvert the hub.”

“The rest of group two’s job will be to keep the way clear for them and to prevent the Xen’Chi from firing on their own hub to keep it from us. Once all enemy forces have been destroyed and the hub subverted, the arc ships will be in charge of towing the hub to our new location. Then the dirty nuke will be deployed and detonated to obscure the details of the battle, ending the mission.”

Kasr allowed the simulation to play out, finishing in a bright nuclear explosion, before the display faded and the lights resumed their normal levels. “I expect we’ll have the advantage in this battle as far as sheer power is concerned, but the Xen’Chi forces will probably have greater numbers in smaller ships. We’ll mobilize as soon as Admiral Dreskul’s team is confident they can black out the hub’s signal.”
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Post by corsos »

"I will forward the data you have to the Wraith, so Captain Prescott and his technicians can begin working on the device before I arrive. I don't think it will take long to conceptualize if the commonalities of the technology is as you describe it. It will simply be a matter of whether or not we have the materials on hand to build the hardware."

Kasr nodded. "Do what is needed."

Dreskul nodded, and along with Commander Arunson walked over to the nearest dataport and began to transmit the data.

"Long time no see Gregory. I heard what happened at Borleais, happy to see you got out of there at no worse for wear."

Dreskul nodded as he transmitted the data, and then connected to the Wraith. He looked to Khal as the tight beam transmission connected. "A battle we didnt have to lose, we'll have to make up for that failure now later in the war." Khal looked like he was going to answer, but the beep from the unit indicated a secure direct connection to Prescott on the Wraith. The slim dark haired man answered the call.

"Admiral, we are accepting your data transfer. WHat does it contain?"

"Everything we know about Xen Chi technology Captain. We plan on capturing and using one of the enemy communication hubs against them, but we'll have to block the hub's signal on their network so they think it is destroyed."

Prescott nodded. "We have a number of such nodes that would function on hubs for any number of planetary governments in the known galaxy."

"Kasr tells me the technology is similar." Dreskul answered. "I will bring my shuttle to the Wraith so we can work on the problem.

Prescott nodded and was about to speak when he was called over by one of his officers. "A moment Admiral." Prescott walked over and spoke to one of his officers who was nodding affirmatively. The Captain then re-addressed Dreskul.

"We beleive it will be fairly simple to adjust one of our current nodes to work with this technology. But we will only be able to do so much with the hardware until we see the hub we'll have to apply it to. I wouldn't waste your time coming here Admiral, and I suggest to Mr. Kasr we move the fleet out now. Whatever we need to do for the node, we can do it in transit."

Dreskul nodded. "Are you sure Captain?"

"Yes sir. But there's one other thing. We are going to have to apply this node right after the attack, so it appears it dissapears along with the fleet that was protecting it. We'll have to send a boarding party during the battle to assure the timing is right." Prescott said.

Dreskul nodded. "I will pass on your suggestion to Kasr."

"Aye sir, Prescott out."

Dreskul looked at Khal for a moment, before making his way back to Kasr who was talking to Daktren. When the two were done, the leader of Oremin looked at Dreskul. "My people beleive the node we'll need to block the hub's sensor signal will be fairly easy to make, and can be done enroute to our target. But they also beleive that in order for the ruse to be successful the node will have to be applied either during or shortly after the battle so that the enemy assumes their hub was destroyed. I agree with their assessment, and recommend a boarding party be sent to the hub, from the Wraith during the battle to apply the node."

"And if the shuttle and the node are destroyed?" Kasr asked. "Then our mission would be for nothing."

Khal volunteered this time. "I wouldn't worry about the shuttle getting hit sir, not with Ghost Squadron escorting it." He smiled, but remained at attention.
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Post by Halomek »

“It seems as though the rather infamous boasting of Ghost Squadron’s last commander has rubbed off on you, Commander Arunson,” Kasr replied, keeping his tone and his expression unreadable. “But then again, Commander Loraq’s record indicates the Ghosts never failed to live up to his word.” He nodded. “Very well. It was always my intention to launch the boarding party in the midst of the battle, but launching them before the risk is acceptable has its advantages as well. The safety of that shuttle is paramount, commander, the entire operation hinges on it. Failure is not an option.”

“I understand, sir.”

Kasr nodded in a sign of respect. “I know you do…” He turned his attention to Dreskul. “…both of you - which is why I approve of the suggestion. We’ll jump once my expert has transferred to the Wraith. Her name is Kya Solra. You may not need her assistance, but you’ll be glad to have her if you do.”

***

Back on the Dark Star Vasax handed his official transfer papers to Vice Admiral Daktren in the admiral’s ready room. He stood at attention as the admiral looked them over. Finally Daktren looked up and seemed to study Loraq. “Your record is very impressive, Commander,” he said to the pilot. “As is expected from a member of Ghost Squadron. I approved your transfer request because I know the Dark Star will benefit from having another pilot of your caliber onboard. I only have one question… Why? It’s rare to see someone actually leave the Ghosts unless it’s to depart to the afterlife. I’m curious as to your reasons.”

Vasax exhaled a gush of air as he thought back on it. “Honestly, sir… I don’t know why Walter Sames chose me over Khal, er… Commander Arunson, to lead the squadron. Sames and I never agreed on much, although I think he respected me on the same level I respected him. I was as surprised as anybody when I found out he had recommended me before his death.”

Daktren raised an eyebrow. “So you’re transferring out because you think Commander Sames was mistaken?”

“Well… yes and no…” Vasax struggled. “I used to lead Sabacc Squadron before it was destroyed with the Apollo and my piloting skills are some of the best in the Empire, so in the regard, I was qualified. However, Khal is the soul of that unit. In a way, he was the real leader, I just gave the orders.” He shrugged. “Sames was always a stickler for the regs, maybe he picked me simply because of my time with the Sabaccs.”

A knowing smile crept across Daktren’s face. “I don’t think that was the only reason. Would it interest you to know that Sames was considered something of a wild card in the Empire during his early years? Not unlike yourself, Loraq.”

Vasax’s eyes widened with genuine surprise. “Really?! They never mentioned that in his official record.” He put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. “Wow… I have a hard time seeing it. He really mellowed out. I hope that doesn’t happen to me.”

“With age comes wisdom, Commander.”

Vasax shook his head. “It’s not important. Maybe Sames saw something of himself in me. I hope I would have made him proud in my brief time with the Ghosts, but I believe Khal is the true man for the job. He deserves that squadron more than me.”

“Very well,” Daktren said, letting the matter rest. “As you’re aware, your transfer will promote you to the commander of our fighter wing. It will be your job to coordinate and plan the ship’s starfighter strategy. From reading your reports, I can see you’ve developed some innovative, if sometimes crazy maneuvers. Many would be leery of a man with such a record, but I’ve come to appreciate officers with unique insights such as yours. Now that you’re onboard, I expect to see our own Midnight Squadron surpass the Ghosts in stature.”

Vasax saluted before letting a smirk cross his face. “Try and stop me, Admiral.”

Daktren stood and returned the gesture. “Well put. Welcome aboard the Dark Star, Major Loraq.”

***

With all the ships accounted for and the strategy in place, the ships of what many of the soldiers were starting to call the “rogue fleet” jumped into hyperspace towards their new destinations. For most of them, their next stop would be the start of a new battle against the Xen’Chi…
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Post by corsos »

ooc here's a real quickie Hal, so you can continue - as to why my posting is limited see the ghost ship thread.

IC

Dreskul and Arunson walked backed towards the hangar bay their shuttle had landed in, the same from which Kasr's expert had already departed from enroute to the Wraith.

"Admiral, it made my stomach turn that when Kasr referred to the Ghosts' former Commander, he spoke of Loraq, and not Walter."

Dreskul nodded. "I'm sure he meant no slight."

"And neither do I, Loraq is a terrific pilot, but The Ghosts were Walter. He formed them, and molded them into the greatest squadron the Empire has seen since Fel's 181st. Certainly Kasr knows that."

"I don't think it was meant as a slight." Dreskul said again. "He was simply the last Commander. And remember Khal, this is a different Ghost Squadron in a brand new war. How many of you are left since before Damascus' reign?"

"Three." Khal said quietly.

Dreskul nodded. "It's no one's fault Khal, there's been much war since then. But before Damasus Sames and you had been with your men for more than five years without losing a pilot. You created a quiet, certain confidence I'd never seen, nor have I seen since. But remember how that started, you know better than I. You were there since the beginning."

Khal nodded and boarded the shuttle, and remained silent for the duration of the trip, something that was quite rare with his talkative nature. Dreskul might be young, but he was right and knew his history, likely from Ardin's memoirs. The man Sames had become after ten years as head of Ghost Squadron was very different than the man that started it. For a new squadron, like the Ghosts, to gain noteriety chances had to be taken and Walter made some bold choices when the Ghosts began flying missions for James Ardin on the Vengeance. HIs brashness bred confidence in the squadron and earned the reputation they still had today. Now, the chances that were once considered brash were now commonplace for the Ghosts. Walter was experienced and nearly thirty when the squadron was formed, but despite his age he was sure of his abilities and he managed to transfer that to his pilots, forcefully at first, but then as the squadron realized their greatness it became more of a quiet leadership that focused on keeping his men mentally well and prepared for every eventuality. Brash became routine, the impossible typical.

Khal was the foil to Walter, vocally cocky and funny, keeping the squadron loose in the worst of circumstances. But now he lead, and with him were not green pilots, no pilots admitted into the Ghosts were completely green, but they were relatively inexperienced and Khal would have to help build up that confidence again. He would have to challenge his squadron with difficult missions, force them to be the best. His days of making light of such things were over. With his old comrades, such jests were funny, but with these new recruits it would give them false confidence and make them cocky. Perhaps that was why Walter had chosen Loraq as his successor....

Khal knew what needed to be done. The Ghosts still held the title... but this group hadn't earned it. Khal had every intention of forcing them to earn it all over again. He would meet with his other two veteran officers and they would work together, in concert. The Ghosts would be the greatest once again.

_______________________

"You must be kidding me." Prescott frowned, watching the video screen, showing Kasr's expert depart her shuttle and head towards the ship's engineering sections. "Get us into hyperspace, as per orders from the Enforcers. I'll be below greeting our... help."

Prescott left the bridge and made his way to meet his new friends. Before he got there the fleet was in hyperspace.
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Post by corsos »

ooc I just want to make sure you arent waiting on me for something Hal.
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Post by Halomek »

OOC: Nope, just haven't had the chance to write up something yet. Hopefully within the next day or two.
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Post by Halomek »

Vasax, now dressed in the uniform of a flight major, stepped onto Dark Star’s flight deck and breathed in the distinct smells. Not even the most impeccably kept ship - and the Dark Star was one of the most well-maintained ships he had ever been on - could completely remove the odors that were common to every flight deck. For Vasax, one of the most surefire ways to acclimate himself to new surroundings was to find the flight deck.

His visit wasn’t purely for pleasure though; he had business to take care of. With a little searching he was able to locate the master sergeant in charge of starfighter maintenance. After the introductions were over with, he had the sergeant bring up the TIE Defender he had flown from the Ardin. Vasax watched as the conveyor rack brought forth his Defender from the depths of the ship.

“Sergeant Tead, I’ve got a little project for your boys,” Vasax said to the other. “As flight major, I’m not flying with a squadron anymore, but I sure as hell am not going to let that stop me from mixing it up when it comes time. I’m going to be out there with the rest of the Dark Star’s fighters as sort of a rogue element. Since I’ll have no steady backup, I want you to soup up my TIE as much as you possibly can. Right now just focus on improving the sensors so I’ll be able to better coordinate our fighters in battle. Later, when there’s more time, we can worry about other modifications.”

Raan Tead scratched his head as he looked at the pilot. “That’s a tall order, Major. The TIE Defender is about as perfect a design as this galaxy has ever seen. I think we can get some more performance out of the sensors, but I don’t know what else you’re thinking of modifying. The Defender’s hull is so compact that there simply isn’t any room to work with.”

Vasax chuckled good-naturedly. “Then let’s just take it one mod at a time and see how it goes. Don’t worry, I’m not thinking of doing anything drastic to it.”

Tead gave him a look before shaking his head. “Flyboys,” he grunted, but left it at that. “Alright, we’ll see what we can do.”

After a departing salute, Vasax hear Tead whistle sharply as he gathered his team together. By the time Vasax had left the deck, the team was already deep in discussion about ideas to do what Vasax wanted in the time they had to work with before the Dark Star entered battle.

***

Commander Fen Palka of Midnight Squadron sat in a corner of the main flight deck’s lounge. Several other pilots from the Dark Star’s other squadrons were also killing time in the lounge. Currently he was the only representative of Midnight as the other members were running sims to prepare them for the battle ahead. Fen would be there with them if not for the request by the Dark Star’s new Flight Major to talk with him.

When Fen saw Vasax Loraq enter the lounge he knew instantly that all the rumors about Loraq were true. The man looked like he had just stepped out of an Imperial Recruitment poster. Slicked back hair, perfect posture, holostar good looks - and if official reports were to be believed - a natural talent for flying. He had it all.

Fen inadvertently used a hand - his natural one - to trace one of the nearly invisible white scars that crisscrossed his face. They had called him lucky for surviving that explosion years ago, but sometimes Fen had to wonder if that was true. He had survived, but a lot of his body had to be replaced with prosthetics and he still had yet to see his hair grow back. His scars covered more than just his face; they covered his whole body - a permanent reminder of the sacrifice he had made for the Empire.

Although Fen had made his peace with his condition, seeing men like Loraq tended to bring up feelings of resentment. Loraq would never understand how it felt to be trapped in the shell of a broken body. The explosion on the Bloodlust had almost cost Fen his ability to fly a starfighter. If it weren’t for the fact the he discovered he was Force-sensitive, Fen knew he’d still be a part of starship command. It was a secret he guarded fiercely.

“Commander Palka,” Loraq said with a smile as he sat down. “I’m glad we could meet. I’ve got to say, I’m a little overwhelmed. Your actions stopping that defection on the Bloodlust is legend among TIE pilots. I’ve gone over your flight records too... ever since your return to the starfighter corps your flying has been remarkable. Pilots with injuries a lot less worse than yours haven’t been able to go near a TIE again. One day you’ve got to tell me your secret.”

Fen smirked. “Tell you what, when you survive being blown up, I’ll let you in on how I managed it.”

“Let’s hope it never comes to that,” Loraq laughed before letting his grin fade. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Midnight Squadron. I’ve got to say the pilots you have under your command are all very impressive. I think the only reason your squadron hasn’t been compared with the Ghosts or the 181st is that you’ve never had a chance to prove yourselves.”

Fen gave the other man a patient look. “Major, we don’t fly for glory or recognition. We’re out there to complete our mission and see to it that our people make it back alive. The other squadrons can have all the fame as far as I’m concerned.”

“I wouldn’t say I completely agree with you, but I can understand where you’re coming from,” Loraq said to him. “It might not seem like it, but at the end of the day my people come first. The only difference between you and me is that I’m not shy about letting people know how good they are.”

“Are you making a point?”

Loraq held his hands up to let Fen know that he wasn’t looking for an argument. “There’s an old saying that the people who deserve power most are the ones who least want it. I think Midnight Squadron falls right into that category. Daktren wanted me to get Midnight Squadron ready to challenge the Ghost’s position, but I see very little that needs improvement. I think Midnight as it stands now could have given the Ghosts a run for their credits while they were in their prime and I’m going to let people know it.”

Loraq got up but didn’t leave right away. “Listen, if there’s one thing I know besides flying, it’s shameless promotion. Keep up the good work and leave the rest to me. By the time this war is over, Midnight Squadron is going to be a household name.”

Fen watched Loraq leave without remark, deep in thought. He wasn’t sure what to think of the Major just yet, but he had to admit that he wasn’t quite as bad as he had feared.

***

As Kya disembarked from her shuttle, she found Captain Prescott waiting for her. “So this is Trevan Prescott,” she thought to herself. “The report made him out to be a poor man’s Banner Ton. He doesn’t seem worth keeping an eye on, but that’s not my call.”

Outwardly, Kya’s appearance showed no hint as to her inner thoughts. She was an attractive woman dressed sharply in an imperial uniform, every inch an Imperial. Her hair was cut short and dyed black to match her eyes. Her salute was so crisp that it would do an Imperial Guardsman proud. “Lieutenant Kya Solra reporting as ordered, Captain.”

OOC: I figure we can have some interaction with Kya and Prescott before I have Roviditian’s group start the battle.
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Post by corsos »

ooc of course

IC

Prescott frowned stretching his gaunt face even tighter over his think face. He regarded the woman, and he became even more annoyed. She wore the uniform well, any man could have said that. Even now, there weren't many women in the Imperial service. She fit the mold of one type, no doubt someone that was capable but also someone that had no qualms about using her feminine qualities to manipulate others to try and move her way up the officers ladder. He'd seen it a dozen times, and would not fall prey to it.

Prescott returned her salute with one with far less enthusiasm. He cut right to chase, something he always did. "You're wasting your time here Lieutenant, and my superiors told yours the same. We're almost done formatting the device to Xen Chi technology. Then it will only be a matter of making any last minute adjustments to the node when we install it on the communications hub. The Sergeant will escort you to your quarters. This way."

Prescott motioned to the hangar bay exit and waited for the Lieutenant to follow, hopefully getting out of his way so he could get back to the work that needed to be done. There was much to do.

* * *

Khal quick-stepped through the halls of the Insidious towards the dining table where Ghost squadron always congregated for the better part of their afternoon. When the habit started onboard the Ardin Khal didn’t argue with it, they saw little action on what turned out to be more of a diplomats vessel than anything else. But that was about to change.

Khal walked into the mess hall and approached the table where the other eleven members of the squadron were congregating, drinking and laughing. “Gentleman.” He said looking over the table.

“Hey boss.” The young Flight Officer Davies shouted out between drinks.

If I was Walter Sames, they would have jumped to attention.

“Come to attention, now.”

The chatter stopped as the members of the squadron looked up to Khal, looking confused. He waited a few seconds before slamming his fist down on the table. “Damnit, that doesn’t look like attention to me! Get off your asses now!”

The squadron members shot to their feet immediately and saluted. Khal did not return it and made them stand there. Instead he walked to the head of the table, grabbed the table in his two hands and tossed it onto its side. “This ends, now. You belong to the best known squadron in the entire Imperial Navy. Some think we’re the best. But we’re not. We might own the name that has the title, but most of you here haven’t earned a damn thing. You might have strong records from past squadrons, and that’s why you were chosen, to become a Ghost. But you need to earn that name, and earn that title as the best. You earn that by flying, and defeating our enemies, winning battles. This group has done nothing. I was here when we started, and when we were the best. We are starting over, today. And we will be the best, again. The talent is here – like it always has. As individual pilots you have the skill, but Ghost Squadron was the best because of our efficiency as a unit, our communication and teamwork, and being exactly where they are supposed to be to help your squadron mates. Freelancing will get you, and us killed. There are only three of us left from before Damascus and the battle of Corellia, myself, Lieutenant Forge, and Sergeant Waters. We are your flight leaders. You will listen to us, and learn from us, and we’ll make you the best. Lieutenant, bring the men to the flight simulators and get working. There are records there that need to be broken before I deem you ready for combat.” Only now did Khal return their salutes. “Get them moving Lieutenant, and get them ready.”

“Sir.” Forge lead the men out of the mess hall and towards the flight simulators. Waters was the last to leave, making sure there weren’t any stragglers. Before he walked from the room he gave Khal an approving nod. The Commander let out a huge sigh after they left the room. There was much work to do.
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Post by Halomek »

Kya resisted the urge to break her façade and roll her eyes. “He’s going to make it difficult. Why does that not surprise me? Well, if he wants to go that route, so can I.”

“With all due respect, sir,” she said, putting some durasteel into her voice as she remained where she was. “I would like to see it for myself. I’ve had prior experience with Xen’Chi tech. To my knowledge, your people have not. It may very well be a waste of time, but I would think it would be better to waste it now than when we’re in battle.” She paused briefly. “I have my orders, sir.”
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Post by corsos »

Aye, orders that waste my time.

Prescott did not take his eyes off the woman as he spoke. "Commander Xeverin, show our visitor to the lab."

"This way ma'am." The leader of PLague Squadron motioned to their visitor to walk ahead of him into the turbolift. As she did Prescott grabbed the Commander's arm. "Show her only the node. I don't want her anywhere near our other classified projects, do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

Xeverin followed the woman into the turbolift and they dissapeared, meanwhile Prescott went to his private office to observe the two using the ship's surveillance system. He had sent the fighter jock with the woman for a reason. One was obvious, the man was capable and could handle her despite the superior rank. Second, he carried the same charm most snubfighter pilots did, something that worked on all women in one way or another.

The Commander was following Prescott's orders to the button taking the woman to the construction lab, not stopping for anything. Prescott would watch them closely as the ship went through hyperspace.

***

Khal got up from his simulator cockpit and found most of his squadron high-fiving and celebrating after a run in which they barely broke one of the Ghost's old records. As he suspected Waters and Forge were staying clear of the jubilation, as those men knew what just happened.

"Good work men." Khal said with a false smile on his face. "You seem quite pleased with yourselves."

"We broke their record sir." Davies said, proud as could be.

"You were sloppy, and inefficient. Your formations were loose and reactions to your wingmates sluggish. I expect better."

"Then how did we beat the record sir?" Davies asked. "Seems pretty good to me."

"Sergeant Waters, please explain to the Flight Officer why I am not so enthused about their victory." Khal said.

Waters stepped forward and spoke like a subordinate should when speaking to a superior officer. "Well sir, it's likely because when the Ghosts set that record, they were flying with only half of their squadron, six ships sir. And with a full compliment, we barely broke that record."

Khal nodded. "Very good Sergeant. And that, Davies is why I'm not so enthused. Back in the simulators, now."

The squadron had become sufficiently quiet now, quite humbled. Intimidated, maybe? But Khal thought it was something else. He had challenged them, their skill and their pride. He could see it in their expressions that it was a challenge all of them wanted to meet and surpass. They obeyed his order, and went back to work. Khal joined them.
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Post by Halomek »

“Good work, Midnights,” Fen said to them, not bothering to hide his pride. They had just finished one of the worst case scenario sims for the upcoming mission. While it wasn’t pretty, the mission had been completed despite the overwhelming numbers of Xen’Chi fighters they had run up against. Every member of Midnight had managed to pull through it okay despite a few tense moments.

It made Fen wonder if perhaps there was more truth to Loraq’s words than he had cared to admit. Maybe the Midnights really were up to challenging the Ghosts…

“Midnight Lead, I’m getting new contacts inbound,” Midnight Two, Jak Eker, reported. “One squadron of TIE Defenders and one squadron of TIE Interceptors. Transponder ID’s them as Ghost Squadron and Sabacc Squadron respectively.”

“Ghost and… Sabacc?”

“Midnights form up now,” Fen decided as he narrowed his eyes. “Watch over Three and Eight; since they’re the most damaged, they’ll be the first targets. Treat new arrivals as enemies.”

“Enemies, Lead?” Midnight Four, Lenoa Alkasa, asked. “But they’re-”

“The simulation has been changed,” Jak interrupted. “I can only guess it was done so by our new Flight Major.”

“My thoughts exactly, Two,” Fen said with a nod. “He wants to see how good we really are by pitting us up against his old unit and the Ghosts.”

“And here I was hoping to take you by surprise,” the unmistakable voice of Vasax Loraq piped up. “I suppose the merits a little warning. I am personally flying Sabacc Lead and the Ghosts are based upon their prime with Sames. You have a hell of a fight ahead of you. Good luck.”

To their credit, despite the tough battle they had already fought, his pilots didn’t complain and simply waited for his orders. Fen had the option of ending the simulation right now instead of playing Loraq’s little game. He was sorely tempted to do so, but a part of him also wanted to see just how well Midnight would fare. The truest test of a squadron’s skill and mettle came when the odds were at their worst.

“Midnights,” he decided. “Let’s show the Major what we’re made of.”

***

Kya nodded as she went over the specs of the node. There was no question that Prescott’s people knew their stuff. She could see why the captain had called her being here a waste of time. It probably could come off as insulting to have Kasr assign one of his people to check their work, but then she hadn’t been sent here to make friends with the captain.

“Everything looks good, but these power sync ratios should be adjusted slightly,” she said. “The adapter you’ve equipped looks like it’ll handle the job of converting Xen’Chi currents just fine, but their amplitude can vary wildly at times. Xen’Chi ships don’t have nearly as many safeties to protect the crew from overloads as Imperial ships.”

She smirked at Xeverin. “Probably has something to do with them trying to prove who is the biggest warrior.”
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Post by corsos »

"Biggest warrior?" Xeverin smirked looking at the woman. "Who says size doesn't matter. I'll pass your recommendations onto the lab team. Want to be shown to your quarters?"

"Yes, that will do." The woman answered.

Xeverin led the woman right out of the lab, again past the rooms and sections containing their other projects without even paying a glance in those directions, his focus directly in front of him. The woman was a lifer, that much was pretty obvious just by the way she presented herself. And that probably also meant she was pretty boring, but Xeverin liked a challenge and she seemed like she could be one heckuva ride.

"Captain tells me we'll be in hyperspace for a few hours. Officer's meal is in two, want to join us?"

***

Khal watched approvingly as his squadron virtually staggered from the simulator chamber, off to their quarters for a four hour respite before they would be needed against the Xen Chi. Khal wondered if it was worth their possible exhaustion during battle, but in the end he decided challenging his pilots was the wiser recourse. Their performance in the final simulator run was impressive, achieving in some sections similar performance levels that the Ghosts did when they were in their prime. Of course he didn't tell his pilots that, after all a satisfied squadron was a stagnant one.

But he knew that as well as his Ghosts did in artificial simulations, true improvement and progress would not come until they got into some real combat. And that is what his pilots rested for now. After watching the simulations he confirmed that their decisions in selecting these men as replacements were good ones. IN fact, as individuals you could argue that they had more talent than their formers. But they had not become a squadron yet.

One especially troubled Khal, Flight Officer John Davies was the youngest member of the squadrons and in Khal's opinion the most talented. He was only 27 but his test scores at the academy were exemplary and his service record as part of the 17th Interceptor Division was even better. The problem was, everyone told him he was the best, and he believed all their words. Of the freelancing that was going on during the sims, he was the worst of them. The problem was, that he never paid for his freelancing, because his raw talent always kept him alive, but he had put his wingmate at risk many times and almost had Sergeant Waters vaped on two occasions. Khal watched the worst of the runs now, where instead of covering his wingmate’s six he had gone off to make two quick kills.

“He’s a bit wild.” Khal almost jumped at the voice.

Major Forge stood at the entrance to the small office, a small frown on his face. Dedren Forge had been with the squadron for three years, Khal and Waters were the only ones with a longer tenure. He was barely over thirty, and when he joined the squadron he was the youngest, and the first new member the squadron had to accept in two years previous. Now he was a veteran and besides Waters there was no one Khal trusted more. He was officer material, while Waters would always be good XO he couldn’t lead. Forge could, and would someday. “A bit? He makes Loraq look like Walter Sames.” Khal answered.

“He’s young, it’s to be expected. You know the story Commander Sames used to tell, how he learned his discipline.”

Khal smirked, turning off the holo. “How could I forget, he only gave the same speech to every man that ever joined the squadron.”

“How close have you come to using it.” Forge asked, tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Khal rolled his eyes. “Too many. But I need to do things my way. I’ll get to him.”

“Never said you wouldn’t boss.” Forge said. Khal held his breath a moment, being called the same thing he used to call Walter.

But that’s how it is now isn’t it? I am the boss. I am leading these men.

“We’re going to make a swap of call signs before our first action.” Khal said. “Davies is now Ghost Two, he’ll be my wing in first flight. Move Dawson to Ten, he’ll wing up with Waters. If he’s going to put someone at risk in this squadron, it’ll be me.”

Forge arched his eyebrow. “Not to question you boss, but it might mess with Davies head, and Dawson’s to swap them right before battle.”

Just say it, it’s not something Sames would do.

Khal nodded. “I hope it sends a message. Just make sure Dawson understands it has nothing to do with him. He’s a good pilot. I’ll have the orders forwarded to you within the hour.”

“You got it boss.”

Khal nodded. “And get some damn rest Dedren. We’ll need it.”

“I’ll say the same to you boss.” Forge answered.

Khal smirked. “The price of command, you’ll learn it some day.”

Forge saluted casually and left Khal alone. He looked down at his desk where a holoimage of Walter and he stood. He remembered the day the picture was taken, on the Cleansing right before they fought the Battle of Bilbringi. It was at the height of Ardin’s rule, as the New Republic desperately tried to expand its territory. Both were still young, and had been flying together with the Ghosts for only four years. But the bond was there. The confidence was there. It was the prelude to victory. Khal stared at it as he leaned back in his chair. Those days were long gone, but they could be recreated. But it was his responsibility to see to it. Battle loomed… and Khal would see no sleep before it came. He began to type his orders.
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Post by Halomek »

Xeverin’s priorities seemed pretty obvious to Kya, but she played along to see where it would go. In any event, the chance to get to know the other officers better was too good of a chance to pass up.

“I don’t know how enthused Captain Prescott would be to have me there,” Kya said thoughtfully as she hovered in front of her door with the pilot. “But I could never pass up such a gracious offer.”

As she entered her room, she turned around and gave Xeverin the barest hint of a secretive grin. “I’ll see you in two, Commander.”

Kya then keyed the door closed before he could reply. Anticipation always made things so much sweeter…

***

The day was full of surprises for Fen. Despite Loraq’s unexpected altering of the program, the Midnights were handling themselves well. Over half of his squadron was gone, but so to were a good portion of the opposing squadrons. Sabacc was nearly completely destroyed, with the notable exception of Loraq and his two wingmen. Ghost Squadron was fairing even worse with only the TIE Defender designated to Walter Sames still wreaking havoc.

Fen wasn’t about the let the success go to his head and he knew he didn’t have to tell his pilots that either. These were simulations, hardly comparable to the real thing. Even the best sim was predictable once you found the pattern to its programming. Fen himself had studied the tactics of famous TIE pilots like Walter Sames and knew his strategies - strategies the computer could only imitate, without adding anything fresh like a live pilot would have done. Exploiting that fact had made the exercise very challenging, but hardly something to brag about. He was sure Midnight wasn’t the only squadron in the Empire to beat the “Ghosts” in a sim run.

Loraq was another matter entirely. Fen couldn’t decide if the man was a genius or just insane. He was completely unorthodox in his flying and extremely unpredictable. Challenging a Defender squadron with Interceptors would have been folly in someone else’s hands, but Loraq’s talent clearly showed even in the limitations of the simulator. While he exploited the fact that Midnight had to contend with the Ghosts too, it wasn’t by taking cheap pot shots, but by using Midnight’s own preconceived expectations against them.

Midnight had assumed the Ghosts to be the bigger threat and had given them priority as targets, only to have that assumption thrown back in their face when Loraq’s lowly Interceptor squadron tore a few of his more unwary fighters to ribbons. It was an unspoken lesson and one Fen was sure his pilots had understood. Not only was Loraq testing them and challenging them, but he was reminding them of things top squadrons tended to forget. In this case, it was the man who made the machine and not the other way around. Fen hated to admit it, but it was a lesson some of his people had needed to remember.

Fen had a hunch that this thing would end with a one-on-one dogfight between him and Loraq. Who would emerge triumphant, however, was something he was not so sure of.
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Post by corsos »

ooc I think you can more or less progress us to the battle after this post Hal - it won't be extremely long.

IC

Xeverin arrived early in the Captain dining area to find Prescott waiting for him as he expected. Both were in their officer's uniform, but not full dress considering battle was realtively imminent. "Captain." Xeverin saluted.

"At ease, take a seat Commander." Prescott sat as well, his eyes never leaving the fighter jock. "How did it fare with our visitor?"

"She recommended some changes to some minor calibrations, nothing major."

Prescott nodded. "Our engineers agree with her assessment, though we plan on making further calibrations once we bring the node onto the hub. She seems competent, and like a good visitor she has stayed in her cabin since you escorted her there. You're sure she saw nothing else of what we were doing here?"

"Nothing."

Prescott nodded. "Good, our progress cannot be interrupted by prying eyes. Too many questions would slow our progress considerably. She'll be joining us for the meal?"

"She accepted the invitation rather quickly sir. I figure she wants to get something out of us, as much as we do her."

Prescott nodded. "KAsr has his spy, and will try to use her against us. It will not be difficult to reverse that cause and effect relationship if it becomes necessary."

Xeverin was about to answer when the doors to the dining hall opened, and the rest of the Strike Cruiser's command crew filed in, including the woman named Kya Solra. Everyone took their seats, and drinks were served. Before the meal was brought out Prescott stood up and addressed the table. "It is good to see friends and colleagues at a table for a battle. I introduce an officer of our new ally, Oremin and Reng Kasr, Kya Solra." The table all regarded the woman. "Allow me to say Kya, we attempted to do our fair share of research on Oremin and your leader... but information is quite scarce. What can you tell us about them?"

ooc khal and the squadron rests..
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Post by Halomek »

OOC: I’ve been thinking the same thing. Roviditian’s group will be departing hyperspace in the next post. ;)

IC: “I’m not surprised,” Kya nodded. “In both cases the lack of information about the subject is deliberate – if for different circumstances.”

She elegantly swished the drink around in her glass thoughtfully, but refrained from sipping it. “Kasr is not a man who talks about his past that much, especially to underlings like myself, so you probably know as much as I do. He was, at one time, a Grand Admiral and from what I’ve seen, he deserved the title. He’s very intelligent and utterly ruthless when he needs to be. I don’t think he’d hesitate to personally burn an orphanage to the ground with all inside if a plan called for it… and yet… I’ve never seen him resort to those measures if he can avoid it.”

“About Oremin…” Kya mused. “I’m not at liberty to divulge much. Suffice it to say that Kasr set it up to preserve the ideals of the New Order. I’m sure not even Grand Admiral Thrawn truly knows much more about it than that. Only a few within the organization know the real scope of its resources.” She paused briefly to gauge Prescott’s reaction. “You can appreciate the need for secrecy.”

***

In the end, Fen never was able to learn how the simulation would end. It was interrupted by the Dark Star’s alarm chime, which let the crew know that they were nearing their destination. The chime was setup to give the crew half an hour leeway until they dropped out of hyperspace.

Fen sent the rest of Midnight Squadron ahead to get ready but stayed behind as he waited for Loraq to disembark from his simulator. When the other pilot saw Fen waiting for him, he took the initiative and favored an easygoing grin. “Well, which will it be? Are you going to thank me or chew me out? By all means, don’t let rank get in the way.”

“Neither, actually,” Fen said as he crossed his arms. “I just wanted to make sure you knew something. Ever since Daktren okayed its creation, Midnight Squadron’s overriding purpose has been to be an example to the Dark Star’s other squadrons of what they can achieve. If it all possible, we do what we can to keep the other pilots on this ship alive. It’s the same philosophy Daktren uses for all areas of his command, which is why his people are so experienced. In Daktren’s eyes, no one is expendable. I’ve tried to live up to that ideal ever since I was given command of the Midnights.”

“And you think my drive to get your squadron fit enough to challenge the Ghosts may get in the way of that,” Loraq guessed. “You’re afraid I’ll come in with my reckless style and start getting people killed.”

Fen’s nod was nearly imperceptible. “That is my concern, yes. I won’t endanger my pilots just to raise their reputation. Keeping them alive has priority over that.”

“You’ve mentioned this to me before,” Loraq reminded him as he casually leaned against a bulkhead. “I haven’t forgotten either, but I guess you’re worried over my recent stunt with the sims. It’s alright, I don’t ask pilots to do more than I believe they’re capable of. I understand that not everyone can handle a TIE like me. I’m still forming my own opinions of what the Midnights can do. I needed to take all of you by surprise to get an honest result.”

“I did the same thing with the Ghosts when I was judging the new recruits. I never lost a pilot under my command with them either, but sadly after Corellia we didn’t see any real action and I was never able to mold them into the unit they should have been. I probably gave a few the wrong idea with all the down time we had. I remember this one… I think it was his personal mission to outdo me. I-” Loraq abruptly stopped, realizing that he was rambling. “In any case, I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m not interested only in glory. I know the unit comes first. I’ll be the first to put my ass on the line to keep them safe.”

Fen gave him a long look, not quite sure if he believed the brash pilot or not, before finally sighing. “Look, I want to believe you, but you just don’t seem the type.”

Loraq laughed. “I know. Believe me, I know. We could stand here all day talking about it, but I’d much rather prove it to you. Just watch me in battle.”

“You’re going out there? Without a squadron?”

Loraq clapped Fen on the shoulder before making his way to the docking-bay. “You couldn’t keep me cooped up here if you tried – not during a battle. Talk about a waste of talent.”
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Post by corsos »

"You do not need to convince me of the need for secrecy." Prescott said, agreably. "Oremin has been whispered of, most especially in its ability to recruit spies from within the Empire to achieve its goals." Prescott paused. "I assume it made it much easier for Oremin to maintain their observation, and secrecy, once Mr. Draktren was named by Thrawn to head up the ISS."

Now it was Prescott that waited for a reaction, and a response. This girl did not know who she was toying with.
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Post by Halomek »

Kya met Prescott’s challenge without so much as a twitch. “Perhaps,” she agreed smoothly. “I’m not privy to that kind of information. I believe Daktren and Oremin have worked together before, but I have no way of knowing what his relationship is with us beyond that.”

“Just as I’d have no way of knowing if the people seated in this room were working with us or not,” she added, silently throwing the challenge back at him. “We’re not all that different from Imperial Intelligence, you know. We both live to safeguard the Empire.”

***

As the range counter ticked down to zero, Roviditian’s command exited hyperspace in the planned location on the far side of the battlefield. At first glance the ships guarding the communications hub were daunting. Kasr had been right, they were outnumbered, but many of them were also smaller vessels.

The taskforce cruisers, having jumped ahead, were already in place, transmitting their interference. A cluster of thrall ships were already moving in to take them out and were now caught flatfooted by the arrival of Roviditian’s group.

The Kismet led the charge, her gunners targeting the enemy ships with the power and precision accorded to a well-trained Star Destroyer crew. The Dark Star and the Inquisitor headed up the other two divisions as they moved towards the Xen’Chi position in a standard wave formation. While not necessarily the best formation to attack, it did give each ship plenty of coverage from their neighbors without a dangerous amount of friendly-fire.

“We have their attention,” Roviditian’s XO, Ralor Jav, confirmed. “They’re sending their thralls at us and the Xen’Chi carriers are launching their fighters. No other movement from the Xen’Chi ships though.”

Roviditian nodded as he surveyed the forces still protecting the hub. Five Vis'kral frigates, three Ruh'kmar carriers, three Hetch'hek cruisers, and one Xai’Chen command ship. It was a heavier compliment than they were expecting. It wouldn’t be impossible for Kasr’s division to take them out, but the fight would be much more difficult.

“Let’s see if we can press the issue a little,” he decided. “All ships with my division are to transfer power from every non-essential system and feed them into the shields before moving into a tight defensive formation. We’re going to break right through their line and head for their throat. Inquisitor and Dark Star are to keep their divisions back to protect the taskforce cruisers.”

“Going for the throat?” Jav asked quietly after the orders had been carried out. “Doesn’t that run counter to Kasr’s plan if break up our formation?”

“We just need to make the Xen’Chi believe that’s what we’re doing,” Roviditian assured him. “I only plan to go forward as far as I need to provoke them. We need to move more of their ships away from that thing. The forces with the Inquisitor and Dark Star can handle the thralls that don’t come after us.”

“It’s not them I’m worried about,” Jav remarked dryly.

***

The thrall fighters that the Xen’Chi had with them were triangular numbers about the size of an A-wing. Much like the famous New Republic fighter, they had speed but little substance. Vasax almost felt like laughing as he danced through their formations with his TIE Defender’s superior maneuverability. Tead’s technicians had done a wonderful job with the sensors. The information Vasax was receiving was much more extensive than fighters were typically granted with.

With the arc ships cranking out TIE Droids, the Imperial fighters were more than holding their own against the numerical advantage of the enemy. The droids themselves were doing better than Vasax had expected. Whatever programming Oremin had implemented in their A.I. routines was much more complex than Vasax had seen in droid fighters before.

Vasax corkscrewed upward to avoid a trio of enemy fighters coming up on his rear before violently juking the fighter to the left and relishing the sensation as the inertial dampeners struggled to keep up. His erratic maneuver turned the tables and brought him behind the thralls as he let loose with a laser barrage that destroyed one of the fighters and severely crippled another. The last one made the smart decision and retreated towards the safety of its comrades. Without any backup, Vasax let it go as he angled back and destroyed the crippled fighter.

There could be no survivors.
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Post by Halomek »

Like a massive plow burrowing through the dirt of the smaller thrall vessels, the mighty angled prow of the Kismet barreled through the enemy lines, leading her support ships in a mighty charge that none of the smaller thrall ships could withstand. More so than many Star Destroyers of its class, the Kismet was designed for war, with heavier armor and shields than its other contemporaries. It could mete out extraordinary damage and take a heavy pounding that would be too much for other Star Destroyers to handle.

With its tractor beams working in conjunction with its turbolasers to hold its prey still as it blasted them into dust, the Kismet managed to easily disrupt the thrall lines. The interference being spread by the taskforce cruisers was also having a noticeable effect on enemy coordination, making it much easier for the Imperial forces to deal with the larger numbers.

“Two H-cruisers and three V-frigates are moving towards our position,” Jav reported. “I’d say you were successful in getting their attention, Admiral.”

“Something I’m beginning to learn about these aliens, Ralor…” Roviditian remarked with satisfaction as he studied the tactical display. “They respect a show of power. We’ve just demonstrated that we’re worth their time and now they honor us by personally getting involved in the battle.”

“How flattering.”

“Quite,” Roviditian chuckled before he was suddenly overtaken by a fit of coughs. When it had passed the elderly man leaned back in his command chair. “Cease forward motion and allow the Xen’Chi to cover the distance while we focus on their thralls. The rest of our ships are to start moving forward to trap the thralls in a pincer movement.”

As usual, the Kismet’s bridge crew was expedient in carrying out Roviditian’s orders. Jav took the opportunity to make a quiet aside to Roviditian. “Your cough is sounding worse, sir.”

“I won’t be dying of natural causes anytime soon,” Roviditian assured his first officer confidently. “Winning this war is more important than having a health problem.”

Jav just nodded, not willing to argue with his superior officer. “How much longer do we wait before signaling Kasr’s group to arrive?”

“Not long,” Roviditian said to him as he clasped his gnarled hands together. “Not long.”

***

Vice Admiral Dolomar Daktren could hardly suppress a feeling of pride as he looked over the battle. Not since before Endor had he seen an Imperial fleet work with such efficiency. These “thralls” of the Xen’Chi were completely outmatched against the superior skills of what he had learned was being dubbed the Rogue Fleet by the enlisted soldiers.

“It’s been a long painful process, but I think the Empire is finally at a point where it can stand on its own without Emperor Palpatine’s influence,” he thought to himself. “All we need to do now is survive this war and its aftermath and then hopefully we’ll see a period of Pax Imperia.”

Dolomar smiled at the idea before rolling his eyes. “Not in your lifetime, Dolomar.”

The battle was going well, there wasn’t a ship or a crew in this fleet that didn’t know their stuff. Everyone was giving the thralls the fight of their life. After Roviditian’s stunt, the objective had been achieved of drawing out the Xen’Chi. The rest of the fleet would soon arrive to take control of the hub and then probably only Kasr knew where it would lead from there.

His own crew on the Dark Star were so experienced that they were carrying out the battle with little to no feedback from him. There was simply nothing he had to contribute, not with Admiral Roviditian being given the lead for this portion of the mission. He didn’t know about other officers, but making his crew so self-sufficient had always been one of his overriding goals.

“I’ve always thought of the Dark Star as one of the best ships in the Empire and now she’s proving it to me.”

***

“Signal incoming from the Kismet,” one of the Enforcer’s communications officers reported. “We’re clear to proceed. Minimal defenses left guarding the hub.”

Kasr nodded with an inward smile as looked at the incoming tactical information detailing what they had to deal with once they jumped. As usual, Roviditian had yet to fail him. “Very good, share this data with the rest of our ships and then prepare to jump to the target on my mark.”

OOC: Alright, you’re clear to go, Corsos. There’s a command ship, an H-cruiser, two V-frigates, and the three carriers still guarding the hub.
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Post by corsos »

Admiral Dreskul waited onboard the Insidious just a small microjump outside the battleground. He wished that he was leading this battlegroup, rather than serving under Kasr. No doubt the leader of Oremin wanted to keep an eye on his new Imperial allies, making sure they were not only loyal, but also capable as they undertook the mission.

“Sir, the Enforcer is contacting us.”

“Put it through.”

“Admiral, prepare for jump to hyperspace on my mark, are your men prepared.”

“We are.” Dreskul answered. “Prepared to jump on countdown.”

The comm channel cut, but the digital countdown began to blare over the bridge intercom. Dreskul listened to it and on cue, the Insidious and the rest of the taskforce jumped into hyperspace.

* * *

Prescott was about to answer when word came over the ship intercom that their battle group had received the signal to depart. “It seems as though we are going to have to wait to continue this conversation.” The Captain stood at his spot at the head of the table and the rest of the officer crew followed him out and onto the bridge.

“Commander Xeverin, is the node prepared?”

“Yes sir, it is loaded on the assault transport, along with one of our special forces teams.”

Prescott nodded. “Good.” He looked over to Kya. “Ms. Solra, with your purported expertise, would you like to accompany the assault team and our technicians onto the node to supervise the installation of our device?”

While they awaited the answer, the ship lurched into hyperspace.

* * *

Microjumps were meant to provide a tactical advantage over their enemy, allowing the possibility of surprise. It was no different here, with the Insidious and the Enforcer jumping into the opposite side of the system near the now under-defended communications hub. Seven ships remained there, and while they outnumbered their task force the Empire certainly had superior firepower. Dreskul awaited the orders for the Insidious from Kasr.

But the orders for his fighters had already been decided and it was not long before Khal and his Ghosts leapt from their hangar bay to rendezvous with and escort the assault shuttle from the Wraith. It was their first true mission together, not counting Naboo where they hadn’t even seen any resistance when they assaulted the resistance’s aerial defenses.

The assault shuttle launched from the Wraith and the Ghosts moved around it, slowly going towards the communications hub. Plague squadron flew in front of them, responsible for clearing the landing space for the shuttle. They would not make their complete approach until after the capital ships engaged the enemy.
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Post by Halomek »

Miss Solra already?” Kya noticed. “What happened to lieutenant? Not sure what Prescott is pulling here, but he’s getting more suspicious by the minute. One thing is clear, he doesn’t want me on his ship. Might even try to have his boys turn on me in the confusion of battle on the hub… they’re free to try.”

Fortunately, setting foot on the hub was something she had been hoping for. Kasr’s instructions had been very clear…

“Well, I haven’t come this far just to sit out the most important part of all this,” she said with a nod. “I’ll do my best not to get in the strike team’s way.”

***

As the Enforcer jumped into the battle, flanked by the Insidious and the Tsunami to provide cover for the Wraith, Grappler, and arc ship Zeta, Kasr knew the battle was theirs. He could already tell that Roviditian’s forces were proving to be more than the enemy could handle. Under the experienced tactical mind of the old admiral, Kasr was fairly certain that Roviditian could have destroyed all the enemy ships without the additional support, but without ready access to repair docks afterwards, Kasr wasn’t about to test the theory.

The Tsunami was already moving towards the hub, it’s custom squadron of 48 Scimitar Assault Bombers, otherwise known as the Black Water Taskforce, had launched to make bombing runs on the hub’s shields. They would work in conjunction with the specialized gunners on the Tsunami to bring down the shields in half the time it would normally take.

The remaining Xen’Chi ships were quick to respond to the new threats, as could be expected from a warrior race. Their command ship, all curves and points, led the charge, with the last H-cruiser staying close to protect the bridge of its larger compatriot.

Dangerously close as a matter of fact…

Insidious,” Kasr contacted Dreskul over the comlink. “In the spirit of this new fleet, I suggest we take the two big ships out together. Ready your tractor beams to follow the lead I set at Borleias.”

Kasr’s XO, Alaan Ank, shook his head. “The Xen’Chi… I’m starting to think they’re far too reliant on their numbers and their skill in battle for their own good. They seem to have neglected advanced strategy.”

“I’m sure they haven’t needed it up till now,” Kasr replied. “Their numbers and ferocity in battle can go a long way. I wouldn’t be fooled, Captain, the truly intelligent Xen’Chi likely aren’t regulated to guarding hubs. The true measure of Xen’Chi strategy will be found the deeper we go into their territory.”

“And you’re looking forward to it, aren’t you?”

Kasr said nothing, which was answer enough.

***

Captain Sashu Jurarth of the Star Destroyer Tsunami knew she had a lot to prove in this battle. She was young, far to young to have made captain had she served with the Empire instead of with Oremin. However, she had lived her whole life on this vessel and had learned strategy from the best: her father - the previous captain of the Tsunami.

The exploits of the Tsunami had been near-legendary before the Empire’s fall at Endor thanks to her father’s intimate knowledge of starship tactics. He had taught everything he knew to Sashu and now she finally had a chance to prove that she could more than live up to his example. The Tsunami was all about precision targeting, exploiting weaknesses that would be impossible for lesser-crews.

Her job was clear, she had the duty of taking down the shield on the Xen’Chi hub.

“This is what we’ve trained for,” Sashu reminded her staff. “I have faith in every one of you. Let’s do our reputation proud and take down that shield in record time.”

As one, the Black Water Taskforce unleashed a slavo of mag pulse missiles, their magenta trails impacting against the shields of the hub in one combined explosion. The bombers themselves peeled away immediately to make room for a follow-up turbolaser strike that impacted almost immediately after the missiles has struck.

The effect on the shields was immediate and noticeable, a few more strikes and the special forces team would be clear to proceed…
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Post by corsos »

"On your mark, Enforcer." Dreskul spoke back.

The weapons from the Enforcer erupted, and by its Admiral's orders the Insidious joined in. He imegined the combined might of their turbolasers pounding the shields of the alien Cruiser. It would not have survived a pounding from the Enforcer for long, with the combined might of the two Star Destroyers it would only take a minute before it shields began to weaken with turbolaser bolts here and there breaking through the striking the ships hull.

But that isn't what happened, Kasr preferred far more creative means, and Dreskul was happy to go along with the man. The Enforcer did in fact trigger its weapons, but not its ion cannons and turbolasers. Rather it's tractor beams were joined by the Insidious and the nearby arc ships, grasping the enemy H-Cruiser in their combined grip. And the ship began to move away from the station, clearing the path.

"Shall commence fire with our lasers sir?"

"No." Dreskul said. "NOt yet, we want as much power as we can muster into our tractor beams. Wait for it to come to rest where we want it... now. Fire at will!"

The Insidious began to pound the vessel and the Enforcer joined in. The ship would not last long.

* * *

"Alright Ghosts, Plague Squadron, the path has been cleared. Lead us in Plague, concentrate on the hub and its defenses. We'll cover you."

"Roger that Commander. Powering our engines to full."

Khal watched as the assault gunboats began to pick up speed and spread the necessary distance between them and the Ghosts. "Ghost Five, take two and three flight and cover Plague Squadron. The enemy will be far more concerned with them than our charge."

"Roger that lead."

"Happy Hunting Five."

A pair of clicks was Forge's only response. Khal smiled for the breifest of moments before switching his comm over to the assault transport. "Transport Silence, begin approach."

"Copy that Ghost lead. Course set for the primary target. Engines are ramping to full." Came back the transport.

"Moving into box-escort formation Silence." Khal switched back to his squadron's frequency.

"Alright One Flight, move into escort formation Beta, do not engage anything unless it fires on the Silence or the escort."

Affirmitives from everyone in his flight, including an especially unenthusiastic one from Davies repeated in his headset.

Looks like escort duty isn't esciting enough for the boy. He'll learn what often starts as the most basic duty quickly becomes not only the most essential, but the most difficult as well.

Khal and the rest of their squadron had to bring down their engine power to well below full strength as to not zoom past the assault transport. They were very much sitting ducks if anyone through to target them. But as he suspected the enemy fighters protecting the hub were focusing on the Scimitar bombers and Plague Squadron's assault gunboats. Forge and the rest of the Ghosts had an easy time picking off the enemy one by one. But Khal knew that as the transport got closer, so did they to the possibility of danger.
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Post by Halomek »

Ever since he had been informed of the plan, Fen had been worried that some of the Xen’Chi would have tried to flee once the battle turned sour for them. To his knowledge, no one had captured a Xen’Chi fighter yet so it was an unknown if they had hyperspace capabilities. With the speed the alien craft were capable of, it would have been a race to chase them down and destroy them before they cleared the interdiction field.

As Kasr’s ambush really took hold, Fen realized that those fears were groundless. Hyperspace capable or not, the Xen’Chi didn’t seem interested in running even though the battle was quickly shifting away from their favor. In a way, Fen could respect such fanaticism, it was something the Empire had tried to instill in all of its recruits back in Palpatine’s day, and to a lesser degree now – with varying success.

“If we had fought like the Xen’Chi, would the Empire have lost Yavin and Endor?” It was a strange thought to have in the middle of a dogfight and Fen quickly got rid of it. There was no use dwelling on the past and on things that could not be changed, all that mattered was the future and preserving the Empire.

“We’re clear, Lead,” Jak informed him just as Fen realized the destruction of their last target had cleared their patch of space of all hostiles.

“Copy that,” Fen replied. “Midnights, form up-”

“Excellent job, Midnights,” Loraq’s voice suddenly interrupted him. “Section Delta-Alpha-Tango is still thick with hostiles, but a group of bomber analogues have broken free and are trying to make a run on the taskforce cruisers. Take them out.”

Fen suppressed his mild irritation at being interrupted as he checked the sensor readings himself. Sure enough, Loraq was right and the Midnights were the closest fighters available to do the job. Whatever else Fen thought about Loraq, he had to admit that the Major really seemed to be on top of things.

“And here I thought I was the one with access to the Force,” Fen thought wryly. “Copy, we’re on our way.”

***

With the sustained barrage from the Insidious and the Enforcer, the Xen’Chi H-cruiser was bleeding vented plasma from numerous wounds. It was effectively a dead ship - although still useful to Kasr’s strategy. Not only had the tractor beam strategy kept the H-cruiser from maneuvering itself, but with careful control, the Imperial ships had continually kept it in the way of the larger Xai’Chen’s weapons, frustrating the Xen’Chi gunners from ever getting in a good salvo while their other ship was pounded away right in front of them.

“A shame I can’t let the details of this battle leak out,” Kasr reflected. “The maneuver was beautifully executed. It would almost be worth it to have the Xen’Chi’s arrogance taken down a notch.”

“Well done, Insidious,” Kasr complimented the other ship. “Now that we’ve finished with their cruiser, it’s time to give it back to the Xen’Chi. Implement the tractor beam push now.”

As one, the Imperial ships briefly silenced their guns to give their tractor beams as much power as they could handle and sent the remains of the Xen’Chi cruiser hurtling towards the enemy command ship with as much speed as a body of that mass could generate. To their credit, the aliens tried to counter with their own tractor beams but by then the momentum was already too great and the power behind it too strong to stop.

The shields of the command ship briefly sizzled as they tried to handle the strain of the dead ship before they failed altogether and the H-cruiser impacted against the hull. The collision of the two massive bodies demolished the front half of the Xai’Chen and utterly obliterated what was left of the H-cruiser.

With the Xen’Chi’s most powerful ship effectively out of the fight, there was nothing left to do now but mop up the remains. To punctuate that, the Enforcer’s guns opened up once again as it focused on destroying what was left of the command ship. Even crippled as it was, active sections of the ship were still firing back.

***

As the shields dropped on the hub, Sashu felt herself vindicated. The crew had fulfilled all her expectations and the Tsunami had been able to live up to its name. With their primary mission completed, Sashu turned her attention to the carriers and the frigates that were now on their own after the combined teamwork of Kasr and Dreskul had eliminated the two biggest threats.

“Inform the Black Water Taskforce that we have new targets for them.”
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Post by corsos »

ooc I'll just post via the fighters and assault transport.

IC

Besides the obvious tactical reasons, Khal decided to stay back in escort duty also so he could view from a more or less unobstructive vantage Ghost Squadron acting in concert as a unit. He watched them with his eyes, and on the sensor readout on his HUD, but he also listened to the chatter between Liuetenant Forge and the other seven Ghosts that were out there protecting Plague Squadron. He liked virtually everything he was seeing, and hearing. There was constant chatter, and not just between Forge and the rest of the squadron giving and taking orders, but alos between the flight leaders, and more importantly wingmates. And it wasn't extraneousm, wasted talk, but to the point communication to assist one another in heir tactical situations. And the actions of the fighters coincided with the superior communication, moving in tandems of two, and even four at times, using concentrated fire and coordinated maneuver to devour their enemies.

The results spoke for themselves. PLague Squadron had completed their mission with no losses, the enemy hub's shields all but gone. The Ghosts suffered no losses either and the enemy fighter corps was being destroyed slowly but surely. It was especially impressive considering the newness of the combat. None of the fighters engaged in the skirmish had seen Xen Chi fighters before so they provided a certain amount of suprise during the engagement. What struck Khal the most about the alien fighters was their toughness once the shields went down. The sleek black alien fighters could take a beating and a half and still come back for more. In fact they had only completely destroyed perhaps only a half dozen of the elien ships.

Thrawn would love to get his hands on the allow of those ships..

Khal's thoughts were interrupted as a plasma burst hit the shields of the assault transport, rattling it from bow to stern.

"Enemy contact lead." Davies' voice came suddenly over his headset.

"Do not engage Two, Sergeant Waters - do have visual on the fighter contact engaging the Silence?"

"I have visual lead, moving to engage." But it wasn't Waters voice, it was Davies'.

"Negative Two, maintain formation."

But the young man had already broken it and was in pursuit of the black fighter, zooming away from their charge. Khal was about to veer off himself when Water's voice filled the comm channel, this time in a direct connection to him.

"Stay put lead, I'll get him."

Khal watched as Waters broke off with his wingman and moved to assist the cocky Davies. Ghost Two had already caught their attackers and was firing on his six, but the alien's wingmate had done what any good wingmate would and was covering his comrade in arms. And soon, Davies had plasma erupting past him, some splashing on his shields, others just missing his deeking fighter. If the kid wasn't so damned good he would have been shot down by now, but his talent kept him alive. Khal watched as Waters and Ghost Ten moved in behind the second alien fighter and knocked it off its pursuit with a pair of concussion missiles. Shortly afterwards Davies finished the fighter he was pursuing.

Checking back on the rest of the battle the hub's shields were no longer registering on his sensors, meaning PLague Squadron had succeeded in their mission. The Silence approached the hub and took only limited fire as it docked with the communications station.

"Alright Ghosts, disengage escort and provide space supremacy. Plagues, keep an eye on the SIlence in dock."

"Roger that fighter lead." Xeverin's voice came over the commlink.

Davies returned to his spot at Ghost 2 and flew alongside Khal as they began to directly engage the enemy. "Stay with me two, follow my lead. Let's finish this by the books."

"Yes sir." Davies voice came back, and there was no doubt he knew he was going to be dressed down when they got back to the Insidious.

* * *

"We're docking." Colonel Guderian was in charge of the incursion onto the Xen CHi vessel. He was the primary special operations commander on the Wraith and was therefore in command. Joining his soldiers were the scientists and engineers in charge of installing the node along with one visitor provided by Oremin, the female Lieutenant. His combat men were in their specially designed special ops Stormtrooper armor, modelled on the ARC armor used by the clones during the previous war. It was quite deadly.

"Prepare for breech! Demolitions to the front!"

Guderian stepped back as the the charges were placed on the docking door. In a few moments they were set.

"Stand by! All clear!"

The unit turned around the nearby bend and waited for the charges to blow.

After they did they charged in, weapons hot.

ooc Hal - since you are the only one with a main character there, feel free to handle the breech and installation.
"The goal of war is not to die for your country, it's to make the other bastard die for his." General George S. Patton

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Post by Halomek »

OOC: Not my greatest work, but it gets the job done.

IC: As the special forces team rushed into the breach, Kya stayed near the back and let the soldiers do their work. The special ops dispatched to take the hub were professional and deadly, which was to be expected. The Xen’Chi warriors inside, fearless though they were, fell to precisely coordinated crossfires and other strategies to maximize the strength of the special ops group against the greater Xen’Chi numbers.

Although it was tempting for Kya to show off her skills in battle, she was too well trained to let such an indiscretion pass while under cover. Just as she was observing the Imperial team, Kya knew it would be foolish to assume the same thing wasn’t being done to her. What little aid she did contribute to the skirmishes was intentionally sloppier and less focused than her actual level of skill, instead it was more in line with the technician she was posing as, sometimes dangerously so when the Xen’Chi managed to get too close to the team for comfort.

Even if Prescott, or some other shady Imperial keeping tabs on her, was working under the assumption that she was holding back, it still gave them no indication as to how much. If things started to get ugly, that would be a critical advantage in her favor.

Eventually the team managed to clean the hub of all the Xen’Chi, although not without a cost. Two of the special ops soldiers were casualties and another was in critical condition after a srraka blade managed to pierce the plasma-blast weakened armor and stab the man in the gut.

Once the scientists and engineers started installing the node, Kya kept a close eye on their work. It was under the guise of making sure the mission succeeded without her getting in the way, but in reality it was to help ensure the node was installed without any tricks. Such a critical phase of Kasr’s overall plan couldn’t leave anything to chance. Kya doubted she was the only precaution Kasr would have in place before this was all over with, it wouldn’t be in that man’s nature to trust everything to one factor, but she fulfilled her part to the utmost.

The installation didn’t exceed the expected difficulty and soon enough the node was in place. There was a moment of tense anticipation before the moment of activation – the moment of truth – but nothing came of it. The node came online with a steady hum and didn’t appear to suffer from any problems.

Kya checked the datastream scrolling down one of the Xen’Chi datascreens to make sure the most critical aspect of node was working: hiding the hub. There appeared to be no indication that the hub had been subverted and nothing that indicated the hub was even still on the network. Breathing a sigh of relief, she activated the translation program. Within moments, the scribbles the Xen’Chi called a language were converted into readable Aurebesh.

She nodded as she made some minor adjustments to the programming to account for the differences in grammar and sentence structure between the two languages. Finally she looked over to a patient Guderian. “The node and the translation program are a success. We’ve done it.”

Guderian nodded before activating his comlink, “Strike team reporting in. Mission objectives achieved. Awaiting all clear to withdraw.”

***

As the last of the thrall ships succumbed to the power of the Kismet’s guns, it signaled an end to the operational enemy capital ships. All that was left now were mopping up the last of the enemy fighters before Kasr could initiate the next phase of his plan and move the hub out of the battlefield.

Roviditian felt more at peace than he had for a long time. After guarding Oremin for so long, the cathartic release of combat he felt during this war was something he savored, like being able to breathe the fresh ocean air after being cooped up in a congested city. There was no other place he wished to spend his waning days more than on the bridge of his Star Destroyer.

“And now that the hub is ours,” he said to himself with a smile. “Things will get really interesting.”

OOC: Go ahead and put your own cap on the battle if you want, Corsos. I’ll wrap up everything else afterwards and we can move on to the next phase of the story.
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Another Factor

Post by xfiend1013 »

OOC: This is the crew from Ghost Ship requesting a docking in this thread, Roger.

I'm not Roger, either.

IC:

The stims still seeped into Garrett’s bloodstream, lowering the potassium potential across his musculature and nerves. His heart beat faster, easier, wearing itself out even as it was continuously rebuilt. Calories boiled off, heating him, using more energy, energy first from the stores of fat he’d long ago drawn down, and then, from his proteins, the uninhibited muscles themselves.

As the proteins split into sugars they left poisons behind that flowed into his liver and kidneys. In a normal human, they would long ago have killed vast tracts of those organs, leading to necrosis, a buildup of toxins, and a slow excruciating death.

But in Garrett these toxins were consumed, split apart into new, harmless compounds, usually winding up as water and carbon dioxide, a few trace minerals almost endlessly recycled.

It was not the work of a natural system. And as such it was inefficient, a design evolution could never have favored in the lean and starving eons that had created life. It required a massive input of concentrated energy, impossible to find in the flesh of animals or tissues of plants.

Garrett sat up sweating confused by the cold of shock and went instantly for the bottle of Correllian Janx Spirit near his bed, desperate to pour the high-octane, flammable liquid down his throat. Enough energy to fuel his engineered physique for a while. Until he could find more, which was what he was dead set on doing.

The medical bay looked the same, except where the old Tzohar had been bare fixtures, dim corners, and clutter, this vessel maintained clean sheets, warm vents, and bright lights.

“Where… where are we?” Freeman said, sitting up. He was out of his stormtrooper armor and Garrett saw his face for the first time.

“Good, you’re not a clone.” Garrett said. “That makes one of us.” He took a swig from the bottle again as he took in the differences between the old Tzohar and it’s temporal twin.

A brief moment passed and Garrett wondered which of the ships was real.

“What?” Freeman asked.

“Nothing.” Garrett said, swinging his feet out from the bed. Pain spread up his legs and then numbed as endorphins flooded his damaged tissues.

Freeman groaned. “I can’t… I can’t get up…”

“It’s shock, combined with dehydration, starvation, and severe post-traumatic stress syndrome.” Garrett said. “Ya know, battle fatigue. Genocide exhaustion. Scout’s insomnia.”

“You seem okay.”

“I’m very resilient.” Garrett said. He extended the bottle of Janx towards Freeman. “And I’m a little drunk. Helps a lot.”

“Where are we? This isn’t the ship we boarded, is it?” Freeman asked before taking the bottle and then taking a swig. He looked back at Garrett as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

No point in explaining it. Be like lumguzzling, Garrett figured.

“No, it’s another ship. We were rescued.” Garrett said.

“It… looks the same… but it’s not… It’s like it was abandoned, and now…”

“Well we got rescued by another corellian corvette. I just bet you haven’t been on enough of them, they tend to look kinda alike. But, see, this one’s got a crew, all the frelling spast works, that sort of shavvit.”

Garrett stood and took another heavy swig from the bottle, feeling strength return to his limbs, felt his stomach burn, his body warm.

“Where were we?” Arlan asked, sitting up as Garrett stood.

“I’m going to go find out. Stay here, rest a bit, let the droids give you some fluids.” Garrett said.

“I’m starving.” Winston said.

“Food, drink, you name it, you got it.” Garrett said. He walked over to Valis, still entombed in the medical cocoon.

“Status?” Garrett asked the medical droid.

“Nominal. Elective surgeries are waiting until further stabilization. There are several procedures that could accelerate the healing process which have not yet been attempted.

Garrett wondered what Valis was thinking. The first thing he had wondered as he awoke was “where is the whisky.” The first thing Freeman had asked was “where are we?” and the first thing Arlan had asked was “where were we?”

It was then that Garrett wondered where they were headed.
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Post by corsos »

"Colonel Guderian has reported mission accomplished and is awaiting orders for evacuation once the space around the space station is clear." Lieutenant Evers said to Dreskul, who smiled. "Good work everyone. Status on the Ghosts?"

"They report the area is free of fighters, they have space superiority."

Dreskul nodded proudly, and connected to the Enforcer and Kasr.

"Mr. Kasr, the hub is secured and the space is clear. Move in your towing ships to get the hub clear, we're preparing the nuclear detonation to cover our plan. The detonation and activation of our node must be simultaneous, to avoid any Xen Chi attempts at detecting our subterfuge. Since teams from the Wraith have installed and activated the node, Captain Prescott requests permission to also detonate the nuke to avoid any discrepancies."

"That should do fine, Admiral. We have a sensor contact just on the edge of the gravity field projected by the Grappler, near your position. At this range sensor information is spotty, but it appears to have the configuaration of a Blockade Runner."

Dreskul looked over to his sensor officer who gave him a thumbs up. "Aye, we read it. Move the hub out, we'll handle the Corvette."

"Remember Admiral, the Xen Chi have Thralls everywhere. They cannot be allowed to leave this system seeing what they have without a proper investigation."

"Yes, Mr. Kasr." Dreskul answered. "I'll handle it. Direct the Wraith yourself, Prescott will know to follow your direct commands. Insidious out."

"Move position towards our new sensor contact."

"Sir, we're detecting a general SOS from the vessel."

Dreskul nodded. "Could, this should be fairly simple then. Have the Ghosts bring it in, grant it permission to dock. Tell them we need a full sensor sweep of the ship before we allow it to dock."

"Aye sir..."

* * *

"Yes Insidious, Ghost Lead out." Khal answered the orders from their command ship.

"Form up Ghosts, take heading ten dot three five. The Insidious' sensors have picked up a new arrival, they think it is a Corvette pulled out of hyperspace by the Grappler's gravity well projectors. It's sending out a general SOS. We are to escort it to the Insidious, perform a full ship scan and see it onboard."

A series of clicks told him that his squadron understood what they had to do. The twelve TIE Defenders shot out towards the Corvette, with Khal in the lead. After a short time, it was indeed clear that the ship in question was a Corellian Corvette. However, identifying it's IFF was something that was far more difficult.

Khal spoke over an open frequency. "Unidentified Corellian Corvette, this is Ghost Squadron answerding your distress call. Respond and take heading four-two-zero for docking with the Insidious. We will escort you once you have taken the proper heading and powered down your weapons. Over."

Khal waited, the results of the battle still playing through his head. His squadron did very well, even after his one mistake Davies played his role perfectly and the Ghosts were almost as deadly as they always were. They were getting closer, they just weren't there yet...
"The goal of war is not to die for your country, it's to make the other bastard die for his." General George S. Patton

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S o S

Post by xfiend1013 »

Garrett fell to the floor as the ship thundered around him. The walls shook and for a moment he listened for the ominous hiss gas venting to vacuum.

Nothing, though, and Garrett bit down on his molar and brought engineering up on his commlink. A tiny real-time holo of the engineer on the other end showed him the cluttered, machine-filled metal cavern the equipment occupied.

"Report, what the frell just happened?" Garrett asked.

"Uh, we've been pulled out of hyperspace due to a nearby gravity well. We'd have adjusted, but this new hyperdrive is... is... I..."

A green radiation warning lighted the engineering nacelle as white light sparked from the bulky experimental hyperdrive. There was a flash of white and Garrett heard nothing but screaming over the commlink.

He sat up against the wall, bare-foot, only in shorts. His hair still streamed down in thick tangled locks into his bristled black beard, thick hair that seemed to cover a little too much of his body. He removed one of his nipple rings and checked the tiny display on the interior. Radiation levels were rising, even here. He thought up a new commlink frequency and bit down, again, on the molar-implanted communicator.

"P53, activate radiation shielding for the engineering nacelle. Let the captain handle the rest."

There was a jumbled jibbering from the astromech.

"A general SOS? Where... where are we? What's this gravity well?"

"Garrett, get up here to the bridge!" Came a sudden intrusion through the internal speaker, the tiny nanotubules bundled around the bones in his inner ear. It was Vailhai, captain of the Tzohar.

As usual, he was upset. As usual, this was the fault of Garrett G. Granth the fourth.

As he went to put his radiation sensor back into it's piercing, he realized it had healed up.

Garrett jammed the bloodstained needle back through what he believed to be it's groove, right through the middle of his right nipple, and took another shot of whiskey as his pupils dialated from the pain. He stretched out his long arms and short legs and shook for a moment as the bleeding subsided.

Another shot. He wondered if he should wear all his clothes to the bridge, or if it really was an emergency.

Taking off half naked, he ran towards the bridge.

***

"Alright, so what's the situation here, captain?" A tall, handsome human male asked. His tone was cold, too finely balanced for someone facing the possibility of lethal irridation or depressurization.

"Engineering is down. Droids have disconnected the hyperdrive from the power couplings, and isolated the cascade resonance failure. The radiation shielding is keeping us going, but we're going to need to dock to get the hyperdrive safely operating again."

"And what about these... imperial vessels?" The man asked.

"We're not sure they're imperial, at all." Vailhai responded. "Lots of heavy-credit idiots have vessels like these - and these codes aren't imperial. They're hailing us, hang on..."

Vailhai set a beleaugered look on Garrett as he came in, nothing but shorts and hair, a collection of piercings and braids clutching a metal bottle of liquor.

Wolsky roared.

"You wookiees don't shave, so how would you know what one looks like?" Garrett shot back at the gigantic treeclimber.

Wolsky roared again.

"My mother's back?!" Garrett shook his head. "Ugh, you're a sick arboreal freak, Wolsky."

"Would you two please shut up?" The handsome man asked. Garrett looked at him for a moment, didn't recognize him, and decided, then and there, that he did not like him.

"Who the frell are you?" Garrett asked.

"Didn't we leave you near Taylon?" The man asked.

"What?" Garrett asked.

"That was... another Garrett. There's... a lot of him." Vailhai sighed.

Wolsky chortled a joke he'd heard under a wosyr bush as a youngling.

"Attention... corv... require.... dock.. .gr...scan... lete.."

"Who's that?" Garrett asked.

"This is all we're getting from them. The hyperdrive malfunction is seriously interfering with our communications."

"I have intercepted a coded communique from the inbound fighters. The code is not imperial, and I have managed to decypher it." The bith manning the communications console hardly looked up as he announced his prize.

"Play it." Vailhai said.

"...bad feeling about this..."

"don't say that. It's probably just a transport."

"...could be anything... Careful..."

Static as the secure communications cycled automatically to a new code.

"We're getting open comms, I've adjusted the receiver to..."

"Let's hear them and not you." Vailhai snapped at the bith.

"Unidentified Corellian Corvette, this is Ghost Squadron answering your distress call. Respond and take heading four-two-zero for docking with the Insidious. We will escort you once you have taken the proper heading and powered down your weapons. Over."

Vailhai looked at Garrett, his unofficial guide to all things involving potential detainment.

Garrett thought about it for a moment.

"Ooh, the Insidious. Real friendly name. But they'll probably be interested in Guardsman Valis, here, and these stormies, than in us. Maybe we can drop them off, rest, refuel, repair, and not spend the whole time in a force cage."

"You'll be the one in the cage, remember. Most of us here are upstanding citizens of no import, Granth."

"Whatever. If I know Imperials, and I think I do, they'll be interested more in who I can prove I am than in who I really am. Same goes for the ship."

"Alright, let me talk to them, at least." Vailhai said, leaning over the holocom unit.

"Attention Ghost Squadron. This is the Tzohar, accepting assistance. This is a civilian research vessel, registry Coruscantine..." Vailhai began his speech, a speech prepared to meet the informational needs of most interstellar navies in the galaxy. As he rattled off serial numbers, license ident frequencies, and ports of origin, Garrett began powering down the weapons and changing the course of the vessel to follow the path the Ghosts indicated.

***

As the entered the shadow of the massive vessel, Garrett felt a distinct unease. His usual stay with Imperials involved torture and interrogation. Hopefully, that wouldn't be the case. He had rewritten his fake ident chips - giving him the identity of Garrett Granth (a common enough name, one that took away the chance of him not responding to a fake name), a "paranormal investigator" from the obscure rimward planet of Ansion.

And as Garrett created this new identity the Insidious began scanning the ship - odd readings bore out. Heavily populated with droids, a veritable menagerie of aliens, sensor-dead zones, alarmingly high radiation and energy readings - the Tzohar was a bright bundle of potential problems.

In the medical bay, though, was the most confusing reading. A large mass, giving off a life reading, suddenly seemed to change to droid energy patterns, orderly and efficient. The scanner operator shook his head, and wondered if he was getting enough sleep.
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Post by Archangel »

[OOC: I'll make a catch-up post as soon as possible, but exams are next week, so I may be busy for a while...]
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Post by corsos »

"Insidious, this is Ghost lead. The Corvette is following directives and we are escorting it back on a heading towards your position. It identifies it as the Tzohar."

"Roger that fighter lead. Commence sensor sweep, once it gets into range we'll conduct our own, more detailed one."

"Confirmed command, commencing sensor sweep."

Khal flipped back to his squadron's closed frequency and now he spoke only to them. "Ghosts, this is lead. I'll be starting a sensor sweep. One flight, cover me, the rest of you maintain escort."

A series a clicks told him his squadron understood, so Khal pulled his yoke back and to the right forcing his Tie Defender back, and over the top of the Corvette. Flipping a number of switches he began his examination.

***

"Let me talk to him directly."

There was something about this chance arrival of this Corvette in this part of space, at this time, that made Dreskul a little more than suspicious. Sure, it was quite possible it was nothing but a coincidence, but no good Commander would leave it at that with no further investigation. The first mark against this ship was that it’s entrance vector came from the direction of Xen Chi space. What would a ship of that size with such a limited armament be doing behind enemy lines in the unknown regions.

“Commander Arunson, this is Admiral Dreskul, report.”

The muffled, somewhat mechanical voice of Khal Arunsun came back. “I’ve finished my sweep Admiral… and the results are strange. Life readings indicate a variety of alien species I don’t even think you could find in Mos Eisley. Some of the cargo areas are shielded to whatever sweeps I’m doing, and the reactor core is giving off some strange readings and signatures I’ve never seen before. Plus, they’re fluctuating all over the place.”

Dreskul pondered this for a moment. Khal was someone he trusted above all else, he had been through a lot more battles than he had. “What’s your feel Commander? Are they intending us harm?”

“Don’t know sir, but they don’t have the firepower to be overtly so. If you want the ship gone, we can handle that, their shields and weapons are powered down.”

They could be preparing a suicide strike once we dock, overloading their reactor core. But then again, Khal is no sensor officer.
“No Commander, bring them in, we’ll take a closer look ourselves.”

“Roger that Admiral, continuing escort.”

The channel went dead and Dreskul averted his eyes back to the viewport, where the blockade runner grew larger by the second. He glanced back over to the communication hub, which was being attatched to massive tow cables by some of the larger transports dispatched by the Kismet and Enforcer. They would be done soon, and Kasr would like this scenario resolved before then.

“The moment the Corvette comes within sensor range begin scanning it. Use every trick you know, I want to know everything about it as quickly as possible, most specifically whether or not if it’s a potential danger to us.” Dreskul ordered.

“Yes sir, it should be entering maximum range in 1 minute.”

Dreskul nodded. “What do we have on the ship’s designation.”

“We’ve found it in the registry sir… but there’s a problem.”

“And what’s that?” Dreskul asked.

If this is some kind of Ubiqourate or NR Intel spy job, I won’t be happy.

“The ship’s history is more than a gigabyte worth of data. It’s rather… long and complex.”

“Footnote it for me Corporal.”

“Of course sir. In short the ship seems to be a cross between a science ship, smuggling trade vessel, and mercenary pirate ship. It’s done a little of everything, including some that are illegal. Nothing major though, mostly ignoring trade and transport restrictions, and other minor offensives. Doesn’t seem like the crew or Captain, whom we don’t know who is by the way, would have any special grudge against the Galactic Empire.”

Or at least none more so than any other individual trying to make their way in the galaxy.

“Keep reading, let me know if you find anything else.”

“In sensor range sir, I’m sending results to your primary viewscreen along with the analysis of engineering, and myself. Stand by.”

Dreskul waited and watched as the data came up slowly but surely, and soon he knew exactly what Khal was referring to. This was one of the stranger sets of readings they had ever laid eyes on. “This is a lot of data…” Dreskul said absently.
“Engineering is breaking down the energy readings and fluctuations sir. They think it is just a result of heavy modification, nothing sinister. It appears safe enough.”

Or they’re just real good at hiding their intentions.

“Alright then, when they reach tractor beam range, lock on and bring them in.”

“Yes sir.”

* * *

“Well Ghosts looks like we’re clear, the Insidious is about to lock on their tractor beams. Once the ship is secure we’re clear to dock ahead of the Corvette. Stand by and move on my signal.”

“Aye lead.” Forge’s voice came back.

Khal didn’t even look at his sensors, he knew his eyesight watching the Corvette shudder when the beams locked on would be a far better and quicker indicator. He hoped the crew of the small ship didn’t try to resist. It never ended well for those that resisted. He saw the ship twitch and slow.

“Break off.” Khal ordered, and a moment later he was pushing his yoke forward and to the left clearing distance from the Corvette, before moving the squadron back towards the Insidious. “Dock and meet in the rear of the hangar Ghosts, have your sidearms handy. I’m not quite sure what we’re in for with our recent catch.”

ooc X - feel free to dock. Khal will be waiting for you, along with the rest of the Ghosts, and a Lieutenant Evers when you disembark. Sorry this took so long.
"The goal of war is not to die for your country, it's to make the other bastard die for his." General George S. Patton

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Post by Archangel »

[OOC: If you want Arlan to be there with the disembarking party (which he may want to be anyway), just say so. I'm still busy, though... but I hope I can fit a post in when necessary.]
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