Rapora War (Introductory RPG)

[Trejiuvanat]

A protective formation of white daggers occupied the space around them. In the center of the formation three white ships hung in space pointing at an indefinite point of cosmos.

 

Oreton's ship, Right to Rule, had shocked the Imperial of the fleet, they did not need to turn an eye to their sensors to realize the damage done to it. The crater on its port side spoke for itself, their fears sharpened then with a quick overview of the status of the massive Destroyer.

 

In the center of the formation, two other ship had been waiting for him; one was the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, Pellaeon's flagship. The other, Sovereign Star Destroyer Imperious, Flagship of the Empire.

 

After the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, the Empire had ultimately thripled their territory, Imperial Space now occupied most of the Outer Rim world between the Hydian Way and the Unknown Regions, all those that had been in the path of the invasion. Uninhabited world with large resources that had been given to the Empire. After a few years the Empire had a large surplus of minerals and metals; more than their facilities could process, Kuat Drive Yards and Lianna-based Sienar Technologies had taken contracts from them.

 

Five years after the war, Sovereign-II Star Destroyer Imperious had been comissioned. The only difference to the original design was the lack of a superlaser, one flaw that Pellaeon started to long for when Oreton started the report.

 

Three humans and a Chiss were in the Grand Admiral's Command Room. The room was very Imperial, its design was of the age of Palpatine, so it featured a massive throne that stood above everything else, distant of everyone's troubles. Pellaeon had never bothered with redesigning it as he hardly spent time on that ship, instead he preferred his beloved Chimaera. Today he had made an exception, as he realized the necessity of inspiring the soldiers of the strength of the Empire, through one symbol such as the Imperious a strength Pellaeon himself did not feel.

 

"I have some of the initial details of the battle from Baron Fel, here," Pellaeon started. "The condition of your arrival already reveals the ultimate fate of Nirauan. I commend you for deciding not to risk the rest of your taskforce, Admiral, and for the rescue of the personnel from the Hand of Thrawn."

 

Oreton nodded.

 

"When Baron Fel left, Nirauan was already doomed, I only helped to delay the inevitable and rescue some few things of value." Oreton said. "I regret to inform you of the death of Admiral Parck, Jedi Skywalker and his family entered hyperspace, and we have had no word from them."

 

Pellaeon suppressed a sigh, but his face revealed his state. He had expected the loss of teh facility and feared for Admiral Parck. The news of Jedi Skywalker's family affected him.

 

Stent moved forward. "The Empire of the Hand humbly thanks the assistance given by Admiral Oreton even if it came at a high price."

 

"High price," Pellaeon muttered. "How high was it, Baros?"

 

"Very high; I assume you have already seen the damage done to my ship, sir. The Vagaari, who seem to be serving as a disposable army for the Rapora were the first to engage my ship. Their poor choice of strategies and inferior machinery make them no match for our forces or that of the Galactic Alliance for that matter. Most of the damage dealt to my ship was dealt by the Rapora Cruisers and their starfighters.

 

"Their starfighters are fast, highly maneuvarable and deadly. They use plasma-weapons as their primary choice, but also are equipped with warheads. They have two different types of warheads, Stent here has not confirmed me if there are other kinds. One is an Anti-Capital ship torpedo, it can deal a lot of damage, but is relatively slow; a group of Assault Transports close to the Star Destroyer intercepted nearly all of those bombs, only two of them got through, though they killed my starboard shields.

 

"Their other missile is a very singular device, the torpedo seems to fall apart into multiple other warheads. Their effective use cost me two thirds of my Missile Boat Squadron, and killed Admiral Parck's Shuttle."

 

"And on the ground, how powerful are their assault corps?" Pellaeon turned to face Stent.

 

"On the ground the Rapora are a deadly enemy, physiologically their are more agile and fast than a human being or a Chiss, they are reptilian, they have superior sight and hearing. Their sight should be similar to the Chiss, and their hearing should match a Wookiee. They have a claw on their legs that they can use efficiently in close combat, a tail helps them to gain balance and is also useful for lashes on close combat. They wear a strong battle armor covered with cortosis armor, and use a special design of a lightsaber, most of our defensive corps fell to them. The Imperial Elites succeeded in halting their approach before the fortress, though I must inform you that not many Elites survived the battle. I can anticipate you that they originally lacked much in the terms of droid technology, they seem to have acquired some Trade Federation Droideka designs, which they have implemented succesfully."

 

"The memory cores?" Pellaeon asked. That was the question that alone could justify the losses, and the risk taken by Baros Oreton.

 

"We managed to save most of the essential, irreplaceable files. Thrawn's Personal Archives, his Art Indexes and a few of the secret Imperial cartographic registries, those which we lost we should be able to replace from the Library on Csilla or the Databanks on Obroa-Skai." Stent finished.

 

Pellaeon remained frozen for a handful of seconds, the threat the Rapora represented was considerable. Not Imperious, not an Eclipse Destroyer, not the Emperor's Death Stars could stop them. But they had no choice, if the Rapora decided to come out of the Unknown Regions the Empire would be their first step.

 

It was not a situation the Empire could face alone. Nor should they.

 

"The High Council of the Alliance should meet soon. I will arrange for me to be there holographically. Admiral Oreton you are invited to join me. Baron Fel, acting-Syndic Stent, I cannot order you to colaborate with me, but I invite you to share all your information."

 

The apparently weak figure on the massive Imperial Throne move lightly, as his expression darkened. It seemed an echo of another age, of another Emperor. "Hereby I announce that the Empire is preparing for war, production on all Imperial shipyards will be doubled, Sienar and Cygnus have already received my orders to increase production, I will not allow the Rapora to stomp on my worlds and kill my people.

 

"Come Baros, join me in the Communications Chamber, gentlebeings" Pellaeon finished by gesturing at the two other men, inviting all three to leave.

 

Alone Pellaeon closed his eyes for a few seconds then moved, evidently weak over to his hover chair, and then joined Oreton on the Communications Room.

 

OOC: I had originally planned to post this before your meeting started, I'll just be a latecomer to the GFFA Debrifieng.

[BadSamaritan]

OOC: Im assuming there is at least one Reporan ship in orbit of whatever planet it is. Either way, this is going to hurt.

 

IC: Seryk sat ion the cockpit of his ship, and casually browsed through all the old files his grandfather had left in the ships main computer. Most of it was music, but there were quite a few other files. Most of them were old contracts, debts, and contact info. All of which was now useless. But there were a few other files, some about an old base his grandfather had used to hide from Imperials on a few occasions which might still exist. And a few were bank accounts, which might still contain some money. But on file intrigued him more than any other. It was an old audio file of his grandfather, apparently just talking to himself. He seemed to be discussing the family history for some reason.

 

While most people like him wouldnt have cared about their family history, he had never gotten his grandfather to open up about it, no matter how much he tried. And he had never understood why. But according to what his grandfather had said in the recording, his family history was a strange one, muddled in history in one way or another. It seemed cryptic almost, as if his grandfather was trying to say something that should stay a family secret. But just when it seemed his grandfather was going to say what was truelly on his mind, the recording ended. it frustrated seryk to no end, being so close to knwing his history, but not being able to know anything.

 

As Seryk sat back and pondered all of this, he suddenly heard swearing from the back of the ship. He chuckled to himself, and shook his head. Burt was still back there, running sims in small lounge. Burt needed a lot of practice flying, so Seryk had sent him on the hardest simulation he could find in the computer. He had wondered how well Burt was handling the sim. He himself had run the sim several times, and had failed on more than one occasion. Apparently, Burt was having the same luck that he had. Serk simply shook his head, and then looked down to his console. They were almost to the coordinates that Karrde had given them, so he reached over, and hit a button on his console, turning off the sim in the lounge. He then tunred around, and yelled back to Burt.

 

"It almost ime to exit! Get up here! this is your job, remember?" he yelled, and after a few moments, Burt came marching up to the cockpit. By the look on his face, he had failed in the sim more than once. Seryk simply shook his head, and looked back to his console. After a moment, Serk stood, and moved over to the co-pilots seat. Burt moved to sit in the pilots seat, and then looked over to Seryk.

 

"Hey, why is all the flying on this trip up to me? Isnt this your job? Not to mention your ship?" he asked, confusion in his voice. He had already spent most of the trip in the sims, learning how to fly small freightors. He didnt understand why he should have to fly the real ship also. Seryk smiled, and lifted his feet up onto the console. He sighed, and looked over to Burt.

 

"You do all the flying, Burt, because Karrde wanted you to learn how to run small ships like this. And while sims are good, they are no match for the real thing. And besides, Im lazy like that." Seryk said, and he chuckled as Burt sneered at him. Burt looked over to the timer counting down the seconds to their reversion to realspace, and reached up for the levers. As the timer ticked down to zero, he puched the lever back up, and the ship reverted. Seryk instanly cursed at what he saw and sat up straight almost instantly, and Burt nearly jumped out of his seat. Almost directly in front of them was a giant cruiser, of a type that neither had seen before. And almost immediatly, the ship was firing upon them.

 

"Get out of that seat, and get to the turret!" Seryk yelled, and Burt quickly followed the orders. Seryk clambored into the pilots seat, and quickly raised the sheilds of the ship. He began to send the ship into a controlled tumble towards the planet, when a pair of odd shaped fighters shot past the front of the ship, forcing him back towards space. He could hear Burt climbing into the quad turret however, so now he would be able to test the gun out in battle. Seryk tried turning back towards the planet, only to be forced into space yet again by another pair of fighters. Seryk cursed, and was rewarded with the sound of the quad turret pounding out blasts at the ships. Seryk smiled, and once again tried to make a run towards the planet.

 

Unlike the last few tries however, their werent any fighter5s to stop them, just another alien cruiser. Seryk looked to his sensor boards, wondering where exactly the ship had come from. He then noticed the fact that there were now three of the large vessels. He ground his teeth, and shifted energy from his forward laser cannons into his engines, giving him a boost of speed. He knew he would have a chance in space against this many ships, but he might have a chance down closer to the planet, where the ships couldnt target them as easily. As they got closer to the alien vessel, Seryk could make out a large amount of starfighters coming around the ship. Seryk gritted his teeth, and picked up his headset.

 

"Burt, we are going to run the gauntlet. Get ready to hit them with everything you got." he said, and Burt quickly grunted a reply. He could here the gun turret firing almost non-stop now, and saw on his sensor board one of the fighters vanish, followed quickly by another. Seryk raised an eyebrow, and wondered to himself why the kid hadn't managed to get into the gunners position on one of Karrdes ships yet. As they got closer to the fighters, the fighters opened fire, forcing Seryk into a hasty barrel roll to avoid them. Suddenly the fighters were all around them, and it seemed that the quad tureet was firing even faster now.

 

And as suddenly as the fighters had gotten in front of them, they were behind them. Seryk was still worried, but not as much now. He knew his ship was fast, and more than likely could outrun the fighters. It was the cruiser he was worried about. As that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly had the feeling that banking to port would be a good idea. he followed his instincts, and was rewarded with the sight of a large series of blasts scrapeing his bottom sheilds, right where his ship had been moments ago. He realized almost immediatly that if he had been there, his ship would have been vaporized. He continued to dance the ship around in an almost fluid series of turns and rolls, deftly doging the majority of the larger blasts, but some of the blasts from the starfighters were begining to hit home.

 

As they got closer to the cruiser, it was becomming harder and harder to dodge the larger blasts, so Seryk simply flew straight at the vessel, and transeferred all the power he could into the engines. The added speed threw off the gunners of the ship for a moment, and suddenly most of the blasts were focused behind them. While it wasnt much, it was a few moments respite which allowed Seryk to regain his berrings, and allowed the quad cannons to recharge slightly.

 

But as soon as it seemed that they had a moments rest, it ended as the guns of the cruiser re-aimed, and began to cover the surrounding area of space with energy again. But they were closer enough to the cruiser how that only a few of the gns could track them, meaning now only the fighters were an immediate threat. Or so Seryk hoped. He banked the ship sharply to starboard, and began to fly along the length of the ship, hoping that his sudden change of coarse would throw them off again. He quicly realized that the gunners of the vessel seemed to be expecting it, and the lentgh of space in forn of them filled with energy fire, making progress fast, and dangerous.

 

Luckily, he seemed somehow to be able to dodge the blasts just before they reached the shields, which he guessed was frustrating the gunners to no end. Suddenly, he was past the alien ship, and heading back into space. He banked the ship again, and headed straight towards the planet. He pased just over the top of the exhaust of the alien vessel, focing any of the fighters still following him to fly above or behind him, making them targets for Burt on the quad cannon. He could hear the cannon open fire again, and saw one of the blips on the sonsors vanish. He drew his eyes away from the sensor board, and concentrated on flying again. He headed towards he planet as fast as he could, hoping to get there before the fighters managed to swarm them again. He reached over, and switched the energy from forward sheilds over to the engines, bringing them almost past the redline. But he wasnt worried about the forwards sheilds however, everything was behind them now. Or so he hoped.

 

Suddenly, his ship began to buck as they hit the atmosphere of the planet. He sent the ship into a steep dive, avoiding the sporadic fire from the ships in orbit. But then, as quickly as it had began, the cruiser quite firing. Seryk looked to his scoped quickly, and saw that the vessel had vanished. He shook his head, and turned back to the planet. the surface was closing fast, so he slowly pulled out of the dive.

 

As he evened out, he slapped a button, sending power back to the forward sheilds. He could hear the quad turret still pounding away at the fighters still following them, and he cursed. He figured this would be an easy jumop in and rascue situation. He hadnt counted one being attacked by anything, let alone by a small task force. He keyed on the comm unit, and switched over to the broadband settings, which would send his signal out to anyone in system with a comm unit activated. He sighed, and then spoke into his mic.

 

"This is the Bad Samaritan to the Skywalkers. If you can hear me, you better contact me real quick, any way possible. I cant stick around for long" he said, and he cut his mic. He then proceeded to re-broadcast the message at regular, fast intervals hoping that they responded to him soon. If not, he would have to abandon them here, and hope to survive the run back out to a hyperspace vector to try and bring in more help. As he flew along, the fighters still trailing him began to break off, and headed almost directly east of his position. Intrigued, he turned to follow them, albeit at a long distance. Maybe they know something we don't. he thought to himself.

 

OOC: Phew, that was hard. I hate doing this knowing only half the info about what Im fighting.

[Stellar_Magic]

OOC: Hard, but enjoyable. This would be allot better if Darkie or Mad posted some more.

 

IC:"This is...B...Samari.....the Sk..alkers...." The com link in Mara's pocket crackled to life. She spun around her lightsaber jumping to deflect away blows from a squad of Raporan Droidekas. Crouching down beside a log she lifted the comm to her lips, "This is Mara Jade Skywalker, please repeat." All that answered her was the hiss of chiss jamming.

 

Luke leapt up over the log next to them and threw his lightsaber creating a buzzing mill of destruction through the undergrowth. The Droidekas saw the attackcoming and switched on their energy shields. The blade glanced away hamrlessly and fell into the grass before the droids.

 

As the droids continued their advanced Mara glanced at Luke, "You know thats never going to work?"

 

"You think so?" Luke replied with a slight grin across his lips. With a snap hiss the lightsaber lifted up from the ground within the energy shroud of the droids shields. Three quick slices latter, it was over.

 

Mara shook her head as the droids collapsed into nothing more then junk under Luke's lightsabers caress. She turned and felt her breath leaver her, there side by side were a pair of Rapora warriors, thier weapons leveled and ready.

 

Luke felt her wave of shock and turned his hands raised. With a roar of defiance Ben leapt onto the right most rapora from behind the cover he'd been hiding in. Wrapping his arms around the creature's neck he held fast as it struggled to pull him off. In one made slash with its clawed hands it snagged Ben and tossed him to teh ground, in the process ripping its helmet free.

 

Ben blinked in surprise and confusion up at the night sky where he fell as the creature drew a lightsaber and put it's emitter to his throat. He felt its hot breath and a serpentine tongue slipped between its jaws and fluttered before him. Ben could see the cruel malice of the alien's mind in its golden reptilian colored eyes. Slowly in broken basic it spoke, "Now you die young Jeedi."

 

Suddenly as if from nowhere a black booted foot smashed into the creature's face kicking it against a tree as a brilliant blue blade thrust from the tree's stump and through the creature's chest with a twirl the creature fell in two as the lightsaber returned to Mara's hand, "No one touches my son." She stood above the two dead Rapora a bitter smile pulling at her lips, "They've made it personal."

 

With a scream of speed and plasma energy the forest erupted around them as a flight of Raporan fighters flashed by overhead, their duel plasma blasts ripping blindly through the growth. Overhead one desintegrated, its rear shield punctured it spun to earth as a bulky smuggling vessel soared overhead.

 

Luke picked up Ben and ran toward a clearing as Mara drew a flare pistol, with a flash a brilliant red flare soared over the clearing, a definite marker to the transport. They ran for the clearing, behind them they could here the whine of Rapora droids rolling toward them, it would be a hot extraction.

OOC: We've really got to finish the debriefing before we start another major engagement.

[ADarkJedi44]

Numerous images appeared on the holoprojector. Raporan craft, and the battle between them and Garik's task force. They were all valuable images, but what were they really worth? Would a few images on a holo projector help win a war?

Evahe knew they wouldn't. Garik's task force had accomplished little for the lives lost. All he had was images. It showed how deadly the Rapora were, and what there ships looked like, but that was it. Garik didn't know how their warships worked, he didn't know anything about their warriors and he didn't even know how powerful their ships were. Perhaps the images will convince the Advisory Council of the need for immediate action.

A few moments later, Evahe turned the holoprojector off. They had all seen the important images. If they wanted to see it again, they could do so later. No need to waste time watching every detail of a battle which's ending was obvious. He stood.

"As you can see, the Rapora are quite a force. From what we have seen, we can only assume they are aggresive. Looking away and ignoring the problem will only worsen the crisis. While attacking an enemy you know nothing about is certainly unwise, I don't belive staying on the defensive will further our cause. While we might not want to attack immediatly, certainly some thing must be done to fill in the gaps Garik left..."

 

Cal nodded and ...

[Mad78]

"It is clear that we do not yet know anought to launch a major offence against these... Rapora." Cal Omas turned towards Garik "Even though this commission was supposed to punish you it would appear we shuld congratulate you on even managing to survive."

Garik's face stayed expressionless.

Cal Omas turned towards Kre'Fey

"What would you advise us to do."

"I have been analysing the images bought back by General and I wish to express my conclusions."

With a nod Omas ensighted the bothan to continue. Kre'Fey pressed a few buttons a part of the recording taken by the exploration fregate. The picture split in two each image showing a different kind of enemy fighter.

the video animated its self and showed each kind of fighter in action.

"As you see the Raporan fighters appear to maneouver with more ease than the Vaagari ones..."

"This does not show anything." announced a senator.

"Let me finish my explkanation senator." the video reactivated but this time it showed a Vong fighter instead of the Vaagari.

"This picture of a Coral Skipper was taken during our first encounters on the outer rim."

Garik gaped as he understood. The Raporan and Vong ships seemed to move with the same coordination and precision.

"Are you sugesting Sir." asked a representant of one of the fleets "That we are fighting some enemies that use a Yammosk."

"Not as far as that Admiral. But i can't help recalling how we beat the Vong in battle and what was our main advantage."

"Are you insinuating that the Jedi are implicated in this."

"No i am not but i am pointing out that it seems we are not the only one to use force users in our army."

The Council stayed silent for moment as they meditated on the question.

"It says the Imperials assited you."

"Yes Sir." answered Garik "without them there would be no survivors of the Task Force."

"Have we had any messages coming for the Empire lately" asked Cal Omas.

"Not to my knowledge Sir." answered a subordinate

"Well contact them if they haven't we must face this menace as an Alliance." He turned towards Garik "I believe that you can be freed General but I am going to trust you with a mission."

"At your orders Sir."

"You under the orders of Supreme Commander Evahe shall take a small Task Force and meet with the Imperials. You are to inform them of the situation if it is not yet the case and try to work with them to investigte and hopefully destroy this menace."

Garik saluted and left the room followed by Evahe.

Omas leaned back into his seat. Kre'Fey leand towards him.

"Do you think they will succeed?"

"What i hope is that it will not end up as a second Vong invasion."

Yes he feared. Like all the other members of the Council.

[Stellar_Magic]

Cal was thinking as the two officers stepped toward the door. Suddenly there was a bustle to his side and an aide bent down, her voice a whisper, "We have a transmission from Grand Admiral Pelleaon, he'd like to speak with the whole of the advisory council..." The aide's gaze flicked to the two officers standing by the doors, "Along with the commander that was chased by the Rapora to Nirauan."

 

Cal nodded, "Put them through."

 

Suddenly, before the holoprojector had spun up, another aide bustled into the room, he stoped near the foot fo the table, "Councilors, we've just recieved word from the Chiss Ascendancy, a scout force of Raporan vessels has been detected twelve light minutes from Csilla."

 

The room suddenly became as cold as Hoth. Cal slowly turned to the aide, "Any word from Solo or Fel?"

 

"No sir," The Aide replied.

 

"What is going on over there?" Cal breathed.

 

The holoprojcetor whirred to life and an image of Supreme Commander Pelleaon shimmered into existance, "Members of the Advisory council, I greet you in friendship, but not in peace, it seems we are at the brink of another major conflict, one which we could not forsee. You have undoubtably already heard of the status of your task force which encountered our new enemies. I regret to add more bad news to the mix, the Hand of Thrawn complex on Nirauan has been razed to the ground." Two more figures shimmered into existance beside the Admiral, "This is General Scoontir Fel and Admiral Oreton. Admiral, if you would explain the chain of events above Nirauan..."

 

* * *

 

Quietly the scout force of the Raporan craft slid through space, their ion drives burning brighter then Csilla's sun as they moved through space.

 

Upon the bridge Mits'hre'nuroudo stood, her blue arms folded across her chest. Her red eyes burning at the displays. Behind her a turbolift slid open and a hooded and cloaked figure slid into the room.

 

Shren knew who it was without turning, her sense feeling his mind even from where she stood, a slight smile slipped across her face, "You're late."

 

The figure didn't respond but bent his knees and knelt before her, "What are your orders, Shren, what do you desire of me?"

 

Shren smiled as she turned to face him, "Rise, and speak to me plainly..."

OOC: Darkie, your introduction of A Dark Jedi...

[ADarkJedi44]

The figure nodded and stood.

"What are my orders?"

The one called Shren smiled.

"You will be leading the advance force to Csilla-"

The figure nodded. There was nothing more to be said. He walked for the turbolift and, ultimatly, the hanger. It was time to get back onto his flagship.

"Then it is done."

***

The figure stood on the bridge of the large heavy cruiser. Under his command were three ships and a squadron of Raporan fighters. It was too powerful, but he was merely to act as an advance force. He would do that with pleasure.

He looked around the bridge, there were too few Rapora for his liking. He did not trust the droids which the Rapora relied so heavily upon. There was no time for worrying though. The ship jumped into hyperspace, towards Csilla. The Chiss would drown in their own blood.

[Trejiuvanat]

"Certainly sir. Most of you are aware of my mission to Ossus nine days ago. Then, I presented the Rapora threat as a phantom force from the Unknown Regions. Now I most insist in depicting the Rapora as a very powerful enemy, that we should stop at all costs. General Ioor, most likely has presented you the opening events of the assault on Nirauan, how his task force was engaged and he decided to flee to Nirauan, not before sending a distress signal which I intercepted and took two ships with me to Nirauan."

 

Fel moved asking for permission to speak. "On Nirauan the late-Admiral Parck and I were discussing the Rapora threat with Master Skywalker when the Imperial fleet appeared in orbit, shortly followed by the Galactic Alliance fleet and the Raporan-Vagaari force on their heels. Admiral Parck decided to launch our fighters and prepare for evacuation, in orbit I witnessed a maneuver brilliantly executed by Oreton to buy the Galactic Alliance force a few more minutes to make their run to hyperspace."

 

"An offensive tactic?" Kre'Fey asked.

 

"A delaying maneuver, I inverted the hypermass generators of the Interdictor to push the Raporan vessels away from the Alliance fleet. Shortly after that I received an order from Admiral Parck to withdraw which I obeyed to some extent, I ordered my two other ship elements to withdraw back to the fleet, while Right to Rule remained on the edge of the system."

 

"The Rapora did not pursue you to the edge of the system? A micro-jump away?" The Alliance Supreme Commander asked.

 

"No, because my ship was cloaked. I did eventually return to the dark side of the planet hoping to speed the evacuation of the base. I sent Mark III TIE Defenders to relieve General Fel's Fighter which had already started to withdraw. I sent some Imperial Elite Regiments to aide the Skywalkers and the Chiss in the ground battle. In orbit the Vagaari spotted me and started to orbit the planet, a single squadron of Rapora starfighters was sent as well."

 

"How did the battle turn out?" Cal Omas asked

 

"On the ground the Rapora were at an advantage, my troopers were greatly reduced as were the Chiss. They held the Rapora threat off for a few minutes in which the Chiss started to evacuate the complex. In orbit Right to Rule endured significant damage from the Vagaari. But the Rapora craft were far more deadlier, their anti starship weaponry jurt my shields severely, despite my attempts to intercept those slowmoving warheads."

 

"Those warheads could have been used for the bombing of Demblu?" Kre'fey asked.

 

"Definitely, I must mention that their starfighters simply shredded most of my TIE Defenders. I saw myself forced to launch my Missileboat squadron."

 

"Missileboats?" Kre'fey asked, his fur rose in a gesture of surprise. "I was not aware the Empire was in position of such starfighters, according to the treaties the Empire should not be allowed to build such vessels." Kre'fey breathed with puzzlement. "Cloaking shileds, missileboats, Elites."

 

"Calm down, Traest," Cal admonished him.

 

Pellaeon's tired figure moved to answer. "The Empire has acted according to the treaties to the benefit of the Imperial people. Missileboats played a minor role during the war against the Yuuzhan Vong and right now were the only starfighter group to deal considerable damage to the Rapora, Admiral?"

 

Oreton spoke again. "The Missile boats destroyed in total ten of the Rapora fighters. Eventually the Rapora Cruiser moved to intercept the Right to Rule as it prepared to receive the evacuees. One single salvo essentially killed the shileds, I lost all of my tractor beam generators and turbolasers and the ship was left with a smoking crater the size of a corvette."

 

Supreme Commander Evahe gestured to him. "Was the evacuation successful?"

 

"Partly, most of the Special Files were saved, as were some of the other 'interesting data', Admiral Parck died and the Skywalkers were lost during the jump to hyperspace." Fel reported.

 

"Imperial Industries, have started production on-" Pellaeon could not finished as he spotted a figure speaking into Cal Omas's ear.

 

"I apologize for the interuption, but we have word from Csilla."

 

Another hologram appeared, and next to him. Baron Soontir Fel gasped as he analyzed his son's expression.

 

"Fel here...

[Mad78]

A shuttle rapidly transported Garik to the ship he would use to lead the Taskforce. It was and ageing MC80b cruiser. It had seen many battles but knowing how reliable Mon Calamari technologie was, it was sure the ship was in prime condition.

A server droid bought Supreme Commander Evahe and Garik some glasses of corellian brandy.

Garik sipped the strong drink as he looked at the Task force assemble. To escort the MC80b Mon Loha would be two Calamari light cruisers and a Nebulon-B which would also fulfill the duty of Medical fregate.

The Shuttle landed in one to the port Hangars of the calamari cruiser. The Commanding officer of the ship and a small group of soldiers saluted as the two leading officers exited the Shuttle. Garik posted himself in front of the Commanding officer.

"I am General Garik Ioor and this is Supreme Commander Evahe Litok.

Would you please take us to the bridge."

"Imediatly Sir."

The Officer, Garik and Evahe took a lift up to the bridge. The bridge crew got up and saluted as the group entered.

"At ease." ordered Evahe. "Ioor would you please set a course for the Imperial territory."

He then turned towards the officer which had lead them to the bridge would.

"And you ca lead me to my cabin."

 

A few minutes later the fleet disappeared into Hyperspace.

[Stellar_Magic]

Fel took a deep breath as he stood in the holoprojector, behind him Jaina stepped to the holocam, "and Jaina Solo."

 

Fel sighed glancing down at the report grasped in his hands, "Csilla has been tossed into chaos, twelve members of the nine ruling families are dead, twenty more are wounded from a bombing at their meeting room. No one is sure who's in control or who launched the attack. In addition chiss patrols have sighted a number of Raporan vessels in system, escorted by a hodgepodge of Vagaari vessels."

 

Jaina looked at the holographic image of Cal Omas as he spoke, "Have you been able to gather any more information on the Vagaari?"

 

Jaina shook her head, "With the government in chaos all requests for information have been ignored."

 

Then the room rumbled with a siren echoing from far above them and a small scattering fo dust fell from the ceiling. Jaina glanced to Fel as an announcement screamed through the air in rapid fire Chiss.

 

Fel glanced at Jaina, his face ashen, "Cal, the chiss just announced that they're under attack, by the Rapora." Then before Cal could replied the hologram disappeared as the Rapora began jamming all frequency's, the battle of Csilla had begun.

 

* * *

 

A pair of Savla class Raporan cruisers shimmered into existance above Csilla. They fired sending eight streams of plasma energy directly into the drydock which housed a large portion of the chiss defense fleet. Many of the vessels within were trapped as the drydock twisted apart under the impact. Suddenly a series of shots ripped through the stations reactor, moments later over thirty Chiss vessels were destroyed as the drydock detonated.

 

A Kar Lur Cruiser decloaked and opened fire sending brilliant gold ribons of plasma arching down to flash into the city below. Brilliant flashes of light marked impacts from space.

 

The Chiss had been caught off guard by the sudden assault, but already a number of their ships and fighters were moving to engage the intruders.

 

Onboard the Kar Lur cruiser, a cloak figure stirred in his command chair, all was going as planned.

 

OOC: Um, Bad Samaritan, could you pick up Luke soon... Darkie, whats going to be the name of the Dark Jedi you're playing?

[ADarkJedi44]

OOC: Darth Fury? I'll try to post later...

[BadSamaritan]

Seryk laughed evily as his lasers ripped into the alien fighter he was following. He saw it go down into the woods, and saw a plume of fire where it crashed. he immediatly began to look for a new target, when he sawe a bright flare launch from the ground. He sighed in relief as he saw the flare fly over a clearing, and he immediatly banked his ship and headed towards it. As he got closer to it, he turned the ship so tat the forward guns faced in the direction that the flare had come from. If there was one thing he knew, ground troops hated being fired on by laser cannons. As he lowered the ship to the ground, he turned off the ventral sheilds, and shunted the extra poer to the top sheilds for extra proection form the fighters which were still buzzing around.

 

"Burt, keep that gun firing! I dont want ony of those fighters getting close to the skywalkers!" Seryk yelled into the mic, and Burt merely grunted a responce. Seryk could here the turret running full speed, and he saw another fighter fall from the sky, crashing into the ground not far from where the flare was launched. Seryk cursed, and began to yell into the mic again when he saw the Skywalkers run into the clearing at full speed. He hit the switch to lower the baording ramp, and then noticed the pair of attack droids following the Skywalkers. Seryk simply grinned, and took aim at them with the laser cannons. He sired at one of them, and was pleased to see it fly backwards as it disintigrated. he began to take aim at the other one, when suddenly, the ship was rocked by a massive explosion.

 

Seryk fell out of his seat, and when he got back up, he cursed at what he saw. The skywalkers were lying on the ground, and more of the droids were emerging from the forest. Seryk opened up with the laser cannons, obliterating a few of the droids as he moved forward to where the skywalkers were lying. Once the ship was hovering over them, he fired a torpedoe into the woods, hoping to destroy any more droids that might be lurking there. He got out of his seat, and ran for the boarding ramp. As he ran outside, he saw Mara get up, and start limping over to Luke. Seryk ran out to her, and helped her pick him up. Seryk looked around for Ben, and saw him already running up the boarding ramp.

 

As they all limped towards the ship, Seryk could see the quad turret blasting away at the ever-growing cloud of fighters in the sky. Fortunetly, this just turned the sky into a target-rich enviroment. Burt raked the sky with fire, and Seryk heard a fighter crash off in the distance. But he also saw more and more fire hitting the sheilds, and he knew that they wouldnt hold out much longer. As if to emphasize his thoughts, he saw sparks begin to fly off of one of the shield emmiters, and he cursed loudly.

 

"Come on, we gotta move!" he yelled, and he picked up his pace. Mara picked up her pace also, and Luke began to limp under his own power, making it easier. As they reached to boarding ramp, Seryk could see a droid leaving the forest on the other side of the ship. Almost as soon as his foot hit the boarding ramp, the driod fired, and Seryk felt a burning pain in his leg. he yelled, and fell down, taking Mara and Luke with him. He looked down to see a giant gash running across the side of his leg. he lifted hismelf off the ground, and began to limp up into the ship. mara and luke entered the ship first, and he hit the button to close the boarding ramp. He saw Mara run of to the cockpit, and he followed her as quickly as he could. he arrived to see Mara fiddling with the controls, and he sat down uin the co-pilots seat. Mara evened out the sheilds, and then, the ship rocketed forward, and up towards space at breakneck speed.

 

Seryk leaned over, and hit a switch, activating the emergency power core, and sent the energy directly into the shields. He watched as the sheilds jumped from near nothing to almost twenty percent. He turned to look back out the viewport, and swore. There were more fighters in front of them, and they were closing fast.

 

"Please tell me you have more than just that pair of laser cannons!" Mara said, and Seryk nodded.

 

"Yah, a pair of torpedoe launchers, and the quad cannon. Put i only have one torp left, and the quad is probably beginning to overheat by now" he said, the strain evident in his voice. Almost on cue, a light came on, indicating the quad was beginning its emergency shut-down. Seryk growled, and shunted power from the quad to the shields. he picked up his headset, and spoke into it.

 

"Burt, get out of the cannon, and go tend to Luke. Make sure ben is ok. Then get to the comp station back there, and plot us a course out of here!" he said, and Burt grunted a responce. Seryk looked to the sensors, and hi eyes widened at what he saw. More fighters were appearing from the distance, and closing fast. he looked over to Mara, and saw that she had already realized this, and had shunted power from the weapons into the engines and shields. Seryk checked the sensors again, and saw that they were about to leave the planets atmosphere.

 

"There is a group of cruisers up here somewhere, whatch the sensors." he said, and Mara nodded as she dodged a blast form a fighter. After a few more seconds, Seryk leaned forward, and fired off the last torpedo. he saw it flash out into space, and then a fighter flew into it. The fighter didnt explode, but instead went twirling off into space. After a few moments, the fighter seemed to impact something and exploded.

 

A few seconds later, on of the cruisers appeared, and began to fire at them. Seryk yelped in surprise as Mara turned the ship towards the ship. As they flew towards it, Seryk looked over to Mara.

 

"Are you crazy!?" he asked, and his eyes widened as a blast came dangerously sloce to the ship.

 

"No," she said through her teeth as she dodged another blast. "Just desperate. And desperation fuels inspiration." she said, and Seryk just looked back out the viewport, and watched the cruiser grow larger as they drew closer to it.

 

OOC: I got us off the planet, you get us out of this mess!

[Stellar_Magic]

OOC: Gladly!

 

"You've got a tractor beam don't you!" Mara yelled runing her gaze swiftly across the controls, "Reverse its polarity!"

 

"What?" Seryk answered as the ship shuddered from a plasma hit.

 

"Make it push instead of pull!" Mara yelled back as a Raporan fighter screamed above them its Plasma Cannons firing. Glancing at the displays she saw more of them closing in behind them. Ahead the Kar Lur Cruiser had rolled ninety degrees to bring all its guns to bear.

 

"Done," Seryk answered flipping a pair of switches.

 

"Going to stardboard, thirty degrees," Mara shouted as she swung the ship to pass close tot he underside fo the cruiser. Suddenly a Raporan fighter flashed by it's sleak shape manuevering between her and the cruiser. Smiling she locked the tractor beam on the craft.

 

The Raporan pilot saw what she was doing and fought the beam, as his ship began to sends sparks across the cruiser's hull the entire cockpit section suddenly lurched away from the craft like a giant escape pod.

 

Mara smiled coldly as she reached out with the force, focusing her senses on the plasma bomb slung between the crafts wings she could see a manual detonator. Slowly, reaching out with her mind she squeazed. Then as if fighting invisible hands she felt her focus deflect as the Rapora ont he cruiser sensed her attempt. Reaching otu for the sheer power of the force she squeazed again.

 

The bomb detonated sending a shockwave across space and ripping away the Bad Samaritan's port and rear shields. Behind her the Kar Lur cruiser began to break up. It's pylons severed betweent he prow and rear, the vessel slowly began to tumble through space. As she watched several more Rapora fighters, piloted by crewers, leapt from the vessel's hanger bay and veared away as the ship's reactor detonated leaving nothing but a burning hulk behind.

 

"Son of the sith," Seryk said quietly watching the cruiser disappear into an expanding cloud of debris.

 

Mara smiled, but suddenly the ship rocked again as another heavy plasma blast hit the dorsal shields and a Savla class cruiser, a ship twice the size of a corellian corvette roared past them, its antistarfighter lasers ripping through space.

 

Seryk glanced at the rear sensors, "We've got another one closing from behind."

 

Brilliant red lances flashed against the forward shields of the Bad Samaritan. Mara turned from the pilot's chair and screamed to Burt, "How long to hyperspace."

 

"Ten seconds!"

 

Seryk leaned forward as a dozen brown cone shaped object dropped from the Savla class cruiser, "What the hell are those?"

 

Suddenly the gravity well indicator flashed on, "Sithspawn!" Mara yelled twisting the controls and glancing at the sensors, "There's an asteroid belt at Mark three, good." She banked the Bad Samaritan toward the belt as Seryk watched in horror.

 

Suddenly the craft bucked, "We're caught in a tractor beam!"

 

Luke yelled from the rear, "Reprogram a Torp to go dead aft and hit the inertia compensator toggle!"

 

Seryk followed the instructions and as Mara loosed the torpedo, the Bad Samaritan leapt free. The Torpedo would have detonated agains the Savla class cruiser but at the same moment it was gripped in the beam, the beam shut down and the torpedo flashed blindly off into space.

 

Mara watched the rear Savla class cruiser disappear from their scopes, cloaking. Suddenly ahead the arsenal of cone shapped objects turned and sped toward the Bad Samaritan. Tiny ion drives were visible pushing them along, and suddenly Mara pulled up a sensor feed on the objects.

 

They were mines. Each one equipped with a gravity impeller and a heavy plasma projector. Mara bit her lip, "Well, lets see just how dangerous these things are."

 

Suddenly they sped through the minefield and through a storm of Plasma fire. One shot grazed the craft, impacting into the port side of the ship and trashed an escape pod, rupturing a coolant line along the way. In the cockpit sparks shot from the consoles and a miniature fire broke out behind the copilot's seat.

 

Mara gritted her teeth and urged on more speed, suddenly they were whipping through the asteroid belt, the Raporan mines hot on their tail. Suddenly the clatter of the quad laser cannon echoed in the compartment as they flashed by asteroid after asteroid. red lances burned into the mines. Several detonated under the assault and from colliding with asteroids.

 

Seryk twisted in his seat, "Burt what are you doing!"

 

"It's not me!"

 

Mara smiled as Seryk yelled back, "Well then who the sith is it!"

 

It was Ben, his tiny frame strapped tightly to the quads as his father slipped into a healing trance bellow. He reached out ot his mother with his untrained force abilities and their minds, mother and son touched, giving each one knowledge of what the other saw, and did.

 

Suddenly a Raporan mine buzzed past the Bad Samaritan its cone spinning madly as the ion drive burned, furvently. The drive cut off and driven soley by inertial it spun to point directly at the Bad Samaritan's cockpit. The orange glow fo plasma reading to arch from the cannon was visible as a trio of laser blasts turned the mine into another gaseous cloud of debris.

 

In that moment the Gravity Well indicator snapped off. Hauling abck ont he stick Mara pulled the Bad Samaritan out of the Asteroid field and pulled back on the hyperspace levers. With that the Bad Samaritan escaped the trap laid for them by the Rapora.

OOC: Watch Ben shoot... Watch Mara fly... Watch Rapora die...

[ADarkJedi44]

He was called Darth Fury, but he did not feel his name mattered. What mattered was his actions. He was now a high ranking Dark Jedi in Rapora society, with a small fleet under his command. The Chiss and all other species in the galaxies would grow to fear his name...and his actions.

He sat silently in his command chair, watching as the battle unfolded. He watched with satisfaction as the Chiss ships exploded. It was pitiful really, they were supposed to be such great warriors. Yet they were caught completly off guard and reacting slugishly. Their ships were only now begining to react. Nevertheless, their were a lot of Chiss ships. Chiss forces could soon be on their way from many diffrent directions.

Now, with the initial suprise wearing off, it was time to begin to grind it out. A squadron of Rapora fighters and broke up into three groups. They had to do a good job with their plasma bombs, or Darth Fury's task force might be destroyed before the main Raporan force arrived.

But they did their job. Although none of the Chiss ships were severly damaged, a few took minor damage and the Chiss failed move quickly enough. Each second brings them closer to their doom... The menacing figure laughed. The Chiss were certainly doomed now.

The Chiss ships moved ever closer and they fired. Darth Fury waited, the Raporan main force should have arrived any moment. He waited, but his patience quickly ran out. Would he be left to his doom? Had he been choosen to be eliminated?

The Raporan fleet arrived at the last moment. The small advance task force was beaten up, but with the arrival of the main fleet they could definatly be of use. However, the question lingured in Darth Fury's mind. How could the Rapora force possibly be "late"?

[Stellar_Magic]

Cal Omas rose from the table and glanced to where the projection of Grand Admiral Pelleaon and his fellow Imperials remained, "Admiral, it seems we have no choice, I'm sending out orders that as many ships as possible are to make their way to Csilla at all possible speed. What can you send?"

[Trejiuvanat]

Admiral Oreton locked his gaze with Pellaeon, he knew that the Grand Admiral had every intention of sending him to the battle, thus the only question was the number.

 

The Patrol fleet that had been originally asigned to Oreton was not enough for such a confrontation, especially with its flagship in such precarious shape. Oreton could read Pellaeon's mind as he compared the strengths of the two fleets as he second-guessed tactics and motives, as his experience ticked in, most likely trying to remember any reference made by Thrawn about this threat.

 

There was a glint in Pellaeon's eyes, one that made Oreton supress a shiver, Pellaeon was considering to lead himself the battle; just as spontaneous the glint disappear. Pellaeon was a man who understood his responsabilities, partly he wanted to experience such a battle again, a deadly threat, one that would force him to become better; but deep down he understood the responsibilities to the thousands of millions living within his Empire.

 

There was a soft rasp in his voice. "The Empire has had a funny evolution, half my lifetime ago, it was a symbol of evil and corruption beyond everyone's fears. Now it had become a valuable ally, a fraction within an Alliance of Peace. I will send a considerable part of my fleet to fight and possibly die in Csilla's sky. Admiral Oreton, who has had the most experience with this enemy will command the Sovereign Star Destroyer Imperious, twelve Imperial Deuces will join him, among them Relentless and Stellar Laberynth."

 

Oreton felt uncomfortable. The command of the Imperious scared him more than the confrontation with the Rapora. But he nodded to the Grand Admiral.

 

"Chief of State Omas, I will depart within the next hour for Csilla."

 

"The Empire of the Hand wishes to participate as well," Fel said, "I will join Admiral Oreton as the commander of the fighter corps of the Imperial Fleet."

 

"Thank you, General." Oreton said, Fel was a very competent man, more than him when it came to the appropriate deployement of starfighters.

 

"I thank you for your assistance," Cal Omas said. "Supreme Commander Evahe, wishes to address you."

[Mad78]

The Raporan fighter came in to dock. Two Vaagari technicians came over and unloaded the heavy shells embarked on to the fighter. The shells could be reloaded in a matter of seconds but it was to risky to leave such destructive weapons in a relatively undefended hangar.

The cockpit of the fighter opened. The technicians bowed to the figure which came out.

The Dark side emanated stongly from the figure. The Brute shape of the obscure power which was not as precise and large as the mastered one but just as deadly. A Cortosis artificial claw clicked at the foot of the Rapora.

He was Darth Tuvax. The apprentice of Darth Fury.

He smellt the ear, the smell of determination but also of anger, the dark side was very present and so was the presence of his master.

He pushed the technicians out of his way and made his way towards the bridge.

As he entered the bridge of the cruiser he swaw Darth Fury overlooking the battle.

Tuvax had been called when the rest of the fleet had arrived... late. The Dark apprentice was furious that the Vaagari dare commit such things. He spotted the contact for the Vaagari on the ship and leapt on to him blocking him to the ground by pressing his artificial claw onto the chest of the Vaagari.

"How dare your commander be late!" shouted Tuvax his anger shining in his eyes.

"I do not know sir." said the officer in a panicked voice "They must of encountered a Republicain force or something."

"A republican force... would you bet your arm on it." said Tuvax as he moved his claw onto the arm of the Vaagari and started to crush it.

"Tuvax. Leave him." said the cloaked figure that was Darth Fury.

"Yes Master." said Tuvax as he took his claw of the Technician and pushed him out of the way using his Tail. "I thought the Vaagari should be punished for such an act. We could have been overcome..."

"Later my young Apprentice."

 

OOC: there we go. Fury now has an apprentice.

[Stellar_Magic]

A pair fo chiss slipped into Jaina and Jags quarters their red eyes flicking around the room int he darkness. Finally one of them spoke up, "Colonel Fel, Jedi Solo, come with me." Jaina slowly stepped out of the darkness as Jagged slipped in from behind the door. Slowly the aliens seemed to sigh with the reality of the conflict, "We need your help."

 

They followed them down the hall and into a brightly lit room, with an enormous holographic display of the planet at its center. As they enetered several of the chiss turned from their work to look. After a moment one of them stepped to them as the other turned back to work, "I'm Admiral Gar'rensa'nuruodo." He gestured to the display, "As you can see the Rapora have taken control of the incoming vector, two seven zero, our forces ont he other side of the world are whipping around in top down orbits to engage them."

 

"What about planetary shields?" Jaina asked looking at the bright red dots which represented the Rapora and Vagaari forces.

 

The Admiral shook his head, "Their weapons shot clean through the shields destroying several of the generators and much of our surface defenses. We won't be able to hold for long."

 

Jagged nodded slowly, "What reinforcements can you expect?"

 

"They took down our comm array first thing, no one is coming," Admiral Rensa shook his head again, "I'v never before faced a foe such as this, an attack with such strength without warning. We're sending all our fighters up to fend off the Rapora fighters, I'm afraid I'm sending them to their graves."

 

Jaina studied the images and displays then turned to the Admiral, "Listen to me, Csilla is lost, there is no way to get enough reinforcements to drive them off, and we don't know what else they could have lying in wait! Get as many of your people onto transports as you can and fly them off. Especially the members of the Ruling Family, they wanted to take you out with a single strike, deny them that."

 

The Admiral stood and pulled himself together and gritted his teeth in rage, "Order the evacuation."

 

* * *

 

General Fel slid into a vacant console onboard the Imperius and tapped in an overide code. Slowly he typed in another code, an encryption one and activated the holocom. He waited, knowing that only he remained with such secret knowledge in the Empire of the Hand, only he knew who he was contacting, let alone who knew the man was alive. Slowly he leaned forward and spoke softly to the snow filled screen, "Pelleaon and the GFFA are sending a pair of fleets to Csilla, soon the galaxy will plung once again into war."

 

The voice came back, full and commanding, "Good, inform the Admiral in charge of the force of the existance of Shren. He'll need such knowledge in the battle."

 

Scoontir Fel nodded, "I know, the Skywalkers are currently missing, if they are lost..."

 

"Then we must strive ahead in haste, we cannot allow the Rapora to gain the initiative, you've done well to send me this information old friend, now return to your duties and help this Admiral turn the tables on the enemy."

 

* * *

 

Above Csilla the Rapora began to loose mines fromt heir cruisers, hundreds of mines, each one creating a miniature gravity well, each one manuevering to an assigned section of space, waiting for their final orders.

 

On one of the Raporan cruisers Shren stirred her gaze flicking to the battle waging outside as a projector behind her hummed to life. Instantly she knelt before the shimmering figure of a seat man hidden from all view in a dark black robe, "Timeless one."

 

"How goes your assault my hand, have you driven fear into the hearts of our enemies?"

 

"I have." Shren responded as a second figure stepped into the projection beside him, Darth Malice.

 

"Good, Darth Malice will rendevous with the Savla class cruiser Cyclic of Reality. You will transfer your flag to the cruiser and journey to Tatooine. There, the Skywalkers will go, hoping to find shelter from the Rapora, bring the youngest to me." The Timeless One smiled, his middle aged features still clouded with an erie youthfulness.

 

"What of the one who resides upon the world? The one legend speaks of?"

 

A smile remained fixed to the Timeless One's face, "It will not matter. Even if you awaken him. I have forseen our victory Shren, and your installment as leader of the Ascendancy, you have my word."

 

As the holographic image faded one fothe Rapora stepped beside her, its hands tightly gripping a report, "A Sekotan fighter has just entered the system on the opposite side of the planet."

 

"Life signs?"

 

"Our sensors detect one, but I sense no one." The Rapora replied with a hiss.

 

Shren grimaced, "The Vong Jedi, very well." She sighed, "Alert the Cyclic of Reality that the flag will be transferred to her, and that overall command of the engagement will be given to Darth Fury, but only for the duration of the engagement." She turned and marched away from the bridge hoping that Darth Fury was up to it.

 

OOC: Whew...oops, it means Trej gets to play two people in one engaement. The plot gets thicker.

[ADarkJedi44]

Supreme Commander Litok watched as the holographic image of Fleet Admiral Helos appeared. Son of the legendary Admiral, Helos was in command of the Third Fleet.

"Fleet Admiral Helos, I have an assignment for you. If have asked you to keep the Third Fleet ready to move at a moment's notice, have you done so?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, we're moving into the Unknown Reigions. Don't ask questions, I'll explain later. Mass your fleet together and be ready.

Helos was surprised, but Evahe expected it. He promptly ended the comunique, there was no time to waste. He quickly moved to return to the Guardian's bridge.

Meanwhile, Garik had been offered a choice. He could stay with Evahe and the Third Fleet, or take command of the Fourth Fleet. Evahe had yet to hear his decision....

 

***

The figure was pleased, he was now in full command of the battle. The Chiss were weak, they would be decimated.

"Tuvax."

"Yes, my master?"

"Go to your fighter, lead our fighter squadrons. You can be of far more use there."

Darth Tuxax silently obeyed.

Darth Fury returned to the battle. All apeared to be going well, but time was not on his side. Doubtlessly Chiss reinforcements would arrive soon. He could not waste any precious time.

At the moment, both fleets were still a good distance away from each other. The mines were moving into position and the Rapora fighter squadrons were carrying out bomb run after bomb run. The Chiss were slowing being weared down, but they know all they had to do was wait it out.

He stood and walked around the bridge. He knew what to do.

"Order the fleet to follow us. We'll go right through the center of the Chiss formation and slice through like a knife through hot butter. From then on, they will have no chance.

[Mad78]

Garik sat and sipped a glass of corellian ale as he sought over the proposal of Evahe.

He could take over the command of the fourth fleet or stay with Evahe on the third fleet. What a choice. What would Merick have done?

He would have taken on his responsabilities.

Garik switched on his holoprojector to record a message to the Supreme commandr asking for the command of the fourth fleet.

 

***

 

Tuvax boarded the fighter as the hangar droids finished reloading some torpedoes.

Hardly had the droids moved away that the Darth apprentice was out of the hangar full throttle.

The Rapora fighters formed up behind him and prepared to fight.

"Prepare to fire." Tuvax ordered as he approached the incoming chiss fighters.

Tuvax injected fear and doubt into the minds of the chiss. And as he did he pulled power from it. He fellt a dark connection with the other raporan fighters.

FIRE

The message of pure anger made that all the raporas fired their rockets simultaneously. Entire chiss squadrons were wiped out but many remained. Tehn the fighters engaged at close range.[/i]

[Stellar_Magic]

Jaina Solo watched the displays as a squadron of Raporan fighters took out twelve chiss cruisers with a volley of plasma bombs, slowly she turned to the Admiral, "Admiral, where are your fighters, those Cruisers don't stand a chance without fighter support."

 

"We don't have any to send, they struck upon our fighter bases from orbit, sixty percent of our fighters never left the ground. We tried to launch a counter attack on their cruisers but their anti-starfighter weaponary tore them apart. Our squadrons are now down to ten percent."

 

Suddenly a Chiss turned from his display, "Sir new contacts bearing two four zero, mark twelve." The Chiss clasped his ear and stopped for a moment, "We've got a transmission from the new forces. Its Admiral Steren with the CEDF fourth fleet."

 

Admiral Rensa bounced a fist off the railing fo the command center, "Get his fighters to cover our force, have them target the Rapora fighters."

 

Jaina stretched out with the force and suddenly gasped, sensing the Rapora's plan. Jagged caught her as she nearly fainted from the shear power of their vengeful minds, "What is it?"

 

"Admiral, they're plaing to split your forces." She gasped, "You've got to have your ships form an assault wall and retreat before the enemy. Let the fourth fleet attack their flank, and immolate them."

 

The Chiss nodded, "Do as she says, Jeedai Solo, you have the thanks of the Chiss people for this."

 

Jaina shook her head as she stood, "It won't be enough, the Rapora are just to powerful, you've got to continue to cover the evacuation."

 

The Chiss stood, still struck dumb. Jagged turned to the Admiral, "For the sake of your people!"

 

Slowly the Admiral nodded, "Alert Admiral Steren, we're evacuating Csilla. All civilian and political persons will continue to be evacuated to the redoubt. All military personnel, you're to try and keep the enemy off the evacuation transports as long as possible."

 

At thousands of points across the capital thousands of Chiss fled to predesignated evacuation ships. Only a few had been airborne a moment before, but now from the Raporan sensor operators in space, Csilla's skies we're alite with a storm of targets in space. While the cities of the world burned bright from space.

[ADarkJedi44]

The figure laughed. A new Chiss fleet was on his flank, but the weak Chiss had realized the hoplessness of the situation. They were evacuating. Tuvax was performing perfectly. The original Chiss fleet was now battered. There were plenty of new targets in the new one.

Darth Fury reached out for Tuvax using the Dark Side. Immediatly, Tuvax responded. Rapora fighters began to shift to the other fleet. Darth Fury was now divided. He could go after the original Chiss fleet, and the evacuating transports. That would certainly staggering casulties for the Chiss, but how could he deal with the fleet on his flank?

"Continue moving us forward. We need to break the main fleet and destory their transports. Have the mines shift to cover our flank from the new Chiss fleet, and have our fighters begin bombing runs on the new fleet. If we can keep them busy we can decimate the Chiss."

The orders was carried out to the letter. The Rapora fleet immediatly surged forward, and the mines manuvered to block the new threat. Tuvax and his fighters quickly returned to the Rapora cruisers and rearmed. The droids rearmed the fighters quickly, and they were soon moving to begin new bombing runs.

Darth Fury knew that wasn't enough. The Chiss were nearly in firing range, and they'd get plenty of time to shoot before the mines could put them at a standstill. He knew he was taking a huge risk. If the Chiss fleet was not stopped, they could come at him from the rear and anihilate his fleet. Either way he'd take casulties.

So far all was going as planned...

[Trejiuvanat]

OOC: LONG Post warning! This is what you get for having two of my chars in the same battle.

 

A single organic-looking starfighter carried Ulan Shai into battle. Coming out of nowhere he joined the Chiss Clawcraft ranks in their struggle against the invading Rapora.

 

The assignment Alema and the Council on Zonama had given him seemed to be abandoned in the face of such circumstances. The original mission to ask for an audience with the Ruling Families was exponentially more distant as the Rapora moved closer to the world. In the Sekotian Fighter that he had grown in the past weeks, he flew onwards to meet the wavecrest of Raporan Fighters.

 

The massive Kar Lur cruisers hung against the starry backdrop, a feeling of darkness seemed to emanate from them, Ulan momentarily dismissed the feeling as he shifted his attention to the frenzy battle around him.

 

"Adamantine Leader, break to port. Now." Ulan ordered and the Chiss piloted obediently followed his command, heavy plasma fire cut through the space that had been occupied by the Clawcraft. Ulan maneuvered behind the Raporan vessel and ordered his Sekotan fighter to open fire.

 

The Raporan fighter exploded. Ulan felt the pilots death in the Force, just as he had with the handful of Rapora that had found their death today.

 

"Thank you, Jedi One. Good shot." A plain Chiss voice congratulated him and Ulan sped back to the furball, hoping to distract the Rapora from shredding the Clawcrafts at such a fast pace.

 

He gazed down to the glacial homeworld of the Chiss. Dark gray smoke stained the blue orb, and millions of glittery dots moved away from it, seeking an escape into the starry sky. An exodus as it had never been seen in this regions of space before.

 

"Pulsar Squadron, move away from the Frigates." Ulan shouted into his comm, but it was milliseconds too late. Raporan heavy warhead impacted on two Chiss Frigates that went out in a minuature supernova, swallowing Pulsar Squadron within instants.

 

The frigates' death opened another gap within the Chiss defense wall, the lost of another squadron lowered the already ridiculous chances of survival for the tireless defenders. The Raporan mines and smaller craft started their incursions to break up the fragile formation of the Chiss.

 

Another flash of light in the formation, Admiral Steren's flagship incinirated and exploded. The Chiss defensive wall was crumbling.

 

Ulan felt the distinct presence of three Rapora Star fighters closing on him, and knew of the slight advantage he had over them. His abilities did not enable him to fathom their thoughts and strategies but he clearly perceived the changes in their aggressiveness and could especulate their possible strategy, in return he knew that for all their Force-sensitivity they would have a hard time detecting his presence in the Force at all.

 

Ulan juked and jinked, causing the Rapora to misfire a few of their shots, and then all of a sudden felt a very distinct angry satisfaction, and knew that one of their special torpedoes was closing on him, decomposing into many other smaller torpedoes, too many for him to evade.

 

As a Jedi, he knew he had yet one single choice. He mustered all of his awareness into slightly pushing away every of the small projectiles, if only one of them impacted he would meet his end. The Sekotian Fighter, just as Force-sensitive as he was, augmented his effort and the fast moving projectiles slowed down. Other deviated themselves. With him so focused on the effort he knew he would fall prey to their plasma cannons instead. A whispered prayer to Yun-Yammka escaped his lips, an old prayer that always came to his mind as he was faced with the inexorable.

 

From the corner of his eyes, he saw a blur and another, and another. He breathed deeply as a flash of light englobed him.

 

***

 

Over a dozen of white daggers of all sizes, and a single gigantic grey spearhead materialized above the Chiss defensive group. Green turbolasers bristled and rained destructive fire on the attacking Rapora. On one of their smaller vessels hull damage was detected which caused a short elation in the bridge of the Imperious.

 

Oreton casually looked over the holographic representations. The Star Destroyers were moving to their assigned positions, their gunners momentarily worried only with destroying the Raporan fighters trapped within the Chiss fleet and the Imperial Destroyers.

 

Hundreds of Raporan mines spread over the battlefield, alerted Oreton to tactics he should beware.

 

"Launch Shower Group," Oreton dictated. "Their priority are the mines. Use Pulses alone, and keep their distance from them. Signal to all ship, to launch starfighter and the screen squadrons."

 

From one of the Sovereign Destroyers many hangar bays a group of Assault Transports launched, loaded uniquely with Ion Pulses, and MagPulses. The transports targeted the mines, with their ion projectiles and the mines' number started to decrease. As literally thousands of TIEs raced into space, the battle of Csilla became a true pandemonium. With TIEs returning to their mass-superiority tactics to overcome the Raporan fighters and with light shuttle performing warhead interception tactics the battle raged on.

 

"One of the Cruisers is maneuvering, they are protecting their rear. we have their attention," Captain Onolovav reported. "The others are out of range to our fleet.

 

"Baron Fel?" Oreton asked. The elderly General had insisted in flying a Missileboat into battle, and had launched as soon as they arrived.

 

"His flight has cut through some of the Raporan Fighters, and rescued one Sekotian fighter. I did not know there were Jedi here?" One of the officers commented.

 

"Instruct Baron Fel to target the Raporan Fighters, and open me a channel to the ground."

 

"Admiral, we detect heavy activity on the opposite side of the planet!" Onolovav pointed out.

 

"Rapora?" Oreton asked.

 

"No, it seems a mass evacuation. The Chiss are leaving their planet."

 

Oreton's jaw dropped slightly. So the mission profile had changed, the Imperial Fleet was not here to stop the Rapora completely, only delay them long enough for the Chiss to evacuate their world. Just like Nirauan.

 

Unlike Nirauan. Oreton trusted the capacities of his fleet and his flagship to succeed in this particular mission relatively unscathed.

 

"Channel to the ground open," his Communications officers spoke.

 

"Admiral Rensa here."

 

"Admiral, my fleet has reinforced your defensive wall, I request command over all Chiss vessels, until the evacuation is complete."

 

There was a hesitation in the response, but Rensa understood that with Admiral Steren gone the Fourth Fleet would lose their order.

 

"Agreed, Csilla out."

 

"Lieutenant," Oreton asked his communications officer. "Rensa has ordered the Fouth Fleet to obey your instructions, we are receiveing order requests."

 

"Assign them their functions according to the stipulated battleplan," Oreton ordered the captain.

 

Oreton analyzed the Raporan formation, they had started to shift to a more conservative formation, realizing that the Imperial fleet could take advantage of their scantly defended rearguard.

 

If Oreton's analysis of the Raporan proved true, he trusted they would keep their rear mostly undefended.

 

"What's the ETA on the Alliance fleet?"

 

"According to Litok's schedule, Helos and Ioor should be here within minutes."

 

"As soon as they're here, order them to take potshots at the Raporan rear, if we distract them enough we might just might make them bleed."

 

***

 

The flash of light passed and the three Raporan fighters behind him were gone. A flight of starfighters he had never seen before flew over him.

 

"Thank you, Strikefast Squadron," Ulan said into the comm.

 

"Neat trick on the torpedoes, Jedi," an elderly-sounding male voice answered.

 

"May I join you?" Ulan asked as he followed the fast and agile starfighters that had just saved his life.

 

"Sure go ahead, always glad to have a Jedi take his best shot at one's side." The human laughed briefly and then sped towards the Raporan formation.

 

Only then did Ulan realize the massive number of Imperial vessels that had reinforced the Chiss.

 

OOC: Long post... Hehe... my fingertips hurt...

[ADarkJedi44]

Darth Fury slammed his hand down on his chair in fury. The arrival of the Imperials made his situation nearly impossible. Certainly even more GFFA reinforcements were on their way. He could continue on and take the planet, but his fleet would be decimated. The Chiss were evacuating anyways, there were plenty of other Rapora fleets that could easily conquer the Chiss capitol.

"Swing our fleet around. We can do no more. Conquering Csilla will have to wait. However, the Imperials have yet to move and join the Chiss defensive ring. Move our entire fleet against them. They will pay for their assistance here. In gallons of blood."

It was not the ending he had hoped for, but it was something. If he could do enough damage to the Imperials, the second Rapora force to attempt to take Csilla would have no problems. He reached out for Tuvax. He was assigned to make it through the thousands of TIEs, drop his bombs, and escape.

[BadSamaritan]

Seryk leaned back in his since and winced in pain, and gingerly touched the blast scorch on his leg. Mara looked over to him, and smiled. Seryk then felt a soothing comfort roll over him, and the pain in his leg diminished. he looked over to her, and nodded.

 

"Thank you," he said, and he bagen to stand up,"But you need to go tend to your husband, and I need to check on the ship. I think I heard a few things break loose during the fight. Need to make sure we can get to where we are going." he said, and he turned and began to walk to the back of the ship. Mara nodded, and stood up to follow him.

 

"Where are we headed, exactly?" she asked, and Seryk turned to look at her.

 

"Tatooine. Its relatively close, I think, and has the kind of places we will need to repare the ship, or buy a new one if need be." he said, and Mara nodded.

 

"Luke hasnt ben there in years anyways. I think it will do him some good to see it again." mara said. She then tilted her head to the side, and one of her eyebrows raised up slightly.

 

"You have another reason though, dont you?" she asked, her tone of voice questioning, but at the same time, knowing. Seryk stopped, and turned to look at her.

 

"Yes," he said after a few moments,"my grandfather left a recording in the log file of this ship, mentioning a hideaway on Tatooine that he had been forced to use a few times. From how he talked about it, i think there may be a bit more to it then that." he said, and he turned and walked towards the engine room. Mara simply nodded, and then walked over to where Burt was trying to help Luke. He was obviously inexperienced at it though, so Mara knelt down beside him.

 

Seryk walked into the engine room, and looked at a few gauges. He then noticed a small blinking light, and he hit the wall with his fist. he reached over to a console, and tapped a few buttons. He swore, and then turned and walked out of the engine room, and back to where the others were.

 

"We have a problem," he said as he neared them. "We are leaking coolant, and leaking fast. Its going to be gone in not to long." he said, and he reached into the med-kit, and pulled out a pair of bacta patches. As he ripped open the packets, Burt looked over to him, and frowned.

 

"How long exactly?" he asked, worry in his voice. Deryk slapped one of the patches onto his leg, and then began to open the second one.

 

"let me put it this way. IF the ships engines last long enough to actually get us to the planet, they will need a complete rebuild before she goes anywhere again. meaning we are out of a ship." he said, applying the last bacta patch onto his leg. Luke turned to him, and smiled.

 

"Dont worry, we can get another ship. If we cant buy one, we can get ahold of the alliance and have one sent to us." he said, and Seryk simply sneered at him.

 

"So tell me, what about my ship? is the alliance going to pay for its repair?" he asked, and Mara shook her head.

 

"Yes, we will see that you are compensated. But the fact that you seem to be thinking more of your ship than of human lives is sickening." she said, and ben nodded in agreement.

 

Seryk simply shrugged, and then stood up. He began to walk back towards the cockpit of the ship, and then turned back to look at Mara and Luke.

 

"Your welcome." he said simply, and he turned and walked back to the cockpit. Once there, he sat down, and began to downlaod all the personal files from the ships computer into a series of datapads. He knew that the ship wasnt going to leave Tatooine for a long time at best, so he had to get all the files he wanted to keep with him. He made sure to save the file of his grandfather, and all the other files that seemed to pertain to it.

 

Once this was done, he sat back, and rubbed his hand lovingly over the console. He had just gotten the ship, and he was being forced to give it up already. He looked out to the swirls of hyperspace, and wondered what he was going to do. Without a ship, he couldnt get back to Karrde, nor could he work. But Burt was also stranded with him, and he needed to get back also.

 

Seryk sighed, and thought about his options as the ship travelled. It shouldnt take to long to get to Tattoine, so he didnt have much tme to form a plan. But he knew he would think of something.

 

OOC: Ok, if anything in this post seems wrong, i apologize, I am very tired right now.