The Start

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

Getting to his fighter in Bay 8 Antilliles started up the engines and left the bay into an ocean of Skips.

 

 

It was Impossible he thought. How were the Vong getting all of there Intel? They always knew where the fleet was no matter how hard they tried to hide or recuperate. Antilliles thought.

 

 

Blue Squadron locate and destroy that Yammosk Carrier. Green and Yellow Groups take out any skips that come to close to the capital ships. Evan said. My flight break right! We will assist in taking out that Vong Battle Cruiser with the Ocean Blue, Said Antilliles.

[ADarkJedi44]

We will cover youre flight five. three flight protect the Ocean lue from skips. Evan got a skip ursuing eight in his corsairs and fired. the skip turned int chunks of coral after a few shots. okay my flight lets finish this battle cruiser off. after the cruiser was destroyed. Vong reinforcments arrived. "take out that Yammosk".

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

Lead I have confermation on that Yammosk Carrier, It has been destroyed. But there is another that we cannot locate. What now? But before he could finish the sentence Plasma hit his left wing. AH! I'm hit! I'm Hit!

[ADarkJedi44]

Shadow squad loocate and destroy the Yammosk. Destroy anything in your way. Then Evan went to search for Antlliles. Alone. When he found Antilliles he was surround by 4 skips and a corvete.uh-oh. this wil not be fun.

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

OOC: Hey DarkJedi44 after this battle want to start outr own thread on the battles and recruitment into the Squadron?

 

 

IC: Get out of here Evan! I am going to eject and blow my ship up! Just get ready to Tow me out of here, Fast!

[ADarkJedi44]

OOC: I'm not 100% sure what you mean but sure.

 

IC: Ocean Blue send in the Wave runner. "I'll cover you." Sir this is nine we have destroyed the Yammosk. Good this should be easy. Two cover the Wave runner withe me. Three and four cover Five. Everyone else go blast the Vong.

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

OOC: What I meant was we should start our own thread for the battles we are writing and i thought it could also be used for recruiting more people into our sqaudron.

[ADarkJedi44]

OOC: let's recruit bill next. You can start it up

 

IC:Alrigh Shadow squad Antilliles is safe and the vong appear to be retreating. let's blast another Cruiser or two out before the vong leave.

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

OOC: Alright, but you walk bill through.

[ADarkJedi44]

OOC: can you start are thread and end the battle while i walk Bill through?

[ADarkJedi44]

Evan watched as the vong flee t retreated into hyperspace. Okay boys w have to see how Antilliles is doing. then we need to find the vong spy. and then we retaliate.

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

OOC: Sure.

 

 

 

IC: While the Rebels finished up the Damage done to the base there was finally a time to relax. But for some reason Antilliles couldn't rest. Something in the back of his mind told him it was just the beginning.......

 

 

 

OOC: See the thread "Shadow Squadron Home Thread/ Recruitmwnt Areaa!!!! for the continuation of this story of Shadow Squadron.

[ElvisMiggell]

OOC: PLEASE keep OOC's to a minimum. If you want to plan or discuss, start a thread or PM each other. Do not use OOC unless it is really necessary as it ruins the continuity.

 

IC: Shimraa was fuming...

 

"Master Shaper", he said with a sneer to his voice, "how goes our project?"

 

"My Lord, we are almost ready to move into the second phase. Using the Jeedai, and the tactician friend, we will use their knowledge to fill the Eigth Cortex with knowledge of this 'force' they speak of."

 

"How soon until the second phase is complete?"

 

"Merely a matter of days my Lord. We shall have the knowledge, and then we shall start work on the warrior project."

 

Shimraa, in the true fashion of an evil ruler, threw his head back and laughed, maniacally.

 

"This pitiful galaxy shall know the meaning of fear and pain when they see how we have corrupted their Jeedai and turned them against them!"

[Trejiuvanat]

Walking always was a relaxing thing to do, reagardless of the danger he was in. He was at ease, perhaps now that there was some distance between him and Igoru he could devote his thought for Iulan and Scathane... And the mysterious presence of Her. There was something enticing in her, something so mysteroius that Elegaie felt attracted to her.

But he drew on the Force to strengthen his resolve, he would stay unseen without altering the course of events. He would make himself so small in the Force to be undetectable.

He knew that taking action could have bad consequences, he had seen (and regretted) his actions in the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy.

He only hoped to do the right thing now... He sent one more thought to his lost pupil... He felt his confusion so many lightyears away...

[Trejiuvanat]

A controller neared Rjiuvan Shai yet again.

"Warmaster, we detect a power fluctuation from the shipyards"

The Warmaser clapped his hands and the blaze bugs reaccomodated themselves to the enery diagram.

"Indeed, remove the fleet elements from the shipyards and focus on the Imperial formation."

A flash of green light interrupted the further analysis.

Another fast clap of his hands and the blabygs revealed that he had lost a ship.

The ray of green light had emerged from the shipyards and annihilated with one single shot the second larget ship in his fleet. Along with two Imperial Star Destroyers.

"Imperial kjunmpars!!" Rjiuvan cried in outrage of the Imperial betrayal.

"Iulan!" He creid as the villip linnked to Iulan's fighter showed the young humans face.

"I saw it, it was a superlaser shot, Warmaster."

WArmaster Rjiuvan Shai said nothing but awaited for his God to eleaborate.

Iulan's face tightened the Warmaster heard Rjiuvans Defender killing more TIEs.

"The superlaser is a weapon meant for destroying planets, about five years ago they started to use it to kill large ship it still takees a while to load."

"We will retreat!" Rjiuvan said. There was no emotion in his voice anymore. No Anger, no regret.

"We can use the Heart," Iulan said.

"Yes."

 

The Chariot of God opened it's greatest fighter compartment, instead of more coralskipper a black-red mass emerged.

It was a gigantic dovin basal.

The Chariot began to bombard it with missiles. But these missiles contained a special substance that accelareated the growth rate of the dovin basal.

It started to writhe in space and then moved towards the shipyards where a new ship majestuosly came towards the battle area.

"All yuuzhan Vong forces retreat. Iulan instruct the fighter to abandon the battle".

"Warmaster, I suggest fighters should provide cover for a further shot from the Super Star Destroyer."

"Good, we shall regroup at Devastation Base."

Iulan ackownledged. The fleet would regroup at Alderaan. Throught the yammosk he instructed the fighters to provide cover for the Yuuzhan Vong fleet.

The Imperial fleet had stopped to exchange shots.

They had not started a persecution but nor did they regroup near the gigantic Star Destroyer.

 

In the Glory Room of the Chariot, a villip writhed and Admiral SOCl's face came clear.

"Warmaster."

"Imperial you will die!" Rjiuvan replied and spat.

 

The gigantic dovin basal neared the Super Star Destroyer. Many Vong ships had executed the jump, fighters were entering hangars. The yammosk reported Iulan that there was a steady energy increase in the Super Star Destroyer, not yet at the same enrgy level as the before shot.

The destroyer had started to fire on the Gigantic dovin basal.

It was a weird picture a hertshaped form absorbing the thousand of turbolasers shot.

Then the first turbolaser shots began to hyrt the dovin basal. Imperial must have rejioced for a second.

Then they must have seen the enorm black hole the dovin basal was creating.

And it grew greater.

In few minutes it was big enough to swallow the Super Star Destroyer that inexorably was sucked up.

The mass of the Destroyer was big enough to saturate the black hole created by the dovin basal, and it too exploded.

The shipyards and some of the remaining Imperial Star Destroyers that had cleared themselves from the Gigantic Star Destroyer, which the IFF code from Iulan's defender referred to Eclipse I, had taken heavy damage.

Kuat may not have fallen but the Yuuzhan Vong fleets succeeded in destroying such a ship, and wrecking the Kuat shipmanifacturing facilites.

Also the planet was sieged by the amount of debris in orbit, and the Imperial fleet sustained havy damge, two star Destroyers were already drifting into a decaying orbit.

They couldn¿t be possibly be saved.

Alone the flagship of the Imperial fleet the Ra Cailum watched over the remains of the battle solemnly. Iulan deactivated his cloaking shield and started the hyperjump...

He wondered at the Imperial admiral's reaction to a TIE Defender in the middle of suich a battle.

[SOCL]

OOC: That was quite confusing and unexpected, Trej. Not very pleasant either, as I had something else in mind. I'll e-mail you.

[Trejiuvanat]

Rjiuvan Shai slammed his human hand into the coralgrown table.

"Tschaka" he screamed in outrage.

The poor unlucky warriors that always surrounded the Warmaster were more grim than usual. It has been twelve hours since the failed attack on Kuat. Although Iulan would hesitate from calling it a failure, the Warmaster felt the urgent and pessimistic need to call it a failure and a personal failure. He had lost a God after the battle. Iulan had not yet returned from the battle, Rjiuvan understood the poor darkspace capabilities of the fragil metal craft and that Iulan would make a series of short dark space jumps to avoid being tracked by the Imperial fleet.

But twelve hours was too much.

The memories were fresh in his mind but not even the detailed review of the actions could ease him, not even a session in the Embrace of Pain could do that now.

He slowly and quietly said another prayer. The collection of phrases that had impressed Iulan so much.

There is no heresy there is truth.

There is no shame, there is glory

There is no void, there is pain.

There is no fear, there is the True God.

"Pulutar, Warmaster," Rjiuvan's chief shaper saluted. "The asteroid field is feeding the new ships. Similiarly the destruction of Kessel and its moon has greatlyu benifitted our ship creation programs. The coral creatures are synthethizing the great amount of metal ore in the Kessel field. My shapers believe this will strenghten them against the 'Mpeerial spaceheresies, we hope to compensate todays loss in less than fifteen suncycles."

Rjiuvan said nothing and the shaper left.

The silence was worse still.

Along with it came memories. On his left on the coralgrown table the coral figurines of the Dejarik watched him.

If hisGod died, what would difference him from the Gods of the Yuuzhan Vong, what would make Iulan S'Tor so different from Yun-Yuuzhan. Rjiuvan believed in Iulan and his Force because they were alive, now with them death?

He would be a warrior without a banner alone in this fiendish galaxy waging battles for his own glory?

When he first arrived the fanatism for the gods and the supremacy of Shimraa had blinded him. He had come to fight this crusade for the Gods, and he .... betrayed them? No he simply chose a different path.

A path that was no longer clear.

"Warmaster," a warrior came, "our shapers report success with their latest creation."

Rjiuvan half listened to him, he wasn't interested in weapons, when his true goal evaded him. He had trusted Iulan's decisions and goals. What goal would Rjiuvan Shai have if Iulan does not come back?

“Success, at last then?” Rjiuvan asked as he smiled.

[SOCL]

Fleet Admiral Socl looked from left to right into the black of space. His personal strike fleet was gathering here, in an obscure part of space and all that remained was the Ticonderoga's arrival. And so, they had been sitting idle in space for nearly a week out in the middle of nowhere.

 

But with Imperial High Command on him for the accused failure at Kuat and the loss of the gargantuan Eclipse-class super destroyer. He knew quite well, though, that they were trying to cover up for their own loss. After all, at the start of the fighting the Imperial moff on Kuat had said he was in charge and Socl was to merely "follow orders". Apparently that particular moff had thought an Eclipse could destroy an entire Yuuzhan Vong fleet and, of course, he had been wrong, and had subsequentally perished aboard his enormous flagship, taking more resources needlessly from the Empire.

 

Socl sighed heavily.

 

The mere fact that the moff had ignored his warnings about the fleet, as well as his insistance that he could have held his own, but had been ordered to hold his ground and not act just confirmed his distrust in Imperial High Command. He was tired of this, tired of taking orders from incompetents and politicans who knew nothing of combat, much less the military. They claimed that they did with such mottos as "Combat is horrible, but not as horrible as losing the will to fight" and "War is the art of the gods, it is powerful and terrible" when not one of them had ever experienced combat, much less seen it occur.

 

Arrogant fools.

 

"Admiral," a tentative voice came from behind him.

 

Socl slowly turned away from the viewscreen and faced the source of the voice. "Yes?"

 

"The Ticonderoga just came out of hyperspace in our quadrant. Its ETA is seventeen minutes," Captain Janus, commanding officer of the Ra Cailum, reported. "Should we prepare the fleet for departure?"

 

Socl looked out the port side viewscreen to see the small gray figure of a Star Destroyer approaching--the Ticonderoga. "No," he said. "Instead order all the commanding officers to meet me in the Ra Cailum's secondary conference room. In the mean time, start powering up the Nu Shield and begin the interface connections between the ships's computers."

 

"Yes, sir," Janus said, nodding the orders off to the bridge officer.

 

"Also, have Colonel Wignzer meet with us; we shall need all intelligence reports possible on this Vong fleet we encountered at Kuat...there's something different about them then the ones we have fought in the past," the fleet admiral said, his voice distant and full of thought.

 

Janus hestiated, giving the admiral a strange look. "Ah...yes, sir."

 

Socl snapped back to reality, his eyes cold and hard once again. "Very well then," he said quickly, "I shall be in the conference room."

[Trejiuvanat]

A time ago, Iulan had called hyperspace his home. A silent place where he could be alone with his thoughts.

Now his thoughts scared him, his pale reflection in the transparisteel made him shiver.

In the reflection his skin was paler than usual, as if sick devoid of life. His hair, which he used to keep short when he was a fighter pilot. Oh, that seems too long ago. His hair longer now gave him the appearance of wild man. And the inquisitive look of the green eyes startled him.

Is this the look of a God? So arrogant?

A God? I am no God. I am only avenging myself on the Imperials using the Yuuzhan Vong for that. Am I dark then?

That thought troubled Iulan deeply. He had used the Yuuzhan Vong, he had come to them to escape from the darkness that had dominated him in orbit around Krall.

He thought he had been above that anger. But in the end the anger and the hatred had subtly consumed him.

Should I escape now, too?

He lowered the hyperdrive lever. The starlines around him became dots. He was in space, alone.

Iulan knew he could not escape. He had no place to go. He had fled from the Rebels, he had betrayed the trust of General Elvis by refusing to return. He could not go to the Imperials, he had slayed them, and they had corrupted him. The name of Igoru Samos still sent shivers down his spine.

He would stay with Rjiuvan Shai, his friend. The only one he had still in the universe.

He could not meet his old friends until he was redeemed.

Redemption. How something so vague has come to seal my fate.

But what could mean redemption for a God?

He closed his eyes, and drew on the Force.

Minutes passed by, and soon those minutes wove themselves in hours of silence and solitude.

Redemption for a God means to kill a God

For many moments Iulan considered to use his lightsaber and kill himself and put an end to his own tragedy.

But that would be a cowardly escape. He would still need to kill a God.

Two names came to him at lightspeed.

Along with the memory of his dream at Dagobah.

Supreme Overlord Shimraa and Emperor Evaders.

Two dark men, that stained the galaxy. Iulan needed to vanquish one of them.

He knew the Force would deal with the other in due time, even if Iulan wasn't the one to execute it.

He accelerated to hyperspeed.

 

An hour later he was walking proudly on the Chariot of God.

He soon set foot in the room where he would talk with Rjiuvan Shai for endless hours.

The warmaster alone, had a representation of the galaxy in front of him.

"You are late."

"I needed to think, Warmaster." Iulan said.

"Has the Force given you reward for your meditation?"

"We shall kill deities, Rjiuvan Shai. And you shall lead the forces of the Yuuzhan Vong in this crusade."

Nothing else was said.

Both Iulan and Rjiuvan allowed themselves an hour in the Embrace of Pain.

The pain that surged his body made Iulan purge his thoughts and worries, again he was the God of the Yuuzhan Vong.

[Evaders99]

Emperor Evaders viewed the galactic map with pleasure... he felt the anger, the hatred, the disease.. and soon this darkness will infect the entire galaxy...

 

It was not hard to manipulate these Vong, encouraging them that this galaxy was their new home-ascendant. His first contact had been one of solitude .. he was drawn to the power and the darkness of mist that surrounded these warriors. He knew that their fear and hatred could be used. Now he only had to stur the mix a little.

 

Rebels and Imperials... Jedi and these aliens... pawns and lesser beings will die... and those left will serve me.

[Guest Scathane]

Scathane had finally reached the hall where the female Jedi was holding up. He had decided he had no other choice than to take Garth with him. Dangerous though the female Jedi might be, Garth wasn't going to survive on a Vong ship on his own. In fact, the man still wasn’t much more than Scathane had finally reached the hall where the female Jedi was holding up. He had decided he had no other choice than to take Garth with him. Dangerous though the female Jedi might be, Garth wasn't going to survive on a Vong ship on his own. In fact, the man still wasn’t much more than a sobbing heap. He had found Garth a hiding place near the hall of the female Jedi and Scathane was now tiptoeing towards the hall.

 

The hall was freely accessible; it seemed to have no doors, just a gate. Scathane was now standing with his back against the wall, peeking around the corner of the door: the hall was dark but he could sense the female Jedi somewhere in the blackness beyond. Reluctantly, he parted from the safety of the wall behind him and stepped into the hall. He could see virtually nothing but he knew the hall was large, like a void around him. The air was cool and breezy and had a hint of moisture in it that tingled lightly on his skin.

“Come in, Chir’daki…” a woman’s voice said. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly where it came from, just as her presence in the Force. He found himself instinctively turning his head from left to right as if it would help locating the source of his unrest. Instead, his unrest grew…, especially since Scathane did not speak Twileki and yet he knew that by Chri’daki she meant him… Deathseed…

“There’s no need to be afraid, Chir’daki…” the woman’s voice now seemed to come from behind them and, immediately after that, from in front of him, it continued: “I won’t hurt you.”

Startled, he backed away and nearly tripped over his own feet. When he found his footing again, he got a grip of himself. He had to fight this woman on her own turf.

“How can I be sure of that, Mistress Vosa…” Scathane said, his voice a bit shaky… The silence seemed to grow in the large hall after he had said this. Having her name mentioned obviously wasn’t something she had expected.

Mistress Vosa, Lady of the Sith. Outmian Azala. Heir to the Legacy of the Bando Gora. Crispo di Jedaai. Wonky Murishani. She probably had quite a number of other sobriquets and was more of a legendary nightmare to most than anything else. Nevertheless, those who had actually crossed her path and lived to tell it hardly dared whisper her name in fear. Her full name was Jaxi Vosa, daughter to the now long deceased Sith Mistress Komari Vosa and Orn Free Taa, the former Twi’lek senator, whom she had killed herself. Apart from her olive skin and long lekku, she had inherited her father’s knack for finance and the rest she definitely owed to her mother: she was force-sensitive, aggressive, vengeful and extremely dangerous with a pair of lightsabers.

Scathane calmed down and remembered what the woman’s voice in the void had told him time and again: “When you meet the dark Mistress, do not try to see her with your eyes or hear her with your voice… You must concentrate on using the Force as I have shown you…” He slowed his breathing, something he had learned to do during his Orrimaarko’s commando training sessions.

“So you have found out who I am, Commodore…” you are more inventive than I thought “Tell me, are you as inventive when it comes to regaining your memory as well??

Scathane tried to ignore her voice and keep his focus on her Force essence but he found it hard to concentrate. He lost her and her voice seemed to come from everywhere again.

In front of him: “Well, Tchun-tchin? Have you figured it out yet?”

To the right: “Do you really know what happened before Shanaak recruited you to the Rebel Alliance?”

To the left of him: “Haven’t they told you what happened that night before you woke up in that cantina?”

From behind him: “Don’t you remember, Commodore, how many lives you’ve taken?!”

Scathane frantically looked around him, trying to follow the voice but to no avail. The voice kept spinning around him and it made him dizzy and nauseous. By the last remark he had fallen to his knees of dizziness and he had to throw up. All the strength seemed to have left his body and he lay panting on the cold coral floor of the hall on the Punisher.

 

“You don’t even know what the symbol on your arm means, do you, Tchun-tchin?” Jaxi’s voice now seemed to be close to his face, and it spoke softly… “You have forgotten everything, haven’t you?”

Still panting, Scathane came up on one elbow and looked in the direction where he thought the voice was coming from. “What do you know about the tattoo?” he demanded. He had inquired everywhere about that symbol but even Skywalker hadn’t been able to help him out with that one. Everybody he had spoken to had had no clue. “Please,” he repeated, “I’ve got to know.”

It remained silent… And then Vosa’s voice spoke: “Oh well… I guess I owe you that much.” She sounded almost sad.

From the darkness, a slender olive-green underarm appeared. Scathane found it hard to estimate how far the arm was away from him; it seemed to shimmer between sharp contrast and a vague blur. What he saw quite clearly was the symbol on her underarm. He knew the pattern, the strange intertwining circles and dots. It was the same as the symbol he bore on his right upper-arm.

Before Scathane had the chance to say anything, Jaxi went on, although her voice seemed to be moving away from him: “At least you won’t go to the grave completely ignorant, Scath… Look behind you, playtime’s over…”

Scathane turned his head around. His eyes must have adjusted to the darkness because he could make out a silhouette…

Snap, hisss…: a lightsaber ignited and a familiar voice said “Hello, Flyboy!”

 

Samos!

[Trejiuvanat]

Iulan watched the galactic map. It was disturbing for him to discover in this way how much the galaxy had changed since the invasion. Gone were the two colors that had characterized the galactic civil war. In its place many colors parted the glaxy in the most impossible shapes. Blue sectors marked the Imperial sectors, a bloodred marked the territory of the Rebel Alliance. A yellow conglomerate marked the entry of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, from there it divided itself into other colors orange for the Yuuzhan Vong loyal to Overlord Shimraa that had dispersed themselves over that part of the Rim and now started to push deeper into the Core and Rjiuvan’s bulk of the fleet that had attacked few worlds and remained in their secret bases. Grey marked, other than the Unknown Regions, the systems and sectors that had been cut off from the Alliance as well as the Empire. Those worlds were found behind the Yuuzhan Vong border.

Today, though, those worlds were of little importance to him.

He clapped his hands and the blaze bugs zoomed on the Core, all of them colored in Imperial blue the planets of the Core were the only way for any force in the galaxy to earn recognition, it would be impossible for any government to function without key worlds like Ralltiir, like Brentaal, Corulag, Esseles, Kuat and Coruscant.

From the remains of Alderaan Iulan and Rjiuvan had attacked with success Kuat, Coruscant was in the end their goal, glory and conquest for the Yuuzhan Vong and redemption for Iulan. But Coruscant would not fall easily. It required intelligence, ample resources and luck to enviosion a plan to conquer Coruscant.

“Coruscant will be the end of our campaign, Rjiuvan Shai. The most hard battle, but the sweetest victory.”

“Hard battles make warriors reveal their courage and victory rewards them.” Rjiuvan said gazing upon the galactic map. “Every campaign has a first battle, God That Is, where shall ours take place?”

“Our first step in this journey will be Coruscant.”

The Warmaster said nothing. His face remained indifferent, and Iulan knew that the Warmaster was confused.

“I will take your fastest fighter and scout the defenses of the Throneworld.”

“And our forces, shall they attack a nearby world?”

“No, warmaster, your forces will be planting a seed that must become the demise of the Empire. You will colonize Caamas, a world ravaged by a bombardment from space, our shapers have means to accelerate the recovery of such worlds.”

“Shapers can oversee that themselves, I shall go with you, you may want to take my fastest fighter, but I will take my fastest frigate and go with you.”

Iulan smiled.

“I had intended nothing else, you can hide behind one of Coruscant’s moons.”

 

Iulan and Rjiuvan entered a shuttle that brought them to the frigate Burmai, from there they watched as the Chariot of God entered hyperspace headed for Caamas. Soon after they were headed to Coruscant.

[Guest Scathane]

The room was getting less and less dark, Scathane was sure of it now. He could gradually discern walls and another gate at the other end of the hall. As he felt Jaxi’s presence slowly ebbing away, the light equally waxed. But there were more pressing matters at hand… Samos was still coming towards him with an ignited lightsaber. Scathane could now sense him as well. He wasn’t sure where he’d been when he was in that void or what exactly had happened there but he obviously had had his force-sensitivity activated. Samos could sense it too…

“Ooohhh! The Commodore thinks he knows the Force!” Igoru scampered. “I always thought you were force-sensitive…”

Samos had almost reached Scathane now, who was backing off to the side; Igoru joined in the sideways motion and soon they were circling around each other: Igoru armed with a lightsaber and Scathane empty-handed. Scath knew he didn’t have a chance: here he was with little more than a shard of the Force flowing through him, not knowing what to do with it at all, and he was opposite to a trained and experienced Lord of the Sith… True, Scathane had bested good fighters of larger proportions but they hadn’t been Sith…

“Your fear me, don’t you Commodore?” Samos smiled an ugly grin as he kept circling and eyeing Scathane, and waving the lightsaber in front of his nose.

Scathane thought about this… He was cautious, anxious and the adrenaline was coursing through his body like mad but afraid he was not. What he probably would be in several minutes… was dead. The two kept circling around and around, like two prey animals.

Suddenly, the Sith attacked: he made a violent slashing attack, which would have cut Scathane in half in a thin line running from the top of his head, right down his nose, solar plexus and ending at his groin. Were it not that Scathane already reacted to the refraction of the saber it took Samos to make the attack: Scathane came forward and rammed his left fist in the Sith’s chest (they usually didn’t expect an attack with the left arm). The blow hit but Igoru was trained, fit and angered, so that it hadn’t much effect. Instead, the Sith quickly recovered, turned around to Scathane, who’s own attack had gotten him to the side of Igoru, and made another slicing attack. Scathane hadn’t fully turned around yet but as he did, he felt a burning pain cut through his left upper arm… He stumbled backward only to find the Sith complementing his saber attack with a sweep kick, which took his feet away form under him… Seconds later, Scathane was lying with his back on the ground and found Samos approaching him with the saber… he was done for…

“LEAVE THE COMMODORE ALONE!” a voice thundered from somewhere behind Samos. “HIS LIFE IS NOT YOURS TO TAKE!”

Scathane immediately recognized the voice of the woman he had heard in the void, although it wasn’t soothing anymore, it was commanding and stern. Samos felt it to. One moment the Sith’s eyes had been mere slits pouring with hatred, but after hearing the voice, they became wide and surprised; Samos obviously knew that voice.

“Vergere!” Samos hissed, as he turned around to the left side of Scathane, where his injured arm was, holding the tip of his lightsaber inches away form the commodore’s throat, “how nice to see you again!”

Scathane did not yet have the chance to inspect his wound, but found his arm to be momentarily incapacitated. With the lightsaber on his throat, chances were he had to wait a bit to have a look; there wasn’t much he could do.

 

“Samos, I mean it, release Scathane…., NOW!” Vergere charged Samos, “You have no dealings with him, only with me.”

Samos seemed to think about this... because he stood as if in silent thought, not moving at all.

“You know it’s me you want, Samos,” Vergere continued, “or have you forgotten the little present I gave you last time we met?” There was something cutting in Vergere’s words, because Samos was getting angrier with the second: the hall seemed to tremble with his anger.

Much to Scathane’s surprise, Igoru put out his lightsaber. He looked down at Scathane and gave him three hard kicks in his arm, right where Scathane was hit by the lightsaber before. “Don’t think it ends here, Flyboy!” Samos hissed through his teeth, “We will meet again!“

 

Scathane thought he almost died when Samos kicked his arm! Tears blurred his eyes as the pain seemed to burn in his entire left arm with waves shooting through to his shoulder. However, when the blurring cleared from his vision, he saw that the Sith lord had turned away from him and was slowly walking to Vergere. Vergere started circling Samos from a distance, making sure, she kept some distance between her and Samos. Samos had now walked several feet away from Scathane and Vergere had almost positioned herself between the Sith and the Commodore.

“Quickly!” she hissed to Scathane “You have no time to lose! You’ve got to go after the Outmian Azala! She took the hallway on you right. If you follow it through to the end, you’ll come to the hangar bay. I bet that’s where she’s headed! Quickly now!

Scathane got up slowly, having some difficulty since he couldn’t use his left arm. Vergere, who was still mostly concentrating on the Sith lord facing her, seemed to notice this from the corner of her eye and reached inside her robes. From it, she pulled a vial which she threw at Scathane: “Catch! It’ll help you heal the wound. Now GO!”

 

Scathane caught the vial with his right hand and he flew out into the hallway. Behind him in the hall, he heard lightsabers igniting. He was running, although he was cautious and scanning everywhere for patrols, after all, this was still a Vong ship. Srangely, though, there weren’t much Vong around; it was as if they were preoccupied with something. The hallway wasn’t that hard to follow: it was rather straight and, although Scathane could read Vong, he was sure he was going for the hangar bay. Getting closer to the hangar bay, personnel activity increased, so that he now had to hide and run, skipping through the corridors of the ship, as they had initially done. Due to his training, he got through to the hangar bay rather uneventfully, however.

 

In the hangar bay, Scathane had hidden behind some cargo boxes. His left arm still hurt like hell, but now that he had a mission, he was able to direct his attention somewhere else. He was looking and scrutinizing from behind the boxes, trying to see where Jaxi was; IF she was still there. He didn’t see much of interest at first until he saw the totally unexpected: two Imperial shuttles! And indeed, not far from them, Jaxi Vosa was talking to two Vong Warriors. Scathane got closer, until he sat behind some other hangar bay junk and could hear the last words they were saying. Unfortunately, Scathane didn’t speak Vong, so he had no clue as to what they were talking about. Not long after that, the two Vong disappeared and Jaxi took off in one of the shuttles. It didn’t take the Commodore long to think what he should do and he made his way for the remaining Imperial shuttle...

 

 

OOC:

 

* Igor, you take over Igoru Samos again
* Please leave Jaxi Vosa, Scathane and the two Imperial shuttles alone for now, however, feel free to take command of Vergere.

[Guest Scathane]

Within moments, Scathane had entered the remaining Imperial Lambda-class shuttle. Now this wasn’t a normal Lambda T4a Imperial shuttle and it was easy to tell: the ship was pitch black and almost seemed to absorb light. But that wasn’t all: in walking alongside it, Scathane had discovered that the vessel was equipped with more than the normal two forward-facing double laser cannons, two wing-mounted double cannons, and one, rear-facing double laser cannon; this one had as much as 10 of the buggers, suggesting this was a Cygnus model. The extras didn’t stop with the extra cannons, Scathane soon found out. This shuttle was armoured with extra hull plating as well as enhanced shield generators; its cargo space was fitted with extra proton torpedo and missile launchers; and he later found the ship had a 0.8 hyperdrive! This suggested the ship to be for special operations, not VIP treatment.

He went for the cockpit and checked the controls… To his surprise, the MTD indicate that this shuttle was cleared for takeoff… This meant he could fly this bird out of here without any irritable question from the Vong and go after the Outmian Azala! Without thinking, he retracted the boarding ramp and set the takeoff sequence in gear. The Shuttle was trailed to the first set of doors, which took him to the airlock.

 

While he was in the airlock and the doors were closing behind him, his comrades flashed through his mind… Elegaie could and most probably take care of himself but Garth… Damn! He had forgotten about Garth! He tried to concentrate and let his thoughts go out to Elegaie, focusing on the position where he had left Garth. He felt nothing; he concentrated harder: he still felt nothing… He concentrated once again; giving it his all but still didn’t feel anything. He just didn’t really understand all this Force business yet; he could just hope that Elegaie had sensed something and that Garth would be all right.

 

The airlock doors in front of him started to open now. Scathane routinely pressed some diagnostic buttons and checked several controls to see whether the ship’s systems were all in order. Everything checked out just fine. The outer hangar bay doors were now completely opened and the tractor beam of the Vong ship lifted up the ship and started pushing it out into space.

As Scathane passed the doors, he thought of Elegaie and Garth once more…

The ship’s sequence ran in perfect harmony with that of the Punisher: as soon as T4a shuttle was in space, its flanking wings came down and its sublight engines powered up. A red indicator somewhere on the dash jumped to green to indicate that the tractor beam had been deactivated and that the shuttle was now on its own. Scathane steered the ship away from the Punisher by means of a standard maneuver, as to not attract attention. He immediately started a scan for the other shuttle and, much to his surprise, immediately found it. In fact, some entries in his ships database were now giving him friendly and cheery sounding bleeps and started spewing out all kinds of information on the other shuttles flight trajectory and next hyperspace destination. The other shuttle definitely had Jaxi aboard; he could feel it.

 

Within about ten seconds after Scathane had gotten the data on Jaxi’s shuttle, the vessel jumped to hyperspace. Apparently, she was headed for some Bantooine; Scathane had never heard of the planet, but his nav computer told him it was an obscure little planet in the Corporate Sector, mostly known for its sleezy bars and brothels. Strangely enough, the ship left no signature whatsoever, but the computer indicated that Jaxi had taken the fastest, most direct hyperspace route to the Corporate Sector; Scathane decided against the same route, if only because it went straight through Hutt Space and all he needed was a Hutt bugging him about his business when he barely knew about it himself.

 

When he had set the coordinates and made the jump he relaxed: all he could do now was to wait. Now that the tension was relieved, he noticed he was tired, very tired. He also noticed that his left arm hurt like hell. He went in search of the ship’s medical facilities. It didn’t take him long to find them because he had been aboard an Lambda class shuttle before and, although this one was different in a lot of aspects, certain generic things were left unchanged. He stripped from his Vong disguise and washed the wound; it looked pretty bad: his flesh was torn by the lightsaber on all sides of the cut and it was thick with dried blood and dirt. He tried to wash it as good as he could and then tried to bandage it with a bacta anointment such as was found in every standard medical kit. The wound kept bleeding, however. He then remembered the vial of fluid Vergere had given him.

“It’ll help heal your wound...” she had said.

He opened the vial and smelled it; it reeked of salt, not a very pleasant smell. Nevertheless, he got out a clean piece of cloth, moisturised it with the liquid from the vial and applied it to the wound. It seemed to cool and relieve the pain immediately and seemed to lessen the bleeding. He knew enough: he made another bandage, drenched in the liquid, put it around his arm and put a soft cloth over it. He then went in search of some fresh, clean clothing…

 

He found an imperial jump suit that was more or less his size. It was pitch black, as could have been expected. He tried it on and when he was satisfied with his outfit, he went to the space dump valve to get rid of his Vong disguise. To his surprise, he didn’t find one. What he did find, however, was an incinerator. This confirmed his suspicions that this was a covert ops ship: it was built to leave as little traces as possible.

He then went in search of his bunk for some shut-eye since it would take him at least another 24 hours before he’d reach his destination…

[Guest Scathane]

Scathane awoke as the ship’s computer bleeped and flashed lights in alarm. A quick look at the time told him he had slept for nearly 24 hours: he was almost at bhis destination, whatever it was! He jumped from his bunk and ran to the cockpit. He looked at the dash in front of him and punched in several commands. It seemed that the ship’s computer had detected an Imperial Star Destroyer several light-years away. Apparently, the shuttle’s systems had been pre-configured for this kind of warning, since he knew of no other vessel warning its pilots for ships of a several type or affiliation. Still, this shuttle was doing exactly that. There was something else bothering him as well. The shuttle he was flying was clearly Imperial. Then why on Corellia would it warn him of other Imperial vessels? However, there were more pressing matters at hand, since the Commodore himself wasn’t Imperial; he had to somehow dodge that ship.

He checked the computer again and it seemed that it was fitted with an intelligent tactical program. He punched in some more commands and came on a screen that suggested several possible tactical scenarios. None of them looked very uplifting, since the odds of a Lambda-class shuttle against an ISD were astronomously small. Except for one: it involved cloaking the shuttle! Now, that was an interesting feature!

Scathane kept going at the ships computer until he got instructions on how to cloak the ship. The extremely cooperative computer made some bleeps and then a screen came up with large, friendly letters flashing: “Activate cloaking device?” Underneath the flashing text was a countdown timer showing him how much time was left until the shuttle came into the ISDs sensor range: it wasn’t much. He didn’t have to think for long and entered ‘yes’ into the computer.

The shuttle started humming and shook a little; after that, the computer screen changed to display a control screen that showed Scathane exactly how long the shuttle could keep up the cloaking device at its current speed and power use. Apparently the ship’s systems had to allocate a certain amount of energy to the cloaking device, which varied with how much energy was allocated to the rest of the shuttle. He checked the nav computer: the shuttle could make it to the designated landing point in about five minutes; this was enough for the cloaking shield, which he could currently keep up for about fifteen minutes ate the current energy use. Of course, he didn’t want to set the shuttle down at exactly the coordinates: Jaxi would probably notice this. In fact, now that he thought of it: since he got all types of information on Jaxi’s shuttle, she would probably get the same from his. He therefore thought it wise to land about several minutes away form the designated landing point. He checked the ship’s systems on geographical information on Bantooine to search for a landing space just outside the space port town he was supposed to land in. When he was satisfied with a spot just ten minutes outside Mos Weeila, the town in question, he punched in the commands for an automated landing sequence and relaxed.

It was only now that he realized he didn’t feel his wound anymore. Surprised, he stripped the upper part of his jacket and checked it: it was gone! He didn’t know what Vergere had given him but it sure was superb stuff!

 

In about 7 minutes, Scathane’s shuttle set down outside on the southwest side of Mos Weeila. After he had disabled the cloaking device and stepped out of the shuttle, armed with an Imperial blaster and some light armor, containing a utility belt, chest armor, arm and leg greaves as well as a light helmet, which resembled a Stormtroopers’, albeit that it had less features and it was pitch black. He had studied the outfit briefly and it seemed to be keyed to the ship, for it had a remote control to the ship’s basic functions built in its left arm greave. And that wasn’t all… The armor was fitted with a personal ray shield and a light cloaking device that didn’t make its wearer disappear completely but seemed to mirror its surroundings. The helmet was furthermore equipped with a scanner and auditory enhancements.

He immediately made for Jaxi’s designated landing point, which was wired into the helmet’s eye display: it was to the west of the town. The helmet, by the way was a great asset to the suit: it displayed the territory around him, along with information on type of soil, steepness of climbs and distances. The helmet, he had noticed, also displayed maps and street plans, from which he had gathered that Mos Weeila had a lake to the west of its border.

It was obviously nighttime on Bantooine, because it was dark; this suited Scathane because his suit fitted right in: he had difficulty seeing his own extremities. As he progressed, he came to Mos Weeila’s outskirts, which were cluttered with small docking stations, not unlike those on Tatooine. The architecture was different, though; the buildings here were grey and mostly built from iron or polymers and they weren’t round, as in Mos Eisly or Mos Espa. Scathane thought that the scenery was depressing and gray, and he doubted that daylight would do much for the atmosphere. As the surrounding weren’t somber enough, it started drizzling.

When Scathane came to the first buildings, he found a small alley and squatted down to recalculate his position. His helmet’s display showed that he was only several yards away from where Vosa had set her shuttle down. Stealthily, he continued in that direction.

 

Upon closing his destination, he came upon an open space, which went down steeply and cleared out into the lake. Extending from it, were several large parapets which obviously functioned as landing platforms, as there were little red lights flashing on each of them and space vessels on several. The first, right in front of him, had Jaxi’s shuttle on it, its boarding ramp extended and its engines powered up. In front the boarding ramp were two silhouettes. One of them was the Outmian Azala, he could sense her immediately now that he saw her, although he realized he had sensed her all along. He also realized that there was a good chance she could sense him as well… The other figure was dressed in a long robe and he couldn’t make out who it was. By their gestures and movements, he could make out the two were talking and he tried the helmet’s auditory enhancements to see whether he could pick anything up. No such luck though, he had to get closer: it was obviously time to try his cloaking device.

Cloaked, he slowly sneaked further, until he came to the parapets large gate, which consisted of two large masts. The masts had no footing around them, so he couldn’t hide behind them; something he had hoped. His cloaking device seemed to work fine, but he only could keep it up for about 5 minutes. He kept still next to the southern mast and could see Jaxi hold still all of a sudden and turn her head in his direction. She held her hand up to the other woman as if to say she had to keep quiet. She was obviously trying to sense something, because Scathane felt her presence extending almost to where he was; he froze… He could feel her senses exploring the space in front of him, almost touching him, like fingers groping around in a dark space. Then, to his horror, her presence brushed his! Her sense froze hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure what it was she had felt or whether she had really felt anything at all. He krept back a little as her senses touched the same spot again and felt nothing; her senses lessened their tension. Still, they kept lingering around the spot until she was apparently satisfied it was nothing and retracted her senses. In the distance, Scathane saw Jaxi’s frame relax as she lowered her hand. He relaxed as well and tried his auditory enhancements again. The meteorological circumstances obviously weren’t optimal, because he got a lot of static and crackle, but he could nevertheless pickup large pieces of the conversation; the other person’s voice was a woman as well.

“…was probably nothing.” Jaxi voice came through in the midst of a sentence, “Samos is on it.”

“You should have been more careful, Outmian Azala! Are you sure that Samos has taken care of him?!” the unknown woman’s voice snapped.

“Yes, we can trust him to be very thorough in his job.” Jaxi answered, her voice sounding quite relaxed.

“Surely, Samos is no match for the Chir’daki?!” the other woman spoke again, with obvious amazement in her voice.

Chir’daki… There was that reference again: Deathseed. The same sobriquet Jaxi had used for him, Scathane pondered. They were talking about him!

“No, of course not!” Vosa continued with a chuckle, “No living soul is capable of taking on a Sith Saya Sesenta and especially not the Chir’daki!”

“So, why did you trust Samos with this job then?” the other woman asked sternly, obviously not sharing Jaxi’s amusement.

“I wonder why I should be so lenient with you, d’emperiolo chik,” Vosa returned the other women’s sternness, with obvious contempt in her voice, “You are a mere maya and I could kill you on this very spot.”

Jaxi paused… The last words she had spoken had revealed unrelinquished anger, hate and contempt for the other woman in her voice. The other woman, however, seemed oblivious to it and remained silent. Jaxi seemed to regain her composure and continued:

“But, because I still have a need for you, I might as well fill you in on the details. You see, Samos would have nothing more than to become one of us, to become Wanga Sesenta. However, as you may or may not know, we keep our ranks pretty tight. We’re more deadly than the Emperor’s Royal Guard, more secretive than Blackhole Troopers and far older than the Mandalorian Death Watch or the Thyrsus Sun Guard; even the heydays of Korriban are a mere blink of time away compared to our origins. Samos knows this; he wants our secrets and knowledge so bad he can taste it.It drives him as much as it consumes him. I gave him the outlook of joining if he kills the Commodore, gets rid of the Chir’daki. He will not fail.”

“You and your secret societies!” she hampered, “You haven’t brought much to the Imperial ranks, just as Palpatine’s Sith-driven motives failed him in the end.” She sighed… “Well, I guess, in this case, it might just serve our purposes. What about the rest? She continued with a renewed interest, “Were you able to pinpoint the other source of compromise within the Imperial ranks?”

“I have.” Jaxi merely stated.

“Well?!” the other woman demanded, “Who is it?!”

“It is Admiral Socl…”

“He’s a Fleet Admiral!” the other woman scorned, “So, it’s Socl, hey? Good…”

“He’s my next target,” Jaxi stated, “After I take off here, he will be the first on my list.”

“No!” the other woman snapped, “You will leave Fleet Admiral Socl to me. This is Imperial business!”

“As you wish,” Jaxi said, “He isn’t really my concern indeed. But if you fail, d’emperiolo chik, you know I’ll have to kill him myself. He knows of our existence and I won’t allow the objectives of the Sith Saya Sesenta to be compromised.”

“You needn’t worry, Outmian Azala,” the other woman answered, “I will take care of him. Our business here is finished then. When shall we next meet?”

“I have some things to take care of, as have you,” Jaxi answered, “I will contact you and you will know.”

“That’s satisfactory,” the other women said. Without a further word, she turned around and strode away from the shuttle. Jaxi turned around as well and walked up the boarding ramp but just when she was almost inside, she turned around and look back, directly to where Scathane was located. Scathane froze again; was she able to see him? But after a short gaze, she turned around again and entered the shuttle, which took off shortly after that.

Scathane remained still; the other woman had nearly reached him and, although he was cloaked, he thought it better not to move. When she came close, he caught a glimpse of her face. A face he knew all to well. In fact, it was a face almost any =one would recognize: it was Daala!

 

Daala obviously hadn’t spotted him due to his cloaking device and after she had passed, Scathane returned to his shuttle. There, he pondered what he had just overheard; it didn’t make much sense yet. Jaxi, Daala, the Vong. What did ot all mean? He didn’t know. What he did know was that he apparently had been known as the Chir’daki, the Deathseed, and that he had been a member of those who call themselves the Sith Saya Sesenta. He had no clue, however, as to what that meant. Samos had been sent to kill him by someone of this very same order: Jaxi. She obviously knew more but he knew he couldn’t take her on as long a s he didn‘t have more information. So he had to get that somewhere else.

Fleet Admiral Socl…, he knew more as well! Scathane had heard about him and knew that he was an officer of good standing, not something all Imperial officers could boast about. Of course, Socl was an Imperial, which made it a dangerous long shot for the Commodore. Yet, it was his only option.

Scathane browsed through the shuttle’s database and soon found Fleet Admiral Socl’s entry; it contained a short history of his military career, which was quite impressive. It also carried contact details up to the highest security level and then some. This meant he was able to send Socl a highly encrypted subspace message, making sure that the Fleet Admiral was the only one who could read it. He would propose to meet in a desolate area… Where? Silver Station; that was it! Scathane didn’t think long and relayed his message to Fleet Admiral Socl:

 

HOLONET ###no### SUBSPC MSSG ROUTE ###undisclosed###

STATION ###D’emperiolo teesaw Ra Cailum###

DE ###Chir’daki.01 ###

RTE ###Route=2896.038772 code 8###

PREC ###Highest precedence### ZULU D12-23:25-5-08

FR ###Sesenta pankpa Pawa ***Commdre Chir’daki***### FPO ###CS0024### STATE ###undisclosed###

TO ###D’emperiolo teesaw Ra Cailum ***Flt. Adm. Socl***### FPO ### unknown/automatic trace###

NFO ###D’emperiolo teesaw Ra Cailum Executor class ISD tag.028663.00287###

EXEMPT ###all stations except D’emperiolo teesaw Ra Cailum### ###all callsigns except ***Flt. Adm. Socl***###

GROUP COUNT ###undisclosed###

BT

Intel on Sith Saya Sesenta. Must meet. Silver Station ZULU D15-00:00-5-08

BT

 

 

NNN /EX

Edited August 2, 2003 by Scathane