Stellar_Magic

OOC: You understand the Timeless One now, you think? Let me show you how far his power extends. And now Darkie, um the GFFA is about to be routed, despite your futile efforts. IC:The Timeless One glanced to the Rapora in charge of security, "Make certain he does not escape." "Yes my lord." Closing his eyes the Timeless One lifted his hands and focused his perceptions on the moon, it's orbit weakend it was begining a gradual fall toward the world, but the Timeless One knew Bakura was valuable, and smiled. It began as a single black pinprick before the moon, a tiny black hole. Using the force he manipulated its gravity into a cone a funnel and the moon began to tear itself apart, creating thousands of pieces of the moon, creating thousands of missiles that he could hurl upon the fleets that opposed his conquest, "Order all units to fall back, I'll deal with these foes my self." Using the blackhole he accelerated pieces of rock the size of mountains and larger toward the GFFA fleet, smaller pieces were already striking their targets ripping apart starfighters and glancing off cruisers. It was only a matter of time until the fleet surcumed to the barrage. * * * Anakin felt hs stomache tighten as his skip flashed out of hyperspace above Endor. From a distance it looked like just another forest moon, as common as mynocks in the galaxy. Anakin knew better, he felt a draw, a well in the force before him as he piloted the ship through the world's atmosphere. Below him toppled trees and scorched earth marked the bombardment of debris from the second death star on the world. There ahead was the place, slowing the fighter he lowered the craft to the ground. And pulled himself from the restraints and then out of the cockpit. There before him he saw a slab fo rock it's surface covered with dark plastic and glass, a plastic he'd once worn long before. He knew now where he was, Darth Vader's Funeral Pyre. Reaching out with the force he looked skyward and felt the mark fo the Emperor's death. There was a soft familiar presence behind him, the cause of his downfall, and the dawn of his salvation. He turned to see a shimmering figure, one he'd only seen in his dreams and nightmares for years, one that had shattered his soul, Padme. She smiled softly and stepped before him, a slight wistful smile crossing her face, "Annie." "Padme, I'm so sorry I never..." She put a finger before his lip, "Shhh... it wasn't your fault, the force guided you through your course, it was necessary." Anakin felt a surge of mistrust and anger roar through him, "It was my fault!" Padme turned away as tears clouding her blue eyes, "Anakin, I would not have given up a moment we had to keep the Republic. There are things that transcend right and wrong, governments and peoples." "How can you be the one saying this?" "Because I know whats right," Padme turned, her face hardening into one Anakin had become all to familiar with, one he'd seen before on their daughter as well. She sighed her blue clothes rippling in the breeze, "Your path was set before you long before you were born, all that has come to past has been foretold, none of us knew we were fullfilling prophecy." "Some did us," Anakin slowly turned to see his the old master Yoda sitting on the stone where his armor had lain, "Warn them I did. Listen they did not." Yoda thrust out his twisted walking stick at him, "I knew, remember you do, but the future set it was, and I not could stand against the power of the darkness." "I am no longer afraid...am I?" "Fear for yourself, you do not. Fear for your children and galaxy, you do." Yoda sighed, "Still time for you is now...remember what you have learned." "But the prophecy..." Obi Wan appeared before Anakin, a tight lipped smile upon his face, "You will know my old friend, you will know." Slowly the Jedi faded away leaving Padme standing in the shattered clearing. She stepped beside him, her eyes watering with tears, "I wish I could help you." Anakin smiled and leaned down beside her before embracing her, his spirit touching hers through his flesh, "I know you do, I love you." "I know," Padme pulled away from him tears now clearly visible in her eyes, "I'll be with you, know and always." As she faded back to the realm of the dead, Anakin spoke his vocie a whisper, "I know." He sat down and reached out with the force tearing the darkness from its roots in the world and space above it and pulling it within himself before releasing it around him. He stood and nodded, it was done and in his soul he felt peace for the first time. * * * Luke sighed as Mara slowed the craft to cruise a brilliant smile on her face. A commlink chirp echoed in the cabin and Ben flicked it on, "Danni, it's great!" "Sekot will be pleased to hear that," Danni replied as the Jade Scimitar slid through space.

They replace the Empire, but I've changed Coruscant to another system, I'm tempted to make the entire Game occur in the unknown regions instead of Galaxy wide.

Well the TC isn't out yet, I'm still doing testing, but I'll post test stories until its released but first I'm going to have to explain what it is. The Rapora War TC is set just over thirty years after ANH and around ten years after the Unifying force. The Galaxy under the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances' leadership is begining to heal. But a grave new threat is about to emerge as well as new allies. So that was my pitch moving on. The two basic sides are the Rapora Imperium (RI) and the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (GFFA). Some of the units of the GFFA are familiar, the Imperial II class and so forth, but the units of the Rapora are far from familiar and weighed so that one ship from the Rapora can take on a whole fleet of GFFA ships. So here are a few stats to compare the two mainstay vessels of both sides. Imperial II-class Star Destroyer: Shields: 5760 SBDs Hulls: 2288 RUs Speed: 40 MGLTs Maneuverability: 5 DPF Carries six squadrons of fighters Armament: 60 Heavy Turbolaser Batteries 60 Heavy Ion cannons 60 Turbolaser Batteries Troops: 4 GFFA Regiments: 1,000 Soldiers 12 AT-AT Walkers 92 AT-ST Walkers Variety of support equipment. And here's the Raporan Destroyer A Kar Lur Class Cruiser... Shields: 48000 SBDs Hulls: 4400 RUs Speed: 40 MGLTs Manueverability: 12 DPF Armament: 2 Super Heavy Plasma Cannons (Equal in damage to an LNR II) 6 Heavy Plasma Cannons (12x as powerful as a Turbolaser) 16 Medium Plasma Cannons (8x as powerful as a Turbolaser 48 Light Plasma Cannons (4x as powerful as a Turbolaser) 12 Anti-starfighter Laser Cannons (Rate of fire 4x that of the Falcon's defense cannons) Carries four squadrons of fighters. Troops: 1 full Raporan Division: 1,980 Rapora Warriors 8,000 Droideka'kar Droids A plethlora of support units. Lets just say the Rapora win a one on one hands down... Now to the stories Today I was playing a test campaign as the GFFA, and had managed to build up a pretty good sized fleet. 2 Bothan Assault Cruisers 5 Advanced Corellian Corvettes 2 Lancer Frigates 2 MC90 Class Mon Calamari Cruisers 2 Defender class Star Destroyers And as I'm trolling along I fall upon a small Raporan Force 2 Kar Lur Cruisers + approximentally 12 ground based starfighter squadrons. Well since its a test game I sit back and hit the observe battle button. The result... One utterly destroyed GFFA Task Force with no survivors. 1 Crippled Kar Lur Cruiser 9 Dead Starfighter Squadrons All I'm going to say is...ouch. So I'm going to double the construction cost for all Raporan ships and try again, this may take a lot of tweaking to make the Rapora beatable.

Perhaps because everyone else is using droids Well in the EU all Cloning Technology has disappeared after the ROTJ. This means that there can't be many places with that technology to begin with, and that only the most highly placed people in the Empire (The People that died with the second death star) knew where such Technology existed. Since the world of Kamino is removed from the archives and that it is never mention post ROTJ I must conclude that the massive cloning operation seen in EP2 is exclusively Kaminan Technology.

Economical sense? Well which is cheaper? Pay Kamino to build trillions of clones, feed them, give them health care and so forth for four years until they age enough to be useful in combat. --Or-- Pay Kamino to make a couple hundred thousand clones, and recruit trillions of other people, pay them minimum wage and give them combat training. In the end, Kamino would probably be more expensive, you've still got to pay for food, armor, and medicine in both cases. In the case of the clones though you've got to pay much more because of the highly specialized service they offer, it's not like anyone can make human clones in Star Wars. Militarily, relying on clones is one of the worst possible moves imaginable. First, using exclusively clones for your army grown at one place has one very major and obvious problem. You loose Kamino and you're stuck. (I personnaly believe we'll see Kamino's cloning facilities destroyed in Ep III) Secondly, it takes as much as four years to make a clone according to the film, four years, and can you seriously believe that Kamino had trillions of cloning cylinders? In truth the clones cannot possibly fill out the needs of a broad war, the droid army can double in size in a week while it would take a year at the least for the clone army to double in size. If you recruited you could double the size of your force in a few months not a year.

Considering I posted that as a Joke

What about me!

Well it may be a little wordy but here it goes. George Lucas announced that the only inside of the Confederacy of Independent Systems ship visible in the opening sequence will be of a Trade Federation Battleship, (Yeah one of the doughnuts). It has also been stated by people at Lucasfilm that the Dreadnaught like vessel will have several key characters onboad, who, I'm not sure but if you compare the two statements it seems clear that the Dreadnaught has to be a Republic ship, I'm betting Anakin, Obiwan, or some other Jedi are onboard. Then there is this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/StellarMagic01/ep3_dreadnaughtcrest.jpg I'm guessing that since only some of the Imperial style craft have the red paint job that those vessels are actually CIS. They're identifying markers to make it clear who is on what side during the middle of the battle. Thats what I think though, and I could be wrong.

Perhaps I should shred a little light on something oh so mighty Jahled has overlooked. Think for a moment about all the EU stories, especially those that deal specifically with this idea. Yes, there are stormtroopers that are clones, are all the stormtroopers clones, no. At the end of the clone wars all clone production was ceased or destroyed, those stormtroopers which are clones are remnants from a bygone era, and would be concentrated in units such as the 501st. If your position was correct why would all those expert clones be unable to hit the broadside of a barn in the films?

Okay I suggest you add these to your list of Fleet Units. A Vaka Class Cruiser... Shields: 39890 SBDs Hulls: 16840 RUs Speed: 44 MGLTs Manueverability: 8 DPF Armament: 4 Heavy Plasma Cannons (12x as powerful as a Turbolaser) 32 Medium Plasma Cannons (8x as powerful as a Turbolaser 24 Light Plasma Cannons (4x as powerful as a Turbolaser) 6 Anti-starfighter Laser Cannons (Rate of fire 4x that of the Falcon's defense cannons) Carries four squadrons of fighters. Crew: 120 Rapora Warriors 12,600 Droids Troops: 1 full Raporan Division: 1,980 Rapora Warriors 8,000 Droideka'kar Droids A plethlora of support units. Vagaari Fleet: Savlana Class Light Cruiser Shields: 1900 SBDs Hull: 780 RUs Speed: 82 MGLTs Manueverability: 22 DPF Armament: 4 Heavy Plasma Cannons (12x as powerful as a Turbolaser) 12 Turbolasers Crew: 360 Vagaari Troops: 1 full Vagaari Regiment 128 Wolvkils 960 Vagaari Warriors Can carry two Starfighters * * * Alaga Dreadnaught Shields: 1900 SBDs Hull: 840 RUs Speed: 49 MGLTs Manueverability: 11 DPF Armament: 8 Heavy Turbolasers 26 Turbolasers 22 Ion Cannons Crew: 2570 Vagaari Troops: 1 full Vagaari Regiment 128 Wolvkils 960 Vagaari Warriors Can carry one starfighter squadron * * * Paskla Class Assault Carrier Shields: 2450 SBDs Hull: 1890 RUs Speed: 17 MGLTs Manueverability: 9 DPF Armament: 16 Heavy Turbolasers 48 Turbolasers 32 Ion Cannons Crew: 29,000 Vagaari Troops: 4 full Vagaari Divisions 1,430 Wolvkils 9,820 Vagaari Warriors Can carry two dozen starfighter squadrons. Any other comments?

I came across a rather important bit of imformation the other day. That dreadnaught is not only Imperial/Republic in affiliation but that it also is being controlled by certain...shall we say "Key" characters.

I'd have to say that by ANH that at least some of the troopers without faces were not clones, this is to say that with complete domination fo the empire it would make more sense just to recruit, it would take less time to swell the ranks of the army through those means, you can train a man in six to eight months, you can clone a man in three to four times that amount of time, it simply would be more logical and efficient to use recruitment for the bulk of your force and use clones only for extremely important, elite, or symbolic units.

I posted this in the RDB II Forum as well but, I thought some of you might want a look see... Okay, I've finally settled on a card list for the game, those cards with * are finished, those cards with ^ are under construction, and those cards with nothing aren't started. Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and their allies Ships: Defiance Class MC90* Corellian War Frigate* Corona Frigate^ Defender Destroyer* Imperial II Star Destroyer* Ravager Class Star Destroyer Advanced Corellian Gunship^ Bothan Assault Carrier Lancer Frigate* Super Star Destroyer^ Freedom Sword Class Light Cruiser* Freedom of Thought Class Destroyer^ Guardian Shield Class Destroyer^ Mandalorian Cruiser Interdictor Cruiser Troops: YVH War Droids Alliance Army Regiment United Defense Alliance Regiment Mandalorian Regiment Yuuzhan Vong Volunteers Spec Forces: Jedi Guardians^ Ferret Probe Patriot Team Slicer Team Raporan Imperium and their allies Ships: (Will add more) Kar Lur Cruiser* Paskla Class Carrier^ (Vagaari) Vaka Class Cruiser* Savla Class Cruiser* Defra Class Corvette* Alaga Dreadnaught^ (Vagaari) Raporan Mine* Savlana Class Cruiser^ (Vagaari) Raporan Replicator^ Vareme Class Supercruiser Troops Droideka'kar Regiment* Rapora Warrior Regiment Vagaari Reghiment^ Jedi Hunter Regiment Aklasp Regiment (You'll meet this beast later in the RPG, and you thought the Rapora were scary!) SpecForces: Droideka'kar Assasin Rakana Cycle Probe Dark Warriors Sith Acolytes Any comments or suggestions? Also is Mad ever going to show up in the RPG again, he kind of disappeared.

Commodore Hraw'athie'nuruodo http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/StellarMagic01/Athien2.jpg If you told an average chiss that he or she was a stuck up aloof person that had no right to believe they were superior, the Chiss would look at you as if you just invaded your home naked. If you said the same thing to Commodore Hraw’athie’nuruodo she would tell you that you’re talking to the wrong person. The difference in her nature is so shocking that if you spoke with her across the comm link you would have sworn she was human, but she is plainly chiss and is a major player on the galactic stage. Born just over two years after the battle of Yavin IV, Hraw’athie’nuruodo was instantly the pride of her father, then Fleet Admiral Mit’hraw’nuruodo, would become one of the legends of the Rapora War. Within months of her birth she was whisked away into the unknown regions along with her father. As she grew up her father built a pair of empires to check the advancing Rapora threat, only one would survive. Shortly after reaching adolescence, Hraw’athie’nuruodo, who fashioned herself Athien, was personally schooled by her father in leadership and strategy. There was a great amount of love between daughter and father to Mit’hraw’nuruodo, know more often as Thrawn, his daughter was every bit as talented as he was, and without the stiff indoctrination of chiss society she became a very independent and free thinker. She never felt confined, as her father did, to the strict warrior’s code of her parental culture and never would. Then six years after the Emperor’s death Athien lost her father to a traitor, but in truth she knew as many of the followers of Thrawn that he had planned for such a contingency. He’d hidden two cloning cylinders, one beneath the fortress of Nirauan and one at the headquarters of the United Defense Alliance. Athien knew of the cylinder’s existence set out to find and guard it before grief from his loss brought her to the edge of despair. During this time Athien discovered something even more stunning, that she herself was force sensitive. She’d known from her father that their family had such a history, but Thrawn had never been gifted with such a power. He instead was forced to rely on his mental faculties. After the discovery she hunted down a retired Ascendancy Academy teacher who had taught his students to use the force. Bringing him out of retirement Athien convinced him to teach her and several other force sensitive personnel how to use their native abilities. Afterward she mastered a unique form of force coordination that had thought lost with the Jedi of old, Battle Meditation. Then two years after her father’s supposed death she came face to face for the first time with what her father had always warned her of, the Rapora. A team of four of the reptilian force users snuck deep inside the United Defense Alliance command center and attempted to destroy the Spaarti Cylinder located there. Athien found herself engaged in combat with a band of fully trained force users, and almost no one would expect her to emerge victorious. But fortunately for her only three of the warriors were dedicated to the mission the fourth was a warrior named Veran. He’d known met Thrawn before and had a personal craving for freedom that could not be satisfied. In the heat of the moment he turned on his comrades and with Athien’s help thwarted their attack. The two became close friends and Veran became chief of security for Thrawn. Soon after her father’s return the UDA faced their first major military challenge, the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Athien was given a commission as a Colonel and command of a squadron of Clawcraft. After a successful hit and run on a Vong task force that utterly destroyed a pair of Mataloks without losses she was promoted to General. After the Vong invasion the United Defense Alliance geared up for a full scale war with the Rapora. Athien was placed in command of a massive research project into creating weaponry and technologies to counter the Rapora. Her team quickly began making astounding advances. On Athien’s own initiative she led the design team to the creation of the shield modulation sensor, with it their ships would be able to detect the shield modulation of their foe and fire through their shields completely without effect. With those results Thrawn promoted her to the rank of Commodore, a rank second only to supreme commander in the UDA. Then the Rapora War became a reality. After a massive pair of assaults on the worlds of Bilbringi and Csilla Commodore Athien lead a group of foreigners to her father, bringing the United Defense Alliance into league with the GFFA and Empire. Soon thereafter she participated in the battle of Bastion and helped save a large portion of the Imperial Fleet from utter destruction. A few weeks later Athien met Admiral Hirotek of the Fondor Defense fleet. Together they utterly defeated a Rapora attempt to take the world, and forged an alliance of strategic and tactical brilliance. The possibility of this alliance broadening into a romantic relationship between the two cannot be ruled out, but if so, both parties have attempted to quiet such rumors.

Yes they can, but its uncomfortable due to the way the seats are designed.

OOC: Lets get the posts to stream in once again...Two battles, several fleets, all in a days work for Rapora Wars IC: His name was Admiral Verak, and he was a Vagaari whose blood sang with the joys of battle as he watched the Galactic Federation of Free Alliance ships moving to engage his force, still battle was not his objective, "Signal Task Force one to move to stall the enemy advance, all Karas class Dreadnaughts are to enter the worlds atmosphere and proceed to the landing points." Already the atmosphere of Adumar was flashign past the bridge viewports, "Order the Paskla Carriers to launch all their fighters and have them protect our invasion forces." "Adumarian Fighters are moving to engage our ships." The Admiral smiled coldly, "Let this battle begin." * * * Admiral Evahe felt his mouth open in shock as three Resurrectors dropped out of hyperspace above Bakura. Each one a seperate fleet equal to the force that had first appeared at Fondor. He knew then that this battle would be one of the largest in this new war. * * * The Timeless One leaned back in his throne as Ulan watched in horror as the battle was set before him. Two miniature holos appeared before him, each one three fourths size, Darth Fury and Darth Tuvax awaited his words, "You know what to do my old friends, let it be done." Both fleet leaders snapped their fists to their chests in salute, "By your will." * * * Mara settled behind the pilots seat of the Jade Scimitar with Luke filling the copilot seat by his side, behind them were four seats lining the sides of the cabin, in one of them was Ben. As he sat down a console slowly appeared from the floor and rose to greet him. Mara watched as the controls of the ship moved to touch her and Luke, their warmth letting their nerves begin to ease. The ship itself seemed to reach out to soothe them as if to tell them that it would not do anything foolish. Outside the viewport Han and Leia waved and Mara lifted her comm link, "Stand clear." With that Mara slowly pushed the throttle forward and the ship rose from the floor. With a little pressure from the rudder the craft spun to the hanger doors. Smiling now, any doubts gone Mara glanced to the other two passangers, "Ready?" "Ready." Luke answered evenly. Ben smiled slightly and leaned back in his seat, "Yep." Smiling Mara pushed the drives to ninety percent power and rocketed out of the hanger. * * * Karyn was led by Boba and Seryk to the deepest part of the city, below its sewer system, below its power source, below its manufacturing centers and into its prison. Waiting for them was High Commander Verice, "It's about time we have a good look at this...intruder." Boba glanced back to Karyn, "It wasn't that hard." High Commander Verice nodded, "No it wasn't fortunately for you Karyn, Darth Malice is dead then." All three of them nodded, "Good, and you what do you have to say for yourself, many of my security personnel are dead because of you." Karyn stepped back, "I didn't kill them, look at your tapes again, all I did was deflect the shots they sent at me, Malice was the one with the blood on his hands not me." Seryk felt his chest tighten, if Karyn was telling the truth or not didn't matter, the Jedi needed as many allies as they could get. Sighing he stepped to the woman, "Can I speak with you in private?"

There are three seperate fleets from the Rapora about to engage the GFFA and UDA over Bakura. Fury has command of one of them, and the Timeless One is in overall command.

Speaking fo which I absolutely love your new signature

Darkie, fix your avatar. Good idea BS, I'll incorporate that info into your Characters TC Card. Maybe some of the others here should try the same.

Then why is the Dreadnaught with the Republic/Galactic Empire crest firing on it?

Heck I just noticed that in 1:19 the two Imperial style ships are shooting at each other, what is going on?

I just went through the movie again and noticed something kind of disturbing. The Dreadnaught in 1:26 gas a Republic crest emblazoned on its side, and the Republic Cruiser has a rebel crest (Its half in shadow and a turbolaser blast hit directly below it, so its very difficult to see) and a series of red markings along its side. Could the Republic class be in use on both sides? I suppose in a sad way that makes sense, it is a Civil War of sorts after all.

I spent some time doing freeze frames on the movie just to get a good look at some of the ships and such. 1:18 the first shot of the space battle. You can see a Trade Federation Battleship in the background along with several vessels reminiscent of a Mon Calamari design. In the foreground is some form of Seperatist cruiser, unknown class. Also you get to see both kinds of Jedi Starfighter. Behind the TF Batteship you can see the prow of a vessel that looks like an Imperial Class, could they be out in production already? 1:19 the second shot of the space battle. You can see another trade federation battleship, the command area of a Republic Cruiser and the prow of either a Victory Class or a Republic Cruiser. You get a good look at the new Jedi Starfighter. The cockpit of the craft looks alot like the cockpit of a YT-1300, (Yeah its smaller) The design is obviously Sienar Fleet Systems, still no sign of the imfamous T.I.E. design. 1:20 the shot with a ton of wookies in the foreground. It's clear that the battle of Kashyyk will have Wookies fighting alongside clones. In the background you can clearly see three Juggernaught assault vehicles and three all terrain walkers, the prototypes of the AT-AT anyone? 1:22 Cool firefighters! This is a seperatist vessel I believe, either the same class of ship that was mistakenly refered to as a dreadnauight earlier or of a Mon Calamari design. I'd have to lean and say that its the same class as the "Dreadnaught" 1:26 Yeah that ships looks a lot like a dreadnaught, but it's different from the ship designs they released for the Rendili Star Drives Dreadnaught, the ship in the games. It also dwarfs the Republic cruiser its engaging leading me to believe that is a larger cousin of the Dreadnaught, maybe in the Cruiser class? In the background you can see a number of other ships, both Seperatist and Republic. One of which looks like a prototype of the CC series vessels, another a mon cal, and the prow of some form of destroyer is visible. Of course as usual you can see a TF Battleship in the scene. 1:27 Why can't you put in a Z-95 guys! Thats suppose to be the father of the X-wing! 1:31 A Seperatist ship takes a massive hit in the foreground. I see two ships that look like Mon Calamari Cruisers, a Victory Class in the distant background, and another Star Destroyer being partially hid by the explosion. I can also see a Seperatist Crusier and two TF Battleships. Once again you can see the new Jedi Starfighter in the shot. There are other ships but their two distant or to blurred to identify. Dude, I am a geek!

The Resurrector prepared for battle, its halls were filled with countless warriors. It's hangers stuffed beyond their maximum capacity. Worker droids bustled downthe halls repairing the smallest of blemishes on the mighty battle station. The Timeless One did not take notice, instead his focus was outward as he glid through the halls paying no heed to the warriors around him as they bowed or made way. He stepped to one of the plain portals of the battle station and tapped once on the control panel and let the door slide silently open. He stepped inside to see the exhausted form of the Vong Jedi lying crumpled on the floor. A grim smile swept across his face as he touched the vong with the force. The Vong's eyes fluttered open as he became aware of the presence and th Timeless One spoke, "You show great resistance Ulan, but you have little realization of what you face." With a slight beckoning of his will a Rapora Guard stepped to his side, "Perhaps you Jares Adrak could educate our prisoner as to who I am." The Rapora hissed and a flash of disdain and hatred flashed across its face as he looked to the prisoner, "Your understanding of the force is in error Ulan Shai. The Force has embodiments and wills, each may contest another, each may anger another. These spirits of our universe bind and create through their conflicts." "Whom do you serve Jares," The Timeless One said simply as he starred into Ulan's eyes. "I serve the greatest embodiment of the force, the Timeless One, the force made palpatable and real an insidious wound into those that feel that reason is the greatest strength, the spirit of passion and power." "Perhaps a demonstration of my power is in order, Jares, take the prisoner to the bridge." * * * Luke Skywalker felt his eyes widen as the cavernous hanger doors slid open to reveal an immense black vessel beyond. It's hull glinting in the dim light the craft's glossy surface. The green glowing organiform circuitry glowing along the sides of the craft marked it as Sekotan but the rest of the craft seemed to be an elegant mixture of organic and inorganic materials. Danni smiled at the stunned expressions on the faces of the others, "Amazing isn't she?" Han too was stunned, "Whats her top speed?" Danni pulled a datapad from her pocket, "Without the Dovin Basals just shy of two hundred MGLTs with the assistance of the Dovin Basals a little over three hundred MGLTs, I wouldn't suggest flying that fast normally though, it could damage the ship." Mara stepped tothe craft's wing and reached out to touch it and felt the ship's skin contract slightly at her touch, she could feel the organic nature of the vessel through the force and her hands. Smiling she felt the vessel itself reach out with the force and touch her mind, much like a jedi, within it she found a child of a spirit much like her own, a weapon of a spirit, "How is she armed?" Leia chuckled to herself as Han turned to her, "Weaponary, does she think of anything else?" Danni shrugged noncommital, "She's got quite an arsenal, six proton torpedoe tubes four under the bow two at the ster, ventral and dorsal quad lasers, four plasma projectors, dual forward mounted turbolasers, um an experimental gravity impellor..." Han arched an eyebrow, "Whats that?" "It creates a graviton wave in front of the ship, basically it creates a subspace shock wave. You'll be able to cripple pursuers without having to destroy them," Danni explained. She smiled, "And lastly a pair of projectile interception batteries." "Projectile..." Mara began. "Interceptors, you'll be able to destroy incoming missiles by using them to send a spread of chaff in front of the missiles." "So they're great big flechette guns," Mara observed as she strolled around the craft, "And it has a launch system for our X-wings right?" "Yeah, so what are you going to call her..." "I think I'll call her the Jade Scimitar." * * * Ulan was shoved down to his knees at the front of the bridge as the Timeless One strolled down the command deck. Through the forward viewports Ulan saw a sight that tore at his heart, two enormous Rapora Replicators hung out there, each one surrounded by a fleet of vessels. Seeing the look of shock on his face the Timeless One smiled, "You haven't even tasted my power Ulan." Lifting his hands like an orchestra conductor he closed his eyes. A part of space ahead rippled and wavered then blosomed into an enormous ion storm, he smiled and reached out with the force and touched space again, the storm disappeared into a tiny black speck, a black hole, then with a shrug from him, that to disappeared from view. Ulan sat speechless as the Timeless One turned, "The Universe answers to me Ulan, you cannot withstand me and live." Smiling he leaned down next to the Jedi, "I belive Yoda said it best, beware the powers of the emperor..." "My Lord, all forces report ready." A Rapora officer saluted from his console. "Set course for Bakura, all ships, the war begins today!" * * * Athien watched the displays as half of the Raporan fleet disappeared from their own mines. The remainder, damaged drifted in the nebulas that had been their base. She turned as one of her officers called out to her, "Sir, we've just picked up a hundred plus Vagaari warships exiting hyperspace over Adumar!"

I'm thinking that withina month the loss of Adumar will be the least of the GFFA's worries.