Stellar_Magic

No. When you here stuff like that you have to take it with a grain of salt, its the opening season and therefore the characters aren't nearly as good as the later ones. I mean just look how cheesy the first season of StarGate SG-1 was. For the opening season Atlantis is extremely good...still we'll have to wait and see if they can keep it going.

I must say for all fans fo science fiction like myself... Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis both Rock! Thank you for your cooperation.

Well I'm going to put my two cents in now... Most of this is based of the EU and my memory of it. Firstly the organization of the basic arms of the military. Fleet Command is the ultimate authority and in overall command of all actions. Starfighter Command supports fleet command but the majority of its officers are subordinate to their fleet comrades. EX: Captain Blah of fleet command can order Commander Yak of Starfighter command to do such and such... Army (Core or Command I'm not sure) they're subordinate to everyone. Now ranks, ranks in star wars are a bit wierd and different from ranks in reality. Personnel of the rank of General or higher are automatically members of fleet command in that they are given ultimate authority over task forces and units from all branches. They are not part of the Army. Captain is lower then commander in starfighter and fleet command, otherwise Captain Celchu would be Rogue Leader. Captains and Commanders have very little difference in authority and a Captain may be given command over a commander for any number of reasons. I thinks thats enough to ramp up some discussion.

Message away!!! Now, lets see how many others will feel compeled to join us. Speaking of which I've got a collection of Rapora Imagery, if anyone drop them in some webspace for me, please speak up.

A reminder, we have plenty of openings for dark jedi and Rapora, just PM me and I can set you up... Not to mention all the Jedi we could have or fleet commanders. You name it its available. I doubt Trej will want another character, he's already juggling two, and I'd hate to add a third, if anyone wants another character feel free. My job is done for now, Thank you.

Eccentric Male Writers?

Oops didn't know that Fixing now.

Here's another interesting Image I found on the Web (I still can't post my own). No Picture Available It reminds me of the Mit'shren'uruodo character. You know, Thrawn's evil sister.

For an RP featuring the Rapora go to Rapora War (Introductory RPG) or the OOC discussion for the forum. (Its a sad time for the Empire of the Hand thus far, Parck is dead, the Hand of Thrawn complex has been destroyed...you get the picture?) Actually I think that a lot of the Books kind of, mess around with Luke. I mean they make him less like, well, Luke. And the comics with the Emperor's return, would Luke really be that stupid? (Did I mention my personal Vanguard Fleet of six cloaked Karlur class Raporan Cruisers cloaked amongst your ships?)

Whoa, don't even think about it Mit'thraw'nuruodo. This is no place to make idle threats to anyone, even NIIIC. The whir of a cloaking shield disengageing fills the room as a pair of Raporan Droideka'kar decloaked. Seconds later a trio of Raporan Warrior slid silently through the door behind Stellar and raised their Plasma rifles. I suggest you call them off and lay down your arms, all of you. Now back to the topic...

Yeah, thats a different game, it isn't even based on the movies actually. It's called the War of the Ring, I think. I'm salivating thinking about modding it... Lets wait and see though.

Yeah, imagine the chairs you'd have to design for them to sit in

Those of you who have dealt with me before have probably figured it out already but... Go Mara Jade! While I do understand some of the comments about connecting more with the male heroes for us males, there's something very important that many of the Star Wars characters lack, complexity and depth...Thank you Timothy Zahn for giving us something other then a two dimensional sheet with all of the characters in your books. It's kind of obvious that Jade is one of, if not the most, complex characters ever created for Star Wars. Maybe thats why most depictions of her not from Zahn fall flat on their face. Keys to Mara's coolness: A cold and calculating mind and some extreme emotional attatchments (Her ship, Luke, Ben, etc...) Very definite and real combat skills... (Doesn't Padme seem a little out of place with a blaster?) Self reliance rather then a constant reliance on Jedi skills. Oh and all those witty retorts. Edit: Thank you GAT for those comments but the problem with importance of female characters seems to come from whose actually writing the works. In Zahn's books it seems that Luke is given almost second burner to Mara or at least they're exactly equal. It's not really that Mara is less important in the NJO, but that most of the writers seemed to have trouble putting together how Luke and Mara worked in their marriage. (Thats probably partly because Survivor's Quest hadn't been released until part way through the NJO.) If the authors had put Mara in the same light as Zahn did in that book a lot of the books would be a lot different. Personally I hated most of the depictions of Mara in the NJO with a couple of exceptions, mainly Destiny's Way (Becuase Mara's counter espionage training finally came out in the open and that Mara is not always by Luke's side.)

Admiral Kre'fey sighed as he keyed the holocom reciever, "Supreme Commander Kre'fey." "Sir, Supreme Commander of the Outer Rim Fleet just transmitted a report of the recon task force to the unknown regions." "Alright, send it up here," Kre'Fey replied slowly. Then the report appeared on the console and Kre'fey felt his eyes widen, all but two of the capital ships dispatched had been destroyed. The sensor frigate and command cruiser were all that had returned from the mission. His furred hand trembling Kre'Fey touched the comm, "Call an emergency meeting fo the Advisory Council, we have a situation brewing in the unknown regions. Get the Supreme Commander of the Outer Rim Fleet and the Task Force Commander, we'll want to speak with them personally." Two days later, without Luke Skywalker the Advisory council met in closed session, the results of the meeting would reverbiate through history. OOC: Darkie, Mad, you're up!

Cain posted this earlier I thought it might make it easier to imagine a Rapora. This is a Rapora warrior without their personal armor http://www.swrebellion.com/hosted/cain/Previews/rapora.JPG Run! It's absolutely terrifying!

Yeah...and I being the creator of the Raporan Story am faced with the difficult task of guiding you guys through the basic story, and creating the foes themselves. If I could figure out how to get webspace I could give you some pictures of Raporan and Vagaari weapons/ships from a TC I'm working on. It would be better if we could get some more people to join in.

Well the thread itself makes for some entertaining reading, but now that the battle of Nirauan is over there will be many more opportunities for others to participate. If you want to yell and scream at me for creating as devious an adversary as the Rapora...go ahead. Now whats going to happen next: Mad78's debriefing before the Advisory council, you know what Mad, those councilors will grill the Sith out of you. Trej's debriefing with Grand Admiral Pelleaon. The Invasion of Csilla, a force of Rapora launch an all out attack on Csilla the capital of the Chiss Ascendancy led by Mit'shren'nuruodo (Thrawn's force using demon of a sister.) If any of you want to join... Yes, Grand Admiral Thrawn is Alive in this RPG to GAT jump right in. There are plenty of roles as Jedi, bounty hunters, dark jedi...if you want to play as a Rapora or Vagaari PM me. Now lets get this show on the road.

OOC: Yeah...long is something of an understatement, of course I think the next large scale engagement for us will be over Csilla, the Chiss homeworld. IC:"We're not going to make it are we," Mara asked flatly as she keyed up the weapons console. Outside the viewport they could see the rest of the evacuation ships climbing toward space. Ahead the Star destroyer Right to Rule could be seen crawling out of the gravity well. A Raporan Cruiser moving to pursue. A brilliant red warning light lit up on the console beside Luke, "I guess not enemy fighters, coming in at mark two!" "Alright, weapons active, lets show them how Jedi do in space," She keyed the proton torpedo launcher as the first of the enemy fighters flashed passed the viewport. A brilliant blue missile careened after it and impacted destroying the starfighter. The Jade Shadow rocked as a pair of plasma bolts slapped against her shields, "He's on us, going evasive!" Luke threw the craft nose down and thrust the throttle forward. Seconds later two Raporan craft barrel rolled past the viewport. Using the laser cannons Mara nailed the rear fighter and it spun off into space trailing flames. Then a familiar voice came across the comm, "Skywalkers drop back to the center of our formation, from there you may do the rest of us some good." "On it Admiral," Luke answered as he rolled into the center of the convoy. As he did he saw an old stormtrooper transport's cargo compartment burn away and a series of bodies drifted off into space. Raporan fighters slashed through the formation cutting those slower craft to pieces. Then a pair of brilliant concussion missiles slammed across one of the Raporan fighters. It detonated in a flash of brilliant white sparks and debris as the missile boat that killed it flashed by. Seconds later the comm crackled, "This is Omega lead to Jade Shadow, there's two many fighters to stop em all, what we miss you'll have to pick up." "Roger Omega, we'll do what we can." Suddenly a panicked call flashed across the comm, "This is the Lambda shuttle Knowledge is Power, we've picked up a number of Rapora on our tale, Admiral Parck is aboard we need immediate assistance!" Luke glanced to the rear sensor and felt his jaw drop. Suddenly a missile lanced toward the shuttle then there were eight of them lancing for the tri wing craft as it lumbered into an evasive maneuver. They hit in sequence blowing into the shields then tearing apart the hull as the comm cut off in a scream. The two movable wings spun free trailing sparks and plasma in the darkness, "By the force." "Sith, Raporan cruiser ten kilometers and closing he's right ontop of us!" Mara ducked as the terrifying dull brown shape of the vessel careened by mere meters overhead. Suddenly as they watched in awe a quad antistarfighter battery nestled between the engines swung to bear and a volley of brilliant red blasts slammed against the shields. Flashes of sparks and debris lit up the cockpit as the Jade Shadow shuddered from the onslaught. Then as an alarm wailed signaling shield failure Luke, Mara, and Ben saw a turret with a glowing orange barrel slowly spin toward their battered ship. With a flash of orange plasma a blast ripped into the ship's hull. Mara in panic threw all power to the thrusters redlining them and not noting the damage done to the power generator. Suddenly they were out of the gravity well and with an audible sigh of relief Luke pulled down on the hyperspace levers. Behind him the four remaining transports lunged for the Star Destroyer's hanger. All of them made it just as the ventral and aft shields of the ship failed. The heavy turbolasers along both sides of the vessel were vaporized from plasma fire and the port shield generator had been destroyed. A gapping hole in the side of the star destroyer was clearly visible as it leapt to hyperspace. The hole was the size of a corellian gunship. Just four light years away from Nirauan the Jade Shadow fell out of hyperspace. Mara and Luke both strained their eyes fearing a trap, only when Mara glanced down at her displays did the truth set in. Their ship was failing, its power generator nearing critical, its hyperdrive damaged, and they were in an unknown system. Pulling what little power they could risk Luke sent a distress call across the holonet to Booster Terrik and Talon Karrde along with their location. Then every one of them squeezed into an escape pod as the Shadow's orbit around the closest planet with a breathable atmosphere deteriated. As the pod fell toward the world Mara and Luke watched in silence as the Jade Shadow detonated above them sending parts of it in all directions to reign down for hundreds of years hence. The Shadow, a vessel which had in truth been the Skywalkers’ home for the last several years, was gone.

OOC: It is over finished...anyone up for Rapora Wars? (That insanely long battle is nearly over, so feel free to jump in. IC:"All units report status!" Kirk Baumer yelled as another A-wing disappeared from a turbolaser blast. "Two" Lara breathed, her voice pained. Kirk glanced over to see her A-wing trailing sparks from a glancing impact from a piece of the A-wing. "Four." "Eight." "Thats it, sith, all units emergency hyperspace jump, vector two one seven mark four," Kirk ordered keying in the coordinates. With a pull of the hyperspace levers the last doubts of his loyalty to the alliance faded away, he was a rebel and would stay one, until the empire fell or he'd die trying.

Ben huddled next to Artoo, his hand gripping a datapad in his hand as a translation of his beeps and twirps scrolled across the screen, "Okay, Artoo, just try and get as much on those...rapora things as you can, and copy the encrypted files, they may be in there." A flash of blaster fire light up the red rock cavern as a pair of chiss troopers retreated firing into the area before them. A pair of orange blasts lanced out and the troopers fell with gaping burning across their chests. Ben leaned out as a Rapora warrior in full red brown armor stepped into the room, his plasma rifle scanning the room with a light hanging beneath the barrel. Ben ducked back as he heard the creature speak in its own tongue across the com link. A pair of droideka'kar battle droids rolled up beside the Rapora and slowly began to unfold. With a flash of blue light one of them fell cut in half from a lightsaber. The other droid spun as a lightsaber flashed across its neck. The warrior grabbed for his belt and stepped toward the fallen droids. Drawing a lightsaber it slipped into a corridor. With a snap hiss blue and green blade flashed into exhistance from both sides. Unable to block both strikes the Rapora Warriro fell its head severed and Luke and Mara slid into the corridor, side by side. Luke stopped beside the droid, "Artoo, hurry up!" "We should have upgraded his data retrieval port," Mara hissed beside him. The droid gave an electronic rasberry followed by a series of beeps and twrips. Ben glanced at the screen, "Um he's almost done." Luke glanced at his son with a raised eyebrow. "I don't want to repeat what he said," Ben said blankly as the droid disconnected, "Lets go." * * * Darth Malice leaned back against the command chair of his flagship, "Have you apprehended the Jedi?" One of the Rapora knelt before him, lowering itself to its knees and bowing its head, "No lord Malice, they have alluded us." Malice glanced at the captain of the vessel and pointed to the Rapora. The captain with only the slightest hesitation slashed the warrior with her lightsaber and pushed it away. Malice nodded at the corpse, "You underestimated the Jedi, now others will not make the same mistake." The Vagaari General Verosh slowly turned away from the viewport and sighed, "My forces have been battered, the Imperials remain in a blocking position over the fortress, we cannot reinforce the troops we have deployed." "No matter, our troops have already overwelhmed the defenses, within minutes the Fortress will fall," Darth Malice said blankly. He shrugged, "Still let us hasten their defeat, Captain take us into the fight." Witha rumble the Raporan cruiser turned toward the Imperial Star Destroyer below it. Both cruisers the Rapora would commited would enter optimal firing range within minutes, the Imperials were running out of time. * * * A reinforcing squadron of Raporan fighters broke and moved to engage the missile boats. Their formation spread out and their plasma cannons opened fire at maximum range. The Missile boats already engaged in fights of their own, could do little to avoid the twelve raporan craft flashing toward them. All at once twelve missiles roared out from beneath the Raporan fighters' wings. These weapons were designed for use against starfighters, they moved quickly and one kilometer from the target broke up into eight smaller missiles each one targeted on the same enemy. For even the best pilots dodging such a strike would be all but impossible. Seconds later eight of the missile boats were dead, the Empire's greatest fighter had met its match. OOC: Fortunately a Raporan fighter can only carry two of such missiles and only if they weren't carrying the anti-capital ship plasma bombs. IC: Admiral Parck glanced around the chaos as troops scrambled to transports loading gear and equipment. Stent helped a pair of technicians drag one of the fortresses precious computer cores onto the the escape craft. Suddenly the Skywalkers rushed in and Mara yelled at the top of her lungs across the chaotic hanger, "We're out of time!" Admiral Parck nodded slowly to himself as he drew his commlink, "Everyone you have thirty secodns to board the last evacuation ships, this battle is lost, now it is time to preserve our lives for the battles to come." Luke and Mara ushered Artoo and Ben into the Jade Shadow and waved to some of the defenders to board the craft. Admiral Parck turned away from them and slowly stepped into the Lambda shuttle that would take him to safety, or so he hoped. Within moments they were off the ground, heading toward space. OOC: Just a reminder I'm planning on all but destroying the Jade Shadow during the escape. In addition I'm going to kill Admiral Parck, one last post of mine and this battle will be done...your turn.

"Alright we've got the go, full throttle, arm concussion missiles," Kirk said as he twisted teh compact craft onto the Tie squadrons' course, "Watch out for your wingmen and your tails, these are the best they've got, we can be better." "Roger, concussion missile's armed, five hundred kilometers and closing," Lara answered as she slid the A-wing gracefully into position beside Kirk's craft. "This is five, two flight is ready to rumble." "Three flight green and roarin." Kirk settled in behind the tie squadron, "All flights activate sensor jamming." He smiled as the craft passed through detection range for the Tie's scanners. Not one of the fighters changed course. Slowly rolling behind the ties he flicked to concussion missiles and got a lock, "All flights, go to concussion missiles, fire on my mark." The targeting recticle went from green to yellow, then to red, "Double lock! Fire in three, two, one, mark!" From a dozen different craft a pair of brilliant red concussion missiles lanced out at the squadron of fighters. Within seconds they smashed into their targets burning them out of sky as the missiles pierced through to shields of the craft. Their pilots died without the slightest warning from their jammed sensor arrays. Instantly ten fighters dropped from the board (one fighter had been targeted by three of the A-wings). The two which remained looped around and froze as a volley of laser fire from a dozens different sources ripped apart their craft. Ahead the lead squadron broke formation and turned toward their new foes, the field had been leveled, now the deadly game began anew.

Kirk Macmillan sat hunched in the cramped cockpit of the A-wing, his eyes down at the sensor display. The battle overhead was pitched, but his unit remained in reserve. Suddenly with a flash a new red contact appeared on the display. Kirk glanced at it and felt an icy fist grip his chest, "Evan, this is Baumer, you've got two squadrons of tie advanceds closing on your rear! Mark two vector one-seven-zero." Kirk glanced out his side cockpit to see Lara waggle her A-wing, "Evan, when are we going to be released to engage?"

The Raporan fighter formation flashed open liek a deadly flower. The Tie Defenders pursued them hotly firing in their wake, then as on the flower curled inward and a venetrable wall of plasma fire lanced through the center. Plumes of gas marked the death of three of the Tie Defenders. The Vagaari fighters were having much more trouble. Their numbers were cut in half by the tie defenders but another wave of Raporan fighters broke toward the fight, three squadrons of craft raced toward the engagement hoping to take park. Darth Malic watched the manuevers and smiled at the combatants as they engaged, "Excellent, order the Death is Life to move around the world at a top down orbit, we have them." * * * Mara winced as the scream of an assault transport echoed across them. It flashed over the ravine and spun down at a point just behind them. A squad of black clad troops leapt out and opened fire delivering a pattern of covering fire as Mara waved to the rest of their force, "Get inside, go!" The Raporan war droids rolled from cover to cover unfolding only to cover the next one's movement. One of them targeted the new arrivals and opened fire with its repeating blasters. Six squad members went down from the volley, their armor vaporizing from the huge amount fo power behind each bolt. Luke grabbed one of the owunded and pulled him aboard as Mara backed toward the hatch reflecting the bolts that came close away from her. As the hatch slid shut behind her she pulled out the commlink, "Admiral Parck!" * * * "Parck here," The Admiral answered lifted his comm to his mouth. "Did you search the records for any more information on the Rapora?" Mara hissed through the comm, "Surely Thrawn left something." "I'm sorry we don't have the time," Parck answered. He glanced around, "We hadn't even begun a search and parts of the library are locked out to us." "Sithspawn," Mara answered tiredly. * * * She glanced at Luke her eyes tired as they felt the craft lift off the ground, "They didn't even start a search." "There has to be something, something they're afraid is in the library, thats why they attacked here," Luke answered slowly. He suddenly brightened, "We could get Artoo to plug in." Immediately Luke pulled a comm from his belt, "Ben, I need you to get Artoo to a dataterminal and have him download as much as he can." * * * Ben glanced back at the comm link, "Okay, I'll get him." He clambered down the deck and tapped on Artoo's metal dome. The droid's top spun around and beeped a question, "Dad has a job for us." * * * "Raporan Fighter in pursuit!" The pilot shouted and Luek felt himself being pressed against the side of the craft. A brilliant orange flash echoed out the viewport as a plasma round flashed past. Suddenly there was a bang and Luke felt the craft begin to slid, a fire crackled to life beside Mara as the Pilot yelled, "We're hit, Sith we're going in!" Mara gritted her teeth as the ground rose up in the viewport, "Just our luck!" With a thumb and crash the Assault shuttle skipped across the ground it began to roll ripping and twisting the fuselage apart. Inside the solid cabin compartment none were hurt as the craft slid to a stop, still few were aware of themselves or what had just happened as a brilliant red lightsaber blade sliced open the roof and the brown and red head of a Raporan droid peeked into the craft. With a hiss Luke's lightsbaer sliced the droid's head off and it fell with a clunk into the craft. Tiredly he whipped his face and felt blood trickling from his forehead. Mara straightened and winced as a flash of pain shot through her back. She stood glanced up at Luke's concerned eyes, "I'm alright." Luke glanced up to where the pilot was and saw him leaning forward his helmet shattered, obviously dead at the controls. A moment later Luke clambered out of the craft and raised his hand to shield the light, "Well, there's what’s left of the Fortress, we're almost back at the underground hanger." "Good, because I think its time to get out of here," Mara answered as she pulled herself out of the twisted wreck. "No argument here," Luke said as they started across toward the blackened cave entrance. Soldiers fell in behind them, including some of the Imperial Elites. Then ahead Luke saw the distinctive blue glow of shields in the cave entrance. * * * Ben led Artoo through the tunnel cave and to a computer port. As the droid jacked in a trio of chiss warriors ran past their charrics out and ready. Ben bent down beside the droid, “Hurry Artoo.â€

Yes well... I suddenly realized today that Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids look almost Identical to the Terminator robots. Now how to make an image of the Vagaari and Rapora...hmmm

Hmm... Witht he power vested in me I now command this thread, return from the dead. Okay to business, I've begun completely rehashing the mod to match the new plot line I've developed for the Rapora Wars. Unfortunately it means I'm going to spend allot of time working on it. All Imperial units will be hereby removed and replaced with Vagaari, Rapora, and other evil forces. I'll need to rework allot of the worlds to accomadate the post NJO setting... Oh boy lots of work ahead. This may take several months