Defender_16

+ + + Deep in the outer rim a Tandem X-wing and two upgraded Headhunter’s lifted off from the rocky ice ball they had been using as a base for the past few weeks. Once the fighters were clear, a heavily modified YT-1930 lifted off. At the controls of the Tandem X-wing sat Kyp Durron, the most powerful force user allied with the Rebel fleet. In the seat behind him sat Danni Quee, last survivor of Ex-Gal 4, a deep space science outpost. Alien invaders from outside the galaxy had swept into the most outlying sectors in the area weeks ago. Due to Hypercom disruptions the few populated worlds were unable to call for help. Escaping ships were chased down and cut off by ships that looked like rounded asteroids and seemed to carry interdictors. Kyp's apprentice Miko Reglia had been captured in the fighting. Unwilling to give up on his apprentice who he still sensed through the force, Kyp had returned with a Rebel cell lead by Octa Ramis. They were too late to save Kyp's apprentice but had arrived in time to save the young scientist Danni who herself seemed to be gifted with the Force. They streaked toward the edges of the system, which had only an Imperial survey designation. Before they jumped Octa commed Kyp from one of the other fighters. "We need to get to Kre'fey. He'll know what to do about this new species. If he doesn't he also knows how to contact The General if needed." Kyp, still angry over the death of his apprentice and friend was only half listening. He could still see the alien warrior as it's living snake like weapon had wrapped around his lightsaber like it was a toy. He had only just been fast enough to put a force assisted kick into the thing's head with a Durasteel armoured boot. "We're going to need a fast ship for that Kyp." Octa prodded. He shook himself out of his reverie. "Get hold of Lane when we come out of hyperspace. Tell him we need the Luck ready to go when we arrive." "He doesn't like lending out his ship to people. It's against his own rules for us to even set foot on those mining colonies of his." "Then we explain it to him first. If he still doesn't like it then we steal his ship. What's he going to do, report us to the Imperials? Half of his ship has illegal equipment in it." "Kyp we need to be careful about how we do this. Charging into an Imp patrol with a stolen ship isn't going to bring Miko back." "He was getting good enough that we could have taken on almost any Hunter that came after us." "We can talk more about this later Kyp, let's go." Kyp nodded to himself, then with a pull of the Hyperdrive lever the stars elongated sending them into the swirl of hyperspace. Kyp turned around in the seat to look at the young scientist. Her eyes were closed and she was tired but she couldn't sleep. "Danni. It's going to be ok. We're going to get you to a safe place. If the Empire hasn't found it in all these years I'm sure these... these Vong can't." "Miko saved me. He could have escaped if he had left me but he didn't. Everything I ever learned about the Rebels and Jedi when I was little portrayed them as terrorists and people who wanted to fragment the Empire. Take away our security. But you're not like that are you?" "Not all of us are like that no. But sometimes we don't have any choice but to find criminals and killers to do the fighting." "Are you like that?" "Me? I'm worse. A smuggler got me off Kessel when I was fifteen then I was picked up by a member of the Sith Order." "Sith arn't real, those are just stories to frighten little children." "And yet evil Jedi who turned against the Emperor are real?" "Well... um.â€

Perhaps this might belong better in General but I'll throw it here for now. You would have though that we'd have some uber long thread like this already the way things like the Randomness Threads take off. Describe what you're going through in any current game of Rebellion you're playing. ____________________________________ In preparation for Rebellion Reloaded I've started some practice on Hard. I didn't try to sabotage the enemy shipyards, Con-Yards, and then Mines and Refineries like I normally do on Hard. (Followed by simultanious blockade of all Imp planets. ) No, this time I just tried to do things straight up. It's been interesting. Arround Day 400 I used Traitor to finally get an accurate count on size of the Imp Fleet. 5x ISD 9x VSD 3x Dreadnaught 7x Carrack Cruiser 2x Lancer 1x Corvette (Yes I added certain ships to both sides.) 11x Galleon Not huge-huge but I've been catching a rather unlucky break so far. I took the Corellian sector early on and most of the Dolomar sector. Because of the proximity the Imps sent their fleets from Coruscant into the sector resulting in a knock-down-drag-out-fight. The Imps began to invade any of my planets in the sector with insuficient shield coverage (Most of them) for starters. Thankfully I was able to sabotage the remaining Gencores and bombard the enemy troops in most cases, taking back the planet. Arround day 300 the Imps took the Planet Ketaris literally 1 day before a Mon Cal Cruiser was to be completed. The planet was retaken with the shipyards intact but the damage to my fleet was irreversable. No other Heavy ships would be completed anywhere else in the galaxy for some 60 days. I wasn't about to risk building more of them at Ketaris, with it still in the front lines of an Imp campain. Some twenty days later the Rebel fleet struck at the Imperial strongpoint in the system, bombarding their toops and then garrisoning the planet. The presence of General Dodonna on planet would make the Imps think twice about invasion. Even so they still held other Rebel loyal worlds. The Imp fleet scrambled to meet my combined taskforce for that half of the Galaxy massed over their former stronghold. A-wings, X-wings and Y-wings along with one of my two carriers, Bulk Cruisers and Corvettes had been called in. The battle was more of a massacre. The imps brought in an ISD leading some seven Victory Destroyers. Had I been facing the Destroyers and Ties alone victory would have belonged to the Rebellion that day. Instead my starfighters were mowed down by five Carrack Cruisers and a Corvette. One of my Corvettes escaped, I don't know how. The ISD Punisher had been crippled and as soon as the battle ended the Imp fleet left orbit without her. I rushed two Corvettes to the scene that hadn't arrived in time for the main battle. Instead of killing the crippled ship the ISD repaired it's Hyperdrives and escaped. Thus so far has marked the point where I began an evacuation of the Core Regions. Strangely despite their victory the Empire failed to capitalize on their gains and left the sector mostly alone for some time. They widthdrew to one of the rebel-loyal planets they held in the sector while I battened down the rest of the system. Dual GenCores, a minimum three Sulustan regiments and three Trooper regiments ensured satisfactory protection. All shipyards in the sector sent their new ships into the Outer Rim at a resonably secure staging area. Luke left for Dagobah. Espionage attempts on my other core systems began and the Empire swept up the Sluis sector while I attempted to explore the Rim and expand. Halowan and Obra-sakai became the targets for repeated Imp hit and fades along with sabotage. Han Solo's fleet in the Corellian Sector finally completed a Mon Cal Cruiser well past day 400. My Deep space Shipyard at Elrood finished it's first ship, an ISD, arround 450 and the Dolomar sector shipyards built two Dreadnaughts. While the Dolomar sector may have been exporting the majority of it's ships to the rim for protection, eventually more small groups of Corvettes and Gunships were finished that never left the sector. Starfighter groups were positioned so they could be moved out of the sector if needed but massed together to threaten any Destroyers. Luke came back from Dagobah after day 500. The Imperials had captured Ackbar when they killed my fleet. I wanted him back. By day 550 Luke was a Jedi Master though he still couldn't quite rescue Ackbar. I basically spammed the Imp system with attacks by Special forces and then all of a sudden the Imp fleet half vanished. An ISD and a Carrack Cruiser tried to raid Wor Tandel but they must have taken troops off the planet because all of a sudded the formerly Imp held world was Neutral, Ackbar escaped from a Galleon with Page and the Strike teams were returning with mission failed messages. I rushed seven Corvettes and a Frigate into Orbit of the planet before the Destroyer could return. I noticed that the Carrack Cruiser would arrive a few days ahead of the Destroyer, long enough for my A-wings to arrive on the Frigate. Only both imp ships were in the same fleet. The Light cruiser ran as soon as it saw my Frigate and a couple of the Corvettes escorting it. I waited the two days longer for the Destroyer to arrive and nothing happened. "Where's the goddamed Destroyer?" *Whistles for a second* No more imperial fleets were inbound. "Luke! Leia! Diplomacy now!" Day 593: the Alliance declares victory in the Dolomar sector. Ackbar is back but the Empire escaped holding one of my Jedi Candidates. Day 596: The Imperial Main fleet appears in orbit of Vagran in the Corellian sector. A fleet bombardment destroys seven troop regiments, five shipyards and the 80% complete Mon Karren. The Alliance Fleet remains in orbit of Selonia lacking the firepower to face an Imperial fleet equipped with Carrack Cruisers and Lancer Frigate Support. Fleet as of Day 597 2x Mon Cal Star Cruiser 1x ISD 4x Carrier 4x Dreadnaught 8x Frigate 27x Corvette 14x Gunship

I'd vote for Dune if we were voting for Mini-series based content. Easy since Star Wars doesn't really have much in that venue.

+ + + Fitzgibbon Lane lead his guests on a tour of the station while they continued to discuss plans. "For our defence we do have starfighters. Most are Uglies or Black Sun models, and our small navy is experienced. Not all of our defence force is made up of Captain Folen's Mercenaries. You see, we make little or no inquiries about someone's past here. A forgive and forget attitude. I have little doubt some of our people are ex-Rebels or Imperial deserters but I don't care who." "With a reputation like that I'm surprised this place hasn't become a pirate's nest." "Outsiders have tried to force our hand here before but the population wants neutrality above all other things. We try very hard to stay out of larger conflicts. All we ask of those who come here is that they leave their past at the door. We don’t ask questions if someone sells us a starfighter and signs on as a pilot. But if someone wants to join either an Insurgent or Imperial group they're asked to leave." "What happens if they refuse to leave?" Asked Jag "We stun them and throw them on a freighter headed for places where they're not going to be welcome. Our murder rate is also very low as guilty parties are spaced." "It sounds like you've managed to find an efficient balance here.â€

Note: When this thread gets further along I will add a disclaimer to the heading about (SPOILERS) . As I'm trying to figure out how the newest sections of the New Sith Order will be written some very important things pop out. I'm not entirely certain how various fections would respond under the situations I'm putting forward. A good example is the Empire. While I know how an Imperial battle fleet would respond to threats inside of the Theatre, I actually know very little about the governmental processes. Most of my knowledge of the Empire is post-Endor or Post-Coruscant. I just don't know enough about how Palpatine would have run the Empire. I know even less about the Hutts and less than I would like about the Corporate Sector. (I read the Han Solo Trilogy but that was set years before even Episode 4.) I'm open to decussion and ideas and will eventually post some maps here which will deffinitely contain spoilers. I need help, but anyone who does help will ultimately have a great deal of the story suprise ruined for them.

Give us some days man, Mask got next week free, so he probably will finish it soon. If not, bomb him with PMs :D I1ll get some final shots together Soooo... 'next week' as in the week we're currently on now then? ....Is it done yet? No? Ok. What about now. Is it done now? *Foams at mouth* *Starts looking for Mask's PM* (EDIT: Oops! I double posted with the Quote! Evaders, can you Nuke my previous post? )

Give us some days man, Mask got next week free, so he probably will finish it soon. If not, bomb him with PMs :D I1ll get some final shots together

+ + + The flotilla of Military and civilian ships lead by Ardent finally arrived at the Dal-porath mining colony at the beginning of their second day in the system. No Rebels, Pirates or strange Alien menace had appeared in that time. Crews were almost catching up on sleep, and the constant repair work continued. Some sections of the Ardent had even been re-pressurised for the first time since Bastion. The mining colony itself was comprised of a nine hundred kilometre asteroid with several Space Colony Three modules built into the surface. A few kilometres away from the colony sections was the planetoid's main mine shaft. Fifteen hundred meters across, the opening was large enough to admit even a Star Destroyer entrance to the mine interior. Accordingly the surface around the opening was dotted with shield generators, missile launchers and other defence weapons. "They look like they're prepared to weather a fleet bombardment." Commented Colonel Fel. "It's understandable Colonel." Replied Dorja. "The Rebels did find the Katana Fleet after all. It may have been years since that fleet was defeated but many of the ships survived. Enough to kill an outpost like this in one barrage without good shielding. We must have had a few hundred false Dreadnaught sightings in just the two years after the Katana Fleet." Wintle who was back on duty strode up to the two and saluted. "Dal-porath colony One has contacted us. The Colony Administrator has invited you to a meeting and formal dinner. He informs me he's made provisions both for his own security to escort you while on base and your own bodyguards. Also, any other senior officers may attend." "Commander I want you here on Ardent, and Captain Graal can't be bothered with his work continuing on the Twilight Wanderer." He turned to Jag. "Colonel would you care to join us? We won't be by ourselves of course. I'll ask Taulen to come along with a few of his best Stormtroopers." “I would be honoured sir.â€

They were doing 'renovation work' and mentioned Mike Holmes. Mike Holmes

I didn't vote for Serenity as best Sci-fi movie. I just said I thought it was decent. Don't put words in my mouth.

No, over here there's a show called 'Holms on Homes' where this guy Mike Holms fixes houses and does construction work and things. He insists on having construction work done right. Mike Holmes

That's one HELL of a lot better than my Victory Destroyer over the Naboo Palace. EDIT: OMG I didn't even notice that Bantha at first.

I know it took me a few minutes but come-on budious take some geography classes. Um... um.... Texas? lol! Ok I'm going to stop now.

Look out! It's a Special Edition Sarlac! GEEEEEEEK! Was thinking of saying something like that Tex then stoped myself when I figured everyone would call me a Trekkie.

Now in what way could it possibly be made more sinister than it already is? ROFL. Who voted 'Whats an avatar?' ?

Hey Serenity was a severely kick ass movie. It's no Star Wars but it was still good.

+ + + Admiral Burgan sat at his desk in a office he'd been loaned for his stay on Agamar. His speech and proposal of a large offensive seemed to have gone well with the assembled Moffs and Admirals at the conference. Already the needed ships were pouring into the two staging areas of Ithor and Agamar. Two Moffs had left Star Destroyers that had carried them here to become part of the forming fleet. The real difficulty wasn't going to be the battle fleet but the ships acting as Hypercom relays. Ships with the best communications systems were being outfitted with additional relays and transmitters. The two ships acting as the main communications hubs for the fleets would be a pair of ISDIII's. It was a tad wasteful but the larger ships could mount longer ranged arrays. It wouldn't be nearly as wasteful as this whole operation would seem if it turned out that the communications difficulties were just some minor disturbance. If they got to Yaga Minor and all of the star systems in the area were untouched by Rebel or other forces he would have been made to look a fool. Likely, being knocked down to customs patrol duties would be the result. There was also the danger that an attack was real. If it was some kind of Rebel uprising then they had to have gotten access to a huge fleet or barring that, a superweapon. The doors to the office hissed open and in walked a woman wearing a dark robe. "Who are you?!" Demanded the Admiral as he looked up. The woman of average height pulled back the cloak's hood allowing a view of her striking features. "A messenger sent by the Emperor. Someone to more easily keep watch of the situation as it progresses." Eyes wide in shock Burgan tried to keep from gasping as he drew breath. "...the Emperor's Hand?" "You are very well informed Admiral." Frowned the Emperor's servant. "One could wonder how someone of your age and position could know of such things." He shrugged. "I have some civilian contacts who hear things. They normally arn't good enough to find out something of that scale on their own. I had assumed someone had been captured by rebels and talked." "You may call me Aayla Jorrier. As I am sure you have figured out by now, this mission is of great interest to the Emperor. He does not believe it is a simple Pirate raid causing this. Even one hundred such raids at the same time would not cause these blackouts." "I'm sure I can find room aboard my command ship for a representative of the Emperor. I take it my success or failure will be judged with a very critical eye. More so than I had anticipated?" "The Emperor has seen fit that if you are as successful as your briefing earlier would indicate, then you would be promoted. The next Grand Admiral of the Empire and the youngest ever appointed." Burgan gave a feral grin. "I'll be sure not to disappoint." "Despite the official response this threat is to be taken very seriously. There will be a large fleet built up in the core should we need to push down the Hydian Way. That group will have a Sovereign. It will be more than one month before that fleet can be deployed and another two weeks to get it here. If your fleets disappear like the others sent into the blackout zone, this section of the galaxy will be severely compromised for a full month." "I understand the problems. The alternative is sitting back and waiting for this 'darkness' to spread. Potentially threatening hundreds of loyal Imperial worlds. What would the people of the Empire think if their seemingly immortal leader gave them no help whatsoever?" The Emperor’s hand frowned. “It is that sort of situation of doubt we’re attempting to avoid." 017

Re-installing Rebellion right now.

*Blinks and looks harder* What, is it a gif? *Rightclicks* No, it's a jpg file. What the heck? *Looks closer* Follow the coast line from India, Iran... wtf? OH! Yeah. Hey everyone took to see if they can find an Ark.

Wow. So, assuming you make it through officer training and that and get comissioned; Where do you think you'd be assigned / where would you preferr to be assigned?

How is the filesize so low?

They've haven't even heard of the Vong yet. What else are they supposed to do? Sit back and miss the best opportunity for Rebellion they've had in decades? (Remember the kind of tactics Iblis used at the [NJO] Battle of Coruscant?) I'm thinking about starting a new thread for discussion on potential plot development. I'm still having trouble deciding how certain events should unfold and don't know enough about some groups. Is there anyone that knows a good deal about the Hutts? I never bothered reading Darksaber. EDIT: Btw, changing the Rebel Red text to some other colour. Like say... Violet. That working any better Paul?

Nobody arround here did any April Fools jokes this year. It was rather odd. Normally the city paper does something crazy for the front page. One year they Photoshopped a picture of a beached whale downtown in the harbour. EDIT: I almost totally forgot about the epiphany I had the other day. IT had to do with George Lucas and most of us now considering him crazy. (Especially after teh prequels.) I remembered seeing some special features on DVD at some point saying that when filming Episode IV Lucas had a Nervous Breakdown. My theory is that his problem in more recent years isn't that he's crazy, he's not crazy enough to make anything good. GL is constricted by the boundary that is sanity! We have to get him past that boundary again before it's too late! He can fix some of the damage he's done while in his non-crazy state perhaps.

Hey Paul, let me know if the Red Text is too hard for you to see. EDIT: Changed to Violet so as to be more colour-blind friendly. + + + Garm Bel Iblis, looked out into the depths of space from his office aboard the mobile base 'Paradise Lost.' A few kilometres away cruised Peregrine, Farstar and Tyrant's Bane, a handful of the ships protecting the base. Out here in the Kathol outback, midway between Exocron and the Kathol Republic, the Rebel forces had finally found a haven. The Kathol sector was a big place and had too much random traffic for Imperial Intelligence to follow every smuggler or sympathizer. It had been two years since a dedicated Imperial fleet had chased the rebel taskforce to the very edges of the galaxy. Thankfully the transport ships they used had been built by smugglers allowing them to get far enough ahead of the main force which had been slowed down by aging Dreadnaughts. The Imperial Command ship had flown straight into a volley of more than one hundred Torpedoes. The other Destroyers had not fallen nearly so easily but the battle had been won. Ever since, the Rebels had maintained a low profile. Imperial Intelligence had later found the site of the battle but not before hyperdrives had been installed aboard the hulks of three still salvageable Destroyers. The command ship had been rebuilt into the Rebel's mobile base and the other Destroyers were now less than two months away from completion. Meanwhile small forces of Rebels ships were deployed as mercenary units. Mostly protecting neutral planets in the sector from Pirates but others found employment elsewhere. It was enough to bring in food and supplies for the hidden Rebel fleet so it would continue for the time being. Every so often they would load up a freighter or two as a starfighter transport and hit some Imperial target far from the Kathol Sector. It was handy to hunt the pirates in the area as their captured ships could be repaired and put back out with a different crew and take the place of the previous bandits. A few more months of this and they could move the fleet to a new area, harassing better targets with their rebuilt forces. His comlink on the desk behind him beeped for attention. Spinning the chair around he stabbed the button. "Go ahead." His aid's voice came over the com, her young but already grainy voice carrying easily. "I have someone to see you sir." "Who is it? I'm not supposed to see anyone until eighteen hundred." "He says his name is Jaden Kral and that he met you on Bestine." Iblis frowned. "I've never even been to Bestine before." "I know that sir but his security checked out enough to get him here from Tanquilla Beach. Our people on the station tend to be thorough." "They're only thorough if they're not dead. Did you scan him for weapons?" "He surrendered a light carbine to the guards." "Put him on the comlink." Growled the old Rebel. A moment later the aid's voice responded. "Go ahead sir." "This is Iblis. You should know, if this is an assassination attempt it won't do you any good. I'll just be replaced by younger possibly more efficient people. The ship would also jump before any force could arrive." A calm even voice responded. "If I had reason to kill you General you would not be alive right now. I am not a member of Imperial Intelligence, I'm here to talk business." The General debated for a few seconds the shrugged to himself. "Let him in." + + + A slightly taller than average human entered and took the offered chair, his face seeming somewhat plain. "Jaden Kral is not my real name but it will suffice for our purposes. I represent a particular... group which is interested in bringing an end to the Empire as we know it." Iblis clasped his hands on the desk in front of him. "I'm listening." "My group has already made some headway using pirate and mercenary bands to disrupt Imperial communications in the Outer and Mid Rim." "Yes I was just reading a report detailing communications difficulties. Apparently there's a Holocom grey-out from Sullust to Wild space. Even Vergesso is affected." "There are even larger swath's of the outer-rim with holocom difficulties. Wild space from Ryloth to Kessel and everything on the other side of Vortex from the Hydian Way to the Unknown Regions. The Hutts have already been using this to their advantage." "Sounds like an impressive feat I have to say. Why are you here telling me this?" "We can maintain a limited offensive against the Imperial fleet for a time and have been. I'm sure you know what will happen if we begin to enjoy too much success though." The General gave a curt nod. "The Eclipse, or one of the Sovereigns. Yes." With those ships still in existence it didn't matter what the Rebellion did. Everything could be undone with a planetary bombardment. So they had been reduced to hunting down scraps and trying to stay hidden. Each year getting that much harder to stay hidden. "Our attacks are going to be drawing Imperial attention very soon. We would like groups such as yours to hit Imperial targets on this side of the galaxy in roughly the same time period. Even if we were to win in our area there would still be many fleets elsewhere ready to be thrown against us. We need their attention split." Kral glanced around the room for a moment as if he hadn't noticed his surroundings before then turned his attention back to the General. "I believe you have a saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend?' We are not asking for your alliance at this time. I can provide you with the names of certain star systems and areas you should avoid for now though. Our military might mistake you for an enemy." "I don’t suppose you could give me a rough idea now where we should avoid?" "The Tingel arm to Ithor and parts of the Hydian Way are going to become unsafe to any Imperials." "Civilians?" "There are always Civilian casualties in war General, you should know that. We will be stopping any civilian traffic trying to leave the area. After the initial shock wears off we are going to need knowledge of reliable hyperlanes to get our fleets out of the area. Lanes few Imperials know about." "If you try to cross the Hydian Way or anywhere near it the Imperials are going to be able to use it to ferry huge fleets against you from the Core." "Leave that to us." Kral lifted his briefcase placing it on the desk and opened it before turning it to face the General. Inside was a near spherical object looking similar to a leathery ball. "This is a Villip, an organic communications device. It can reach over great distances and does not need re-transmitters like a holocom does. Each is tuned to only respond to another specific one. Do not attempt to have your techs 'reverse engineer' it as it will die from such an attempt. Should you decide to contact our group in the future, this will be the only way... other than though me that is." He finished, giving an almost evil grin. Iblis looked down at the object then back up. "I will have to speak to other leaders before launching an offensive. I can't push something like this through on my own. There's too much risk involved. We could be wiped out." "Do what you must. We will not soon forget any assistance you render us. In fact I can readily promise that any worlds you take will be yours to control once the Empire has fallen." The old General, though still uncertain, offered his hand to the unusual ambassador. "I'm sure we'll be able to come to some sort of understanding." "Indeed." He replied then bowed. "I will return in two weeks to see if your counsel wishes to discuss anything. I hope that you will find that time... productive." 016