Immediately, five Nebulon B frigates from the defense fleet at Sullust maneuvered to engage the 2nd Imperial Fleet. As the two sets of ships closed in on each other, it appeared as if the five objects were about to be enveloped into oblivion. When they were at range, every Imperial vessel that could achieve a reasonable shot at the rebel craft opened fire on the small force! It took only a small matter of minutes for the ships of the 2nd Fleet to obliterate the five Neb B's. Immediately three full squadrons of rebel fighters took to space! 'Two squads of Y-wings and a squadron of X-wings are no match for an entire wing of TIE Interceptors! I shall crush Sullust's defensive with an overwhelming fist!' Admiral Daliwhel thought, smugly.
The dog-fighting over the world of Sullust was quick and brutal! Although the rebels were flying for their lives and the safety of Sullust, it was only a matter of time before the Imperial fighters overwhelmed them and won the space superiority battle! By the time the battle was seemingly ended, the defense fleet had lost their resolve and surrendered as they had been asked to do. It appeared that the 2nd Fleet would be victorious in this operation!
The Knightfall returned to realspace above the green and blue surface of
Endor. As expected, Rachel found Imperial warships awaiting her arrival. She signaled
Lieutnant-Commander Zeft aboard the Warbird and demanded to know where the other
half of the fleet had gone.
"A battle at Sullust..." she mused, but her decision was already made. Turning
to the comm officer, she said, "Ensign, signal the fleet that we are going to join
the 2nd Fleet at Sullust. Helm, lay in a course for the planet immediately. I
want to be there as soon as possible." Then she turned back to stare out the viewport
as one by one, the ships vanished into the flicker of hyperspace.
Hendrikson watched the counter on the control board slowly count down to zero. When the digit 1 changed to 0, the Xenomorph and the other capital ships lurched to sub-light speed over Sullust. The scene was bloody. Barely any of the Rebel defenses had survived to this point; indeed, Hendrikson witnessed a pair of Y-Wings get shot down even as his task force arrived. He quickly issued out orders to his four ships. The Mon Cal cruisers under his command moved forward to protect the carriers. His reasoning in his strategy of placement was that while the Mon Cals held fighters as well as heavy shields and Turbolasers, the carriers held tons more and protecting the fighters and pilots seemed a good idea. Besides, the carriers had their own lasers and could provide supporting fire from behind in cover. As the ships locked into position and the first three squadons of X-Wings shot past the viewport to the enemy, Hendrikson saw the other Rebel ships, under command of a Major Frenault, move into a similar formation, with his Nebulon-B's flanking his carrier and his Mon Cals taking offensive stance. Flights of TIE fighters reached the Rebel ships and laser fire lanced out, both sides taking losses. Hendrikson realized that the X-Wings were going to have no problem here. These TIE pilots were green. Rookies. Even Hendrikson could tell this, for any pilot with a bit of experience would know not to play chicken with an X-Wing. TIEs fell. The enemy recovered quickly and a flight of TIE interceptors reached the battle. Hendrikson unsnapped his seat buckle and got up to have a better vantage point for commanding. This was going to be one rough battle.
The arrival of rebel craft into the system was unexpected.
'It is apparent that we did not prevent communications from leaving the area in time. I
wonder how many other groups of reinforcements we can expect.' Daliwhel thought.
"General Tamar, that group of X-Wings caught our fighters unawares, what do you
recommend?"
Tamar, not turning away from the viewscreen, replied, "Admiral, the rebel pilots are
cocky. I suggest that you scramble two more squadrons of fighters to supplement the craft
already in flight! The new squadrons will be TIE Advanced of course, and will also be
better pilots than what is already in the air now. Then have the capital ships lay down
heavy fire on those newer ships, especially the Mon Cal cruisers. With our vessels
outnumbering them so greatly, we should be able to knock them down like narflies!"
Like hungry wolves, the 2nd Fleet moved in on the rebel ships! The battle looked short indeed!
Lasni Wala saw the approaching horde and brought his speeder to a halt. Flimmox had't noticed what Lasni had, so he asked, "Lasni, why have you stopped?"
"You do remember that I said I'd take you as far as I could go?" the Ithorian said. "Well, this is as far as I can go!" he concluded as he gestured in a panoramic sweep of his arms.
Flimmox just stared at the approaching legions of the Deominian Ground Defense
Military. 'Could it be that I have underestimated the Dark Master?'
Though Wolvens are powerful, and vicious in a battle, they have never been stupid in these
types of situations. Flimmox thought it to be the better side of prudence to surrender and
go along without a fight (especially when he considered the raw numbers against him at the
moment: 32 flying monkeys and 50 Palace guards!). After being relieved of all apparent
weaponry, he was placed into the back of a speeder truck with shackles on his wrists and
ankles. 'I should have fought!' he thought. 'There is more dignity in dying!'
General Gelmav Thorndry was just sitting down to dinner when his personal page came to him with the news. "What is it Lt. Gibron?"
The page didn't even let the fact that Thorndry was about to eat dinner phase him. "General, Space Superiority and our own Ground Defense forces have both recently reported an unidentified, otherworld craft. It has just now passed through the cloud and has landed just outside of Domen City."
"Lieutenant," the General asked, "when you say 'recently,' just how long ago is that?" Thorndry had not even touched his broiled nerf loins.
"Sir, well...." the page realized he would be found in error. "Sir, the craft touched down just 45 minutes ago." Lt. Gibron seemed to melt under Thorndry's baleful gaze.
Charging from the table, General Thorndry barked some remarks, "Lieutenant, you might as well sit and eat my dinner! If we have an off-worlder on Deominia, that could be your last meal!"
As General Thorndry entered the Command center, he realized he had not given the
members of his organization enough credit. Even now four squads of Julayps had been
dispatched to scour the Domen City peninsula. Being creatures of flight, they would be
able to track the intruder a little better. Still, the ground was covered by Domino's
personal corps of Palace Guards. Once in a while, Lord Domino culled twenty-five men from
the Stormtrooper training lists and had them specially trained to serve as his most
ruthless legion of trackers, snipers, and Palace guards. As he had been doing this for
years, his personal guards were numbered at just over 1,500 men. Fifty were spread out in
a search pattern looking for the intruder that day. Meanwhile, another party of
technicians and warriors were seeing to the craft that the intruder had come to Deominia
in. Their mission was to scan the craft for any protective or self-destruct devices, then
prepare it for the impound process. When they were positive that they had identified all
of the anti-theft and protective measures, they prepped the vessel for transport to the
impound yard. only three technicians were harmed by the explosive blast that they hadn't
accounted for!
Monitoring the com-traffic, and coordinating movement from information received was the
duty of Lt. Melinia Soadin. When she received the transmission from the Julayp commander
that they had made visual contact, she put out the call to all units.
~All units! Converge on the following coordinates.....~
A TIE exploded on the shields of the Xenomorph, followed shortly by the A-Wing that was chasing it. Both made the bridge crew flinch. Things were getting out of hand. At first it looked like the forces of the Rebels could have held their own here, but Hendrikson decided to use a new strategy. "All ships! Prepare a retreat! Call back those X-Wings, and get me Major Frenault on the comm."
Hendrikson watched the Major's face appear on the screen. ~Hendrikson?! What are you doing?~
"Saving lives! These ships won't last a minute under fire from those Star
Destroyers! We need reinforcements. I'm pulling back to a safe distance. And don't think
I'm pulling back to watch either!" Hendrikson switched off the screen and made sure
the last of his X-Wings were inside. Then the carriers turned and jetted into hyperspace,
followed shortly by the Mon Cals. Major Frenault seemed to get he point and followed
Hendrikson. Hendrikson came out of hyperspace two minutes later in the middle of space. He
still had Sullust on his scopes, but couldn't physically see it.
He ordered the Lightbringer to execute his plan, then the Remember Ord Mantell
would follow suit when the other ship arrived back. The ship shot into hyperspace, back
towards Sullust. When the Lightbringer came out of hyperspace in the middle of
squadrons of TIE fighters heading back to their ships, she caught them unawares. All the Lightbringer's
crew had time for was to snap off ten or so shots each, which was significant damage at
this close range. Nowhere near enough to damage the VSD close by them but enough to take
out quite a few TIE ships. Then the Lightbringer went back to the rest of the Rebel
ships.
Onboard a command hip, Admiral Daliwhel swore under his breath. "Strike and fade! The rebels haven't used this tactic in years. This commander is clever." Before he could breathe again, the Remember Ord Mantell appeared in the middle of his command, like the Lightbringer had moments before. It inflicted losses on his TIE squadrons and winked out of sight before he could do anything.
Back at on the Xenomorph, Hendrikson watched the Remember Ord Mantell reappear. He sighed and sat down. He could do this all day, strike and fade, strike and fade, over and over, from different angles, etc., but only inflicting minor losses on the Imp's part. No, he'd continue to destroy a squadron of TIEs once every now and then until Tashannoc arrived. In the meantime, he would call up the chain of Rebel command and petition for quite a few more ships. This could be the most difficult battle he'd ever attended.
On Metārian the Jedi Masters and students milled around, getting ready to leave for Sullust. 'Yet another battle to fight.' Rafaella stared at her students and friends from the inside of the Hope. She had been ready for hours, but getting an entire Jedi School ready was tough.
Arcana hit the hyperspace lever as the red light on his console started to blink.
Apparently, there was something in his way. His ship slowed down and dropped out of
hyperspace. He did a quick sensor sweep of the area. It seemed that the Rebels and
Imperials were at it again. Arcana kept far away from the battle. He was only trying to
contact an old "friend"on the Sullust spaceport. The man owed him a few thousand
credits and Arcana was going to arrive for his "payback".
The smuggler let out his breath as he saw Domino's flagship hover in the distance.
Surely, the Sith would call him back for some "assistance." Arcana tried to keep
a rather low profile as he flew around. It was rather difficult to keep a low profile in a
battle, however. A siren roared as he was hit in the rear by some lasers.
"What the hell?" Arcana swore as he readjusted his shields. It must have been
the Lambna shuttle.... the Rebels always mistook his ship for some high-level Imperial
officer. Arcana let some shots fly from his rear turret. Imperial Shuttles were not
normally equipped with rear turrets. That would teach some X-Wing pilot a lesson. The
X-wing veered off of its attack course and went for a different target. Arcana spotted the
Sullust spaceport ahead. It seemed that they were launching fighters to defend themselves
from any type of influence, Rebel or Imperial. Arcana wondered if the Empire even knew
there was a spaceport on the other side of the planet. His comm blinked. Arcana hit the
button. On the holoprojector that was to the
right of the cockpit, an image of a Rebel Commander appeared.
"Unarmed mercenary!" the image called. "We ask for your assistance against
the Imperial craft! Please accept our call!"
Arcana grinned. "For what price?"
"Price?" the Commander shouted.
"Yeah," Arcana responded. "I don't fight for free."
"We can't give you a..." Arcana cut transmission. That was one reason he
liked the Empire a little bit better. They'd actually pay for services. But today he
wasn't going to fight. He needed to get to that spaceport and get those new enhanced
lasers. He was going to outfit his craft's forward guns with two more highly illegal and
deadly laser cannons. They would easily take out a TIE in one laser. Arcana hit the SLAM
boosters and sped forward at an unreal speed towards the spaceport.
'No fights today,' he thought. 'I don't have the time right now.'
Hendrikson was fuming mad. His entire command on all four ships knew this, but he
wasn't mad at them. He was mad at two individuals; Tashannoc and an unidentified comm
operator onboard the Rebel base. He'd petitioned for reinforcements but the operator had
been less than cooperative, information Rebel High Command only the gist of the Sullust
situation. Therefore, Hendrikson and Frenault were backed up only with two Nebulon-B
frigates and an MC80.
'Not to say that those ships together don't pack a wallop, but we need Tashannoc's
group and Admiral Ackbar's command to stand a chance. Where in the name of the Sith is
he?!?' Hendrikson thought angrily. Three more ships came out of hyperspace, a badly
shot up Mon Calamari cruiser, a transport and a Nebulon-B, whose shields were low.
"Who are they?" Hendrikson asked an official. "Sir, they appear to be
what's left of Sullust defense." Hendrikson was quick to get medics and repair crews
over to the Mon Cal and send out shuttles to the transport to ferry over refugees. The
Nebulon-B decided to help out in the battle and lined up with the other capital ships.
Hendrikson was still sending his two Mon Cals on Strike and Fades but by now the Imperials
had adapted, the TIEs were all docked and all they could do now was fire off a few salvos
of laser and launch a few torpedoes at a designated cap ship to weaken it's shields.
Hendrikson was ready to scream. They needed Tashannoc's forces, and they needed them NOW.
Rafaella's force assembled in space by Metārian, waiting to go into hyperspace...As the dawn rose over Metārian, Rafaella gave the orders to leave, to battle once again. There were few among them who didn't feel at least a little excited, even among the most battle-hardened, as the fleet of nine Blades made the jump into hyperspace.
Flimmox woke up freezing. The last thing he remembered was surrendering to 82 of
Domino's most fearsome personal troops. Now he was in a cell, stripped COMPLETELY of all
clothing and weaponry! The cell had dim illumination, and he could see that he was under
watch by five cameras in the room. He could hear the four guards outside of his cell, and
he could smell that they were not human. 'Must be those flying simian creatures.'
he thought.
As he sat in silence, he could make out the sound of approaching footsteps. 'Five more,
all human.' he determined. The footsteps stopped outside of his door. he heard the
locking mechanism give way, and he prepared for the pouncing attack. The door opened and a
man wearing the rank of commander stepped in. Flimmox leapt right for the man's throat,
crashing right into some sort of shielding device that kept him trapped on his side of the
room when the door was open.
"I can't blame you for trying, but you will do no favors to yourself by diving into that shield repeatedly." Commander Dalton Horan claimed. "I can understand how indignant you must be feeling right now, but we are unaccustomed to entertaining guests on Deominia. If you will just accept the food we have brought for you now, we will be on our way. Incidentally, it may be for your own good that we keep you in here until Lord Domino's return! You might be hurt if you were loose on the planet, and I am 95% certain that my Lord will want to meet you." The Deominian officer placed the tray (made of a substance like cardboard) on the floor and left the room.
Flimmox waited, and heard the locking mechanism latch. He approached the tray of food and sniffed at it tentatively. There were no detectable contaminants to be found. He took a bite of the food and found it to be to his liking. 'Prisoner or not, at least I'll be eating well.'
Hours later, Flimmox heard the footsteps approaching again. He had heard the guard change an hour before that, four new Simian troopers. Now he could sense that the same officer was approaching. He got right up next to the door. This time, he would not be on the other side of the shielding, and he might be able to find a way out of this situation. As the locking device retracted, he looked down at the floor then at one of the cameras, and his eyes went wide with surprise! He leapt back to the side of the room where his cot was bolted to the floor, just as five separate stun bolts lit the exact spot where he had been standing! 'Damn! They want this Wolven to stay put!'
Commander Horan could smell the ionized air from the stun bolts, and looked over at Flimmox. "Determined fella, aren't you? Well, sit tight! Lord de Devastator has sent word that he will be home tomorrow! I understand you have asked to speak with him. He will be intrigued!"
The situation had gotten pretty quiet at Sullust. Daliwhel was growing anxious to accomplish the objective of the mission, the occupation and takeover of the Sorosuub corporation. He prepared to make an announcement to the entire fleet.
~All craft of the 2nd Imperial Fleet, this is your commanding officer Admiral Daliwhel. Move in to close orbit of the planet. From that vantage point, each vessel will release it's full complement of drop ships. We will begin the establishment of a stronghold garrison immediately. When we have erected the prefab garrison structure, a large ground force will move to overwhelm the Sorosuub buildings. We have been observing this planet for quite some time and we know that we will meet up with insufficient resistance. With close to 750,000 troops and over 5,000 ground armor units, we should have no reason to feel threatened on the ground, and we have an overwhelming fleet of ships to provide support.~
Rachel arrived at Sullust just in time to receive Admiral Daliwhel's transmission.
She wasn't part of the 2nd Fleet, but he was her superior in the Imperial Navy. However,
hit-and-run attacks got a little annoying after a while. Seemed like she's missed the most
of it.
Rachel frowned. 'I feel like fighting, maybe even destroy a ship or two, if only to
take my mind off of....'
She cut off that line of thought. 'There is no conflict,' she reminded herself harshly. Her loyalties were clearly defined, and she knew who she served. Or at least that's what she made herself believe. Somewhere, so deep inside of her that it was barely a glimmer of thought, something suggested that the Empire was not her true home. She squashed that thought immediately. She sighed and ordered her ships to follow Daliwhel's commands.
Domino entered the room that had been designated as the meeting room and was awestruck by the vision before him. He had never known a woman as beautiful as Mumar Ali Kazar! She was not only an archetype of evil, but the very embodiment of female glory. Domino bowed to Mumar and said, "I am honored by your presence Priestess Kazar. How may I serve you?"
Mumar stood and bowed to Domino, then utilized her silvery dulcet voice to charm Domino. "I present myself as your humble servant, Lord de Devastator. I am aware of your abilities. There is no question in my mind that together we can bring back the Sith religion in all of its former glory." She gazed at his eyes for the longest time. 'He is engaged with my features. I could seduce him and bend him to my will, but he would make a better ally if he came to his own decision.' she thought.
"I sense your thoughts fair lady, and you are right in thinking this. I would
take great pleasure in working with you." Domino replied.
Three hours later, Domino's shuttle and his six escort frigates left Imperial Center with
Domino, Mumar, Rayla, and Marquis on board. Their destination was Deominia, their purpose
was the rebuilding of the Sith Empire.
Flimmox sat quietly grinning to himself despite his seemingly futile situation. He ran his fingers to the side of the cot and looked "Nice layout you got here," he said to the guards outside his door, "do you always keep your guests in the lap of luxury, or was this whole thing set up because I'm special?" There was no reply from the Simians, so he decided to continue talking. "So . . . any of you guys eat any good books lately?" There was a slight scuffling outside the cell, and Flimmox's grin grew wider with satisfaction. "I hear that Simians have the mental capacities of a blerd, is this true? Maybe not, but I'll tell you, that stench probably makes up for everything." Flimmox could sense the tension growing on the outside of the door. "Any relation to the Mynocks?" he inquired, his expression growing more peevish by the second. 'Now this is fun!' he thought, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You know," Flimmox said, reaching behind his left ear, "I've got more to offer your master than you my think." He pulled his hand away and rolled a tiny, round object between his index finger and thumb. "Yes . . . much more to offer. . . And all for the glory of the rebirth of the Sith Empire." He retracted his fingers over the object and . . . vanished. The guards leapt up in alarm, "What the hell?!" One breathed. One of the Simians began barking orders at another in some distorted language, "Ask to deactivate the guns in there, we'll need to check this out." The smaller Simian guard flicked on his comlink and began babbling into it, "This is a red alert! I repeat, red alert, prisoner escaped! I repeat, prisoner escaped! Deactivation of the lock and guns requested." The voice of some-odd human officer came through with a crackle, "Permission granted. You may proceed with investigation." All the comm systems within the fortress came alive with static, "Red alert, all stations, red alert! We have an escaped prisoner on the loose, I repeat, an escaped prisoner on the loose! Description: Gray and black fur, blue eyes, two point three meters tall, I repeat, description: Gray and black fur, blue eyes, two point three meters tall!" The Simian guards drew their blaster rifles and rushed inside the cell. There was no trace of the Shistavanen-like fugitive to be found. Completely hidden from all senses but touch, Flimmox ambled out the door right behind the Simian guards, his miniscule cloaking device in hand. This device was called the Ysalamiri-10, built to blind a single person from the Force using a particular anti-Force substance found in the Ysalamiri itself. It was an ingenius work at Flimmox's hand and very effective, for now no one could see him, smell him, nor FEEL him wandering about in the halls of the Deominian fortress. After a while, he returned to his cell with a smug grin on his face, deactivated his cloak and hid the miniscule device in a small pouch of synthetic skin and fur on his right wrist. He crossed his arms in front of him and made himself nauseatingly comfortable on the small cot. About five minutes later, the Simians returned to the cell for a more thorough investigation of the cell, only to find Flimmox on the cot. Flimmox grinned at their arrival, "Yes . . ." he said, "I've much to offer your master." All five Simians stared in utter disbelief, and backed slowly out of the small cell and activated the security precautions. "We found the prisoner," one stuttered into the comlink, "he's back in his cell." There was a pause as the guard listened to the officer's words. "We found him in his cell, sir. The Lord Domino is gonna just love this one . . ."
The nine Blades jumped out of hyperspace not far from Sullust. From the bridge of
the Hope Rafaella surveyed the situation. It looked pretty bad. Maybe there would
be a use for the medical frigate. It'd be here in a few more minutes. Turning, she gave
her orders. Three of the nine Blades broke out of formation, among them the Hope
itself. The other six moved straight at the Imperial forces, then split up. Before long,
they were spread out all over the battlefield.
On the other side of Sullust, the medical frigate jumped out of hyperspace. At once the
ancient Maruader Corvette sent out scouts to find any wounded, Imperial or Rebel, and
bring them back. The medics were loyal to Rafaella, but they had a code of ethics to
follow in regards to their committment in the medical profession.
A trio of ion blasts shot out at one of the Blades, cutting near its flight vector. The pilot in the Blade pulled a weaving roll and eluded the blasts. He turned to engage te ship that had fired on him; a Skipray Blastboat. His aiming reticle flashed red, prompting him to tighten his grip on the trigger and snap several shots off at the Imperial. The Skipray's shields flared brilliantly, and the ship turned to run to the safety of the larger Imperial fleet. Soon the starfield would become a chaotic montage of firing between Imperial and Alliance craft.
Grinning lopsidedly, Rafaella flipped a switch on her comm unit, sending a message to all Rebels in the area: "Missed me? Well, here I am. Let's bash these Imps, shall we?"
Martel sat in his chambers aboard the Super Star Destroyer Nightlord
contemplating the upcoming engagement. He was flattered that Palpatine chose him to
personally lead the official Imperial Armada in the Sullust battle. Martel was quite
skilled in the art of war, and his Dark Side ability helped augment his war skills. He
stared out at the flaring blue warpfield of hyperspace, and was amazed at how beautiful it
was, but then quickly admonished himself for such sappy thoughts.
'I will not turn into Lord de Devastator,' the Dark Jedi thought. He knew that
Domino occasionally let his "evil" tendencies go slack, but he was in thrall to
Palpatine, so he couldn't berate him too much.
Martel knew the same was true for him and Nelazriel, so he understood the Sith Lord's feelings. He did not trust a few of Domino's advisors, and saw them as traitors to the Nerakan Empire. But they would soon be eliminated. That he knew for a fact. "Computer," Martel said. "How long until we arrive at Sullust?"
The computer replied, "Forty-two hours, thirteen minutes, and twelve seconds." Martel shook his head. He did not want to wait so long for arrival, but it couldn't be helped. He would be there soon enough.
Palpatine strolled across the bridge as the Nightlord exited hyperspace near the edge of the Sullust system. He could see out of the viewport the tiny specks of the Imperial and Rebel ships fighting over Sullust, and wondered why they were fighting for that hellhole of a planet. The SoroSuub company was one reason, but to Palpatine that was not an acceptable reason. He wondered if he should just pull out his ships and leave the planet for the Rebels.
Mumar smiled and turned at Domino. "I have the ultimate plan in mind. I want to resurrect the Sith Religion, destroy Luke Skywalker, and turn Mara jade toward the Dark Side to become little more than a braindead Sith warrior."
Domino nodded, "Revenge being the dish best served cold, I can sense this is your personal vendetta against Skywalker and his student. anything else my dear?"
Mumar laughed, "I'll need a ship. I want to house a Sith Crystal enhanced computer in it to trap Skywalker's spirit. I want to have the ship pose a major threat to Yavin IV, Skywalker will venture out to disable the computer and in the meantime, my warriors will storm the academy, and kidnap Mara Jade. Then I will do battle with her, turn her, and she will be ours, and to make her more my slave, I will tell her of her great Master, trapped in the Sith Crystal computer. We'll keep the crystal in her chamber, so she can gaze upon it and live with her grief and her guilt.
"Whoa! Got nine Blades coming out of hyperspace over Sullust, sir!" A tech said to Hendrikson from his console.
"Jedi Master Rafaella? Let's give her a hand. Send in the Xenomorph and Lightbringer. We're using attack pattern Gamma. Uh, you all researched Gamma, as you were told, right?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good! Let's get moving." Since the ships were only a minute or so jump
from Sullust, the trip was quick and reentry uneventful. The two capital ships appeared in
the middle of the battle. TIEs scattered, then regrouped. Almost immediately after
reaching acceptable sublight speeds, X-Wings and B-Wings poured out of the Xenomorph's
hangar bays and engaged the TIEs, while the Lightbringer targeted an enemy frigate
and opened fire, it's own fighters swarming the enemy craft, pummeling it with proton
torpedoes. An X-Wing was on the verge of being destroyed, but a Blade's supportive fire
obliterated it's pursuer. The rebel's starting advantage had run out, and the Imperials
began to get more organized. Suddenly, as per Hendrikson's plan Gamma, the Retaliation
and Remember Ord Mantell dropped out of hyperspace and entered the fray, sending
the pilots scrambling then regrouping again as a flurry of shots from the Remember Ord
Mantell wiped out a slower moving Skipray. The Frigate that was targeted by the Lightbringer
snapped in half and writhed as it was consumed in a ball of flame. By this time the Imps
had cut off most of the escape routes and the Rebels were outnumbered horribly. Hendrikson
called the ships into formation and had them play chicken and fire salvos of missiles to
blast an escape route through the hedge or Imperial might. Regrouping outside the Imps as
they turned their ships to face Hendrikson again, he sent a radio signal, then watched a
minute timer.
When it reached zero, the rest of the reserve ships arrived. Fighting with a renewed
effort to take down as many Imperials as possible before retreating, began to fire laser
death on their enemies, who fired back. Hendrikson knew a surefire way to take out a
couple capital ships before leaving. "All ships, target the Victory Star Destroyer
designated the Armorer. Repeat, target only this ship."
Hendrikson smiled. 'This tactic drops capital ships in record time in battle.' He
just hoped he could continue to fend them off enough to make a difference.
Domino turned to Mumar. "You should not be so eager to exact revenge against Mara Jade at my expense. I will provide you with a ship, for the time being, but to begin your plans you will need to use resources of your own as well."
"It will be done. I will not use your resources alone. I shall call the ship the Sword of Hecate and I shall have it painted red. When it is finished, I will have the Sith crystal enhanced computer installed."
Mumar took out a small droid about the size of a grenade. Domino observed the object, "A micro droid, what is its function?"
Mumar sneered, "It has an implant, which will make Mara Jade bend to my will."
Domino half smiled then shook his head. 'She is too consumed with her own desires to be of use to me, but I'll string her along to see if I can benefit from her goals at all.' he thought, then said to her, "I will be interested in seeing your plans come to pass. Though I am more concerned with the rise of the Sith Empire than with Skywalker."
Mumar put her hand on his shoulder, "Exactly, I just want my world back, and I want you to become a part of it." The ship passed through the Deominian cloud and landed on Deominia, and the group left the ship and headed for the palace.
Rafaella stared calmly at the battle. They might be outnumbered, but she didn't care. If she died that was just the way of the Force. Smiling, she nudged Hope into the battle, raking her lasers across the hull of a frigate that was giving Remember Ord Mantell some difficulty.
Suddenly, in the middle of the battle, a small civilian craft appeared, and headed for one of the Imperial ships.
Mara stood on the edge of the academy roof, gazing up at the stars, what a wonderful time for her to be free of her past, but something else seemed to be haunting her. Mara frowned as she heard a voice call out to her.
"Mara, what's wrong?" It was Kirana Ti, she stood there with a light robe wrapped around her.
"An old enemy is out there, planning her revenge."
Kirana touched her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll take care of her, you don't have to be afraid of anything, we'll be here for you. You know that."
Mara held him, "But I could never allow you all to risk your lives for me. I can't live with that."
Kirana smiled. "Mara, I will have to die one day, but I've faced death many times and proved stronger because of it."
Mara sobbed, "You don't know what's going to happen, she may want to destroy you all to get to me! I can't let that happen! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
Luke found the two women on the roof. "I thought I heard conversation up here. He shook his head, "Mara, I want you to stop, get a hold of yourself. Listen to me. We are Jedi. The Force is our ally."
Mara nodded, "Yes, but even if it is the Dark Side, the Force is her ally too."
Rayla was seething. She would not allow this woman, Mumar, to come between her and
her loyalty to Domino, but it appeared that she would lose his intimate favor soon. Mumar
was pretty enough that there would not even be a need to use the Force to gain Domino's
admiration, and if she did use the Force, he was as good as gone!
Perhaps she would be able to continue her search for her fiancee soon. Besides, Marquis
was making progress in her development in the arts of assassination. She might even fill a
vacancy in Domino's regime if Rayla were to leave.
'I will have to give this a great deal of thought.' she continued to ponder as the
party entered the turbolift to the palace.
Mumar knew how Rayla felt for her master and took a great deal of pleasure from the idea of earning his regard from her. The Sith religion had been dormant for far too long, it might require two strong persons to be of the utmost intimacy to resurrect the order. 'If she stands between Lord de Devastator and myself, I will do all that is within my power to make her suffer!' Mumar considered.
The off-loading of the ground forces onto Sullust was nearly completed, and they were already loading troops back into the drop ships.
~The climate is intolerable at best, and the terrain is not at all negotiable. I
recommend that we take what we came for, and refrain from setting up the garrison
building. Occupation of a world like this could be a worthless enterprise.~
Admiral Daliwhel was listening to General Tamar, who had led the ground forces down planet
side. He was considering the good General's words as the Blades of Jedi Master Rafaella
entered the system! As two Imperial Star Destroyers were playing cat 'n' mouse with a
Nebulon B frigate using turbolasers and tractor beams, the blades concentrated their
firepower on one of the ISD's. Just as the frigate was torn to shreds, the blades struck a
critical point on the ISD Hammer of Hell, and the ship went "Nova" in a
brilliant flash!
The returning of the troops was to take high priority for the fighters, and the TIE advanced squadrons moved to cover the returning drop ships. As the TIE's moved in to fly escort for the transports, hundreds of Skipray Blastboats disgorged from the hanger bays of the Imperial and Victory Star Destroyers that had them. These were a little slower than the rebels ships, but they were heavily shielded, and equipped with better weaponry.
Rafaella calmly studied the Skipray Blastboats. They seemed like a bit of trouble, but if her forces couldn't handle them then they would die trying. She sent a message to Lin, who did a flyby on a Blastboat and concentrated her firepower on it. The remaining Blades continued their deadly dance, working to cripple the Imperial forces. The rebel resolve was restored when Rafaella in her ship, Hope, joined them. After all, the Metārianin said about Rafaella that she wouldn't only dance with death, but also invite him/her in for a cup of tea...
Lin grunted with pleasure as another star destroyer exploded. She loved this. Her only priority now, was to do away with the Empire, although it sometimes saddened her that she couldn't chase down all the slavers she could find, and feed them to a Sarlacc.
It was the strangest thing that Tashannoc had ever seen. A massive disturbance in
the force, caused by someone very powerful using massive Dark Side powers, had rent time
and space, causing a massive gravity well in the path of Tasha and Ackbar. Tashannoc had
just barely realized it and pulled the ships out of hyperspace before being destroyed or
disappearing forever. However, the slow crawl around the disturbance in real space had
taken its toll, and now they were very late to the party.
They hadn't been able to send any communications, either, due to the spatial disruptions.
Now they were popping out of hyperspace finally above Sullust. The large force was enough
to boost the morale of the demoralized Rebels, especially the sight of the MC-2600. The
ship had a lot of rumors and myths surrounding it, and the troops were ready to believe
all of it right now. The Rebels rallied around the newfound strength, as the O wings
launched off of the skin of the 2600, and other fighter craft poured out of the hangar
bays on all of the ships.
"Focus firepower on those ships returning from the surface. All capital ships provide cover for the fighters," Ackbar ordered. The Skipray Blastboats were attacked by B and K wings, while the O and E wings harried the escorting TIE Advanced. The Imperial pilots were perplexed by the O wings, and while the pilots of the 2nd Fleet were good, Tashannoc's pilots had the surprise of their new craft in their favor. The other fighters weren't faring as well, however. Since Tasha had put his pilots into his and Ackbar's O-wings, the other craft were manned by green troops, and they were getting slaughtered.
Tashannoc signaled the rest of the fleet. "I need other fighter crews to mix in with my fighters. These kids are green, and they're as good as dead if you don't cover them!" Tashannoc turned his focus to the attack on the 2nd Fleet itself. They were overwhelmed with the firepower of the new ships, but surprise's edge was starting to ebb, and the Imperials were responding better now. "Ackbar, I think we can forget the ground assault. We've shown up too late!"
Arcana walked towards Docking Bay Seventeen without any expression on his face. The
human being led him towards the door.
"Through this door, we have your ship," the man said in a wry voice.
"Good," Arcana said. "I've been meaning to get rid of my Lambda shuttle for a while."
The man opened the door, waiting to see Arcana's response.
Beyond the door lay a brand new Imperial Sentinel-Class Landing Craft.
Arcana took a deep breath. He stepped towards the man. "Is this what you got
with my one-hundred and fifty thousand credits?"
He waved his arm towards the ship.
Yes. Isn't it..."
"Great? I've been waiting for many years to ditch that Lambda shuttle because I
was always being shot at by Rebel scum!! And now
you get me another Imperial-made craft??"
"But sir.."
"But sir this!" Arcana shouted. He threw a hard fist forward striking the
smaller man square in the left side of the jaw. He toppled
backwards in surprise and fell to the floor. The man looked up at the smuggler, completely
astonished. He was already bruising, and slightly bloody, though there was no serious
damage done.
Arcana wiped off his hands on a cloth at a mechanic's work station. It was a bigger
ship. Hopefully, it wasn't slower. He should have never trusted the Sullust scum bags. He
had arranged for a normal-looking Corellian transport, but no, he had to get the
Sentinel-class shuttle.
Arcana walked around the craft. From first glance, it had four retractable lasers on the
front and two concussion missile launchers. The landing ramp was lowered. He stepped
inside.
Despite his fit beforehand, he was quite impressed by the interior. The cockpit was
almost identical to his old shuttle, making it easy to
pilot. He stepped forward and took a seat in one of the two command chairs. He brought up
a status report, and Arcana smiled.
The ship was about as illegal as it could get.
There was an immense cargo hold, but that was filled up with the bulky shield generators,
the hyperdrives, and the extra ion engines. The armor of the ship was exceptionally good,
and he realized that there was a turret in the top of the ship. It was an ion gun, good
for raids.
And speaking of raids, the shuttle could seat about fifty soldiers for attack squads,
according to the technical readouts. As he wandered
into the back, though, he noticed that about ten spaces were filled with machinery. The
back cargo hold, as was expected, was filled with
modified machinery as well. He moved a floor panel aside and saw a reconnaissance speeder
bike in the bottom. Although a speeder may be useful, the space could be better devoted to
cargo. The ship was virtually impervious to scanners on the inside.
As Arcana started to leave, he heard a few beeps. He looked up and saw a droid
descending the ladder. It was a humanoid droid, painted
blue. The eyes were small lights and the droid did not have a mouth.
"Welcome, Arcana," the droid said in a strict voice. "This is your new
shuttle. I am your co-pilot. I am called SXZ-57."
Arcana grinned. A new droid too. Perhaps this wasn't such a bad deal after all. "Well, Essex," Arcana said. "What do you do around here?"
I help you fly the ship, load the three missile tubes..."
"Three?"
"Yes, there are three, but two are visible from the outside."
"Good deal."
"I can also fire the turret and the lasers as well. The rear turret can be operated by me as well."
Arcana looked towards the human whom he had punched out earlier. He was still laying
on the ground. "Oh well, turned out to be worth
my credits," Arcana said to himself. He had received a huge cargo hold, a 0.8
hyperdrive (which was excellent for a ship this size), three
shield generators, a big salvo of missile launchers, lots of lasers, an ion cannon, and
even a new, clean refresher! "Well, Essex, sit down. Get them to open that docking
hanger bay. I'll be taking this thing for a little test!"
The droid and the contented smuggler sat down. Arcana hit the repulsors and rotated the large ship around. He hit the thrusters and blasted forward into the darkness of space.
He had yet to see a small line of fine print that was on the bottom
corner of the viewport of the cockpit. It read, "Provided by
Domino de Devastator."
Rachel cursed under her breath as more Rebel ships appeared and began to wreak havoc
on the fleet. She narrowed her eyes as fiery explosions dotted the space around Knightfall.
She whipped around to glare at one of the bridge officers. "Release more fighters. I
want those rebels all slaughtered!" she snarled forcefully. Something deep down
inside her suggested that she really did not want the Rebels dead, but she completely
ignored it.
She turned back to the viewport, staring intently at the battle. She voiced a few more
commands -- none of which she could remember afterwards -- and watched with a pounding
heart as her plan unfolded. She shook her head and tried to remember exactly what she had
said to have all this happen but could not quite manage it. Whatever she had done, it
seemed to be working. She noticed a few O-wings go down in spectacular fireballs, and she
thought -- her mind was elsewhere, and she wasn't quite paying attention to very much --
that someone had scored a hit on a Blade.
Somehow, this battle reminded her of...Kyp. Why, she did not know, but it did. Or perhaps
it made her miss him all the more. 'Stop!' she commanded herself harshly. 'You
will get yourself killed by thinking about home! Remember the time you slipped up and
Vader almost found out? You cannot afford to be careless!' Rachel forced herself to
bury the tiny spark of Marina down, down too deep to reach.
Her wide open eyes finally focused on the battle again, and she began issuing orders like
the Imperial commander she was supposed to be. And hopefully, those orders would subtly
turn the tide in favor of the terribly outnumbered Rebels. Rachel smiled to herself. As
much as she missed Kyp and the kids, she really did like her job.
Grand Admiral Emago studied the message for all of five seconds before he gave the
order. "Com, announce to the armada that we are moving in on Sullust! We will be
moving in as three separate waves, with equal ships in each wave. Our purpose is to
provide the 2nd Fleet with support and cover while they make good their extraction from
the system."
Emago stared out the main view port. 'We have dealt a mighty hand to the rebellion
today!' he thought.
As the last of the Drop ships entered the hangars, Daliwhel felt relief. He pondered to himself, 'Not a moment too soon, Tashannoc has arri.......' then he cried out, "Vengeful Sith! that ship is huge!"
"Admiral, call in the reinforcements from out of hiding." General Tamar said as he came on to the bridge. "It will more than double our numbers, and will allow us to carry on with phase two of our objective."
The hand of reason rested on Daliwhel's shoulder, and he realized, again, why he had
chosen this man as his advisor. He reached for the com-switch.
~All ships, We have completed our objective. Converge on the following sets of
coordinates so we can marshal our strength. The Imperial Armada will be here in minutes.~
The larger cruisers began to move in on their target coordinates, as the 2nd fleet formed
into an effective defense pattern, linking their shields to protect the weaker ships.
Elsewhere in the battle….
the last of the drop ships entered the hanger bay. The TIE Advanced fighters were
able to concentrate on the threat of the O-wings and the Blades. Though the tech level of
the new arrivals to the battle was exceptional, the battle-experienced pilots of the 2nd
Fleet soon adjusted to the challenge. Within minutes of their return to the battle proper,
a TIE pilot moved in on a Blade that was harrassing a VSD. With a touch of his trigger,
the pilot unleashed a malignant volley of blaster-death. The shields held for a second,
then collapsed as the Blade felt the angry fire of the TIE!
The return of the TIE advanced squadrons to the main battle gave encouragement to the
Imperial pilots, and they were able to coordinate their flight patterns better.
Lord Martel ordered the SSD Nightlord and it's support craft to join the 2nd
Imperial Fleet and aid in the battle. Palpatine had since taken his shuttle and jumped
back to Imperial Center as a show of confidence in Martel's skills as a commander. As the
6th Imperial Fleet entered the fray, the Nightlord launched a flight of TIEs, which
were immediately engaged by some A-wings.
Martel watched with pleasure as an X-wing that was coming to help suddenly exploded
without any warning.
Another Rebel fighter exploded in a burning flame of plasma. Martel could sense through
the Force the confusion of the Rebel
commanders, they were wondering how their fighters exploded.
The ISD Penetrator fired its ion cannons at a Rebel Star Cruiser, disabling it with
a blue flash of electricity. Martel announced over the comm to the other Imperial
cap-ships, "Concentrate all turbolaser and ion cannon fire at the MC-2600. I want it
destroyed."
It took a few hesitant moments, but soon most of the Imperial ships were complying with
the orders.
'Nothing like enjoying the familiar surroundings of home.' Domino thought
with pleasure. though he hadn't been gone long, it seemed a lot had occurred since he last
set foot on the floors of his palace. He stopped, however, and appeared to be testing the
aura of his home.
'There is something not right here; a disturbance in the Force.' He put a call
through to General Thorndry.
General Thorndry arrived in Domino's hearing chambers with Lt. Gibron and four stormtroopers. A fifth stormtrooper was present but was carrying his helmet in his right arm. It was Stormtrooper Commander Jelvin Krith. Domino looked at the lower ranked officers, then his gaze fell on Thorndry. "General, I want a full report."
Thorndry stepped forward and met Domino's waiting gaze. "My Lord," Thorndry began, "Two events have occurred in your absence that could only be explained as unexpected." Domino sat in interested expectancy. The General continued, "The first was the arrival, on planet, of an off-worlder. The Orbit Defense Group notified us immediately, but the ship was quick enough to enter Deominia's atmosphere before they could interdict it. We mobilized a retrieval party immediately and captured the intruder promptly, as I figured you would want to question him on how he found his way here. My Lord, he claims to be a Dark Jedi."
Domino's ears perked up at this last bit of information. "This explains much. Commander Krith, what news do you have?"
The stormtrooper commander bowed his head. "My Lord, I have now had two opportunities to observe the Julayps in action. I have prepared reports on each encounter, but felt it necessary to impress upon you how efficient these creatures are in the field."
Of course, Domino was confident in the Sithspawn warrior race he and his team of geneticists had created, but hearing from a seasoned trooper gave him no end of pleasure. "Thank you Commander Krith." Once again, he turned his attention to General Thorndry. "What of the other event you mentioned?"
General Throndry stood bravely and gestured to Lt. Gibron, who produced an audio
player. "Lord Domino, just after the intruder entered Deominia's atmosphere and
landed, a second ship issued forth from beyond the cloud. it was identified as the
Sovereign-class Star Destroyer that the rebels captured at the battle of Mechis III. Omega
Battle Group opened fire on her immediately, but the shields held while this transmission
was made. Lieutenant, if you will."
Lt. Gibron engaged the playback device.
~Good, very good. Against a lesser opponent you probably would have prevailed.
However, I am not a lesser opponent.
Tell your master what happened here, and let him know that if he submits to my will, I
will spare him and his planet.~
"Lord Domino," General Thorndry concluded, "we have not been able to identify the voice, but we have reason to believe that this being represents a substantial threat to all of our existence."
Rage was beginning to grow on Domino's face. He looked from Thorndry to his page, then to Commander Krith, to Rayla, and finally rested his eyes on Mumar. He rose from where he sat and clenched his fists. The room took on a new dark aura. "None shall threaten me and expect to profit from it! General, I will see the prisoner! I want eight Julayps to flank him on either side! If he is a Dark Jedi, the Julayps have Force abilities to stand him down!"
MOVE ON TO PART III
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