Rebuilding of an Empire

[Lord Gue]

Place:
South Quadrant
Testarr Sector
Just outside the Ganath system

Time:
Approximatly 0600 Hours Earth Standard

It appeard like a ghost, something out of a bad holovid movie. The swirling gases, the errie glow, much like that of a childs nightmare. As such, also very deadly, many vessels had attempted to enter this system before. Not much is known about those ships though, as they were never heard from again. It had been assumed that either those poor spacefarers were killed upon contact with the cloud itself, or that something more insidious lay inside, waiting for hapless travelers to wander in so that it may devour upon them like a spider to its fly.(Nonsense) he thought (Fairy tales to frighten young ones, thats all it is, and nothing more)Michael sat at the bridge of his pride ship, his fingers gripping the side of his chair as he starred ahead of him at the monitor that was showing him the sight that he hadnt dared dream about. The rest of the crew seemed to be as entranced by the sight as he was, for it was plain to see that not much work was getting done on the bridge for many open mouthed gappers were staring at the screen in much the way Michael had been doing."Tactical, what do the sensors tell you about all....this?"Stunned for a moment by the sudden sound, the officer at the tactical station looked down at the readings on his board and made a quick estimate of there meanings before reporting to his commander"Sir, it appears to be a cloud of radiation, its to thick to penetrate with the sensors though, we can only detect up to it but not through it.""Can our defletors withstand the effects of the cloud?"After a moments thought the officer looks back up at Gue and says"Unknown, sir""Helm, prep the engines for a quick 1/2 lightyear jump into this cloud. Oh, and make sure you dont hit anything please" [i]He said with a laugh, they need a little something so they wouldnt worry so much, not that he wasnt. As the crew readied the ship he sat back and continued to look on at the cloud and the ominous glow it cast on his bridge...

[Lord Gue]

"Sir!"He had been off in the land of nod, away from it all dreaming of the past. The glow returned to him, thats all there was to look at now, it was all encompassing now, not much else to look at now anyways."Yes, what is it helm?""Were ready to jump sir""Alright, on my command then"(Are you ready? Sure. Positive? maybe. Well then, here we go...)"Helm, jump now""Aye sir"The ship vibrated slightly as its massive form slipped into hyperspace, the lights dimmed and went out. He felt sick, the kind of sick you got when you get in a tilt-o-whirl after being on it for 5 days straight. Just as fast as it has started it all stoped.Space inside the cloud was just like space outside it, except there was only one star and this weird glowing shell blocking all other space. It was an average star system with a fair amount of planets. It all looked quaint from the out look. Strange how the lights hadnt come on yet."Tactical, status?"A slight groan emenated from behind him, appearently that sick feeling hadnt been just him"Weve got power outages all over the ship sir, engineering is working on it though. Were detecting artifical structures all over the interior of the cloud sir, but sensors arnt fully functioning so we cant get any readouts on these things""Okay gotcha"Just then an explosion rocked the ship as a large red hue covered the very edge of the ship. Just beyond the tip of the ship was a some what smaller vessel, a large cloud of gas billowing out from behind it."Tactical!""Very little damage sir, hull breach on lvl 19""Get those shields up!""Engineering says they will be up in 1 min""Tell them they have 30 seconds"[i]They would have a new threat to enter the fray very soon....

[Lord Gue]

Another missle slamed against the hull of the ship, the sound of the explosion as shocking as the attack itself."Where are those shields?""There com... there up sir. Weapons and propulsion systems should be operational within 5 min, other systems are returning to life as well sir""Excellent, get a readout on that ship and tell me what it can do, in the mean time get a repair crew down to where those missles hit"Another set of missles slammed into the shields, this time detonating harmlesly into space"Sir, weapons systems are operational""Good, then finish this""Aye sir"Outside of the massive SSD, laser cannon turrents swung about, turning to make a mark on the ship that had so attacked them. As the gases in their chambers charged with the energy needed to fire them, the other ship loaded its tubes with another set of missles, on its hull one could make out out the words 'Robotica' but not the whole sentence printed on its hull. As the underhull of the 'Robotica' glowed green in an appearent launch of its missles, laser cannon beams lanced out from across space and nailed the missles right in there launches, cuasing an explosion that rippled throughout the ship, tearing its front hull to pieces. Seconds later another set of beams leaped across the space between the two ships, striking at the other vessels midsection and aft, cuasing another set of detonations that left the floating hulk adrift in space, appearently lifeless"What do the sensors say about that?""Theres alot of water out there sir, i believe that ship was powered by....steam. No lifesigns sir, they seem to be out of power as well""Hmmm, launch the drone fighters, make a scouting run of this sector and avoid all other contact with shipping, I dont want another fight until were ready""Aye sir"

[Lord Gue]

"Sir, ships systems are back up to full operating status""Good, whats the status of our scouting party""They havent reported back yet sir""Well, inform me the second they do""Aye sir"The ship had left the wreckage of their first ship to encounter in this area of space far behind them. If someone where to come looking for it they didnt want to be found sitting over it. Currently their course placed them in an oval around the inner side of the glass cloud, staying as far away from the planets as that would permit. Soon those droid fighters would return and an invasion of the system could begin, but until then all that needed to be done was a little repair work and analyzation of the ship they had already encountered. Appearently these creatures were so backward they would take the time to ship water to the stars to power their spacecraft. There missle weaponry must be effective against themselves, but certainly not any vessel with sheilds. As Michael became lost deeper and deeper into his thoughts he barely noticed his tactical officer informing him of the fighters report, or even that they had returned for that matter."....18 vessels, all of lesser size and barely any military value what so ever. Only one inhabited planet, sir, population estimated at 3 billion. What shall we do now sir?""Move the ship in system and prepare for battle"

[Lord Gue]

It must have taken the rest of the systems defense fleet to realize that there big ship was missing, no other actions out of the normal had been taken in the last 5 hours. All this had played well with the assult effort as it seemed all those extra ships out there were patroling the edge of the cloud as scientific vessels as well as warships. There movements seem to have been well plotted and in military scout form."Tactical, form all of our droid fighters into one battle wing and have them come about beside us. Nav, take us out on a tour of the outter side of this gas cloud that will bring us into contact with the greatest amount of those enemy vessels as possible""Aye sir"[i]Out in space the fighters quickly took on a shape of their own as they assembled into what might look like a giant wing. Of many rows of many different flights of drone ships it could have looked like a massive TIE on its own. As the TIE fighters low speed due to constant refueling sublight speeds would have to be maintained and that would put the nearest vessel a days flight away.

[Lord Gue]

As he strode back aboard the bridge from his quarters he made note that next time they picked up supplys they needed a fresh batch of soap."Sir, two vessels approaching port side""Tactical capability?""Very low sir, they appearently use the same technology as the last ship we encountered""Very well, tell the fighter group to engage one ship, we'll take the other""Aye sir, shall I block their communications equipment as well?""...No, lets let them know were here""Aye"[i]As the two enemy vessels steamed ahead the battle wing of droid fighters turned to engage, breaking formation they moved to encircle the unsheilded vessel as it launched its missles in futility. As the wing opened fire on the ship it turned into a massive fire ball as the small laser cannons of the TIE's opened up little holes in the ships hull. The vacumm cleared away most of the remaining hull as explosive decompresion blasted the bulkheads to smitherines. As more and more laser blast penetrated the enemy vessel its armor began to buckle as it turned to flee. The resulting explosion from the hull breaches and systems failures took a few TIE's with it as they resumed formation and the SSD took on its foe....

[Lord Gue]

These ships seemed hardly a challenge. Steam powered, low armor, no shields, weak ass weaponary. If not for this shell around there system they would have been conqured long ago. The third enemy vessel to be detected in this system was making a run for it, appearently the remaining 17 vessels in the system had been comunicationg with each other about the intruding ship, and seemed to be mounting a counter offensive as they were ALL heading in the direction of the hope, well all but the retreating vessel."Tactical, take out his engines""Aye"As soon as the order was given a laser cannon shot leaped the space between the two ships, slicing the other like a carefuly weilded slicoknife, it disected the rear of the ship from the front, effectivly removing it from its engines. "Very good, time till the next ship arrives?""ETA on ALL incoming ships is about a day and a half sir""Good, now send over a boarding party and download all available info about this species from there computers to ours""Yes sir"

[Imperial Droid]

[i]As the fleet of enemy vessels closed in on the SSD's location; Imperial Droid, Michael's personal bodyguard as well as leader of his droid forces, prepared a Gamma-class shuttle filled with 13 of his droid warriors. Launching from the main landing bay, the shuttle procedes across the short distance between the the two vessels without any to do's. On approach the massive arrays of holes and gashes in the ship tell of the untold horror that must have transpired upon impact of the greater vessels weaponry, it looked doubtfull there would be any survivors to worry about. Sensors in the transport indicated an abscence in the prescence of an atmoshpere in the vessel, one of the main reasons a droid boarding party was formed. The shuttle came to rest on a particularly open deck, who's upper levels had been vaporized by the impact of the laser cannons and had provided a suitable landing spot. As the hatchway opened the decompresion nearly sucked a few warriors out into space with the oxygen. The hall the hatchway opened into was a hellish scene of strewn humanoid bodies, ship wreckage and flashing electrical equipment.As they marched down the ship towards what appereaed to be the bridge in the initial scans of this ship, they avioded as much of this as they could. Main, or at least secondary, power must have been kept alive somehow as lights were still on and doors were still operational. That was a good sign, hopefully, then maybe the main computer would be operational as well. The doors to the bridge slid open in their prescences, showing the sight of a bridge of an unknown design, totaly different than that of an imperial vessel. Walking to the nearest computer consoule it came to life at the touch as Imperial droid quickly deciffered its operating code and language barriers. Immediatly it was begining to hack into this ships mainframe downloading to the main ship such things as: troop deployments, weapons strengths and weaknesses, ship placement, major population centers, ect... As the last technical data of the battered hulk was transmitted the droid force turned back to return to the SSD before the next battle would begin.

[Lord Gue]

These were the moments some captians dreamed about. 18 ships had appeared from all across the system, all to battle this one threat to their way of life. They all seemed to be of the same size and design, all with puny missle bound weapons systems. While true that they were harmless one at a time, like a weak poisin too much could kill. So as the newly formed enemy fleet ammassed just on the edge of sensor range, the TIE droids formed a small ring around the permiter of the ship. giving a little leway for any incoming missle to be destroyed.
The fleet arrived shortly after, moving in a flying wedge, although their ships were powered by steam, there small mass made them more meanuverable in close combat than the SSD was capable of, fortunatly the mass of weaponary across the hull of the giant ship more than made up for that.
Suddenly the ships broke off into 3 packs of 6. One group flew straight under the ship, as the other two went around both sides. Laser fire lit up the space between the ships as they evaded fire from the mighty vessel. As they approached the rear of the ship the first group slowed to launch 12 missles at the port engines, more lasers were fired, as the TIE's threw in their support 6 missles detonated away from the shields as 6 more slammed into the rear deflector. As the other two groups converged they fired their combined salvo of 24 missles into the same area. This time 3 TIE droids broke formation, firing all the way until they rammed three of the approaching menaces. In a huge explosion that took out 15 of the on comming weapons 8 passed straight through and broke through the shielding, fortunatly 4 burned up in the ion exhaust of the engines themselves but the remaining four hurled themselves directly into the left nacel, crippling it. Now was the time for a quick strike back, before the opponent could reload themselves. Every TIE around the ship broke rank and advanced on the collected enemy position while every weapons on the ship in line of sight to the ships fired. The resulting explosions and tears tore 10 of the ships up in an instant and left another two floating heaps like the two originals before them. the other six had pulled away fast enough and had appearently decided to turn one last time for another desicive blow to the engines. Not this time, for the TIE's came upon them like a pack of rabid dogs, and before they could luanch one missle their ships were torn with so many wholes swiss cheese might say 'damn!'.
"Call the TIE's back in"
"Sir?"
"You heard me, they need refueling and cool down, and besides, whats left out there but wreckage"
"Aye sir"
"Oh, and set course for there capital, best possible speed"
"Aye sir"
[I]The Hope limped off towards the third world of this system at 1/3 max sublight speed, but thats all that it needed, this battle was just about over...

[Lord Gue]

It looked like a great big ol' marble, with white/yellow/and blue strwaks swirling about. The space around it a peacefull void that was about to be shattered by the halo of war. The mighty ship slowly moved into an orbit around the planet as its crew silently scaned its defenses.
"Sir, they seem to be able to launch atomic weapons from the surface to space, other than that they seem to defenseless."
"How many of these atomic missles do they posses?"
"over 200 sir, though most of them are stockpiled in underground bunkers, there are about 120 active."
"Target the silos immedatly and destroy them, if any missles are fired destroy them outside the atmosphere if at all possible, as for the underground silos, leave those be, we dont want to destroy this planets habitability"
"aye sir"
From high orbit multiple laser blast rained down on the planet as its spin took target after target across its firing range. Multiple missles were fired from the opposite side of the planet but their paths took them convienently enough out of the atmosphere to try to hit the ship head on. Another barage of laser blasts took these few out of the picture. Soon the planetary defense of the planet had been decimated.
"Sir, the 120 targets have been destroyed."
"Excelent, patch me through to the planetary government, we have to discuss their surrender"

[Lord Gue]

"This is Preator Comin, I assume this is the ship in our space destroying everything?"
"That it is, and we have a few demands that need to be met or there will be alot more destruction in your area than has ever been seen"
"What is it that you want from us?"
"I want your entire solar system, every planet, along with your society's pledge to join the empire"
"No way, why should we just surrender everything over to you?"
"Becuase If you dont, this will happen to every one of your cities and military centers"
A streak of red light flashed from the sky a few hundred miles away from the planets administrative buildings, creating a huge crater which could be seen for miles around
"Now, what is your answer?"
"Give me a moment to delibirate with my advisors"
"Fair enough, but every 5 minutes i will destroy a major population center"
"DO WHAT!?"
"Your time starts now"
The screen went blank as the stunned leader was left to his advisors
"You think he'll do it?"
"Dunno, even still we could always level the planet of them and start over on our own"
"True"
The screen reactivates with a slomen looking preator on the screen
"We've gone over it and we give in to your demands, with one attachment. We shall remain a self governed society"
"Deal, nice doing business with you. We will be sending down or troops to secure your planet now, do not resist else face annihilation"
[I]Transports were then loaded with the required things to land on the planet with sufficent force to conquer the planet utterly

[Heir Raktus]

[I]Having been issued a Sentinel-class landing craft, mainly for its increased cargo space over the Lambada-class, as well as four of the reformed empires most loyal troopers, Heir Raktus sat in orbit over Nirauan. They had been sent out just before the planetary assult had begun and he only hoped that all went well with that else all this would be for not. They had been scanning the planet for hours now, so far finding nothing but more of the planets rugged surface. There were native inhabitants on the planet, but they were only bat-like simpletons, nothing of any threat. After about another hour of scanning sensors detected the rubble of an artifical structure. Standing on a promontory was what must have been a mighty tower, but now was nothing more than so much wreckage. The trip from space to atmosphere was always a bumpy one, but not so much this time. Hovering just miles above what once was Grand Admiral Thrawns pride, they refined their sensor readings one last time in an attempt to detect something deep under the complex. Once detected they could procede in landing and breaking out the G2-GE Beamdrills in an excavation. Soon sensors were beeping as they're refined program had detected the exact coordinates of the object they were seeking. The craft landed mere meters from its coordinates as the drilling project began. Three of the troopers operated beamdrills, digging a hole 6 meters in diameter straight down into the ground. Six hours later they struck water as it came gushing out from the newly formed hole. Nodding to one another they each donned an Organic Gill and hoped into the water. there had once been an important room here, as its defense lasers were still positioned in an attack status. Obviously nothing in this room was operational, which was ok as it didnt have to be. As wrist lights were activated a horrified trooper let out a silent scream as his light fell opon a clad blue figure, appearently frozen in some sort of tank. Upon closer inspection this being clearly bore some major resemblance to the former grand admiral himself, this was the thrawn clone, and that had tomean this was the spaarti cylinder they were after. After the initial shock had subsided the group attached grav plates to the bottom of the contraption and proceded to float it up the long shaft to the surface. As the cylinder touched air for the first time in decades it glistened in the sunlight as water rolled off its sides. The five drenched men crawled out of the hole and tore their masks off. Floating their prize to the hold of the ship, they attempted to dry off as well as possible, leaving their equipment behind were they used it. TYhe shuttle lifts off and enters hyperspace just outside the atmosphere, destination was the newly constructed starbase.

[Lord Gue]

[I]The space between the massive SSD and the planet was littered with a great deal of traffic as transport after transport shuttled down prefabricated bases, At-At walkers, troops, supplys, ect. The planet was being overun with Imperial's and they couldnt stop them. Bases were placed in equadistant locations over the globe, making sure to have at least one ground control in contact with the ship at all times. Society among these people was also being reshaped by Imperial mediators sent down first to ensure the loyalty of the people by executing any high ranking officals they deemed as a threat to the fledgling empire. A construction team had already built a mining station on a few of the other planets and their moons, as well as one in the asteroid belt, and had been given orders to build a spacestation as well as a shipyard all in system. Heir Raktus had returned with his prize and already Imperial scientists were discovering the secrets of the cylinder as well as revivng thrawn from his frozen slumber, soon the greatest admiral of imperial history would be back in his place in the empire. things would be moving along smoothly for the next phase of the plan, as long as nothing happened to those construction's...