A turning of tables.

[Force Master Hunter]

A lonely windswept day, on a planet with no name. Rain blattered down outside the ruins of the castle, sweeping rivets of water in the dirt outside. The grim shadows retreated for seconds as lightning lit the area up every few minutes, before overtaking the land in their gloom. A animal of some description ran across an open courtyard as a puff of wind blew a few leaves fitfully across the soaking pavement. For some time this place had been deserted but tonight a light flickered from a small window from one of the intact areas of the ruin.

--

Force Master Hunter stepped quietly on the cold stones of the hallway, his boots making light footfalls that echoed down the walls. The air was cold and in some places moisture dripped from the roof. In his hand, the glow rod shone brightly, giving excellent light for him to navigate by. He was only armed with a DL-44 blaster and his attitude was relaxed as he knew no-one ever came to this place. Who would? Ever since the Sith had abandoned this place as their base years ago, no one ever stepped foot here. Now, this building was in ruins and the quietness of the planet was all pervasive.

He reached a door and pressed the still working locking mechanism, the door opening quietly. Inside, the room was warm, well lit with a fully functional computer centre, a rest area and also a small kitchen. On one wall was a weapons rack, another was a map of the sector. A small window had a loose curtain, through which snaked a power cable. A heater unit hummed in one corner, in another was a small table and a few chairs. A small girl was curled up on one of the two camp beds, who poked her head above the covers at the entrance of Hunter

“Mr Hunter? Can I have a drink please?”

Hunter grinned. Jina Jade was quite a delightful child and even if their meeting was not exactly wanted, he was now grateful she had fallen into his life. Who would have thought a four year old would be so much trouble and yet so wonderful to be around. “Sure Jina. I thought you would have been asleep by now, it’s quite late”

“Didn’t want to sleep. I want to explore again”

He walked to the kitchen and drew a glass of water, moving back to Jina and handing the glass. “Not now Jina, it’s time for you to Tomorrow when I break down the door to the vaults downstairs, you can come with me. Okay?”

She finished drinking. “Yes Mr. Hunter. Can I take my kitty with me?”

Hunter had to laugh. Jina’s kitty was a small stuffed toy in the shape of a cat like animal, something he had found yesterday when Hunter had been moving around some of the rooms upstairs that seemed to be living areas. In one room, he had found a box of toys, alongside a holoframe of a tiny baby – most likely of Jina when she was perhaps a few weeks old. With some of the other personal effects, it must have been the room of Lady Mara Jade when she had been the ruler of the Sith Empire. Other rooms had revealed other names of the past. Bromine. Vengeance. It had been fascinating to explore and to find names he had heard of, to find artefacts that gave testimony to their existence. Even found a small datapad that had told how Rama Sha had been killed and cloned. Hunter hadn’t known TSE had run once an effective cloning operation, nor had he known of some other things he had found. The equipment in the room he was now in had come from various places that were still in one piece. Even a working portable power plant that had been installed outside. Not a bad place to set up a temporary place to hide out from the galaxy until events of the past weeks had calmed down. In some ways he was glad just to sit down and do nothing. He knew he would be twitchy for action soon again, so the rest was more than welcome. It was also an opportunity to continue to gain the confidence of young Jina and to allow an old back injury to gain rest. “Yes Jina, Kitty can come. Now you should be asleep young lady”

“You too Mr. Hunter.”

“Oh I will soon. I firstly want to see what the computer has done to the datacard we found today. I’ll turn the rest of the lights down for you while I do.”

“Okay Mr Hunter. Can you read me a story?”

Hunter had to sigh. She might be a really nice little girl, but also in the manner of all young human children, demanded attention quite often and it was wearying. “Not now Jina. I’ll do that for you tomorrow night. Okay?”

She pouted, but seeing Hunter wasn’t going to give, she instead tunnelled into the blankets and presumably to sulk and eventually sleep. He had seen that before, she would have forgotten it by the time she woke up in the morning. Ah well. He shrugged and seated himself in front of the reasonably decent terminal, wired to the processing unit he had hacked working a week ago. A neat bypass slice had broken the security still in the involatile data bank memory and he had quite a decent amount of slicing power for any files he found in one piece in this place. Even with the fact this place had been abandoned fairly orderly, there had been some great tidbits left behind. The New Republic….

He stopped. The New Republic wouldn’t care less about some tiny morsal from some two bit Bounty Hunter. Maybe if he was some high up….

You could have been you know. Yeah, true. But then again, he would never have the freedom of movement he had now and it was that freedom to act as needed was what he most cherished. Too many years spent kissing arse in various places were tiring. What a damn pity he had walked into a situation that demanded his attention for longer than he liked. Damn fool Jedi, didn’t I keep telling people they should all be neutered? Preferably painfully? Not that the Sith were much better, if anything they were much worse. Seemed to him to be a Sith all you needed was a lobotomy and an active set of sex glands. Sith marrying Jedi, Sith marrying each other and having children. He had spent some time in the various places the two groups supped at and all he had to say was his views of most Force users was reinforced. They all needed a good slapping and the Sith needed an enema as well.

--

A good two hours later. He had set up a module he had found on the bench, a work light now the only illumination in the room and generally, Jina’s soft sleeptalking the loudest noise. Hunter had seen this type of device before, it was a databank with encryption devices. Ordinarily a good thing to store data you didn’t want uncovered as it was a notoriously difficult to software slice, physical access was a different thing. You stripped a few wires and opened the side, clipping in a divert board and then running a bypass. There was some trivial password mechanisms, but they were easily software beaten, then the data was scrolling up the screen of the terminal in cleartext. Not a bad trick to know.

Right now, he was reading risk assessments and was amused to read some of the wordings. A few beings were actually worth a laugh. Itala Marzullo was described as a megomaniac and intelligent. Suuuurrreee. Turbogeek as an ass. Obiwan2 and Figrin were pretty accurate. Another tap of the down button and he saw a new name light up – General Scorpion. Ahh, now there was a man to respect, unlike most of these ratbags. Strong, harsh, a man to fear with his technical abilities and also military knowledge and planing. But completely Dark Side, which Hunter respected. If you were going to choose a side, you don’t dilute it. You embraced it, not like some of the turds he could think of. Wishy washy thinkers. Ugh, he hated people like that. Why didn’t they realise the merging of good and evil was truly unbalancing the Force? You were Dark side or Light side, there was no in-between. General Scorpion was as Dark Side as you could get. Commendable.

He read a few lines of text, then a few more. A frown creased his brow. This was wrong. Highly wrong. How could TSE intel be this spotty? Leaning back, he considered. At the point of collation, Scorpion was No. 2 of The Sith Council and the military powerhouse behind Lord Vader Sith’s regime. The assessment stated Scorpion was the only person they truly feared and no wonder. But… the words hinted something else.

Okay, I know he killed his master, The Darkness Keeper. I know he was injured fairly badly not long ago, but he thinks too straight for this to be true. I’ve met the man, there’s nothing insane about him….

Then with a clear and perfect clarity, it hit him. The report wasn’t wrong, it was 100% right. How could he of missed it? How? Damnit, Scorpion was a good man….

Good man? But he was one of the most hate filled people he had ever had the pleasure to meet…. Now what was wrong with that sentence?

He backed up the module to a portable device, then logged off for the night. There was much to think of. Killing a Jedi Master you knew was loopy and besides, a disgrace was one thing. Confronting a evil General with the weight of the vast military he controlled was another. As Hunter, yes that would be suicide.

As his true self, it would be totally another. A small case he looked at. His past.

A completely audacious idea came to his head.

Ohhhhh yeah. But first, sleep. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

[General Scorpion]

A low hum echoed through the trees. High pitched gurgles filled the air. They don't seem so annoying anymore, he thought. Like music.

He shouldered his Stouker concussion rifle and sidestepped towards the bunker. The remnants of the Hensarans had formed a few pockets of resistance after the massacre. This old supply bunker, embedded deep into the earth, was perfect for one of them.

Scorpion held up four fingers on his right hand and motioned to the right of the bunker, then the same to the left. Eight soldiers in dark camo armor emerged from the bush and took up positions with their XX-9 rifles.

--

Three. Two. One. BOOM! The IM mine blew the armored door to bits and Scorpion stormed into the stronghold, followed by his troops. The smell of burnt flesh came next, then blaster fire filled the air. The smoke started to clear, and a Hensaran was aiming a hunting rifle from behind a table. Scorpion drew his rifle and fired at him. The blue-white blast split the table in half, along with the man.

The troops quickly exterminated the rest, and a few surrendered before Scorpion could shoot. He lowered his gun slowly. He would never kill a man without a good reason. He motioned for his troops to take the prisoners away, while he stayed behind.

When all was quiet, he surveyed the room. The Sith Lord walked from corner to corner, sifting through the debris. All he found of interest was a beat up repeater rifle and half of a mortar gun. He took the repeater rifle with him and went back into the jungle. Maybe he'd go for a long walk.

[Force Master Hunter]

It was not unusual for Hunter to wake before Jina did, but today the little girl was awake at 10 local time, Hunter being up and awake for 3 hours already. He was seated at the terminal when she began stirring.

"Morning Jina. Breakfast on the table. Get dressed, we are going for a trip."

"Trip? Where?"

"To visit a friend of mine. Okay young lady, get breakfast while you can" The girl nodded and stepped over the floor to be seated on the table. Hunter turned to his computer, finishing off the slicing run at the URSF computer, via a few hacked routers and a subverted system. He rapidly gained the position of Scorpions fleet, logged off and cleaned up his tracks. Now, he switched to the New Republic computers rerouting a packet filter to give him a direct hyperspacial connection. A few minutes bypassing security then he was in. Another jump and he raided the dipolmatic processors. Ten minutes later, he found what he wanted, matched it and then downloaded the prize to a datapad. He didnt bother logging off, hejust pulled the plug to the computer.

"Okay Jina, ready?" he asked as he got up

"Nearly Mr Hunter..."

"Bring it with you. Come on, we need to hurry."

30 minutes later, Hunter's ship liftd and blasted off

--

Hensara

The ship came out of hyperspace and was immediatly hailed by the orbiting warship.

"Unidentified transport, state your business or be shot!"

The reply came.

"URSF starfleet, this is shuttle False Directions. I am a diplomatic envoy for The Sith Empire and I need to meet General Scorpion urgently"

"Very well, transmit code"

Hunter breathed out. The code was a rough hack but should work. Jina sat behind Hunter playing with Kitty.

"Transmitting now"

A brief pause

"Shuttle False Directions, you are cleared to proceed. General Scorpion can be found at the co-ordinates we shall transmit. Please do not stay here as that place is under attack. Out"

Hunter watched the reciept of the coordinates, hardly dareing to breathe. Damn, that code he swiped was good. Feeding the co-ordinates into the computer, he dipped a wing and lit up for atmosphere.

[General Scorpion]

The thick wet grass stuck to the ground in his footprints. He had not worn his black General's uniform today for some reason even he didn't know. Instead he wore a loose pair of grey pants, a grey shirt which sleeves extended just past his elbows, and a dark grey vest. His lightstaff was clipped to his belt as usual, and swayed back and forth as he walked.

Reminds me of home, he said silently to himself. The thought triggered a flood of memories. He stopped in his tracks and squinted his eyes in anger, then shook the images out of his head.

It must all go away. All of it.

He always repeated that line to himself whenever he was struck with rememberance. It never worked. Something about today seemed different though. It almost had an affect on him. He felt as if something else would have a greater affect soon, but he had no idea what. Maybe that's why he was here. To find out.

--

He sat against the tree trunk and looked over the crystal clear pond. He examined the old repeater rifle he took and squeezed the trigger. Nothing but a quick click and an extended whirring noise. Broken or empty. He tossed it away and leaned his head back.

[Force Master Hunter]

The motors whined down as the ship settled on it's landing gear> Hunter got up and placed a hand on Jina's shoulder.

"Much as I dont like it, you can come with me. Dont leave my sgith and stay as close as you can, okay?"

"yes Mr Hunter!"

He moved without forther ado to the ramp, pressed the button for to be lowered. Stepping out, Hunter sniffed... the smell of war. His old senses came on, the battle mind flicked on, analysising what he saw. Hmm. By the looks of the bunker, a last stand. A few good troops, must be Scorpions personal guard. Good.

"Excuse me please, could you leave the area?" requested one of the troops as he walked down the ramp.

"I'll do nothing of the sort. I'm here to speak to the good General, you may"

"Yeah? Who the f*** are you or you will be speaking to a early grave"

"My name.... I know you. We met on Hoth. Major Tennon, is it not?"

"Ho....th? Your not...?"

"The same. We shared a hot meal after the battle I believe"

"Why... yes we did! Sir, good to see you again! Whay brings you out here.... hello, who is this? You had a daughter?"

"No, call this babysitting for someone. Now, I need to speak to the good General. Is he about?"

"Yes he is. Went walking off in that direction.... Personally, If it was anyone else other than you, he would probabably shoot them. I'ld still be careful tho"

"Warning taken. I better get going. Good shooting Major"

"You too!"

Hunter marched off in the indicated direction, with Jina in tow. "who was that Mr. Hunter?" Jina asked

"A bit of a friend Jina. Come on, something the Major said worries me. Lets find Scorpion fast and get out of here." Hunter drew his Rail gun, mutteringthe command that would lock the smart rope tehter to his wrist. After a few minutes, he stopped, then closed his eyes. He seemed to listen, then sniff the air. Hunter turned and walked to the left.

A few minutes later, he heard a rustle of foilage. Someone was close. He slowed, made sure Jina was behind him and then crept up on the centre of the noise..... there he was. General Scorpion. A flood of memories..... and a sense something WAS wrong.

He jumped forward, gun in hnad, pointed straight at the General's heart. "Master Scorpion. I wisht to talk to you..."

[General Scorpion]

Scorpion jumped up from the grass and had his concussion rifle in hand even quicker. He looked upon the man with the rail gun with anger.

"Who the kriffing hell are you?"

[Force Master Hunter]

Hunter stared at the concussion grenade.... oh @#%$.

He looked up, with his finger on the trigger. "Scorpion.... it's me..."

[Captain Tohmahawk]

".... Major General James T. Tohmahawk. Your in trouble and you need help"

[General Scorpion]

Scorpion looked at Tohmahawk and grinned, "You're the one who needs help if you came to this planet. I can just see you stuck to the bottom of an all terrain transport."

He looked at the girl, "And who is this?"

[Force Master Hunter]

Tohmahwak grinned at Scorpion’s sally. “Yeah, I could well imagine that too. I seem to have the ability to turn up where the action is. The girl..” he indicated Jina to come forward “… is the alledged daughter of Lady Mara Jade, who I have no doubt you know died not long ago… as a Jedi”. He placed particular emphasis on the word Jedi. He would have to say Scorpion was good, because you would have hardly have noted Scorpion’s reaction. But Tohmahawk knew his friend well, saw the giveaway eye twitch. Tohmahawk’s heart sank, because he could recognise the signs – he had seen them before. He would have to speak fast.

“Jyanis – listen. Your in trouble.”

“I am?”

“Yes you are. This ain’t going to be easy and most likely were going to be fighting each other to the death right here and now if things are as bad as I think.”

“what?”

“Look, hear me out first before you lose your temper, but I’m here to help you”

“I know your one of the most impolite and direct people who have ever dared to speak to me, but friendship goes only so far Tohmahawk. You have five minutes to explain yourself”

“Fine, more than I expected. Your got a sanity problem Jyanis and it’s eating you inside.”

In a blink, Scorpion attacked, sweeping his rifle at Tohmahawk’s skull. The New Republic general ducked, swept in and caught the other in a headlock. The two men struggled, as Scorpion sought to release the grip and Tohmahawk strained to keep the Sith locked. While they struggled, Tohmahawk spoke.

“Listen you thick -----, you need help. Your sanity is going and if you don’t do something about it, it’s going to get you killed….”

Tohmahawk released one hand and with a knuckle exposed, kidney punched Scorpion twice in rapid succession. The Sith spun, flinging the NR soldier away. Tohmahawk rebalanced and then leaped forward, crashing the Sith to the ground in a tackle. “… I found the proof at the old base of TSE. Your going crazy..” He lifted a arm and punched Scorpion in the face “… and it’s going to get you killed or consumed in your own hate!” Or it will get me killed, Tohmahawk thought as Scorpion kneed him in the groin.

Jina in the background screeched as the two men fought.

[General Scorpion]

Scorpion rolled away from a tackle and spun around, his heel connecting with the back of Tohmahawk's knee. He stumbled, but regained himself before getting a swift fist in the jaw. Scorpion punched again, and Tohmahawk grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back. With a grunt the Sith rolled forward and tossed the New Republic officer over his shoulder.

Tohmahawk hit the ground and skidded to a stop beside the lake, his feet splashing the water. He jumped up and ducked a swing from Scorpion, then skipped to the side and locked his arm around his neck.

Scorpion gasped for air, but didn't stop. He relaxed an arm and elbowed Tohmahawk in the gut to loosen his hold. Then jumped in the air and ran up the tree, flipping over backwards behind Tohmahawk where he quickly gave a hard open palm punch to the small of his back, sending him into the tree.

The soldier rolled over and sat up groggily, only to be met with the receiving end of the Stouker concussion rifle. Scorpion gritted his teeth, "Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't shoot you."

The two old warriors stared at eachother.

[Force Master Hunter]

Bitch!

The rail gun was still in hand but not pointing the right direction. Still, there had been times Tohmahawk had been staring down guns and even with Scorpion.

"I'll give you a good reason.... you wont shoot me because you could have - should have done it before. You've got something in you that's wanting to be freed, but you try to keep it covered with your hate. I know why you burnt all feeling from you.... I know. You used hate as a shield. Let go of it Jyanis, because it's driving you insane. Search yourself, you know just how right I am

Look me in the eyes Jyanis - and tell me you can pull the trigger. Tell me you can kill a friend. I'm willing to bet you can'tand I bet my life on it right now"

[General Scorpion]

Tohmahawk looks into the end of the rifle, and notices the barrel shaking a bit. An oddity in Scorpion's usually steady hands. He looks up in the direction of his blue face, and notices his mutli-colored eyes dart to the right slightly in thought.

His eyes turn back to Tohmahawk, and the infamous <chick chick> of the rifle loading is heard. They continue to stare each other down.

[Force Master Hunter]

:: Tohmahawk glaned down and saw the gun tremble, saw the look in his eyes. And drew his gaze as the sound came from the rifle. Either Tohmahawk was going to die or he was going to make Scorpion see the truth of the matter. One last roll of the dice, the final hand that wins the pot in Sabacc. All or nothing

"Jyanis... listen to me. I can see the real you, even if you can't right now. You can shoot me or do whatever you want, but you have to give yourself the chance to set yourself free of past. I know why you shield yourself in hatred - do you think your the only one who has lost family? Loved ones? Jina.... come here... COME HERE!"

The little girl, stricken in fear steps reluctantly to Tohmahwak and he places a hand on her shoulder.

"You think your the only one? Well why dont you look here. This is Jina Jade. You knew her mother didn't you? You remember her, how beautiful and strong she was? This young girl here lost her mother and now has to rely on people like me to survive. Dont you think she's got it wrose than you did? Your running from yourself, your denying and hiding. Come clean Jyanis and admit to your self who you really are. From what I have heard, Lady Mara did in the end. She died with great honour and she died pure, not corrupted like you are. Do you want to just waste what remains of your life, going slowly more and more insane or do you want to stand and be free?

It's your choice Jyanis. Go to destruction or have honour. What will you do?"

Tohmahawk's gaze burnt inot Scorpion's eyes.

[Jyanis Scorpion]

His right cybernetic eye seemed to swirl back and forth between shades of green, accompanying the change of emotions in him. Scorpion's face tensed and his teeth were gritting. The loud whine of the gun charging up told Tohmahawk that he was going to shoot, but the shot didn't come. Only a changing whirr pitch and a click. He knew the sounds of a gun. Scorpion had turned on the safety.

The hybrid alien dropped his gun onto the ground and turned around, crouching with his face in his hands. Tohmahawk stood and cautiously put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Scorpion's grated voice made him smile, "I hate you, you know that?"

[Force Master Hunter]

"Funny, you always say that to me. It must be my blazing charm."

Tohmahawk bent down to look Scorpion in the face. "You okay?" But he suddenly couldn't say more. With the seses he had, a marked change had come over Scorpion... but what was it?

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Scorpion stood and looked past Tohmahawk to the little girl, then at the lake. A definite change was there. It was his face. Almost tranquil. Not quite, but still. He leaned down and slung his rifle over his shoulder.

"Better than ever. We've got a few things to take care of."

[Force Master Hunter]

He gave Jyanis a odd look, wondering what that odd comment meant. Still, it was clear the insanity had lost it's hold and Tohmahawk was seeing his friend as he should be.

"Okay then... what do you have in mind? I seem to have a few free moments, anything I can do?"

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Jyanis looked at Tohmahawk with an amused grin, "First off, you can make sure she doesn't go in the water."

He motioned towards Jina who was very close to the edge of the water, "Pirahnas aren't friendly by nature."

Tohmahawk rushed over and took the girl's hand and pulled her away, "You could've considered that when you almost threw me in there."

Jyanis chuckled lightly, "I could've, yes, but I didn't."

As they walked through the jungle, Tohmahawk noticed much change in Scorpion already. Even the way he surveyed the land before him.

--

The sparkling Hensaran Ocean spanned the horizon before them. A makeshift steel dock stuck out of the shoreline, guarded by two regular infantrymen, who saluted as Jyanis, Tohmahawk, and Jina walked by. Scorpion took the controls of the small converted hydrofoil at the end of the dock and started the engines as Jina sat in the back and Tohmahawk stood in the middle.

An inverting V-shape in the water marked their trail. Tohmahawk stepped up beside Jyanis, "Where are we going?"

"Vrea Island."

"There's no island in this ocean."

"There is now."

Tohmahawk looked up and saw a large triangular shape protruding from the water quite a distance off. As they came closer he could see what it was. It was a large island base made unnaturally. Metal bars stuck out of the sides and sparks were flying everywhere. Apparently it wasn't finished. But he could see that it was clearly stable. He counted about eighteen permacrete and steel columns extending from the underside to hold it in place. Tohmahawk guessed they were each roughly about thirty meters in diameter.

They rode up underneath onto what looked like a half submerged elevator. Whine-thump! The metal rigging lifted the hydrofoil up onto the safety of the platform. A platoon of seatroopers stood at attention as they climbed down.

Jyanis led them across the platform to the other side, where a small Lambda shuttle sat, folded up. The ramp was lowered and Scorpion walked up. Tohmahawk didn't know what in blazes he was doing but shrugged and took Jina with him into the craft. There were already pilots onboard so Jyanis sat in the passenger hold with Tohmahawk.

Tohmahawk looked over at him, "Jyanis, what are we doing?"

"I'm getting us some soldiers."

Considering the circumstances, Tohmahawk raised both of his eyebrows in amusement, "You make it sound so simple."

"That's because it is."

--

Tohmahawk couldn't understand why Scorpion was so confident of what he was about to do. He was basically about to go on a stage before a rally of thousands of troopers, while being broadcasted to almost every base on planet and in orbiting fleet. Then his eye caught a computer console listing every officer on planet. He scrolled down the list and couldn't help but grin maniacally. Ex-URSF. Ex-URSF. Ex-URSF. He switched to a folder narrowed down to groupings of regiments. Ex-URSF. Almost every one of them. He picked the SEASDF folder. Every fleet officer and crew member ex-URSF.

Jyanis looked over Tohmahawk's shoulder and sensed what was on his mind, "What? You think I'm going to make a major base and not pick familiar soldiers to come with me? This just works out good."

Tohmahawk shook his head from side to side and laughed.

Scorpion stepped out onto the stage and curled his right hand into a traditional dictator's fist, as he was used to, and proceded to speak.

"My fellow soldiers - my fellow citizens of the galaxy - the time has come again for change. You have followed with me through war, and in the darkest times, we prevailed again and again. Now I call upon you for a greater challenge: Courage. Yes, I've seen you all. You all fight courageously, but it is all wasted without a just cause. This cause has been one draped before us but never reached for. This cause is freedom. You all have families, I know. You fight for them, but we cannot truly win if we can't protect them from the oppression that plagues this universe. That is the reason I have come before you. We must change. We must seperate from the organization that brings about this plague, and fight on the truly worthy side. I know this is all difficult, but to... ease the pain, I am giving every last one of you a 6.35 percent increase in your pay. Thank you."

A cheer rose up in the crowd before Jyanis could even begin to mouth his final two words, but that was enough for him. He raised a fist into the air and walked off the stage before a smiling Tohmahawk.

"I told you it was simple."

[Force Master Hunter]

He had to laugh. This was crazy. He was guessing what Jyanis had in mind and it frankly incredible.

The solider who had spoken to Tohmahawk eariler singled him out.

"What's going on? Do you know?"

"Oh yeah, do I ever now. You got some troops you would trust with your life?"

"Hell yeah. A few of them were with you at Hoth"

"Even better. Firstly get me to a computer room and a high powered terminal. Get me that man and his squad that pulled the job on Hoth on the AIX400 and lets go have us some fun"

"Why?"

Tohmahawk told him and the reasons why. The other's eyes went wide.

"DAMN! Right on it. See you in 5 five"

An idea came to Tohmahawk

"Jyanis, you would happen to know of the sequence to....."

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Hundreds of heavy attack tanks rolled across the landscape, following the hovertrain route to Hensara City where troop rallies were being held to give the men encouragement. About four to a half a dozen soldiers sat on the sides of each of the T5-As, hitching a ride. The men were helmetless because of the humidity and stroked their XX-9 rifles to the rumble of the tank treads.

Overhead, the whine of the hovertrain repulsorlifts could be distinguished even before it passed, loaded down with thousands of soldiers in dozens of cars.

--

The train rolled into the city and the soldiers poured out in great numbers into the main city square, where a group of officers in support of seperation each said their piece on the gigantic holoprojector suspended in midair.

Jyanis walked with Tohmahawk into the computer room and stood beside him, handing him an octogon keycard.

He nodded and simply said, "SRTC9521RDO."

[Force Master Hunter]

Tomhahawk nodded as he mind the connection and entered the authorisation code. The Major at his shoulder almost spat in surprise

"You... the lot?"

"The lot. While we are at it, hit the accounts that we find and suck them dry. Here's a transfer account. Now, when we have transferred the lot, I'lll justt........ yeah, ready to go. Once the flag has shifted to sent, this worm will auto delete and then insert itself in the codebase, preventing restoration of deleted files and also creating a root level backdoor. Now... files here... and here... and here appear to be protected, we will grab them too and crack em later. Directories here..... damn, cant get them fast enough - no, we dont have access level to do that, not now anyway."

"Sir?"

Tohmahawy turned. "Yes?"

"Corporal Taggart Sir. Crypt tech. We are ready to be let loose"

"Go to it. One hour"

"SIR!" The slicers got to work, finding, downloading, running rampant, opening the system up more and more. Hitting accounts and tranferring credits. Oh boy, this was going to hurt.

"Jyanis.... Anything specific you want?"

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Jyanis grinned and nodded, "Just bring my babies back with you."

He watched as they went to work.

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Scorpion turned away from the console and walked across the room to a bank of computers in the corner, connected to a gigantic mainframe computer. He stepped behind it and pulled out a large wire from a plug in the wall, jamming Hensara III secret defense codes from the rest of the network.

Silently, he went to work changing the passcodes and procedures to everything, starting from the more important to the less. Shield generators to barracks entry codes.

[Force Master Hunter]

"OUT!"

"Worm launched, files deleting! Tranfers terminated, they woke up, but we got most of it first! Disconnect!"

Tohmahawk stayed in the TSE system to view the worm destroying Scorpions files that they had just downloaded, then to attach itself on a high level process to corrupt more data, he pulled the cable to log out.

"JYANIS! Lets get the hell out here! Allright soldiers, look smart, I want everyone out of here!"

He puased

"What are your orders Jyanis?"

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Jyanis turned to Tohmahawk with a grim look on his face, "My orders are to get the hell out of here. Pronto."

They both ran out the door, but Scorpion backstepped and hit the large red button on the wall. A city wide alarm sounded and red lights flashed on every corner.

Shuttles, barges, transports, fighters. Everything was getting filled to the brink with troops and weaponry. Builder shuttles were latching onto buildings and heavy defenses getting dug out by digger droids.

[Force Master Hunter]

Tohmahawk nodded.

"Allright, you heard the man, iwant elbows and backs! MOVE!"

The tone of command was unmistakable. People scrambled.

--

[Force Master Hunter]

"Jyanis, my ship is close by. The best idea for you would be to get your ships or what ever to go to... this spot, change course a few times along here.... and here... and here.... then park.... here. And to go when loaded and not wait for the other ships. Okay?"

Scorpion nodded, relaying the orders to his commanders.

--

They were the last to board a ship. Jina skipped up the ramp, oblivious to the commotion, while the two military men watched the departures from the ramp.

Watched the last drop ships lift and Tohmahawk noted his friend seemed melancoly.

"Regrets?"

Scorpion looked over the rapidly deserting pad, then shook his head. "No. ONly that I should have done this eariler. Lets get some air under this crates wings."

"Will do."

--

Whrrrr whrrr whrrrrr

"GOD DAMN IT!" A slammed fist echoe out.

"problem?"

"Converters are stalled. Repulor lifts wont fire up. Damn it...."

"Bad..?"

"Dunno yet..."

--

half hour later.

"Yes, it's bad. We cant lift normally"

"Oh @#%$. I think my former comrades will be pissed if they find me...."

"Your first ships should be entering hyperspace.... damn it, we need their cover incase anyone turns up. All right.... strap in....."

Scorpion looked puzzled. "How you going to lift without repulsors?"

Tohmahawk turned and grinned. He pulled on the crash webbing and began clicking buttons. Scorpion gave Jina a puzzled glace, saw she was buckling up too. Oh well, if they were, he would too.

Tohmahawk began to count down. "5..4.."

Jina screamed. Scorpion got the feeling something quite stupid was about to occur.

"3..2..1....." Tohmahawk clicked a arming switch and trust a lever forward.

The ship growled, then shrieked as the sublight motors exploded to life, blasting the craft forward. the landing skid screamed as they slid on the ground, great sparks and crashes echoed. A quick control surface flick and the ship lifted at speed, then blasted mere meters off the ground. The landing skids retracted as an echoing boom of the craft breaking sonic echoed, the cabin howled with the noise of the air friction. Tohmahawk twisted his hand and the ship ripped upwards, leaving a trail of fire aas it blasted for space.

[Jedah Lynch]

OOC:

Since you choose to delete threads on behalf of the Empire, anything you took that could be used against the Empire will be ignored in future threads.

Expect this to be looked at and in the end an offical protest being made against the person who deleted the threads.

That is all.

[Force Master Hunter]

Nothing was deleted just because I felt like it. I was directly requested ONLY.

I'm tempted to say more about this right now, but I have sworn I would refuse to bring anything OOC into my roleplay, so I wont.

[Jedah Lynch]

One request by one party on one side.

The end result was the same, TSE gets screwed.


I'm tempted to say more about this right now, but I have sworn I would refuse to bring anything OOC into my roleplay, so I wont.

With that quote I can and shall say likewise, very much so.

[Force Master Hunter]

I was doing what I was requested to do, no more. Despite what you may think, I don't just artitarily wave a hand against what I dont like. Read above again.... REQUESTED.

[Rama Sha]

Just heard about this....


So let me get this straight. Scorp leaves TSE without telling anyone one, on the board or through Email, and thus had accesss to locked forums for some time after the turn. then an attack is launched on TSE held worlds without the proper notifcation required by SWFANS rules. Then on top of that threads about the defense of a planet that we own were delted on request by some mysterious force.




Does that about sum this up?


You do know this place has rules don't you?

[Dalethria Mal Pannis]

one ... we really need to start using the OOC forum for stuff like this, that is one reason why it was made.

two ... I heard about what has happened and did not see the posts that were deleted. From what I know, there was some mix up and it was not cleared with TSE to have those posts deleted .. so I am rather confused.

As to rama said about scorp given notice, I am going to have to agree.

[Force Master Hunter]

It looks like there is no attack, it looks like a force under the command of Scorpion is leaving in a big hurry. I sure as hell aint launched no attack, as I'm just one man.

This thread, if you TSE'ers havent worked out is a defection. This is not an attack by anyone and I would love to know why you think that is so.

Summing up - Hunter realises Scorpion is going insane, goes to help a friend. They had a fight and Scorpion breaks from his insanity. Hunter decides they need to get the hell out of here. Scorpion is takig what he can and they are gettign the hell out of there.

Apart from being a neat kick in the nuts, where in this is there an attack as you claim? Going to OOC forum to continue

[Jedah Lynch]

Looks like a neat job to do whatever you wanted and get the hell out more like it.

TSE responded in a fair way, those threads were deleted and several more threads made to carry on the plot to achieve whatever and anything that you two wanted. That seems pretty damn unfair to me. To use ones responsibility to delete the thread of the opposing force and then do whatever you want.

Thats not justice by any means, its doing your own stuff your way and not giving the other guys a chance to really respond or continue what they started. Thats a kick to the nuts.

Another kick to the nuts I'll admit is Scorp had access to private forums for 8 days while doing this yet didnt inform anyone can be considered an infilitration issue also. That is a very serious issue. When you go its not hard to notify a group, its called being respectable.

[Rama Sha]

I have to agree with Dale, lets move this to OOC forum boys.


But I do have to add that no one would have stopped Scorp from taking his stuff and going whever he wanted, but he does need to inform us. Which he didn't do.

[Jyanis Scorpion]

Jyanis arched his head back and sighed. Like he needed the shuttle even more busted. He sighed and unbuckled his straps, then looked over to check and see if that girl was ok. She looked pretty tense, but all right. He wouldn't know how to deal with her anyway.

He calmly strolled across the grey steel floor and looked out the small circular viewport. Barges and transports whizzed by, escorted by the fighters equipped with hyperdrives. The rest of the fighters were barely squeezing into the hangar bays of the starships.

He walked past the viewport and shuffled sideways between a pair of crates holding bacta supplies. He walked up behind Tohmahawk with an expressionless face and halfheartedly backhanded him in the rear of his head, "You idiot! Good flying, but still, you idiot!"

He gave him a light punch in the shoulder and sat down in the co-pilot's chair with a grin, intricately running his fingers over the console and checking their status and the status of the transport craft.

He spoke outloud not really directing it to anyone, "Fleet's a click from the jump point. Fifty percent of the transports are forming a convoy and getting escort from the fleet. I guess the other half is still getting themselves coordinated. Demo crew is almost finished up. Everything's underway."

Jyanis pressed a button and a holoscreen rose up at an angle from the console, giving him an target crosshair and direct control of the two double laser cannons. Tohmahawk looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged, "I'd just like to have some control over whatever you do with this piece of junk."

[Captain Tohmahawk]

Tohmahawk turned back to regard the fleet manouvering near him. Most of these ships were military and hence fast, but he would bet there was nothing that could match Razor for sheer speed and manouvrability.

"Jyanis, we'll wait here until all your toys have made the jump"

The craft flitted away from the fleet, then moved to a rearguard position. Minutes later, they were alone in space.

"We waiting for anything?"

"Yep.... waiting for the nav comp to.... ahh, here we are"

"Oh?"

"Didnt want anyone to see where we are going. I trust your men can be left alone for a bit while we make a detour?"

"Well... yes. Where are we going?"

Tohmahawk grinned as he spun the ship around and then lined the craft up on the co-ordinates. "We're off to your new home mate. Aint the jedi going to be pleased to see you...."

The motors of the ship glowed fiercely as it blasted into hyperspace, taking the newest member of GJO with it