Hit and Miss: Shots in the Dark

[TSE Probe Droid]

From the maw of a Star Destroyer squadron launches dozens upon dozens of hyperspace pods carrying probe droids launch out into the depthless void of space, angling themselves towards their hyperspace exit corridor. Each of which aimed at various planetary systems outside the borders of the Sith Empire. Their mission: Gather any intelligence possible.

[Varlon Konrad]

As the last of the probe droid capsuls accelerated into hyperspace, Captain Derrick turned on his heel, facing towards the bridge command chair where Sith Knight Poreon sat. Striding up to him, he halted, the heels of his shoes clicking together as he snapped to attention, and then snapped a salute to his current commanding officer.

"Sith Knight Poreon, acting commander of the Dragon's Glare, confirming all probes have entered hyperspace. Further orders, sir?" He asked, his voice showing him to be in his early to mid forties.

[DarthPoreon]

With his index finger, Poreon traced the routes of the probe droids as they launched into hyperspace. In brief seconds, the probe droids had all launched into hyperspace, leaving Poreon with nothing to trail. He turned his attention to a glowing ball of plasma many light years away. The star had recently gone supernova, but if Poreon stayed at his current location, he wouldn’t be able to see the star implode for another twelve years.

“…Poreon, acting commander…” Derrick, Captain of the Star Destroyer Dragon’s Glare, saluted Poreon with an aged military precision. At forty something years old, Derrick more than doubled Poreon’s age. Before returning the salute, Poreon wondered how many of those years Derrick had devoted to the Sith Empire.

Derrick shifted his feet slightly as he talked to the empowering Sith Knight, “…Further orders, sir?”

Swiveling in his commander’s chair, Poreon cracked his knuckles while thinking of an appropriate answer. Coming up with that answer, Poreon spoke softly, but with the Force, his voice carried through the whole bridge of the Star Destroyer. “Captain, set up the holo-transmissions on AV-Machines 3, 4, 5 and 6 in quad screen cuts.”

“My lord, the probes won’t be able to transmit for another thirty minutes up to thirteen hours...” Derrick began to interject, but Poreon silenced him with a flat, open hand.

“I know Captain, but I don’t want to miss a second of transmissions even if I our one of our ensigns has to watch static for five days.”

“Understood, my lord.” The Star Destroyer Captain nodded his head.

“Further, see if the techies can’t get a little countdown ticker in each corner of the transmission screens counting down time until arrival in negatives and mission time in positives.”

“Yes sir.”

“One more thing, rotate the Star Destroyer thirty seven degrees by two degrees Southwest-South so we can see the lunar eclipse coming up in three hours.” Poreon ordered. Lately, Poreon had been in his astronomy phase; so anything solar going on, Poreon had to see.

While the Dragon’s Glare began a slow rotation to view the upcoming Eclipse, Poreon leaned back in his commander’s chair and reviewed a datapad containing intelligence files on planets near Sith Empire territory.

[DarthPoreon]

<center> BEGIN MESSAGE_
D: TS04223
LCTN: TGPLNT--DNTN
DT: 06M01
R: All Access</center>

Timetables/Geo.--Years on the planet last 378 local days, which are 25 hours long each. Two moons orbit the planet while dry savannas comprise most of the surface.

Synopsis of History—Home to a Jedi Training Academy run by Jedi Master Vodo Siosk-Baas, DNTN produced the most notorious Dark Jedi, the Exar Kun. Until the New Order (Palpatine’s Rein), little happened; but DNTN was subject to minor Death Star wrath when the rebel, Liea Organa, spilled the information that the Rebel Alliance’s base was on DNTN. The Rebel Base ended up being an abandoned base. In recent times, Admiral Daala devastated the planet in attempt to destroy Eol Sha colonist refugees.

Intel—Held by TG, DNTN houses important stations—ADMNSTRTN EXTRGLCTC SRVLLNC XPLRTN. DNTN was subject to a Yuuzhan Vong attack recently in which both sides suffered significant losses, though the Vong emerged the true victors. DNTN is part of the DLTN SCTR and is under PRN’s jurisdiction at the time. DNTN is closest to the TS planet of DBRLLN. Not much else of interest in the recent surveillance.

<center>END MESSAGE_</center>

“The first probe droid, Road Mole Dee Anti 68 Lee, should be showing up on screen 4, my lord.” Derrick reported. Suppressing a smile at how long ago his service had been in the “Empire,” Poreon turned his attention from the dated Intelligence File to the view screen. The static on the screen had begun flickering, revealing spasmodic streams of its focal target.

[Daegal Murdoch]

Doors to the bridge opened and Sith Warrior Daegal Murdoch quickly walked through. After returning salutes as he entered, he made his way towards Sith Knight Poreon.

He saluted and began to talk, his low voice carrying throughout the bridge.

"Knight Poren, I have come to offer my assistance in regards to the recently deployed probes. Your orders are mine."

Daegal stood silently, awaiting Poreon's answer.

[DarthPoreon]

As the transmission between Road Mole Dee continued to cackle, Poreon turned his attention away for a second as he heard boot steps behind him. Turning 180 degrees in his chair, Poreon faced Daegal, Poreon's blue eyes piercing into Daegal. "Ah, Warrior Murdoch, I see you've made it to the bridge safely. Welcome to the Dragon's Glare, accomodations here are quite well."

Poreon rotated around for a short moment, ordering Captain Derrick to fetch Daegal a Commander's chair. The chair arriving, Poreon swiveled back to Daegal, "Feel free to sit. If you'd like some refreshments, I'm sure these fine shipmates can get you something."

Smiling, Poreon felt like he was living a life of luxury; but he quickly quit that thinking, focusing on the task at hand instead. "Daegal, this mission, though it may seem mundane, will benifet our Empire so much in the long run. We must accomplish this, while maintaing our veil of secrecy."

"Currently, the droids are on 'autopilot;' but should you prefer a more hands on intelligence gathering, these new VR sets from the masterminds at R&D will allow you to control an individual probe droid's movements, sights, sounds and minor weapons. It's a very cool thing to work with and will allow us a more versatile search of the surrounding areas."

"So, sit back, relax and take monitor 3 to look over right now. The VR set should be under your command chair if you want to engage in that form of 'probing.'"

Smiling, Poreon saluted Daegal then propped his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, looking more closely at the Road Mole Dee screen, which had finally come into decent focus.

[Daegal Murdoch]

Daegal sat in his chair, looking down towards monitor three. He reached under his chair and pulled the VR set out, placing the headgear on.

Speaking ot no one, but everyone at the same time, Daegal inquired as to the name of the probe that he was about to control. Alpha Explorer 411B was the reply that he recieved from one of the crew members.

"Very well, let's try this out", Daegal thought to himself. Pushing a button on the console infront of him, the VR set activated. Daegal could now see exactly what the probe was recording.

Adjusting the microphone so that it was near his lips, Daegal spoke a command softly.

"Set course to, Obroa-Skai, near the planet Fondor."

A series of beeps came through the speaker that was near Daegal's ear, which he took for meaning that his order had been executed. Daegal leaned back in his chair, still watching through the VR helmet.

"This should get interesting", he thought to himself.

[DarthPoreon]

On the other hand, Poreon abstained from using the Virtual Reality Probe Droid controls at the time. Instead, he just watched the automated probe droid of Road Mole Dee make its long, passive sweeps of its system.

He didn't need the information on Dantooine nearly as much as his superiors needed the information. By closing his eyes, Poreon could remember all the little details of the savanna filled planet that had once been under his jurisdiction. Long gone were those days, though...

The probe continued making its sweeps, hidden from enemy sensors by one of Dantooine's double moons. Optical sensor sweeping for a close up of the moon, the image on the view screen shifted to a barren wasteland. Craters dotted the land frequently, though not in any apparent pattern. Obviously, the moon did not support life naturally. Minuscule mining settlements appeared every thousand clicks or so, sapping the moon of its ore mineral.

Scratch Dantooine's moon off the threat list...Nothing military here 'cept minor ore miners.

The probe began to cross the gap between Moon A and Moon B. While open in space, the droid's sensors panned to the Dantooine planet, still a ways away.

<center>***</center>

“My Lord, Galactic Survey Planet TS 4639 is appearing on the third portion of view screen 4. You may want to take a look at this…” Derrick reported causing Poreon to turn his attention from the Dantooine probe to a new probe droid scouting a planet only known by Numbers.

[Daegal Murdoch]

As the probe neared the planet, Daegal again took manual control. He decided that it would be wise to maintain a large distance from the planet, in hopes of remaining undetected.

He manuvered the probe so that it could begin to take preliminary, long-range pictures that hopefully would tell whether the planet was militant in nature or not.

As the information was beginning to be recorded and transfered back to the Dragon's Glare, a loud beep resounded from Daegal's headset. It was followed quickly by a monotonus voice that said, Warning! Attack incoming on probe Alpha Explorer 411B.

Daegal quickly attempted to manuver the small probe to avoid the attacks from Obroa-Skai, but failed. A loud noise, like that of a
saber blast, came through the speaker in his helmet, followed quickly by the screen going black.

In disgust, Daegal removed the helmet.

"Captain, notify the homeworld that the planet of Obroa-Skai is to be placed on the hostile list. It is believed to be under Galactic Empire control, however our intel regarding its ownership is dated."

[DarthPoreon]

Poreon snapped the VR gear into place over his body just as Daegal tore off his system. He heard Daegal rattle off an order, but being under the VR system’s scope, Poreon was unable to make sense of what Daegal said. Looking through the VR helmet was like looking through someone else’s eye. Currently, the 270-degree headset displayed a picturesque space scene: stars glimmering in the background while a lone planet orbited a sun that was millions of clicks away. In the bottom right corner of the screen a series of 1s and 0s rolled past, indicating the probe droids location. Above those numbers, mathematical equations showing the stability of Pi reported normal space-time conditions, while another set of letters and numbers indicated if the passive or active sensors picked up life or mechanic forms of being.

With the VR firmly strapped on, Poreon rotated his head to the left. The real time picture on the screen moved left, too, the new angle cutting off the yellow sun the planet orbited. Poreon moved his head to the right. The view shifted again, this time blocking the planet from the scope. Next, Poreon tilted his head up, causing the planet and sun to move down on the screen. Lastly, Poreon moved his head down, letting the planet and sun fall back into place.

Motion gloves were strapped to Poreon’s hands. These gloves controlled the thrust, zoom, direction, lift and self-destruct of the probe droid. Stretching fingers caused the probe droid’s scope to zoom in while making them into a fist caused the probe droid zoom away; lifting or dropping hands while fingers were locked together caused the droid to rise and fall respectively. Placing hands outwards like pushing something caused the droid to move forward (amount of stress controlled speed); and slamming the hand on any object signaled self-destruct.

Poreon stretched his hands out; the probe droids’ scope zooming in naturally. The optical sensor focused on the planet, the letters/numbers TS 4639 displayed over the planet. First things first, Poreon decided that TS 4639 was a pretty bad name for a planet.

“Change name and update database to ‘Jak Et.’” Poreon said coolly. The name displayed over the planet changed to Jak Et while every Empire database updated its information base to rename TS 4639 as Jak Et.

Feeling satisfied with the new name, Poreon began examining the planet from space through the VR. Deep blue oceans covered half of the planet from Poreon’s angle; and separating Great Ocean from Great Ocean were large land masses, the majority flat but a few with mammoth mountains. Small layers of clouds floated on the planet’s atmosphere, giving the planet an even more storybook feel.

<center>Life Forms Detected_
Estimated Number_
357 Billion Kingdom Animal. More in lesser kingdoms_ </center>

There it was… Jak Et had life. It was now an important planet. “Flag planet as status Blue,” Poreon ordered the droid. Status Blue meant a planet had a life, but was no threat yet.

Poreon pushed his gloved hands forward, and the probe droid began a deep space thrust to put it in atmospheric descent. As the droid lowered into the planet’s nitrogen and oxygen rich atmosphere, Poreon felt like he was about to collapse under extreme pressure; but that feeling quickly subsided as the droid made it to a normal flying level around 300 feet above sea level.

The storybook feel of Jak Et ended at that point. Large patches of razed fields were on the ground of the plains that looked so green and peaceful from space. Fires raged haphazardly across the ravaged lands.

The silence of the land soon broke, too. War cries replaced the silence. In the right corner of the probe droid, a self-destruct countdown started ticking from ten. Poreon quickly overrode the self-destruct: Information was vital.

The screams became louder and louder until they were almost deafening. Poreon turned the volume down on his VR Headset by issuing a mental command, just as a legion of lizards—they looked like the Yuuzhan Vong Chazrach Shock troopers—marched onto the barren wastelands.

They wore crude armor. A thin looking metal covered everything but the head, which was covered in thick, lizard-like scales. In their hands, they fashioned simple weapons: long wooden staffs, bone clubs and axes.

But Poreon’s attention did not fall on the lizard things’ apparel—the probe droid captured it all for later use—but his attention fell on the grotesque teeth of the army. Off long snouts, the teeth must have been at least one inch thick and three inches tall: capped in a sharp looking point. They could probably shred apart anything unlucky enough to fall into its reach…

Information was vital on this mission, and Poreon planned to get that information. He thrust the probe droid into the main throng of the lizard legion. Savagely, they pounced on the piece of machinery. Surprisingly, they did not mash it with their teeth but with large talons on their feet. The probe droid lasted barely a minute, but in that minute it recorded everything that went on in the lizard legion: the sights and sounds.

Everything went black and Poreon felt like he was dead. He ripped the VR set off of his head, sweating.

“Mark Jak Et as a status Yellow planet.” Status Yellow meant vicious life, though non-sentient. Maybe the Sith Empire could enslave those barbaric creatures as shock troopers…

[DarthPoreon]

Typing a brief report into his datapad, Poreon turned to face Daegal who had unstrapped himself from his VR Set. "How goes it, Daegal?" the Knight asked the warrior.

So far three planets had been probed or were in the process of probing. Poreon knew the status of two of those; but he needed a refresh on the third one.

While awaiting a response from Daegal, Poreon noticed a fourth droid had dropped from hyperspace... The screen displaying the probe droid's scope was engulfed in a firey, plasma inferno. Seconds later, the plasma was replaced with constant static, signaling an offline probe droid.

"Derrick... Make sure that droid's navigation didn't malfunction; that was a seventy-five thousand credit intelligence droid we lost for no apparent reason," Acting Commander Poreon ordered the Star Destroyer captain.

"Now Daegal, what were you saying?" Poreon returned to the Sith Warrior.

[Daegal Murdoch]

Sighing, Deagal began.

"I have placed Obroa-Skai on red status. According to Intelligence Report J-H3201A, it was last believed to be under Galactic Empire control. The droid was destroyed by planetary defenses. I take full responsibility. It was my piloting that resulted in the destruction of the droid. Excuse me for a minute, sir.

Daegal quickly turned to the Captain of the ship.

"Alert Fondor that Obroa-Skai has been placed on red status. They should increase their defenses as much as possible."

Turning back to Poreon, "As I was saying, Obroa-Skai has been moved to alert status Red."

[Daegal Murdoch]

Daegal studied the Knight, unaware of what his response would be. After receiving an affirmative nod and being told that the crashing of the probe did not matter, a smile came about Daegal's face.

"Well then, Knight Poreon, I had best get back to the work at hand. With your permission, of course."

Poreon nodded at Deagal and so Daegal turned his opinion back to the monitoring screen.

A crew member alerted Daegal that another probe had just dropped out of hyperspace.

Daegal looked intently at his monitor as a picture appeared.

After studying the screen for a moment, Daegal turned to a crew member and barked an order.

"Cross refrence the probe's location versus the known planetary lists. I want to know where it is."

The reply was quick and short, nothing more than the normal "Yes Sir."

Daegal turned his attention back to the screen. A dark green cloud of gas loomed in the distance, however, Daegal could not tell what exactly the cloud was.

The crew member reported back to Daegal, "The probe has had a slight malfunction in its navigation computer. It has not followed the course that it was supposed to. The closest Empire planet to the probe's current location is Bespin."

Daegal grunted, obviously quite disgusted with the malfunciton.

"Well, I want to know what in the hell this green cloud is, Major, and I want to know yesterday!"

The major nodded and scuffled off to determine what exactly the green cloud was.

Daegal sighed and turned his attention back to the monitor and awaited the major's reponse.

[DarthPoreon]

Poreon nodded his head as Daegal returned to duties. So far Daegal was doing an impressive job and chances were, he would keep it up the good work.

"Derrick... prep me some data files for the Deaf probes. I need to read up on them."

Derrick went scurrying off to fetch Poreon the requested files. While awaiting the files, Poreon watched the datascreen Daegal had poured all of his atention into.

[Daegal Murdoch]

"Major, do you have the information on this green cloud yet?", Daegal barked form his chair. He was hunched over the screen, watching intently, hoping to notice some change in the green cloud that was so many light-years away.

"Yes sir! It is a space fungus."

Daegal turned and glared at Major Joseph Gerant. "Major, if you value your position within the Empire, I suggest that you stop playing games before I end your miserable life myself!"

The major, obviously shaken, struggled to speak. "Sir, it is a space fungus known as Fearoqi. It corrodes anything metal based...Circuit boards, metal parts, things of that nature. It was developed long ago by the Gamorrean, and has not been seen in the last several hundred years."

Daegal grinned, obviously pleased. Turning to Poreon, he spoke "This has the potential to be an absolutely magnificent discovery."

He then spun his chair around and looked at the major. “You are betting your position, as well as your life on this. Are you absolutely sure that this is Fearoqi?”

The major nodded, unable to speak due to fear of the large sith that sat before him.

Darkness welled up within Daegal. He was obviously very pleased with his discovery. “Have the probe release the silicon containment case. I intend to bring as much Fearoqi as possible back.”

With that, Daegal opened his datapad and began a message. He intended to personally report his discovery to the Council.

[Daegal Murdoch]

Daegal proofread his message to the Council one final time before pushing a button on his datapad. A soft beep confirmed that the message had been sent to the Council. (http://pub59.ezboard.com/fthesempirefrm1.showMessage?topicID=583.topic)

[DarthPoreon]

"Congratulations, Warrior Daegal. Make sure those samples get back to TSE's hands and soon." Poreon smiled at the Warrior. It seemed Poreon had been smiling a lot more lately.

As Daegal rattled off a message to TSE, Poreon returned to his datapad.

<center>Begin Message_
D: TS554238
LCTN: DFPLNT--DYRK
DT: 08M03
R: Brief
</center>

Timetables/Geo--Moon, orbits the gas giant of Nepe in the Kathol Outback near the edge of the galaxy. Only sunward side of the moon is habitable because of a tide-lock with the planet.

History--Little of interest has happened here... DYRK is one of the most habitable locations of the Kathol Republic.

Intel--Held by DF. Allied with TS. Apocolapyse operation running quite smoothly.

<center>End Message_</center>

Poreon shut off the datapad he had requested from Derrick. It had provided little information to the Sith Knight. If he weren't in the presence of nearly three hundred bridge and senior officers, Poreon would have destroyed the datapad into millions of little pieces of shrapnel. That's what one would get for crossing a Sith Knight.

A new video screen flickered to life. Framed in the center of the screen was the yellow-orange gas giant of Nepe. Its lone moon wasn't visible from the probe droid's location. Give the Navigation Officers Props... This droid arrived in the right spot.

Poreon donned the VR gear once again: this probe being one of the more important probes. As he put on the VR Headset and the video image came into focus, Poreon quickly jerked his hands left. A large, floating piece of space debris had almost collided with the probe droid. As Poreon rotated his head around in every angle, he saw more space debris, all residue of the Apocolapyse operation.

Shoving his hands forward, Poreon sent the probe droid into a gradual acceleration to the still "invisible" Dayark Moon.

[Khan Surak]

:: Captain Braken had been given the callsign of "Breaker" by his fellow pilots. The man was immense in muscular size, and he seemed to take up the entire cockpit of his TIE Defender. Right now he was leading his flight group of 3 other TIEs in another boring patrol around the sun, planet, and moon. Ever since the now Vice Admiral Surak had begun his reformation, there had been a strict, round the clock patrol of the entire system.

To Braken, the fuss over scrapping several ships and building new designs, the creation of this new governmental system, and the awaitment of TF1 and 2 to arrive wasn't worth the manhours. "If only I could get one of those high-brow admirals into this little seat, and make THEM fly around for twenty billion hours, and-". His inner ranting was cut short but a warble from his sensors. Glancing to the side, he saw a new yellow blip appear 20 klicks away, moving around the sun towards the main facilities. The sun's rays were giving his sensors interference so he couldn't see the target on the CMD, and he began grumbling to himself. He opened a comm to his wingmates ::

"Atlas flight, we gotta us a contact. Sun's giving me crap, I'll go up and check it out. Trilance approach behind me, got it?"

"Roger, Breaker. We gotya."

:: With that Braken shifted some power to weapons and streaked ahead towards the unidentified while the three fighters formed a trident behind him ::

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The main doors into the control room hissed open, and a tall man stepped through the doorway. The two guards on duty saluted smartly as the man walked past in martial stalk, nodding to them to show his respect of his presence. He cast a glance around the room for a moment, the flickering monitors and status reports giving little information to him in their out of context state.

Vega approached the area in whichi Daegal and Poreon sat, his footfalls clanging softly on the metal floor. He folded his hands neatly behind his back, a smirked a serpentine smirk.

"Warrior Murdoch, Knight Poreon."

The two averted their gaze momentarily from their posts to see the Sith Lord standing behind their chairs.

"I am here to offer my hand in this operation. Is there any way in which I can help with the task?"

[Daegal Murdoch]

Daegal jumped up and saluted quickly.

"Lord Vega, your presence is most unexpected. I thank you for coming."

Daegal turned to Derrick, the ship's Captain, and order a Commander's chair for Lord Van Derveld.

"Welcome to the Dragon's Glare, I think that you will find accomidations adequate here. If you would like something to eat or drink, feel free to ask any of the crew. As for ways that you can help, Knight Poreon will have to answer that."

Daegal paused a moment.

"Also, Lord Vega, perhaps you would be interested to read the report that I have just recently sent to the Council."

Daegal handed Lord Van Derveld a datapad (http://pub59.ezboard.com/fthesempirefrm1.showMessage?topicID=583.topic).

[DarthPoreon]

Taking a pause from the VR probe as he noticed the Sith Lord Vega enter the Star Destroyer bridge, Poreon turned to face the esteemed Sith Lord. Poreon rose from his chair and gave a brief bow to Vega.

"Hello Lord Vega. I hope your accomodations getting here were quite pleasant..." Not leaving Vega any time to remark if his conditons were not pleasant, Poreon continued, "Our operation is running quite smoothly so far, with a high amount of success. We hope to rack in one or two more probes by the end of the day before sending a report to Lord Varlon."

"There are pleanty of ways you can help. For the most part, the droid programming on these probes is quite boring, therefore the VR system has been formed for better probing. On any of the incoming probes, if you'd like to take control with the VR, that is a way you can help."

"The TV screens over there display all the information regarding each probe incoming or outgoing. So far, we have found much of use and hope to find more. Join us, in exploring the unknown."

Poreon smiled, then returned to his VR set... to waste time was not wise.

[DarthPoreon]

<center>Moving machines and Life Forms Detected_
Estimated number_
4 Starfighters... Many more machines and beings on the moon_</center>

Interesting observation, the probe droid picked out of thousands of streams of data. Why would the droid alert itself to a specific number of starfighters... Unless ofcourse, the starfighters were hostile...

Nah, Poreon shunted the thought away. It was probably just some hot shot young kid testing out a new mech-kit. The chances of the snub fighters being regulated military crafter were slim to none...

Still though, Poreon felt a bad premonition through the Force. Just to be on the safe side, Poreon brought the probe droid into a tighter orbit of the sun, even though it would partially blind his own sensors.

The glare from the sun took up approximently 1/5 of the viewscreen, but it was manageable. Poreon kept his eyes open, and he kept his droid sweeping for information, still a quarter orbit away from viewing the Dayark moon.

[Khan Surak]

:: As the distance between the unidentified and Braken's Defender shrunk, instead of a blank space, lines of red, black, and white scrambled his CMD. The large man's TIE slowed down a bit as he increased power to his shields, being closer to the sun. The canopy of his TIE was half taken up by the glare from the solar mass to his port side. The distance shrunk to 1.57 km and he began searching frantically for a visual on it. What normally would have blinded a regular human, Braken looked towards the sun, his visor and the canopy blocking most of the harmful rays. As he streaked pass the location of the target, he noticed a small black blur nearer in orbit then he was to his port side. He punched up the comm with his wingmates ::

"Atlas Flight, stick around here. I'll go in for a closer look."

"Rozkr th..we chger..ya."

:: Interference from the sun scrambled the message, and he only hoped they could decifer his. Braken performed a snap-roll to the right and out of his canopy he could see his wingmates got the message and were flying loop routes, staying in the same place. He came about towards the sun, slowing his speed and adding power to his shields as he flew slowly back towards the spot he saw the black blur ::

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The Sith took his seat in the commander chair and swivelled around to sit at one of the panels near Daegals. He set up the VR set and put it on, adjusting it quickly to fit his needs. Having read over the data on the fungus report the Warrior had handed to him this prepped Vega's hopes for the sort of information and lifeforms he might stumble upon whilst exploring the various reaches of space which the probe droids had been set out to look on.

The first droid picked up by the set was set for the planet Sullust. Vega punched in the commands to increase the speed of the droid in question, sending it careening at twice the speed it previous held towards the planet.

The viewscreen before his eyes showed the vast baren land of the planet even from high in the sky. The volcano wracked landscape held no obvious life on the surface, yet the scanner picked up a huge population below. A profile for the planet popped up on the top corner of the screen. The planet had been a hive of activity during and around the battle of Endor, and had even been a refuelling point for the Rebels during that period. Vega smirked, and set the droid sweeping over the land, searching for the mineral mines and technologies that the planet supposedly boasted.

[DarthPoreon]

<center> Incoming ships_
Vectors confirming_
12.22.87.14_
</center>

Poreon’s thoughts were confirmed by the Probe Droid’s high-tech sensor readings: his probe was being trailed. Poreon would have rotated his scope to see the followers, but he knew the attempt would have been in vain for the sun’s glare would block any video relays.

Instead, Poreon tried to divert power from technical scanners into the minimal engines the probe droid had, pumping the speed of the probe droid to a good 70 MGLTs. Any more speed and the droid would probably tear apart in the sun’s gravitational pull. Luckily for the probe droid, it was able to coast at this speed without receiving too much flak from the sun.

Keeping his hands flat, Poreon angled the probe droid so it would have an extremely small profile, almost invisible to the naked eye. As the droid flattened out into low profile, it broke out of the sun’s orbit and into free space, becoming even more invisible against the black sky. With the slingshot boost from breaking free of the sun, the Probe Droid accelerated to 100 MGLTs, gaining distance on the followers.

Then Dayark came into view, a small oval of a moon a few hundred clicks away. As the distance narrowed, Poreon reverted power back to the scanners.

<center> Warning! Warning! Warning!_
Incoming Ships_
Previous Vector confirming_
Same vector_</center>

“Disable auto-self-destruct” Poreon said calmly, the Force speeding up his command.

<center> Auto Self Destruct Disabled_
Warning!_
Incoming Ships_</center>

Poreon turned his head, quickly getting a glimpse of his pursuit. Just as quickly, he turned back to view Dayark. Mixed with the warning, reports of Dayark came through.

<center> Shipyards identified_
Locations confirming_
Warning! Warning!_
Location confirmed…. Transmitting coordinates_
Warning! Warning!_</center>

[Neros Longstreet]

Sorry. Delete this.

[DarthPoreon]

Still keeping a decent distance between its pursuers, Poreon’s probe droid shot through the gravity void separating the gas giant Nepe from its moon, Dayark. Breathing a sigh of relief as the droid got caught in Dayark’s orbit, Poreon began devoting all sensors on the moon, rather than the hot pursuit.
From the farthest reach of orbit, the moon looked much like any other moon; but in reality, Dayark was one of the most populous moons by square meter in the known galaxy.
<center>Data collecting_
Scanning multiple geography maps_
Craters, rivers and ice caps mapped_ </center>
The words scrolled across the probe droid view screen as the moon was mapped. Remarkably fast for a little droid, geography maps, population density maps, political maps and relief maps were scaled and transmitted back to the Dragon’s Glare.
“Run all possible safe—established and non-established—vectors through and transmit them.” Poreon ordered the droid to make lists of hyperspace entry and exit vectors.
0’s and 1’s began scrolling… It was binary code; and once it got back to HQ, it would be processed into usable numbers and routes.

[Khan Surak]

:: Braken strained to look past the sun's glare out his canopy as he increased his speed. Suddenly, his CMD screen flashed several times and when it returned, much of the static lines were gone, and a black cyndrilical object that was accelerarting away from him could be seen between the static lines. He immediately punched up his comm and switched to the Fleet encrypted frequency to Fighter command ::

"Fighter Command, code yellow, we have a probe here! Atlas Flight will disable, send out a tug."

:: He then switched to his flight's frequency and barked orders ::

"This is Braken, we got ourselves a probe. Ion only, guys. You should have visual.. it's moving away from the sun towards the moon. "

"I told those morons back at Command we should enlarge the sensors bouy perimeter!"

"Alright, shutup Vance. Let's fry a probot."

:: Braken manuevered his Defender to the left and increased throttle, away from the sun. He could not get a visual out of his canopy, yet his CMD display told him the probot was nearing, about 2 klicks away. He got an idea and broke off to the left and looked towards the right, back at the sun. Ahead of him and accelerating away to the right, he could make out the black probe against the sun easily. He began muttering taunts to the bot as he jerked to port, coming about, slowing down, and centering his crosshairs on the probe. Braken opened up with his ion canons, and as he did he saw another streak of blue bolts coming from above his fighter, from another TIE Defender in his flight. "No chance, my friend." ::

[DarthPoreon]

The hairs on the back of Poreon’s neck tingled, an indicator of immediate danger. Something would happen, and very soon, for the hairs kept rising. Mentally crossing out stupid theories, such as mutiny on the Star Destroyer, Poreon pin-pinpointed problem: The probe droid!

Using that brief premonition, he triggered the manual self-destruct. In mere fractions of a second, the probe droid exploded into trillions of unidentifiable, microscopic pieces of shrapnel. Before the droid exploded, the droid’s optic scope picked up the image of ION bolts being shot at it…

Taking the head set off in a fit of fury, Poreon hurried to open a communications line with HQ.

“Lord Varlon, it is the Knight Poreon, commander of the Hit or Miss Operations. Your attention is required, now, as per your mission orders.” The holo comm unit flickered as it tried to establish the Sith Lord’s secure holo-frequency.

[Daegal Murdoch]

After hearing Poreon calling for Lord Varlon, Daegal turned and looked at him. Several beads of sweat were beginning to form at Poreon's forehead and Daegal knew that something was wrong.

He halted his exploration for a moment, awaiting a posisble answer from Lord Varlon. Whatever Poreon had to speak with him about was obviously important. Daegal leaned back in his chair and looked around the room. His glanced moved from Poreon to Lord Vega to the various command staff of the Dragon's Glare.