The Conclave Saga: Taking of a home (Vortex)

[Gerrard M. Vinson]

It had been a long trip and Gerrard was more than looking forward to it's conclusion. However there was still much to do before he could even think about resting.

"We're dropping out of hyperspace sir." Came a call from below. Looking down, Gerrard was not surprised to see that it was either the forth or fifth helm officer that had manned the station since their departure, he couldn't remember, not that it really mattered.

"Very well. I want a full report as soon as the sensors come up. I want to know which ships are here, and which ships aren't. If they aren't, I want to know where the hell they are."

His orders were recieved with a chorous of "aye aye"'s. Looking up Gerrard watched as the stars on the giant display screen began to slow until they had reached their normal dots in the sky.

Giving the troops a few minutes to prepare the information he had requested.

"Report" He barked.

"Sensors indecate that we are at 70% sir. We have requested exact numbers from both Admiral Wysoki and Taman."

"What about Admiral Kamoku?" Admiral Zetsumei Kamoku had been out on patrol with a small group of ships when the orders went out. If anything he should have been here first, as his ships were faster than most of the other task forces.

"No sign of his command ship, or any part of his forces."

It was not what he had wanted to hear, nor was it completely unexpected. Zetsumei had always been somewhat of a rogue, but the news still caused a silent curse to escape Gerrard's lips.

"Very well, launch the scout ships and fighter escorts to servey the target. Tell Wysoki and Taman that I want a complete report in less than one hour and contact me if Kamoku arrives. I'll be in my office."

Gerrard had turned and left the command deck before the responce came to him. Kamoku's forces were not a huge loss if in fact that was what happened, but it was still a loss, and those always hurt.

[Christopher Wysoki]

The bridge of the Death Wind was unusually busy as the massive dagger-shaped ship dropped back into realspace, like a massive vibroknife ripping through the fabric of reality. Flanking it were two other Super Star Destroyers, some of the most powerful ships ever designed by the original Galactic Empire. Further encompassing the three Super Star Destroyers was a menegerie of craft ranging from seventy-five metre scout ships to mile-long Star Destroyers. Intermixed between the massive capital ships was several wings worth of fighters. Aboard the Death Wind, the thirty-eight year old admiral prepared his forces for their first act as independants from the Sith.

"Admiral Wysoki, we're being directed to keep an eye out for Admiral Kamoku, and to report to Admiral Vinson if his forces are spotted," The communications officer shouted from his spot in the crew pit, hoping his superior would hear him over the constant buzz of activity.

The admiral nodded to his communications officer before taking a final look at the datapad that his mechanic teams had compiled on his fleet. "Tell the good Admiral that we're ready," He said and turned out to look at the cloud-blanketed world ahead of him, Vortex. Sith Lord Rayial was wedded here, how ironic that it is to be our first conquest away from his kind. He thought to himself as he sat down in his command chair, awaiting any further orders. And if it turns out that Kamoku was the one to turn instead of Taman...

OOC: Too many RPGs I'm in @_@ I'm now confusing my command ships names!

[Master Yoghurt]

OOC: I recommend <a href=http://www.thegjo.com/NR/planets.htm>this</a> page for checking what planets/systems are allready occupied. Will have to get back to this thread a bit later, just letting you know some of the static defenses on beforehand. Some portion of the fleet would also be stationed there.

* 1 CoMar SLD-26 Planetary Shield Generator
* 1 Gencore Level IV shield generator
* 1 Golan class 3 orbital defense platform
* 4 Systems Patrol Battle Station/Outposts
* 4 KDY-250 Dual Planetary Defender axial ion cannons
* 100 Type 1 Defensive Forts

1,000 Mines (500 Laser turrets, 500 concussion missile turrets
100 Squadrons Trade Federation Droid Fighters
40 Squadrons Trade Federation Droid Bombers

Each major starport has a KDY v-150 Planet Defender and a KDY DSS-02 Shield Generator.

Light patrol craft includes 60 squadrons skipray blastboats, 10 of which is located near and around the primary spaceport.

[Braeden Taman]

Braeden Taman stood at the bridge of his command ship, the Trucidation. The admiral smiled slightly, still obviously pleased that they were finally free from the overbearing grasps of their former oppressors. His smiled quickly faded to a frown as he again thought about his distrust of the other admirals.

"They will never be able to run an entire orginization. They lack the skills. We are destined to fail and when we are down, the Sith will come and get us to bring us back under their guise of "leadership", he thought to himself.

"Sir, Admiral Vinson has just sent a message instructing us to keep a lookout for Admiral Kamoku's forces. They have yet to arrive.", the communications officer said quickly.

"Tell him that we will keep a lookout.", Taman shot back quickly.

"Fools! He is just like them, ignorant in the ways of leadership. With Wysoki and Vinson making the decisions, there is no way that this can work. I must move soon, or they will destroy both myself and my men.", the Admiral thought to himself.

"I will be in my quarters, I want to be disturbed only if it is one of the Admirals.", Taman barked as he moved towards his personal quarters to try and think the upcoming events through.

[Gerrard M. Vinson]

The doors to his office opened with a swish causing Gerrards eyes to open quickly at being suddenly awaken and causing the young Lt. Commander that had entered to look somewhat horrified.

"Relax Commander, I'm not in the habit of killing people for waking me up." Gerrard said with a chuckle that caused the Commander to relax somewhat. "Now what is it?"

"Sir the scout teams have returned, and the news is not good."

Gerrards face slackened into it's normal state as he spoke, "Alright let's hear it."

"We lost a total of 13 Razors, 9 Defenders, and Scout 5 is severly damaged."

"Damn. Did we get a complete defense report?"

"Oribital only sir, our ships could not get close enough to Vortex to gain a full report, and even it is not 100% complete due to number 5 having to pull back early."

The Commander walked over and placed a holo-emmitter on the desk in front of Gerrard and turned it on. As he spoke he pointed out the key areas of interest.

"There are major mine feilds here, here, here, and here, and minor ones here, here, and here. Estemates range between 650 and 800 mines of either turbolaser or cuncussion configuration. To our surprise they seemingly have only feilded one Golan, here. However they have 3 System Patrol Stations. There were also sightings of droid craft, both fighter and bomber, but unknown numbers. We believe that this is the bulk of the defending force, their may be several more mine feilds or other stations in the sector that Scout 5 was dispached to, but we have no way of knowing at this time."

"No fleet assets?"

"None that were reported sir, but that does not mean they are not in the missing information or out on patrol."

Gerrard rubbed the side of his face and chin unconciously as he took in the information.

"Launch 4 squadrons of Gun Boats to clear this side of the system, the one opposite of the Golan, to suppress the mine feilds there. We'll drop our attack force into that area when the time comes." He looked at the hologram for a moment longer.
"Also have Wysoki deploy 4 Novas each on these two Patrol Stations."

"Aye aye Sir!"

Gerrard leaned back in his chair as the Commander exited. He knew there would be a fight for what was to be their new home, but it was one that they would win, and hopefully with limited losses.

[Christopher Wysoki]

"Priority message from Admiran Vinson, sir." The communications ensign pipped up, killing the unnatural silence that had shrouded the bridge of the Death Wind, and bringing Christopher roaring back into reality.

"Patch it through." Christopher said as he got up and headed towards the aft hologram projector station. As he approached, a life-size image of Admiral Vinson's bust appeared. "Yes, Admiral Vinson?"

"You are to deploy four of your Dark Nova monitors to engage Patrol platforms Alpha and Beta," The hologram said as a second one, a tactical map, phased into life on a miniature tactical projector not far from Wysoki. "I trust you can handle this?"

"Of course, Admiral Vinson, we aren't the fleets test division for nothing," Christopher said with a smirk. "If my men don't have those platforms down in half an hour, I owe you half my payroll, and to liven up the pot, I say if they do it in half that, I get half yours. Deal?"

Both admirals let out nervous laughs, which were sorely needed at a time of high stress, such as before the storm. "Admiral Wysoki, out." With those words, the hologram faded and Christopher about faced to face the bridge crew. "Fleet status code red, repeat, code red. We are go for invasion!" With the admiral's words, warning klaxons began wailing throughout the cooridors of the Death Wind, signaling that the operation had begun. Stepping over to his tactical station, Wysoki designated eight of his most experianced Dark Nova crews and gave them one of the shortest crash breifings in the history of any Navy, but it was all that they required. In the center of the bridge, a hologram projector rose from the floor decking and a map of the Vortex system sprung to life, with a large mass of green pinpricks representing his fleet, blue ones representing Vinson and Taman's fleets, and red representing the New Republic forces, at least those they knew of. As the admiral neared the hologram, it zoomed in to a six-hundred thousand kilometre diametre zone around the planet of Vortex itself.

Accelerating away from the fleet was eight of the green pinpricks, which quickly multiplied into seventy-two as the Dark Novas launched their contingent of fighters. Over in orbit above Vortex, two of the larger pricks pulsed with red targeting reticles over them, designating them the patrol stations. "Nova one and Nova two, you are clear to engage at will," Wysoki commanded across hypercomm lines to his small task force set out. "Good luck and good hunting out there, and try to get as much intel while you're at it."

[Braeden Taman]

Restless. This described how Braeden Taman felt. The attempt to rest was obviously not going to work. Cursing under his breath, Taman sat up and put his black combat boots on. He reached for his jacket and soon was back on the bridge of his flagship.

"Status Report!", he barked at the Communications Ensign.

"Nothing yet, sir.", the young man replied.

"Damn it! Do they not know how to keep one imformed?", Taman snarled.

[Adm Garm Bel Iblis]

"Admiral on deck!"

:: Captain Jon Tannik turned as the turbolift doors slid open. The words that followed normally would have frozen the bridge crew to attention, but the air of urgency on board was almost palpable.

"It's the Vortex Defense Group, sir. The patrol group was on maneuvers when the planet was attacked. From what they can determine, it's the Sith Empire."

:: Garm Bel Iblis stopped in front of the tactical station, raising a curious eyebrow at that. He was just reviewing the Intel reports of the mass desertion of TSE fleets not 5 minutes prior.

"How many of them?" he asked.

:: Tannik hit a switch on the console. "It would appear, sir," he said, "all of them." A hologram flashed to life, literally every section of it filled with capital ships ranging from frigates to mark 3 super star destroyers.

"This is the data gathered by Defense Platform 1 before they were shut down."

"Shut down?" The white-haired Corellian regarded the Captain at the choice of words.

"Yes sir. The distress call indicated that the platforms were jammed and disabled."

"But not destroyed."

:: Captain Tannik was the one to pause this time. "Sir?"

:: Bel Iblis narrowed his gaze at the tactical display, then looked out the viewport of the NRS Mystra, considering some very unlikely and surprising options. He returned his focus to the Captain, a fellow veteran of the Rebellion himself.

"You served aboard the Hecate, didn't you?"

:: Jon hesitated, replying cautiously. "Yes, sir. Under Admiral Veers."

"Imperial indoctrination taught you that you were creating a New Order, enforcing peace to a galaxy in chaos. Your career had purpose."

:: The Captain did not answer, noticeably off balance. Garm had to admit he was impressed with his composure.

"And when you learned," he continued at length, "that in reality you were carrying out the fanatical whims of a supernatural evil... How did that make you feel?"

:: The Admiral could see the tension fly from Tannik's eyes as a hint of understanding crept in.

"Deploy Tantras group. Set course for Vortex."

[Christopher Wysoki]

"Admiral Wysoki, strike force one reports their target is dead, but intact. Strike force two reports target disabled with the reactor ready to go critical." The senior communications officer shouted over the busy humming of activity on the Death Wind's bridge. "They're requesting permission to eliminate the crews that abandoned."

"Tell them permission denied," Wysoki shouted, more than a bit angry. "Most of them just want to get the hell away from our ships now that they've seen them in action. We aren't here to slaughter ever last one of them, so we won't. Recall them to rondevouz with the fleet's vanguard, we'll be making our move soon."

"Yessir.."

The engagement had lasted a mere twenty-two minutes and ended with one platform disabled and ready for the taking, while the other became a ball of bright whites, yellows, and blues at its reactor melted down, taking the instillation with it. At the cost of eleven TIE Devastators and three Annihilator SE-1 missile boats.

"It would seem that I've won the bet, Gerrard, I'll be expecting my payment in the next standard week," Chris joked, but with a serious tone to it. "And as we can see, the technologies developed and used on the Dark Nova worked beyond our estimates, especially when coupled with the special warheads of the SE-1 class missile boat."

[Gerrard M. Vinson]

"The checks in the mail Christopher."

Chuckling Gerrard closed the channel and turned and began heading to the lift that would take him back to the hanger bay.

"Contact the Apocalypse and alert them that we will be moving out within 20 minutes of my arriving. Also have Admiral Taman join me aboard."

"Yes sir." The Commander turned and headed to the communications console to relay the messages as Gerrard headed down to the shuttle that was awaiting him.

After a short trip the shuttle landed softly on the Apocalypse Star Destroyer. As the door hissed and rotated to the ground Gerrard could see Taman waiting for him at the bottom. Walking down the ramp he stopped when he arrived at the other man.

"Braeden don't get to comfortable, your not staying long. I have a mission for you. I want you to take a small group to the Boeus Sector. There you'll find a planet called Kalador, records show there was once a rebel fighter and pilot training base there. I imagine that it's long abandoned, but I want you to take a small group of our elite troops and secure the facility. Once you have, radio Admiral Wysoki. He will begin slowly transferring the fleet from our staging zone here, to the area around Kalador. When I finish with the people of Vortex, I will join you there to continue on the plans."

"Understood sir." Came the response.

"Good, and Braeden, when I say small, I mean nothing larger then one of our Wraiths and maybe 3 other ships. I don't want our presence in the area known until we have the base secured."

Braeden nodded and headed back to his shuttle and Gerrard turned and headed to the bridge of the Apocalypse, only stopping to momentarily give an order to a Ensign.

"Tell the Captain that as soon as Admiral Taman's shuttle is clear to lay in a course to the region around Vortex that was just cleared by our forces."

Without waiting for the affirmative response Gerrard made his way out of the hanger bay and towards the bridge.

[Adm Garm Bel Iblis]

"Realspace reversion in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... "

As the starlines disappeared off the viewport, Captain Tannik's heart stopped. The sight framed in the transparisteel instantly brought back memories of Endor. He had been asking himself the entire trip why the Admiral was entering this engagement with a lone battle group led by a single RipStar Trip. Now he realized ... what difference would the entire fleet have made?

Bel Iblis leaned forward in the command chair. "Helm keep us on a vector parallel with the event horizon of the planet. If any of those Interdictors so much as shifts attitude, prepare for lightspeed."

Garm rose slowly from the chair, regarding the collection of ships outside the viewport. Something caught his eye in orbit, but it was too small to make out. "Comm, are they jamming?"

"No, sir."

"Get a status from those defense platforms."

Tannik turned a curious glance at that. "Shields, sir?"

"Relay to all ships: Standby on shields. Do not power weapons or raise shields without my order."

The Admiral stood in front of the command chair, studying the overwhelming armada before him. "We're well out of torp range, Captain. Helm, Impluse 3, nice and friendly... Let's give them a moment to think about it."

At length, he signaled the comm station. "This is Admiral Garm Bel Iblis aboard the New Republic Star Destroyer Mystra. You got our attention. Mind identifying yourselves and explaining why you're blockading a retrograde tech world whose only commodity is a musical church?"

[Gerrard M. Vinson]

The Apocalypse task force had been sitting in the region of space cleared out by the Dark Nova's and gunships. It was a small force, relatively speaking, only the Apocalypse and several smaller support ships.

"Admiral ships dropping out of hyperspace on the far side of the planet." Gerrard did not even have time to respond to the sensor operator before a voice came over the speakers. He did not recall ever having encountered this Admiral Bel Iblis, but a simple search in the Apocalypse's vast computer banks confirmed his identity as a New Republic fleet commander.

"Tactical, relay a message to the rest of the task force. They are not to do anything without my express order."

"Aye Sir"

Giving the order that should ensure that noone started shooting without reason Gerrard took a moment to compose his thoughts.

"Open a channel to the New Republic fleet."

"Open sir."

With a deep breath Gerrard began.

"New Republic commander, my name is Gerrard M. Vinson. Our intention is to gain your attention and nothing more. If we had hostile intentions then believe me, you would not be still there."

Gerrard paused and was greeted with the response he had expected.

"And why should we believe that?"

"My dear Admiral, have you ever heard of the Sith Empire?" He paused for the name he had just dropped to sink in. "Of course you have. Well we are it's fleets. Actually that should be, were it's fleets. We are not looking to defeat this planet, we are only looking for a planet well away from those that used to oppress us. Someplace that we can call home."

Yet again he paused. In some ways he had been hoping for this opportunity.

"Perhaps we should meet, my forces have been on high alert for several days, we do not wish to fight for this planet if we do not have to."


OOC: Garm check your email.

[Adm Garm Bel Iblis]

Bel Iblis regarded the hologram before him and crossed his arms. The old "We could kill you if we wanted, but we're not, so we're obviously sincere" argument never sat well with him. Still, he had to consider where they came from. In their universe, strength meant everything. Diplomacy was virgin territory for former enforcers of the Sith.

"Very well. Then I must ask you to break orbit and take your ships to a more friendly holding position. I will transmit coordinates once I speak with the Vor Chancellor."

An hour later a shuttle under X-Wing escort headed toward the planet for a meeting that promised to chart a new course for the New Republic.