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Telan Desaria
Apr 23rd, 2002, 01:15:32 PM
OOC-Alpha, chime in any time...

IC/

The bridge was alive with activity, though it was not the same as it used to be. The officers chatted amongst themselves, a few even to enlisted men of lower ratings. Droids plodded about and did routine maintence, one, a refitted FX-model, was even serving caf to the men in the port crew pit, making the starboard'er's very jealous and even promting a few of them to make some catcalls, beckoning the droid to the'better side of the bridge.' But Military discpiline was not lost. Their uniforms were pressed, and smartly so, their boots were polished and their belts shined, and as Captain Voltairestepped onto the bridge, the Fleet troopers assigned as bridge guards came to attention and went through their ritual as if nothing had changed from four days ago.

But something had. All could, escpecially the command officers who had no other job than to watch over the welfare of their crews. The new atmsosphere was as if an immense burden had been lifted from the yoke of the Imperials' shoulders, for none was willing to give up the title or rank or discipline that went with the name.

Fleet Admiral Desaria sat in his office, aft of the bridge, and waited for the command crew he had summoned to arrive. The Commanders of the flagship-Voltaire-the Command Destroyer Escort Squadron, all the Destroyers, and a number of other officers had been called to Admiral Desaria's office-jsut large enough to accomodate the two dozen men-and women-he had planned to assemble.

First to arrive was Captain Voltaire, aged and stern of mind, but with a jocular expression on his face and his head bereft of the standard Imperial officers' cap-for Desaria had decried that all officers above the rank of Lieutenant, First-clas, that were not serving off the ship, were not required to don their caps. Following him came two men and a women of an obvious generational gap, the eldest no more than twenty-five. They were departmental commanders of the Decisive. The Fleet fighter commander, several ship Captains, and several of their aides and executives, all arrived within a span of twenty minutes. Desaria sat, unmvoing and silent behind his desk, watching the room generate from his office into a reception.

When they had all gathered, Desaria rose, and the party broke with all the room's occupants taking their seats.
" I am sure that you all think that I gathered you here to inform you of our fate, of a decision I had made. Well, you're wrong."

The room remained silent, but the Admiral could hear the wheels and cogs grinding away. " Instead, I have called you to vote-yes, vote-on a matter of a more pressing and immediate nature. The dress of our small, yet mighty, armada. I believe, in order to server the bonds of our Imperial leanings, whatever they may be, we must change our appearance. Thus, I have put together, with the help of the ship's tailor and his design staff, a review of the possibilities."

Desaria sat back into his high-backed jet-colored chair and waited until the murmurs of discussion died away. When the room was silent again, the Admiral pressed a buton on a small droid caller he had taken from the surface of his desk. " Option one:"

With the flick of his wrist, a portion of the bow-facing wall receeded to port, revealing a droid in a crimson, Imperial-cut uniform. Upon the sleeves were black cuffs, and a black stripe along the trouser hem. The droid moved into full view of the viewing audience and turned. It then stood off to the rear of Desaria's desk.

" Option two..."

The procession proceeded until five different outfits were arayed before the ranking officers of the " New Imperial Sovereingty," as Desaria had previously addressed it. There were full black, blue, white, and finally, the choosen uniform for all officers and senior enlisted personnel. It was no more than an Imperial uniform, dark, almost olive green, with a white trouser stripe and cuffs. Having chosen thta, Desaria unveiled the additions for the other soldiers and crewers. The duty overalls remained unchanged, except for a white cuff ring. The Fleet troopers would retain their black uniforms and helmets, with the provisio that they also receive the white trouser stripe and hem. Most shocking of all, though, was what the Admiral wanted to do to the stormtroopers, and specifically called up Lieutenant General Marxal Irdding, who was now commander of the fleets 'stormies.' He approved. Their white armor would be replaced with grey.

The Admiral was astonished that they had come to a decision so fast, and near unanimously, without any fight or squabble. " well, perhaps this bodes well for us."

The troupe broke into a reception once more, this time with drink and food provided by the Admiral himself, who partook of his officers' hospitality.

* * *

" The question remains, gentlemen: where do we go. Our analysts say we have consumables for, on the minimum if we supply the smaller ships from the larger ones, enough provisions for three months-that includes fuel. That does NOT include torpedoes and missiles, should we get into a scrape."

Desaria looked at Captain Voltaire, and Rear Admiral Vaalt, who had adamnatly refused to stay behind and thus taken over the CDES. " It has ben my wish to find a planet for us to live upon, with a repair yard for our ships, and homes and families for our men. And, most of all, supplies for our ships. Suggestions this far."

Vaalt, ever the eager tactician-never strategist, lest he be confused with thinking more than one battle ahead-spoke before Voltaire could open his mouth. " There's a planet near here-Dalmorra. It's small, would be out of the way, and has enough supplies for us to live off of for more than a year."

Voltaire merely snorted. " That would be fine if we were to become no better than insects, pillaging and raping every planet we came upon for the sole purpose of feeding our engines. I don't think that's what the Admiral had in mind."

" That would be correct, Dorren." Desaria did, however agreeing, shot him a look that said' shut up', as not to cause undue tension among the ranks. " I have planned something far more long term. Something far more hospitable, somewhere where we would be able to start families with the populace, and become equal masters of our domain-"

" Carida?" Vaalt asked, piquing an eyebrow.

" No. That would cause Darth Viscera and his fleet to be upon us in a matter of days. No. A little while ago, I took it upon myself to try and recruit my home planet of Centaur into the Empire. I never completed the mission due to the biddings of High Command. I am still Centaurian nobility, and do know many of the rulers of the planet. Things may work to our advantage."

" This time it was Voltaire's turn to be quizzical. " We're not going to attack?"

" Never. Diplomacy must be the best option. The Centaurians have a proud history that involves war, but that has always been expansion. No one that has ever tried to take the throne of Centaur by force has ever come close to succeeding, even on the one fleting occasion where it succeeded."

" So, what are our orders, Admiral?" Vaalt asked, some what resigned.

" The Decisive and the Eudaemon as its escort will set off for Centaur at once. The rest of the fleet will remain here. Do NOT, unless directly attacked, fight anyone. If they're moving at you, withdraw, for the Emperor's sake!!!" Desaria cursed, meaning the Empeor of the Centaur.

" Aye sir!!" The officers chorused.

" Good. Then it's off the Centaur we go..."

Darth Viscera
Apr 23rd, 2002, 11:49:41 PM
"Defy me, will you?" he coarsely spoke to himself as he worked the keypad on his console, furious over the briefing which had just been delivered to him. The messenger lay dead in the corner of the darkened room, his flesh still smoldering, his internal organs crushed.

A holodisplay now showed the various dispositions of the ships which had betrayed the Empire. With a click, hardwired commands were initiated, and those ships halted. A nearly complete system shutdown occured, and crews were left without life support, floating in zero-gee wherever they had been left a moment ago.

The intercoms on those ships blared to life, and he spoke to the traitors, disdain filling his voice.

"Enemies of the Empire, this is Darth Viscera, the Imperial Diktat. You have betrayed yourselves, you have betrayed your families, but most of all you have betrayed the Emperor in his struggle to restore the glory of the New Order. You'll find that the Empire still maintains strict security systems on all its warships. If you were and are currently unaware of the extent of these failsafes during your struggle to betray all which stands for order, then I applaud your idiocy. Your corpses will lie inverted ringing the Imperial Palace, a caution to others who would tempt the Emperor's will."

He deactivated the intercom and re-engaged two systems: auto-navigation and propulsion. A set of coordinates was fed into the auto-navigation system, and the ships began their return voyage to Imperial Center, custodians of traitors.

Telan Desaria
Apr 30th, 2002, 01:05:43 PM
OOC-you're right. No hyperspace. I got a head of myself.

There was jubilation on the bridge of the Decisive, her crew preparing to make the first ju,p of her first mission as a liberated crew. The Fleet Admiral was issuing orders to his crew, shuttles were leaving, returning captains to their ships, and all was proceeding according to plan. Then, with a flicker of pseudomotion, the HCLC Thor's Glory, one of the ships that had put itself on a full compliment of Imperial sepreatists, vanished into Hyperspace, without orders, without reason.

All jubilation ended. " What the frell is going on???" Desaria bellowed, turning towards Captain Voltaire with an eye that was filled with rage and now yurning to to take it out on something.

Voltaire, taken aback by his commander's gaze, could say nothing. He merely turned to the straboard crewpit, where he hoped he would find an answer to satisdy Desaria. He found an answer, but not one that would satisfy anyone.

The CommScan officer looked up from his station and handed Voltaire a datapad. On it was the contents of a brief speech made by Viscera to the 'treacherous Imperial ships. Rather, it was the remnants of a spech. The position Desaria had chosen for the gathering of his ships was as remote from any inhabited system as one could get in the Outer Rim. Given the distance from the Center if the Empire, the proximity to the Outlands and the Unknown Regions, there was a lack of transponders and communications beackons. Had the message have ben delivered by probe droid, it would have ben destroyd, and never reached them. Thus, the Diktat took the chance of barely getting through.

Desaria grabbed the datapad, his rage swelling. " This does not exlapin why one of our hips just abandoned us!!!"

" I think it does, sir." Voltaire gulped. The security failsafes that were built into every Imperial warship we have overlooked. They are present on the four that followed us, Our Guild-built SD, and-" he paused-" the Decisive."

" By the Emperor."

" Then why didn't all of the ships jump?" Commander Warren asked, curious.

" We're too far away for the transmission to have been strong enough. If he would have dissipated the signal, he took the chance of not getting any of it through. But, one at a time, he'll get them all. "

" Time!"

" Another couple of hours before the next one. We can scramble our shield patterns and jam all communications, use all kinds of electronics, but that'll buy us a day at most."

" do it. Get every engineer on a way out of this. And Captain-"

' Yes Admiral?"

" Begin evacutaion the Eudaemon,....and the Decisive."

Dovi Jod
Apr 30th, 2002, 02:39:15 PM
The Levuu plodded its way through the rarely-trod space lanes of the outer rim, as part of an expansionary trade survey mission. Though modest in size, the vessel was rich in accomodations, a trait that Arbiter Dovi Jod could find value in. He sat, composing a series of legal contracts in his personal quarters, when a synthetic voice chimed in on the comm.

"Arbiter Jod, we are recieving a distress signal from a group of Imperial vessels in the Qayon system."

The ridges in Jod's brow accentuated. Imperials...the very core of the profit-stealing despotism that destroyed the orignal Trade Federation. Whether breaking monopolies with legislature or clonetroopers, they had sought to send the great Trade Federation to the poor house, long ago. Jod loathed the thought of them...though he knew that in harder times, this one-time enemy would be much more pliable in negotiations, and perhaps, could even become a customer.

Jod stood up, adjusting his ornate garb, as he signaled the bridge.

Cahptain, set cohrse fohr thee Impeeriahl ships. Wee weell...ehxtehnd ouwr chahrity tuu them.

"Roger Roger"

A thin smile creased Jod's face, as he thought of the possibilities.

MMU
Apr 30th, 2002, 04:55:05 PM
After having been forcibly ejected from the forward cargo hold by s’Il, MMU trundled his way through the corridors of the Rascal King heading to nowhere in particular. He had pestered s’Il for almost two hours as she busied herself with fixing her small tagwing fighter, asking her absurd questions having to do with nothing at all. Fed up with his rambling, she had picked him up; a somewhat easy thing to do considering he was only as tall as her knees, had carted him from the hold to drop him unceremoniously in the hallway before shutting the door behind her.

And so, the little avatar was left to wander through himself, to say the least.

“Hmmm. Star-Destroyers,” he mused, stopping mid-stride. His external long-range sensors had picked up a group of Imperial Star Destroyers, Carrack-class cruisers, and a few other ships, and as the small droid resumed his pace, he continued to monitor the group’s movements.

Strange that they would not have already hailed him; perhaps they were in a hurry to go wherever it was that Imperial Star Destroyers went. Regardless of the fact, his curiosity had been aroused, and he accessed his navigation systems, bringing the Rascal King into a graceful arc, turning towards the warships. He was a somewhat large ship, ninety-six meters in length; though still dwarfed quite considerably by a Star Destroyer.

Checking on his internal monitors, he located s’Il still in the forward hold slaving away beneath her tagwing. Apparently she wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing or where he was taking her; either that or she simply didn’t care. Well, no matter.

MMU slowly moved himself closer to the group, careful lest he become the dog that got too close to the porcupine; it had happened many times before. He scanned each and every ship from a distance however, his curiosity getting the better of him. Coming to a standstill, he continued to “watch” the ships out in front of him.

Still scanning, he watched as one of the cruisers disappeared into hyperspace. Strange....

Darth Viscera
Apr 30th, 2002, 07:31:50 PM
A smile crossed his face as he got a ping on the location of the traitor task force. A Light Cruiser had entered hyperspace on a return course. Excellent, he could use that.

The chase had begun.

"Major Desann," he flicked the intercom on, slicing through the dark and silent mood which filled the throneroom. "What ships are immediately available? There is an opportunity to deal a swift blow to the traitors."

Silence filled the line for a few brief seconds, before Major Desann replied. "Task Force Aetion has finished minor repairs after encountering a psi particle drift while on patrol. Will that be sufficient?"

He looked over Aetion's order of battle, and nodded his approval. "Fine, thank you. Signal Aetion to prepare for launch, and have a shuttle sent down."

He received a polite affirmative reply from Major Desann, and clicked off the intercom.

<center>***</center>

The shuttle trip was brief, and he soon found himself on the bridge of the command ship Omega. He spoke with the Captain of the ship, a man by the name of Ferran.

"Perhaps we can use the light cruiser as a trans-communications point?" he suggested. "We could halt them in hyperspace, and use their communications systems to relay and amplify our own failsafe commands.

"An excellent strategy, Captain Ferran. I will halt the light cruiser, and then you may commence."

"Yes, my lord."

<center>***</center>

"Captain Ferran, the light cruiser has halted," Darth Viscera spoke in a monotone from the renewed gloom of the command ship's throne room. "Boost the comm system."

He received an affirmative, and monitored the increased power allocation from his console before retransmitting the encrypted message on a tightband frequency. He monitored the light cruiser's reception of the message, and queued a loop into the nearly powered down ship's computer to repeat the retransmission towards the traitors' precise location.

"Captain, we are finished here. Set your course for Desaria's traitor fleet, and be swift."

And with a flicker of pseudomotion, Task force Aetion entered hyperspace.

Loklorien s'Ilancy
May 6th, 2002, 01:14:31 PM
s’Il was buried beneath the nose of her small fighter, gutting its entire sensor system to tweak and fix it. She had her arms in elbow deep within the underside nose section, the upper half of a black flightsuit around her waist, showing her scarred midriff. The high tanktop she wore exposed the serial number tattoo on her right shoulder and most of her lightsabre scars; the design being that of an inverted capital T with one end of the vertical scar ending just below her neck and the other intersecting the horizontal scar running across her stomach.

The craft itself was sleek, rakish in its very design, and had a waspish quality about it. It had been on blocks for months now; s’Il having sworn every other day that she’d get around to giving it a complete overhaul. Finally, she’d made good on her promises, leaving Yagh’dul and taking the Rascal King out into space for a little alone time so she could enjoy herself while fixing her tagwing.

A small set of earphones lodged in her ears was blaring a collection of symphonies and concertos from an obscure Rodian composer. Next to her feet lay a stack of audiodiscs, each one with a large assortment of the more classical selection of the galaxy’s music. It was a hobby of hers to collect, among other things, classical music. An odd thing for someone in her profession, but she never considered herself a shining example of a true ne’er-do-well kind of gal. Her tastes ran more eclectic to say the least.

s’Il had been working on the tagwing for three hours now, and sliding out from underneath it, she felt now was as good a time as any to take a break. She was hungry, needed a shower, and then there was the matter of trying to find MMU; wherever he was.

Pulling the earphones out and setting them next to the stack of discs, she stood, stretching in the process before heading for the door. She walked lazily through the corridors to her room.

Thirty minutes and a shower later, s’Il was striding down the halls once more, this time headed for the bridge; most likely where MMU would be. She'd changed into more comfortable clothing, and her boots hit the deck at a clipped pace.

Stepping onto the bridge, s’Il stopped dead in her tracks. Before her, on the front viewscreen, was a group of Star Destroyers and other cruisers. “MMU,” she said quietly, spying the small droid in the pilot’s seat, “what are you doing?”

He looked at her, his little antennae drooping low as he scrambled from the chair.

Placing herself in the recently vacated seat, s’Il stared down at him. “What have I told you about doing this stuff?” she remembered something, and started to scold him. “You weren’t teasing them were you? I haven’t forgotten the last time you did that to a Star Destroyer, and I doubt you have either.”

MMU only looked at her, shaking his head when she asked about the teasing.

“Fine,” s’Il looked back to the viewscreen, lightly grasping the control throttles on either side of her, but didn't make to move the Rascal King away from the group as she observing the ships. She looked down at a sidepanel spewing out sensor readings and frowned, her brows furrowing in confusion. “They’re evacuating? What the hell is that all about?”

Telan Desaria
May 7th, 2002, 06:13:39 AM
For twenty minutes, the bridge of the Decisive had been a flurry of activity, and many had plain lost their minds. Over a million crewmen and women had left the Empire, and now faced being returned which meant death, but not before a long and painful interrogation, or as IMPSEC referred to it, a debriefing. And for Fleet Admiral Desaria, much worse. A public humiliation, for the entire Empire knew of his defection. He would be paraded through the streets of Imperial Center like a toy to the jeers of hatful crowds that had once revered him as an excellent Admiral.

" Admiral, " said Commander Dorrant, executive officer of the Decisive.

" Yes, Commander," Desaria replied, with none of his usual authoritative tone or commanding syntax.

" Sir, it has occured to me that we may not have to sabotage the drive systems to escape the Diktat."

" How is that?" Desaria asked, not truly wanting to hear the suggestion until he had liquidated the supply of Corellian brandy locked away in his office.

" Sir, the Decisive was built with four gravity hole generators in her. we've not used them, but we could charge them and hold us here. Even if the signal WAS sent, we would not be able to leap out as long as the field is up."

Slowly, the Command chair turned from the bow of the bridge and the once-proud face of Admiral Desaria greeted the young Commander. The thought began to sink in. Surely the Diktat would find a way past a gravity well. But it would by him some time. And, if they jammed all xternal transmissions, there would be no way of the Diktat of knowing of the field's existance, since he didn't even now know of where the Fleet itself was, unless he had gotten that from the Hammer, whose computer core and backups were wiped as the crew jumped away from freedom.

The face of the Admiral turned from homely several shades back to his typical regality. " Commander, you may not have saved us, but bought us enough time to do so. Charge the wells and activate them as soon as possible."

Desaria began to walk off, and turned back to his executive officer. " Won't you join me for a drink?"

The Commander nodded and strolled aft with the Admiral. And as they left, Desaria could see out of the corner of his eye a small freightor, just at the edge of the visdual spectrum. But he dismissed it just the same...

MMU
May 8th, 2002, 08:38:53 PM
MMU’s curiosity often got the better of him, and this situation was certainly no different. He was desperate to know what was going on out in front of him, and unknown to s’Il as she continued to sit and watch, he accessed his comm array. He made sure not to display his actions on the readout nestled in the sloped section between her knees incase she stopped him, and also so that if they were answer him, she wouldn’t know.

He looked up at her as she lounged back in her seat, content to merely observe. She’d even propped her feet up along the elongated section that protruded from the comm display. Well. She might just want to watch, but he wanted to know what was going on.

From what he’d monitored thus far, it seemed an evacuation was taking place. The Rascal King crept forward ever so slightly, its sleek form cutting through space as MMU inched himself closer. His sensors swept over the group, then focused on the Super Star Destroyer. From what he could tell, they were trying to lock down their computers, as if they were terrified something would take control of them. Not even bothering to identify himself, he hailed the Super Star Destroyer.

[What are you doing?]

Almost instantly he felt the pull of gravity wells being charged, and nearly panicked. He hated gravity wells with a passion; past experiences fueling his intense dislike of the infernal things, but he stopped, his processors working overtime as he started to piece together what was happening. The disappeared cruiser, the evacuation of certain ships, the attempts to subvert remote commands, and now the gravity wells being charged. MMU watched dumbfounded, realizing what was going on. The Imperials were being taken over by someone, or something, and it was clearly apparent they were doing their best to not let that happen. Even going so far as to try to anchor themselves in place. MMU was a smart ship; s’Il had programmed a lot of his systems, upgrading him often; and even though he tended to be a little unbalanced, his shipboard AI was extremely complex.

He looked up to s’Il once more. “You wanna get a closer look?”

“Yeah sure, why not. Just be careful.”

The Rascal King’s engines flared to life, and the craft glided forward, moving closer to the group. As he neared them, MMU activated his comm systems again, still keeping the display screen blank so s’Il wouldn’t know what he was doing. He had to know what was going on; it was as simple as that. And who knew, if he could get s’Il to somehow fix their problems, they’d owe her; maybe even forget some of the things she’d done in the past.

[Do you need help?]


It was a good thing he looked out for s'Il.



Too bad he didn’t know what was really going on.

Telan Desaria
May 10th, 2002, 06:48:20 AM
Admiral Desaria felt the pull of the Decisive's gravity wells, he felt the deck thrum with life as he strolled up the aft control corridor to the bridge. Perhaps they would make it after all. Desaria smiled as he moved onto the bridge proper, his expression a mix of contentment and arrogance-a rare Desarian feature.

Then, he stopped half way up the catwalk as he saw four crewmen and two officers gathered around a terminal-the ship's system control console. The crewmen seated there was speaking to them, and they to him, and DEsaira naturally wanted to know what was going on. But, it would have been very un-Admiral-like to stroll over and say 'whatcha doin'?' like a Coruscant bum. So, he put on his authoritative mask of command, and moved to where he could look down on the small congregation. They did not notice him until he spoke.

" Gentlemen, I cannot help but notice that while there are six of you around one man here, there are a number of empty seats in the rest of the crew pit. Perchance, could I ask you what has attracted your attention more than your duties?"

the highest ranking enlisted man there, a Warrant Officer Third Class, looked up with the rest of them, like he had been caught in the act of stealing from the Captain's wine store. " Sir, uh, we, uh, well. Hmmm. Something strange is happening."

Desaria did one of his Thrawn'esque maneuvers and cocked an eye brow. " Strange in a good way, or strange as in impending doom?"

Restraining themselves from breaking into laughter, an officer replied this time. " Sir, a ship, or a droid, rather, has hailed our main computer. He-it's-asked us a slew of questions, why are we here, what are we doing, what are our intentions, do we need help?"

Desaria switched eyebrows. " Do we need help. That is a smart and determined droid, to remain a pack of voracious and vicious Star Destroyers and brave a gravity well. hmmm." The Admital thought a moment. " Petty Officer, give that ship everything it wants to know. Lieutenant, triangulate their location."

Within a moment, the Admiral knew that the dot he saw in space was the ship that was ahiling his supercomputer. " If that ship is an agent of the Empire, than it is rather unlucky. Commander, jam all transmission not oriented to the fleet and withing the fleet. Major-" he called to the flight operations officer-" have an assault shuttle with troopers and a squadron of Defenders launched immediately, taking up position oppositie that ship on the hull-hidden, as it were. If they receive our information and make best speed out of the gravity well, move them all to intercept. Disable, bpoard, capture, then destroy. On my orders, only, though."

Desaria hoped that that shp was genuine. If not, he had no qualms about blowing it into debris, when the lives of his men were at stake...

TheHolo.Net
May 10th, 2002, 10:44:09 PM
Locked for the time being. Please refer to these OOC threads and resolve those issues before continuing.

http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13079

http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13404