Laying Foundations: Graveyard of the Titans

[Taylor Millard]

The group of shuttles and transports floated towards the New Republic shipyard on Kuat.

The IDs said they were a group of travellers from Coruscant, left over from the recent attack and the liberation by the New Republic.

They leaked coolant as they flew towards the docks, hoping for both repairs and supplies as they continued their trek on towards Mon Calamari and freedom.

Or so it was thought.

On the inside of the leaking, damaged transports something completely different was going on. The group- several men and one woman- sat in one of the darkened transports, going over plans of some kind.

Plans to a dreadnaught. Eighteen of them to be exact. And each were lined like womprats in a row on the outskirts of the shipyards, just beyond a Mon Calamari Cruiser and a Nebulon-B Frigate.

The group of seven looked at the plans, as did two other groups on two other shuttles. The eighteen in all gazed over the plans and listened to their orders.

"Captain Ta, you will go after the ships Gaea, Rhea, Mnemosyne, Crius, Metis, and Oceanus" the man nodded towards his associate, then turned to a younger man.

He spoke, "For this mission you'll have a rank of Captain understood? Good...Captain Xilarian you will lead a team of six and go after these ships....Tethys, Iapetus, Coeus, Epimetheus, Phoebe, and Dione. Captain Stark will go with you.

"Be swift and fast...don't make too much of a notice, understood?"

He then turned to the woman next to him, "You and I will lead Team One going after these Prometheus, Cronus, Uranus, Hyperion, Atlas, and Themis. Thomas will be with us as insurance.

"Your orders are this...Get the lead ships and slave rig the others to it. Then go to hyperspace as fast as possible. If the New Republic follows us, we have several ISDs as backup at the rendevous point. But hopefully we won't needs them."

He popped his neck and pulled the gloves on his hands.

"Get your repeater rifles ready if you run into any trouble. But be careful...our goal is to get all. I will take nothing less. Do your job and we'll all go home."

The transport ambled into docking bay, steam hissing from it as it settled down.

"Is that understood?"

[Jux Ta]

"Acknowledged, Admiral," Captain Jux Ta replied as he personally piloted Team Two's badly damaged shuttle to a similar docking bay. Yet separate, on the pretense that the transports were hazards to each other until they were repaired.

Of course, the insides of each transport gleamed with functional precision. Only the appearances and non-vital systems had truly been maimed by engineering crews.

Ta checked the charge on his rifle, prompting the other members of his six-man team to do the same. Clipping a comlink onto his collar, he rose from his chair as the shuttle finished up its computerized landing sequences and began to automatically shut down systems. A heavily-suited squad of techs and some data pusher walked into view through the cockpit, and Ta's man nearest the landing ramp punched the button that would extend it. Ta mentally reviewed his men and their positions for this operation:

Commander Kern Davitt, second in rank of Team Two and one of the pilots. Gaz San, the other pilot and the elite flight leader of a prominant TIE wing on Ta's ship, the 56th. Two technicians Ta was not familiar with, with the surnames of Badgil and Vernai. The man by the landing ramp, Corporal Sleve Winters - demolitians and warfare expert. Ta himself was fulfilling the other solely-combat role in this team's mission.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus listened intently to Millard's speech, while eyeing the others in the room. Everyone else stood, keeping their individual attentions fixed on Millard. They seemed rigid. Uptight. Silus however was the black sheep of the group. He stood with a smirk of confidence on his face, and a repeater rifle resting lazily on his shoulder. After Millard finished his speech, Silus looked over to Captain Stark...

Ya hear that....Captain Xilarian....That means you follow my orders...

Silus spoke, completely ignoring Stark's rank of Captain.

And that goes for the rest of ya too....

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il snorted, looking at Silus from her seat as she lounged, her orange tinted sunglasses pushed back up her head. MMU sat in her lap, eagerly watching and listening like an overexcited puppy; he even waggled his antannae a few times out of sheer anticipation. s'Il herself wore nothing out of the ordinary; no special tactical suit or anything screaming of "I'm here to steal your ships."

She'd done this many times over, and stuff like this; you just get in a groove, developing your own style. Whe it came to ship palming, no matter the scale of the theft, she never dressed for occasion. Instead, she'd donned a pair of black trousers, leaving the suspenders to dangle around her hips and a black halter top. She did wear a long westcoat, and underneath she had slid on her shoulder holster.

With a smirk she pulled her sunglasses down over her metallic eyes. She didn't have to say a thing; just smirk. She'd given him the look many times over. Her feet stretched out lazily, crossing over one another as she leaned back and propped her hands behind her head. MMU balanced himself as she shifted, and turned his glowing green gaze to Silus.

Uncle Silus!!! We're going shopping again!!!

s'Il's smirk grew.

[Taylor Millard]

Millard hid a smile at MMU's excitement. Although he and MMU did not have the greatest of relationships it was nice to see atleast one of his team members were excited about it.

"Captain Xilarian be ready for anything. The New Republic, as you know, fights hard. Be fast and quick. You have your plan ready?"

Before Silus could answer the question, Thomas came from the transport cockpit. He wore grey, brown, and green and his normally visored face was visible.

The Imperial Guardsman had blond hair and green eyes. Suprisingly, he had a short beard on his face too. His Force Pike was condensed and hidden behind him. A blaster was beneath his overcoat and an Imperial Heavy Repeater was hidden on his back.

"We're in."

Millard nodded, "All right people move out."

[Silus Xilarian]

With Millard issueing the order to move out, Silus gathered his team to issue out some last minute strategy...

Ok boys, Dione should be the last ship in our line, so she'll be the lovely lady to get us outta here. When we get out there, me and the troopers will stand guard while Stark and the technicians set up the slave rigs. After that we'll just move down the line....Understood?

After recieving a nod of agreement from his team, Silus spotted MMU, and upon walking over to the little avatar, crouched down to talk with him...

Taylor says we gotta be sneaky once we get out there, did you come prepared???

Silus shot a smile to his favorite little nephew...

[Jux Ta]

The ramp touched the cold, level decking of the hangar.

Ta couldn't think of any way the illusion would last for long, but he was prepared to sustain it as long as his team could before risking raising the first alarms. The more time the other teams had to ready themselves, the better - of course.

The techs and the deck officer walked to the ramp's base as Ta and Winters walked down it.

There were no shouts of surprise, no blaster shots, no frantic running. Because, simply enough, both Imperials were dressed as fairly shabby refugees, matching the appearance of their galaxy-weary ship. Ta had let his stubble grow for nearly a week - unbidden to do so, and it itched like hell, but he liked to play his part as thoroughly as he could. The techs were so clueless - well, in certain matters - that if they hadn't had their outfits prepared for them, they would likely have shown up to the operation in Imperial dress greys.

The NR officer greeted the pair, not looking past them to the dimly-lit intererior of the shuttle. And trying hard not to show concern over his own safety, being so close to the abused transport. Ta responded in kind.

"'Ello, mate. Right glad y' let us limp onto yer docks like this. The ship, well, she's not doin' so well, I fear," he said in a cockneyed accent. Rather, trying to... breaking the habit of speaking in a cultured Imperial voice, as he had done for the better part of his life, was surprisingly difficult and he had not thought much of it until now.

Winters was much better at it. Sleve had participated in several Black Ops missions, and usually as team leader. "'Fraid arh drive's leakin', sar," he said fearfully. "W' need t' get the rest of th' men off a' this crate 'fore it blows an' sends us t' the next life!" Winters backed up his statement by running around the techs towards the thick hangar doors that led to the dock's interior hallways, and yelling at the men inside to follow. Their weapons were carefully concealed by long, thick coats in most cases; though San wore what appeared to be a long blanket with a hole in the middle over his head.

The trick worked, the techs backed up quickly and the deck officer began to update some tech in Control with this critical information. As he began to jog away from the shuttle.

The other four members of Team Two scrambled out of the transport with proper fear-inspired expressions etched on their greasy faces, and followed after Ta.

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I gave a rough smile as the refugees came off the ship. Normally I didn't try to show sympathy, but sometimes- I figured- ya had to. Buck 'em up a bit.

"Sure," I turned to the nearest private, "Ya heard th'man. Let's move our asses we got wounded in there!"

I nodded to the refugees, although noted something...odd about them. For refugees from a warzone, their hands were pretty smooth and clean.

I shook my head and boarded the shuttle.

There was sumthin' wierd 'bout that refugee, but I noted and checked the shuttle for more victims.

There indeed was some more wounded.

"Getta med team 'ere. And tell Tyle he needs t'get his ass from the command center t'here. We gotta talk 'bout this."

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus looked at his clothing. He hadnt wore anything out of the ordinary, mostly because the only Imperial looking clothes he had were the pants he hijacked from Grand Admiral Thrawn the night he was kicked out of the empire. His attire was slightly ragged, having taken the privacy of his temporary living quarters to roll around in the floor, wrinkling his clothes a bit. He did wear a brown jacket, which was just large enough to conceal his repeater rifle. Behind his back, he kept two blasters concealed under the coat, with his lightsaber resting on his belt, near his side, though still concealed. Silus looked his team over. They seemed to be dressed for the occasion well enough. After giving them a slight nod, Silus led his team down a narrow hallway in the shuttle, with Stark trailing closely beside him, and the other four members of his team behind. Without warning or apparant reason, Silus stopped. Turning to look at his team....something was wrong.

This is way to organized.

"Walking out in sixes will look a bit funny" he thought to himself. Silus turned around, issueing out a few more commands.

Ok...Stark, I need you to walk out first, and your new name is Private James Parts, and dont forget that....I want you to follow Stark out *pointing at one of the troopers*. You three will walk out shortly after James here, and I'll be out shortly after you....DO NOT group up once your out, just keep your team members in sight....

Satisfied, Silus watched as his team walk out in his assigned subgroups, and after the two techs and the remaining trooper walked out, Silus walked on out, stepping into the light of the NR hangar....

[Taylor Millard]

Millard waited for Silus' group to exit the shuttle, then nodded and exitted himself.

He'd changed his appearance just a bit, mixing the real with the unreal, in preparation for the raid. Contacts turned his normal blue eyes to a sallow yellow, and his eyebrows were gone

He remained cleanshaven but also put a long scar, supposedly from a vibroblade on his left cheek. His hair was stark white, with a swirl of brown in the middle and the length was longer than he preferred.

He'd gloved his hands too, but not with the normal Imperial black gloves. Instead, green half-gloves were on and they only exposed his fingertips.

Taylor smiled at s'Il as his scuffed and marred brown boots hit the metal of the hangar bay.

"Let's go!" he shouted, taking on a Selonian accent, "The transport's damaged heavily...it might explode!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il smiled back at Taylor, amused at the fake accent he was using. Whether or not he knew Selonian was her second language, it didn't matter now, and she took the illusion one step further as she stood at the top of the boarding ramp, MMU standing on her shoulders with his little hands resting atop her head.

Her smile vanished when she saw the NR techs however, and she took on a pained expression while shouting out in Selonian.

Hurry up.... I need you sods to help me get the engines offline and stop the coolant leaks.....

She dropped a hand to her side, lightly fingering the cold pommel of the dagger hidden in the sheath on her back.....

Send them to me...

A slight nod of her head was the only indication of acknowledgement to the voice that only she could hear.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus strolled up to one of the officers. He walked with a slight limp in his stride. Obviously this rag tag team of "refugees" had been through alot. Shaking hands with the officers, Silus introduced himself...

How are you doing today sir, Im Major Terinius Thumper. Me and my crew were leading these refugees out of Coruscant when we ran into some heavy Imperial fire. Im afraid these were the only ships that made it out

Silus's squinted eyes secretly studied the officer's reaction as he continued...

We were hoping for supplies and maybe a transport, if these ships are beyond repair...

[MMU]

From his perch atop s'Il's shoulders, MMU watched as everything happened, his little processors running through the instructions s'Il had given him before they'd left.

He accessed his internals then, checking on his larger half. He'd flown into the shipyards at Kuat three days earlier on a 'diplomatic' mission, and had sat there since; silent and waiting.

As s'Il called to the techs, pulling MMU from his cursory examinations of himself, he waggled his antannae in excitement, watching as the techs jogged up the ramp. s'Il reached up then, removing him from her shoulders and setting him gently on the top of the ramp, and swatting him gently on his metal behind, shooed him down the gangplank with the quiet words, "Go on, get out there; I want you to go with the Grand Admiral-"

He whined lightly, as only a droid could, and latched himself onto her leg. Her felt her eyes cast down upon him, and looked up at her, his green eyeports glowing. She smiled, then pulled something from the pocket of her vestcoat.

MMU had to stop himself from letting out a squeal of delight as he reached up and grasped the little leather holster she was handing down to him. In it were the two cap guns Uncle Silus had given him for his 'birthday'. He grabbed it with excited hands and buckled it around his little waist, then giving her a squeeze, he turned and trotting down the ramp, his little feet making tinking noises on the metal, then the deck as he approached Millard.

His little metal chest fairly jutted out with pride, and he turned to the nearest NR officers and techs standing around.

It was horrible!!! They ambushed us; and all we wanted to do was leave!!! His voice took on a whining tone. All we wanted to do was get away.....

[GNN Probe Droid]

Scout KUA-0093 was busy carrying out it's routine scanning of this New Rebuplic, military-controlled facility when a rickety shuttle approached leaking dangerous coolant gasses.

_SENSOR READOUT: Courenth .89% Ves...

...material registry_processing...

_RESULT: Standard Imperial Coolant...

_INESTIGATING...

The spherical droid swiftly changed course and headed down towards the shipyard, it's tall antenna retracting to maintain stealth. Inside the device an insatiable desire to dig up the dirt was being driven by the remarkable AI processor used in all GNN news scouts.

[Beckit Stev]

Caamas, 30 lightyears from Kuat Drive Yards:

The massive MC-80b Misha's Grace turned 15 degrees starboard, and rotated 25 degrees counter-clockwise, giving a mixed squadron of B-Wings and A-Wings sufficient cover from the barrage of a pair of ImpStar Victory classes. Turbolaser fire sputtered against shields as the ImpStars moved to flank the ship. And then another MC-80b and four Nebulon Cs showed up in a most timely fashion.

A-Wings and T-Wings tore free from the Kalahan Gale and her escorts like starved rancors, and the squadrons of "TIE Bombers" grew a lot more hesitant, as did the "Preybird" escorts. Must be green.

Another ImpStar, this time an Imperial class came about to challenge the Gale, along with a strategic problem known as an interdictor cruiser.

"Captain Velespi and Commander Krotin, if you would be so kind as to launch your T-Wings to chase after that Inderdictor" Admiral Beckit Tev studied the 3d holo of the ships in front of him, keen interest on his face. He turned to the Flight Commander, Alia Tellikker "Tellikker launch Blue Squadron, but delay the T-Wings for 30 seconds. Give chase to whatever fighters the Impstar deploys."

"Aye Sir."

"Helm, I want three quarter speed, vector ten degrees spinward off, and five degrees low twoard the Imp-class."

The Admiral flicked the comm on again. "Velispi and Pleen, move a half klik starboard of the Gale" he said to the Nebulon Cs. Eckar and Grettor, support the Grace." Statisfied, he flicked off the comm again.

"Comm, hail the ImpStars and ask them if they would like to surrender while they still have paint on the hulls."

Today's excersize was going very well.

[Captain Tyle]

The doors to the bay slid open with a lurch, and Sgt. Major Nemor Tyle entered, his polished leather boots clacking against the durasteel floor paneling. He walked in such a manner that squared him fully forward, as if he was ready for a firefight at any moment, and was coiled like a spring inside. Despite his age, he still retained a fire that most didn't have in the best of years. Coming to a stop near Wargrave, he looked about.

"This is an unscheduled embarkation, Sergeant. I saw no flight plan logged into Kuat. Why were they diverted to this area?"

He glanced at the ship, scrutinizing its leaking coolant tanks. To put it lightly, it had seen better days. It then clicked with him. His square jaw tensed as his brow furrowed.

"I see. An unscheduled visit. Where's their captain?"

[Taylor Millard]

Millard stifled a half-smile/half glare as MMU strode down the ramp looking like a nerf rider from a holovid.

"We ran into an Imperial attack," Millard said, wincing from an apparent injury, "Near Ithor. All we wanted to do was get to Mon Calamari...and see the Cathedral of the Chimes. That's all I swear..."

He trailed off, fear in his eyes.

"A strike cruiser maybe...I'm not sure..." he wailed, "It was terrible."

It was then an alarm sounded from the transport. It was the damage alarm, alerting those around danger was near. The coolant level in the transport was leaking rather fast...and sitting right next to the bit of fuel Millard had 'accidently' left near it.

"Run...run!" Millard yelled as he began running away, "Get off the ship! NOW!"

As the group of refugees ran from the transport it suddenly exploded...

[Silus Xilarian]

The explosion rattled the whole hangar while knocking down refugees who were closer than others, wounding two of the NR officers, and killing one officer who was coming dangerously close to seeing the nice, unblemished, Imperial interior of the ship.

Among all the chaos, 6 men exitted the room unnoticed. "Major Thumper" and "Private Parts" were now unaccounted for. Obviously they had been near the ship and had not gotten away in time to stop from being incinerated by the explosion.

This was the explanation that Silus hoped for, as he led his team down a narrow corridor, steadily making there way in the direction of the shipyards. His team was ready now, he could tell from the confidence in their steps....This is where their training was about to come into play...

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I looked at my commander and saluted as he walked up, "Unsure sir. No one reported here. They might be at the other hangar."

I turned towards the man who had spoken to me in his highly accented Basic.

"You, civilian, what happened here? Where's your commanding officer?"

It was then an explosion rocked the deck. I kept my footing, but still turned a sharp eye in the direction.

"What happened?" I yelled into my com link, "Report!"

"An explosion in Hangar Bay Two, a NRSF soldier reported back, "We have wounded!"

I looked at Tyle, "Shall we go?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il and the techs who'd previously come to help her dove for cover, dodging flying debris. She caught sight of Taylor and steeling herself, her face took on a stern look as she began striding across the bay. Kicking away chunks of destroyed metal and pieces of bulkhead, she approached the three men and small droid. Even though her stature was small, she cut an impressive figure, backdropped by the flaming hulk of what used to be a shuttle, her vestcoat billowing out behind her and her orange tinted sunglasses covering her metallic eyes.

She looked back at the wreckage and cursed.

[Captain Tyle]

Tyle was already on the move, with his hand on his sidearm, as he pulled it from his holster.

"Get the lead out of your ass, Jon. Lets move!"

Tyle ran through the sliding double doors, cutting a swathe in an outpouring of fleeing personnell.

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I followed Tyle, my own blaster drawn. A rush of aliens met us running in the opposite direction, much of them Weequeys with a few Bimms and other species as well.

"We have an explosion in Hangar Bay 2!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Those poor refugees!"

"Why'd the Empire do this to them!"

"We need some help in here NOW!"

We passed by six men who were running in the opposite direction, fear...but also determination in their eyes.

My thoughts paused for a second, but I raced on. Hangar Bay 2 was priority now. Whatever happened...had to be stopped.

Tyle and I reached the hangar and entered.

The sight was something we'd seen before. A transport had exploded after docking, debris- still burning from the explosion scattered across the room. The burning husk of the hull lay in ruins on the floor hangar.

Surprisingly, the transport hadn't destroyed any other shuttles in the area, but no sense not being cautious.

"Get another team down here! We need fire supplies and medical crews here NOW!" I yelled into a comlink as I looked for the transport's captain.

"Who in Palpatine brought this damn transport in here!?!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

A piece of debris was crunched beneath one of s'Il's boots as she turned her head at the yell for the transport's "captain" to show his face.

She'd done this countless times before; ship palming was one of the things she enjoyed almost as much as stealing art, and with a brief feral grin, she turned fully to face the man who'd yelled. Her short hair was slicked back and her hands clenched into fists as she went to work.

Millard had seen a few of her sides, but this one she knew she'd never shown him. It would be interesting to see how he reacted. When it came to ship palming, she was up at the top. She could be 'Bitch Supreme' when the need called for it.

"Yeah I brought my ship in here," she began, her metallic eyes narrowing behind the orange lenses as she started off toward the man who'd yelled, "Or would you have rather I had stayed out there, smiled and waved at you, then let myself and my people get blown to kingdom come?"

She stalked forward, her very air one of mixed anger and concern, and ripping the sunglasses from her eyes, she shook a stray strand of hair from her face. "Name's Roganahn Titus. I did all I could to keep my people safe..."

Her eyes flaired and she growled. "Sorry about the mess here...

"... but sometimes there's s**t even I can't fly out of."

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus and his team were met with surprisingly little New Republic guards on their journey to the shipyards. And the ones they did see were quietly disposed in the nearest garbage chute. At last they came upon the door leading out to the shipyard. Silus knew this, not by intuition, but by the large "Shipyard" sign above the door. As they walked out, they spotted 2 guards, who luckily for Silus and his team, had their backs turns. The two troopers raised there weapons, but lowered them at Silus's silent command. Silus then looked back at them and whispered...

We dont want to make any big ruckus yet, the other teams are still up in that hangar, no need in giving them anymore hell then they'll have already....Let me take care of this

Silus crept forward and surveyed the rest of the shipyard. He could see no other guards at the moment.

Well boys, the coast is clear

Silus, however, wasnt whispering this time, and he followed his words with a quick turn, stepping out of his hiding spot and yanking the twin blasters from his back, shooting both guards as they whizzed around to see who was behind them. He then looked back to his team with a sharp grin...
Let's roll.....

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I looked at "Titus" casting a glare that should've scared a private back to cadet. The woman didn't wince.

"Ya shoulda mentioned the ship was gonna explode," I snarled, "We coulda had fire and rescue here for ya."

I stared at the flaming ship and cursed.

"Look I don't give a Gungan's ass whether ya can fly it outta Beggar's Canyon on Tattooine, ya atleast give us th'decency of telling us ya comin'...then we coulda been ready t'take on casualties."

My dog-like face went back to the woman, "All ya travellers git out?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Hanger Bay 3 was quiet. The only sound was the shuffling and grunting of the NR privates who were loading The Wing of the Raven with goods headed for TDK.

TDK was the only planet in the Guild Sector not to stay with the Empire after the internal collapse of the Galactic government. Not that Arya paticularly cared about such things. She was just here for the job, and the NR needed goods taken into the sector. So she would smuggle in the ..well whatever it was in those crates.

Arya stood up, "Watch where you're putting that! You scratch my ship, I'll take it out of your hide!" She bristled at the private, who looked a little young, and a little frightened of her. Arya grinned to herself, and settled back down on her makeshift seat on top of a crate. She pulled up her feet, resting them on another crate, until two soldiers pulled it out from under her.

Her feet hit the deck with a thump and she growled, reaching for a cigarra. As she was lighting it up, the lieutenant in charge of the operation hurried up.

"Please, no smoking is allowed in the hangers. We have sensitive equipment -" Arya fstared at him, and slowly lowered her lighter.

"Don't you have any fun?" She winked at him.

He paused, a little flustered. "Not while on duty, Ravenwing."

She was about to tear that little comment apart, when she heard shouts coming from the other hanger. "Whats going on over there?"

"Oh, we had a refugee ship land..apparently its been attacked by Imperials. Which is why we need to get this cargo to TDK as fast as possible. I'm sure you've heard about the embargo..the warlords are trying to starve them into submission."

Arya waved him silent, and closed her eyes, taking in a scene of confusion in the other hanger, She leapt to her feet. "How thick are these walls?!"

"About..why do you need to know?" The lieutenant stared at her, as she started reaching for weapons she wasn't wearing at the moment. "Is something the matt-!"

She flinched as a terrific BOOM resounded in the hanger next to them, and the shockwave shook all the parties in hanger 3 off their feet. "Frell it!" Arya scrambled up, "What the hell sort of operation is the New Republic running here!" She stalked off towards the operations room as people covered with soot started streaming into their hanger from the one next door.

"If my ship is damaged...well you just better hope it isn't! Frell!" Arya shouted over her shoulder at the startled and shaken privates, while the lieutenant ran after her.

[Taylor Millard]

Millard spoke up, cowering as he did, "I-I-i think so. Although...the New Republic troopers who were with us...where are they??"

The NR Sergeant looked at Millard and asked him who he meant.

"A-a Private Parts and a Major Thumper were in the ship with us. W-we don't know what happened. T-they may have b-been killed in the explosion...we don't know," Millard shook his head and began walking away, "Oh dear oh dear."

He motioned to Thomas to start ushering the men out of the hangar. They were to begin walking towards where the dreadnaughts were. Then, Millard and s'Il would join them.

In and out. Simple enough...

[Silus Xilarian]

There she is boys, do your thing

Before them was Tethys. Silus was now grinning from ear to ear, as he signalled for the technicians to get to work. Appartantly the explosion in the hangar had thrown them more off-guard than he had expected. No alarms, no attacks, nothing.

As the two technicians entered. Stark stopped by Silus..

Things are going smoothly...

They sure as frell are, so those techs need to hurry up, this wont last much longer...

Silus stepped onto the ship, opting to keep some form of concealment while the technicians worked. As he stepped in, he slapped his hand against the ship a few times...Major Thumper had struck again...

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya stalked into Hangar 2, waving her hand at the smoke and glaring at anyone who happened to look at her. She could see a woman standing up to a NR officer, and it looked like he was getting the worse end of the conversation. Arya shouted at them from across the chaotic hangar.

"What exactly is going on here!?" She continued walking, and her hands were still reaching for the blaster she'd had to leave on her ship. "I'm trying to get my ship loaded up, and there are explosions next door?! Krassst! I demand to see who is in charge here!" Arya had reached them, and stood with feet slightly apart for balance, her hands on her hips angrily.

Her blue eyes narrowed at the officer. "If there is any damage to my Chevvette, you'll be paying me for that too!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il recognized Arya the moment the other woman spoke, and her metallic eyes widened just a little. Her gaze hardened back up though, and she glared daggers at the officer; accosted on both ends by two women who had no problem nailing him to the flight deck if the fancy struck, and as soon as Arya stopped talking, s'Il jumped right in.

"If I'd known the New Republic wasn't going to offer help to a band of refugees, then I would have passed you sods by and let myself be blown to bits. I thought you lot dealt with this crap all the time back when you were fightin' the Empire, don't tell me you've gone soft; can't deal with a shuttle blowin' up-"

He turned to look at Arya, and s'Il used the moment to put a finger to her lips, then with a gesture to the officer as his back was turned, hooked her index finger into the side of her lip and pulled gently, as a fisherman would reel in a fish.

Just play along, she prayed silently, we'll string this boy up by 'is jacobs if we work together....

She shot an arm out then, turning the officer back to face her. "Oi! Look at me when I'm talkin' to you; I've got a slagged ship, my partner-" s'Il jerked a thumb at Millard who was doing his part of playing the mental wreck; frighteningly well, she thought, "- well hell, look at 'im! He ain't no good to me anymore..."

She jabbed a finger into the man's chest. "And as for telling you we were comin', frell, we didn't even know we were till the Empire jumped us! Don't you go preachin' to me just cause you wear that uniform, pal; I won't eat it like your little underlings."

And that's when she got in his face; she stood on her toes and put her nose a centimeter away from his. "Do you read me, Roger Ramjet???"

Ok, Arya, you're on, s'Il thought, hoping the dark haired woman understood and would contribute with her own berations.

[Jux Ta]

A large concussive explosion shook the decking under Ta's feet. The signal.

The captain inconspicuously reached his right hand over and tapped a button on his battered chronometer. A very low-powered radio signal was unleashed from within the device - which was only right twice a day, as anyone who glanced for more than a moment at it would see - and activated a receiver, implanted next to the primary engine compartment. The receiver tripped, an electrical circuit was completed, and a half-kilo of Anduril Prime plexisplosives - disguised as a transparisteel porthole - ignited. The stuff was incredibly dense in mass, and in fact *could* double for singleplate transparisteel.

Regardless, it set off the formidable amount of fuel remaining in the engine compartment, and the transport became an inferno, specifically tailored to mask all the sensors in the docking bay that it could. Smoke, noise, energy discharges - suspicious if one noticed that even life sources were masked and that there was a disproportionate amount of smoke to actual flame.

The blast didn't kill any of the team members; not even the NR rep who was markedly slower than the six disguised Imperials. Under visual and energy shrouds, Corporal Winters shrugged his repeater rifle out from under his long brown coat and shot the man. One of the techs was - surprisingly, the blast was engineered to not harm anyone more than fifteen meters away from it - on fire from the explosion, and the other three were closer to the exit hatches than the team. Lietenant San shot one through the back with two three-burst shots, and Winters got the other two with the same amount of expended energy.

The team's faces were quite different-looking now, if anyone had been able to see them. They were all of them grim men. No panic, nothing they did not know about their surroundings and nothing they could not do. The Imperial techs were oblivious to the carnage as they hardwired a lock system on the hangar door - it would activate as soon as it shut next, and would keep the hatchway shut until it was forced open or slagged. No one would be able to find out the team had survived the carnage of the transport's untimely demise until much too late. Rather, that was the plan.

Jux Ta set his rifle to single-fire and blew the burning NR tech's head off. A kindness.

The door opened, and the refugees streamed out quickly and quietly - there were no New Republic workers or soldiers in sight; they'd all obviously been drawn by the explosions of the first shuttles. Next stop, the dockyards. They were nearby.

[Silus Xilarian]

The first slave rig was set. Things were going great. Silus hurried his team off of Tethys. Next stop...Iapetus. Silus exited the ship first, and his crafty grin instantly sunk. The mission was planned perfectly, right down to the time of execution. Landing in the middle of shift change would be sure to make things even more confusing for the NR soldiers, since the seperate shifts would have just enough communication to confuse the other. However, this soon presented a problem. Being that the team was already out of the compound into the shipyards, they didnt feel the need to hide the bodies of the two guards Silus had just shot. Silus watched as two guards walked out to relieve the two, now dead, guards. The two men looked at the two corpses, and Silus went into action..

NO NO NO.....THIS ISNT SUPPOSED TO WORK LIKE THIS...

Silus yelled at the two bewildered guards as he pulled his Repeater Rifle. One guard returned fire, but was immediately taken down. The other, however, managed to take cover. Silus ducked behind Tethys and took aim to where the guard was at, landing a near hit as the NR guard peeped out to take a shot...If nothing else he would hold the guard there til the other teams got to the shipyards.....

Silus then jumped on his communicator

Alright team, go ahead and get Iapetus set, i'll take care of this guy...

[Captain Tyle]

Tyle arrived in the scene of the inferno, doing a bit of damage control, before he made his way to a comm. His fierce eyes flickered the reflecting flames as he sent out a message.

"This is Tyle in bay 32 C. We've got an explosion here. Send hazard crews -"

WHOOM

A second, more distant explosion could be heard over the din and sounds of terror. Tyle's hand gripped the receiver, white-knuckled...as he strained to hear the sound.

A second explosion. Secondaries?

"--dispatch to this signal, control. Report with the 127 as well. Something's not adding up here. We've got a secondary explosion, look lively!"

Tyle slammed the receiver down, eyeing Wargrave has he came through the fleeing crowd.

"How bad is it?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya ducked down instinctively as another explosion rocked the hangars. "Sergeant Wargrave!" A private ran up with a commlink, soot-faced and shaken. "Another transport has exploded, in the upper hangars! Its the other refugee ship-"

Arya stamped her foot on the deck plating. "What the frell is going on?!" The woman...she was familiar, and was making the cut-throat-say-no-more gesture to her behind the back of the NCO. Arya glared at the sergeant, and when he turned back to ...s'Ilancy! That was her name. When he turned back, she shouted at him.

"I have a strict timetable to keep here, mister!" A dozen privates ran by with anti-inflammatory equipment, trying to keep the flames of the transport under control. Something popped and exploded inside the ship, adding to the smoke billowing out. The vents were trying as hard as they could, but Arya coughed.

"Look, there went the secondary drives." She wiped her hand over her face, leaving a dark streak of soot in the sweat on her cheek. Another officer walked up, and Arya whirled on him. "Tyle! You sonofabitch! I'm behind schedule, and you know I'm doing you a favor with this job!"

[Jux Ta]

Soon enough, Team Two came upon civilians and officers alike who were fleeing to various parts of the station. None took any notice of the Imperials, as they looked just as eager to get where they were headed as everyone else; albeit a little grimier than most. It was just as well for the New Republic citizens that they did not; they would just have been immediately killed for their concern at this stage.

Team Two entered the shipyards. The Gaea was docked not too far away, and it would be their first target. It had two other Dreadnought-class ships slaved to it, though both would also need to be boarded - the Mnemosyne and the Rhea.

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I ran towards Tyle and tossed him a heavy blaster, "Something's wrong."

The Sarge gave me a look of "No poodoo Sherlock," and I continued.

"We just got a report from the dock where the Dreads are parked. Someone's tryin' to steal 'em. God damn it we walked into the middle of a frellin' Imp attack."

I began calling members of Baker Company- the ones that were here on Kuat.

"Parker, Rogers...get your asses to where the Dreads are. Rest of the Krayts are with Tyle 'n I.

"Tyle, I know ya got rank on m'but you're wit' me. From what I remember the dreads are all lined up like mynocks onna YT-1300. We'll need t'send more than just Baker Co. there. Call control 'n get a few more teams down 'ere.

"And as for you," I turned to where both women stood, "I have a job t'do. If you're late it's none of my damned bizness...hey where the #$*$ did blondie go?"

I cast a gaze, noticing not only her, but her companion- the annoying bawling man- were gone.

"Frell Sarge, we got problems...let's get t'the Dreads.

"If you have any problems Ravenwing," I snarled at Arya, "Talk t'someone who gives a flying mynock. And if ya wanna get out quicker I suggest ya get that cargo loaded or give us a frellin' hand!"

I made a run towards the main lift, checking the charge on my blaster. Something was indeed wrong...and if th'Imps were attacking...

I cursed and began radioing for more backup.

[Taylor Millard]

Millard slowly began walking towards the exit of the hangar, still prattling about the loss of the transport. When the second explosion went off, he ducked out the exit and straightened. Lok was right on his heels, moving quickly, staring down the eyes of her orange lenses.

"All right move out," he ordered, shucking the refugee clothing revealing a NR soldier suit below it. The rest of his team was dressed accordingly-save for the yellow marking on their shoulders. It identified them as NR men, but to the Imperials up by the Dreadnaughts it signalled they were Imperials and not to bed shot.

Millard, s'Il, and the others began their walk towards the nearest lift to the docks where the dreadnaughts sat. From the sounds of the other teams, the battle had begun. And successfully so far.

As Millard's team entered the lift, he turned to s'Il.

"Frightenly well huh? You forget I spent almost 25 years in the Unknown Regions," he winked, then turned his face grim.

"MMU can you access Base Security? See if you can't make our men in the other bays a little bit less conspicuous?"

[Silus Xilarian]

WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING YOU PEOPLE SO LONG....

Silus was more that a little perterved at this point. The NR Guard had managed to slip back into the building. Soon alarms were going off, and more soldiers were running out. Silus took down who he could from behind Tethys and ran. The slave rig on Iapetus had already failed twice, the techs were holding things up badly. Silus quickly found another spot to shoot from and began firing again. He spotted a NR Soldier running a different direction from the rest of the swarm and figured that he may be a sniper. Silus took aim. As he pulled the trigger back he noticed a yellow stripe. He wasnt sure if he jerked the gun then fired, or fired and jerked the gun, not until he saw the shot narrowly miss the man's head. Silus laughed to himself for a moment, as he did during most close calls...

Sorry bout that Taylor

As he spoke this to himself one of the technicians came onto the communicator.

Sir, Iapetus is set, but we have heavy fire on us. Captain Stark and the two troopers are doing the best they can

Alright Im on my way

Silus retreated from his post and pulled his saber. There were too many soldiers for Silus to take out, so a distraction was the best he could do....for now.

Silus ran out from behind Tethys on the opposite side of his team with his saber drawn, waving it around as he ran to draw fire onto himself as he rolled back the behind the ship. As he ducked back out, he let loose with his dual blasters, not hitting as many people as he would like, but making a showing at least. the rest of the group had enough time to make it to Coeus. The two troopers stayed outside the ship as usual and returned fire to the NR soldiers while Stark and the technicians began to set up the third slave rig....

[Jux Ta]

The two Engineering Corps techs had easily sliced into the security locks keeping trespassers off of the Gaea and the Mnemosyne, and Team Two had entered and secured each one as the techs went directly to the bridges and activated the slave rigging protocols - the Gaea was the control ship for both the Mnemosyne and the Rhea.

At the moment, the commanding Dreadnought of the slave circuit trio had already been made ready, and Winters and Ta were waiting outside the docking tunnel that led to the Mnemosyne. Guarding it, technically, but the New Republic did not seem to be aware of Team Two's location yet. Likely only a matter of time. Davitt had reported that Team Three had let a single NR guard live too long, and that the guard had immediately raised the alarm - as a result, Team Three was under a heavy bit of fire at the moment. Team One was successfully - and inconspicously - making their way to their own targets, while Team Three had rigged up two ships already.

Badgil and Vernai came running through the docking tube, with Commander Davitt right behind them. San was still on board the Gaea, as he'd be piloting this trio and might not have the time to return to the control ship if he joined Team Two for all of the work. His firepower was lost to the team, but he was monitoring the New Republic security frequencies from his Dreadnought as he waited.

Vernai snapped an odd-looking salute off as he reported the slave rig had been successfully re-incorporated. Naturally, the Imperials were not setting up the slave circuitry, only reprogamming it for their use - the ships were already fully equipped with the slave hardware.

"Move it out," Ta ordered as he and Sleve Winters took the front again. They had barely a hundred meters to run to the next locked-down docking tube, which led to the Rhea's primary boarding hall. Badgil sealed and locked the Mnemosyne's docking tube behind the other team members.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya stood still, gaping at the retreating backs of...everyone! "TYLE!!" she thundered, but the two sergeants kept on running away from her.

s'Ilancy had disappeared, as had her crewmember. "What the frell is going on here!?" Arya stomped her foot on the deck plating, and then dodged a heavy firefighting machine as it was rolled past her. She cursed again, and then ran back into Hangar 3.

"Lieutenant!!" Krasst. He wasn't around either. The privates had aslo scattered, most likely to the raging fires in the other hangars. She spun around, all alone in the hangar with her ship. The cargo hold was still open, and only half filled. "KRASST! What the frell!"

She ran into her ship and grabbed her railgun, strapping it to her hip, and then venturing out again. She was going to find someone to pay her, and load up her ship if it was the last thing she did. Arya checked the saftey on the projectile weapon, and then ran out of the hangar area.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

In one swift motion s’Il knelt down, sweeping her vestcoat behind her as she pulled a small wire; seemingly as thin as a spider’s strand almost, from the inside pocket of the coat. Her movements were quick and measured, and she reached a hand up with one end to the back of her neck. Just above the hairline were two small neural connection ports; courtesy of the neural hardware development division of Terrisz’Voss. She’d had them implanted years ago, along with secondary hardware that laced her brain. It was in that hardware that she stored all of her more sensitive business materials and information. Datapads were clunky and took up space, but this; this was much easier.

She plugged the end of the spiderwire into one of the ports at the back of her neck, and held the other end out to MMU.

The little droid took it eagerly, opening up the panel on his chest to expose a collection of connector housings and ports. One in particular was set apart from the others, and it was this port that he plugged his end of the wire into.

For a brief moment s’Il’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she “dropped” into The Rascal King’s mainframe.

Her metallic eyes refocused almost instantly though, and she stood up quickly, grasping MMU up in the process and placing him on her shoulders. The little avatar straddled her neck.

With double vision (one showing the real world while another, digital plane of existence was set out atop that of the solid one) s’Il looked up to Millard briefly before focusing on a point just past his head.

She could see numbers flash by; encryption codes as her ship’s cryptanalyst programs went hard to work overriding the security measures of the shipyard.

“Try running it through the new software I gave you last week; that might work,” she said to no one.

The numbers overlaying the real world stopped, blinked out, then reappeared once more before resuming their work.

s’Il reached a hand up after a minute, pointing at a series of equations. To those around her, it looked as though she was pointing at nothing at all with the exception of the empty space just in front of her. “There; go through there.”

Her eyes rolled back once more, only to refocus again. “Trigger that one right there. That should stop it.”

A moment passed, then silence reigned as the alarms blaring through the shipyard abruptly cut out.

[Taylor Millard]

Millard smiled as the alarms went off.

"Good job. All right...we should be at the dock level now. Be ready for anything...Thomas?"

The disguised Imperial Royal Guard nodded, then pulled the small thermal detonator out of his jacket.

As the lift came to halt, Thomas threw the detonator out. It bounced on the floor for ten seconds, then exploded- killing the two NR guards who stood there.

Millard's team ran out of the lift, heading towards the dock when Millard's Danger Sense told him to duck. As he sent his body to the ground, the blaster bolt slammed into the wall next to him.

As Taylor searched for the attacker he heard a voice, "Sorry Taylor."

Silus... he shook his head, then motioned his men on.

"We got dreadnaughts to steal. Move out!"

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

I raced up the stairs towards the shipyards, Johnson, Harpyer, and Tyle hot on my tail. We bounded up the stairs, three at a time, the safeties on our heavy blaster rifles off and ready for anything.

"All right...let's be careful. We've got casualties. Tyle you're with me. Johnson, Harpyer...go down to where the Cronus is. If they're after Titan Group 18, then we've got problems."

Johnson asked me what I was talking about.

"Titan Group used to be a part of the Katana Fleet...they're slave rigged which means..."

Johnson responded by pulling Harpyer and a few other NRSF troops from Baker Co. and they ran towards the dock where Cronus was held. If they were lucky they'd make it.

If not...we were frelled.

I saw the woman, Arya Ravenwing, run up into the bay.

"What the frell are ya doin'ere?" I asked her as I began a run towards the Tethys.

[Silus Xilarian]

HURRY UP WITH THAT RIG!!! YOU MAY NOT HAVE NOTICED, BUT WE'RE BEING SHOT AT OUT HERE!!!

Silus stayed on his communicator with the technicians. They were under heavy fire, and didnt even have the third rig set. Silus returned as much fire as he could, and managed to take out a few soldiers. This was only a pin-prick's worth of damage now. Even though The alarms had already stopped, guards were still pouring out into the shipyards. As he was firing back, Silus saw what looked like two NR officers, running toward Tethys. Silus jerked his repeater rifle to the left, putting a spray of fire on the officers....

Sir, the third Slave Rig is almost ready...
Took ya long enough, hurry up and get it, and we'll be on our way to Epimetheus

Silus put the rifle back up and drew his dual-blasters again. They were about to have to make a mad dash for Epimetheus, and holding the 2 blasters made running alot easier. Silus peeped back around the corner and caught a glimpse of the two NR officers again, and let a wave of blaster bolts go.... :shootin

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya whirled around, and stared at the sergeant. Who was he again? Oh yes. "Wargrave! I need money or I need cargo. For your sake, both, but I'll take just the money. Sleet!" She ducked back to saftey as a blaster bolt sizzled out of a doorway, barely missing her.

"WARGRAVE!" He had disappeared around another bulkhead, but she could see his blaster poking around the corner as he returned fire.

She yanked her railgun out of her holster and steeled herself. Whoever it was in there was getting between her and her job. Timing was frelling important for this drop, and if she wasn't underway in half an hour, the job would not exist anymore. No cargo, no money, no nothing.

There was a break in the shooting, and she yelled at Tyle, then launched herself past the archway leading into the shipyards. She squeezed off a few shots, managing to shoot one of the brigands in the upper thigh. The other two shots managed to miss everyone completely, but landed in a wall of what looked like expensive equipment.

Sparks flew everywhere as Arya skidded to a halt on the other side of the arch. The man who'd gotten shot in the thigh was lucky she was packing solid tip rounds. A hollow point projectile would have blown his leg completely off. As it was it had gone completly through the leg, moving fast enough to leave a smoking hole.

She could hear screaming... and closed her eyes. Went through the bone. That'll leave a frelling mark, you bastard. Arya opened her eyes again and glared at Wargrave who was peeking around at her. "Where. Is. My. Money!?"

[Wedge Antilles]

"Rogue Two, Rogue Three take the two Eyeballs to the left. I've got the leader."

"Aye sir."

"I copy Rogue Leader...move into position."

The pilot put his X-Wing into a tight roll, dodging the laser cannon blasts from the Imperial "TIE Advanced" as it flew past him. Sending the X-Wing into a barrel roll, its pilot flipped the fighter over, and then targetted the Imperial Fighter.

Quad-laser cannons spat from his wings as he lowered the shields of the "TIE Advanced". A few more blasts and the armor began to sparkle and crack. It turned around and headed back towards base.

"Nice job Rogue Leader. Ya got me good."

The fight...he noted...was essentially over.

"Form up Rogues," Rogue Leader said as the X-Wings came into formation around the New Republic Fleet.

Six Weeks...six weeks since the liberation of Coruscant. Six weeks since the Empire had gone from one of the most powerful factions in the galaxy to a band of squabbling and troublesome warlords. It was astounding, something Wedge Antilles would have never believed. Not with the way things had been going. Then came the opportunity to not only fly but to lead Rogue Squadron again.

Wedge smiled, a wide grin at being back behind the X-Wing stick. It was fun. A lot of fun.

"Rogue Leader, this is Rogue Two", came Tycho's voice from his wing. "We're getting word that something has happened at Kuat. You getting it yet?"

The X-Wing pilot keyed his com, listening to the chatter. It was faint, but still came through.

"This is...rgean...rgrave....perial...ttack...ita...grou p...Dreads...wound....stance..."

Wedge chewed on his lip for a second as he listened to the message. Something was going on at Kuat...he couldn't tell if it was an Imperial attack or not, but the shipyards had something going on.

He keyed for Misha's Grace and Admiral Stev.

"Admiral this is Rogue Leader. You just get the message about something going on at Kuat Shipyards? Want Rogue Squadron to check it out?"

[Silus Xilarian]

A bullet whizzed by Silus, and he instantly heard a scream. One of his troopers had just been shot. Luckily for him it was in the leg, and it seemed to be a pretty clean wound. There was no real blood spurting of any sort, and the smoke rising from the hole suggested it may have been partly cauterized. This still urked Silus in the worst way. He promised Taylor he'd bring these boys back in one piece, and he wasnt about to go back on it.

Can you walk?

The trooper looked up and let out a reluctant nod...

Then hobble yur ass to Dione, I'll cover you.....GO!!!

Silus yanked his dual blasters up and let out a rain of fire toward the archway leading into the shipyards. He didnt know who fired, but he was gonna give em hell either way. As Silus and the wounded trooper made it to Dione, Silus sent the man in with the instructions to find a first aid station. then he got onto his communicator...

Stark, where the hell are you!?

I was just about to ask you the same thing...

One of the troops got injured, I'll give you some cover, just get to Epimetheus!!!

We're on our way there...

Silus eased his way from Dione and ducked behind two containers. He propped the end of his repeater rifle onto the top of one of the containers and began taking aim. As he picked off the closest NR soldiers he noticed something. Lasers were coming from everyone, except a woman, who was appartantly firing off bullets. Concluding this was the one who shot his trooper, Silus let loose a volley of shots her way. A NR guard beside her was taken down, and a few shots even danced at her feet...

[Taylor Millard]

Millard, s'Il, and Thomas- followed by another technician and a guard- raced into the docking bay heading straight towards Cronus, the lead dreadnaught of Titan Group.

The Titan Group was an 18 group dreadnaught fleet, originally made for the Katana fleet in the Old Republic. After the ships were captured from Grand Admiral Thrawn, following his death, these particular ships were renamed Titan Group, after mythological stories about a group of Titans who rose up in defiance against a tyrannical ruler. Cronos, the leader of the Titans, was fitted with a full out slave circuit unit much like the one on the Katana.

The Imperial Team reached the dreadnaught bay with little trouble, as most of the fighting was down where Silus and Ta were. As they began walking towards the dreadnaught, both Millard and Thomas halted.

"Something doesn't feel right does it?" Millard asked his Royal Guard Bodyguard.

Thomas shook his head in agreement. Then he said, "Down!" as an entire squad of twenty NRSF troopers ran into the bay, firing at Millard and co.

Things were not so easy now.

[Jux Ta]

The first piece of bad news that arrived that day came in the form of incomprehensible, squealing static over the comlink. Davitt informed Captain Ta of the obvious - the New Republic had begun transmitting a strong communications jamming signal, and all of the carefully preselected random channels the Imperial teams were using were affected. The NR was likely - no, obviously - using ground lines for their own communications.

No matter. The comlinks were not an integral part of the plan, just a convenience. San would activate his trio of Dreadnought as soon as the mission chrono reached a certain time, or if he came under attack. The techs were still working on the Rhea, and halfway through their work - judging by how long the last two Dreadnoughts each took them.

Then the docking tube hatch slammed shut, sealing Badgil and Vernai off from the other three members of Team Two. And a large causeway door that the two engineers had "secured" suddenly disintegrated into three simultaneous flashes of light.

Even before the sound of the demolition charges reached them, Winters and Ta were moving into the nearest available cover. The compressed sound waves resounded in their eardrums, and then New Republic Security Forces troops began running through the cleared doorway, shooting as they came.

Davitt ducked behind the short overhang of the docking tunnel, for what scant protection that offered. Ta leapt behind a sturdy-looking fueling gantry, but not before seeing Sleve Winters take up a position behind several huge storage canisters - used for transporting heavy machinery, usually construction vehicles.

The fueling gantry was a fairly stupid place to hide, if the Dreadnought was actually being fueled at the moment. It shouldn't be. The gantry system for the fuel lines were always there... but Ta couldn't remember if they were empty when not being used.

[Sgt. Jon Wargrave]

"You'll get it!" I yelled at Ravenwing as one of Baker Company went down. It was Hawkins, a new guy. He'd just joined up not one month ago. He was good...but he couldn't dodge the blaster bolt that killed him

The Imps were good, anyone could tell you that. They weren't just from some splinter group that'd come up recently...these guys were the real thing.

But the Krayt Dragons were the best the NRSF could offer. We were damn good. We were the best. And we'd win too.

I targetted the leader, the smirk on his face a kilometer long as he cooly shot another NR soldier. I shook my head, too many of our boys were dyin' t'day.

The leader in sight, I fired at him...watching the laser bolt as it flew towards him.

"Take that you Imperial Bastard..." I mummured.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus kept his position. Blaster bolts were whizzing by him in all directions, but none of any real threat. Then he saw it. A red streak of pure energy. It was too late to duck, too late for any reaction. He was finally going to meet death head on, literally...

Then out of nowhere, the uninjured trooper left on Silus team sidestepped oncoming fire. The blaster bolt aimed at Silus's head hit the trooper in the chest, instantly putting him on the ground. As the trooper fell, Silus already had his sights set on the officer who fired. He let loose four quick shots, then ducked down to catch a quick breath.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya cursed again, loud enough so everyone around her could hear, and coarse enough to make some of them blush. Then she became all buisness.

This fight wasn't hers, so she'd have to get back to her ship, somehow. Through a firefight? Wasn't her favorite choice. Arya peeked around a corner and nearly got her head blown off. She ducked back, sucking in her breath and biting back another useless curse.

Her face hardened, and she poked around the corner again, and squeezed off a few more shots in the general direction of the fools who were shooting at her, and then turned and ran down a hallway in the other direction.

She'd get into her hangar another way. There were some more shipyards here somewhere..and if she remembered correctly, there was a path from them to the hangars as well.

[Sarin Vorrann]

The Plutarch-class Star Destroyer Vengeance was undergoing a gracious refit upon the 'joining' of Vorrann's command with the Balmorran Empire. Unfortunately, she had not been completed in time for the Rear Admiral's first duty under the Grand Admiral, Millard.

As a tip of the hat to Vorrann's combat record, he was given command of a task force comprising an Imperial-class Star Destroyer and three Strike Cruisers, of Sluis Van fame.

The Imperial III Star Destroyer Davidoff lacked the size and potency of the Plutarch, but she would definite get the job done. Especially with five thousand crewers from the Vengeance aboard.

" Admiral, we will be reverting in three minutes."

" Excellent."

Task Force Vengeance, named for the Rear Admiral's flagship, would indeed be completly able to handle its task against the paltry forces of the New Republic. While Vorrann had the typical Imperial disdain of the former Rebels, he respected them as formidable opponents, a view which had precluded him from rising above the rank of captain...until he transferred from the tactical assault division before Endor to strategic defense command.

"...three, two, one!"

Vorrann had lost track of time in his musings, but quickly reverted himself to reality as his task force reverted to realspace.

" Sir, we are in psotion."

" Excellent. Bring all batteries forward and raise shields."

The quartet of Imperial ships looked out of place at Sluis Van, for it was located in the heart of the New Republic. Everywhere were winged fighters, Corellian freightors, and curved Republic warships. There was a seeming lack of order in Republic designs, only found in their captured vessels.

Angular and deadly.

Imperial.

Now, an Imperial flotilla of warships had arrived on their doorstep. And they were definitely hostile.

" Sir, we have detected fighter patrols and customs pickets."

" Are the fighters moving to engage?"

The tactical officer nodded. " We have two inbound squadrons. One E-wing, one B."

" Launch Shadow Squadron and the XXXIXth gunboat wing. Set all batteries to flak fire."

Moments later, a dozen TIE Advanced fighters, whose history and squadron commander the Admiral knew nothing about, were heading to the front of the Imperial force, with two squadrons of assault gunboats following them.

" Range to ion effectiveness?"

" We jumped ahead of target, sir. We're in now."

" Commence an ion barrage on the enemy emplacements and the yards."

" As ordered, Admiral."

Slowly, torrents of azure bolts cascaded from the Imperial Star Destroyer and towards the Republic shipyards off every side of their flotilla. The trio of Strike Cruisers formed up in a protective formation around their task force command vessel.

In came the Republic fighters....

Out went the Imperial fast attack craft.

[Bette Davis]

"Shadow Three, reporting in." Bette pinched the flight stick between her knees as she tightened the strap on her helmet. The TIE Advanced didn't even wobble off course.

"I'm taking the B-Wings..you can come along if you want, Two." She blew a kiss through the transparisteel towards Val Torre in Shadow Two, and then fluttered the rudders, spinning off towards the incoming B-Wing flight.

True to her callsign, "Shooter," she went in guns blazing, three other TIES behind her in a tight formation. Bette scored a hit on a B-Wing, and the fighter spun out of control, trailing a plume of debris from its wing.

[Val Torre]

By the three minute mark prior to reverting back into real space Val was already suited up and making his way to the launch bay reserved specifically for he and his fellow "TIE Jockeys" in Shadow Squadron. Today he was the first to arrive, which wasn't a rare occurence for he did enjoy working himself up before getting in his baby, The Fat Lady, a TIE Advanced suited to his wants and needs. Not one modification or repair is made to his ship unless he is present and taking part if not handling the whole lot himself.

"C'mon!" He growled to nobody through gritted teeth, hopping about and shaking his hands at his sides. He stopped and shook his head, the adrenaline pumping. "Brrr! Ok, baby. Here we go!" With that he climbed the ladder and dropped down through ingress hatch.

"Were gonna have a whole lotta fun today, missy!" He said enthusiastically. Missy and baby being his ship, naturally. It had been too long since their last adventure together, a whole two days.

Soon all of Shadow Squadron were ready to go and rip whatever A, B, C, D or E-Wings the New Republic had to throw at them. The hatch opened. And they were away.

"Woohoo!" He cried over the comm-link between Shadow Squadron. "Let's show these bitches some real Imperial courtesy!"

The squadron of twelve broke up into two sets of four and one set of three. Bette had broken off with her three wingmen in the direction of the approaching B-Wings and it looked like Sincere and his two wingmen were about to do a number on the oncoming E-Wings. E-Wings were fast and manouverable, moreso than X-Wings and had decent weaponry to boot. But the B-Wings had to be taken out first.

"Ok boys and girls, the B-Wings have to be taken out first. They're loaded with proton torpedoes, three ion cannons, a laser cannon and twin auto-blasters but they're piss-poor with manouverability. In other words fodder. Take 'em out quick because our number one priority is to is to protect those transports." His eyes narrowed, the E-Wings were coming in fast.

"Shadow Ten, you keep those E-Wings preoccupied whilst myself and Three mow down these B-Wings. E-Wings are only good for dog-fights; work first, fun later." With that he swithced off and broke away shortly behind Bette and her trio. Val took with him Five, Nine and Six. Unlike Shadow Three, Val was a little less fierce in his engaging the fighters, his approach was sharp and calculated. Hence the callsign "Razor." Time to live up to it.

[Wedge Antilles]

The X-wings came out of hyperspace in time to see the first wave of New Republic fighters be knocked back by the Imperial Advancers.

General Wedge Antilles held back a curse as he saw the situation. A Star Destroyer and a few Strike Cruisers were sitting just out of range of the main guns of Kuat, but close enough to where it could launch fighters and make a nuscience of itself.

He heard Rogue Six curse over the speakers, then a quick apology.

"Okay Rogues, here's where we earn our pay. Rogues Six, Two, and Three you're with me. Rogue Twevle, take Rogues Four and Five...let's see if we can't take care of a strike cruiser or two.

"All right Rogues go!"

Wedge's R2 Unit tweedled at him as the X-Wing began hurtling towards the Imperial Attack Force.

"What do you mean the Empire's launched transports?"

The droid tweeted back.

Indeed about fifteen transports had been launched from the Davidoff. They headed straight towards the Kuat Shipyards, making a beeline for a group of dreadnaughts who were just beginning to come into the battle.

Wedge told his R2 Unit to keep an eye on it, then turned back towards the dogfight ahead of him.

"Rogue Two, Rogue Six...take the two on the left. Rogue Three the eyeball on your right is yours...I'll take the leader!"

He threw his X-wing into a tight spin, sending laser fire towards the TIE Advanced, and watched as it impacted into the shields.

[Val Torre]

With his grip tightening on the flight stick, Val pulled up and The Fat Lady along with the three fighters trailing her moved out of the line of fire of the first few fighters then came down upon the tail end of the B-Wing squadron. His jaw clenched and eyes narrowed with concentration as his finger squeezed the trigger to unleash a barrage of laser fire from the two cannons fitted to the TIE Advanced.

"Too slow you sonnuvabitch!" He shouted as his aim was practically perfect, his fire rained down upon the body of the cooling system intake just above the deployed S-Foil wings. That was where the shield generator was found. He weakened the shields enough so that at least one blast penetrated the deflector shield and took it out. Shadow Six, flanking him to the right quickly finished off the job. Probably pierced the power converters below and blew the fuel tank. Similarly, Shadow Five did the same for Shadow Nine. That was two down.

"Now for the next pass." In unison. the qaurtet of TIE fighters turned at a speed that was almost twice as fast as that of the B-Wings. Changing formation they flew alongside each other and taking advantage of the poor speed of the cross-shaped fighters unleashed a several volleys of laser cannon fire upon two more, who were just in front of the ones they'd just taken out. It was a shame sound didn't travel through a vacuum because it would've been even more satisying for Val to hear the explosion that accompanied the sight of the two ships ripping apart in a flaming mass. "That's four guys. Now we--" He was cut short as his ship rocked from being on the receiving end of heavy fire. "--Woah!"

As was routine, Val took his ship into a dive and was accompanied by Shadow Six they then rolled out of the dive and as expected, the X-Wing was still on Val's tail. However, the instant the pursuing X-Wing soared past Val's two other wingmen, Shadow Five and Nine, they followed with the same manouver that their teammates had pulled off and were hot on the tail of the X-Wing, unleashing several volleys in it's direction. Two hits they managed before they had to break off as they too found themselves being pursued.

"Damn it!" Val spat as he pulled up on his flight stick, trying to shake the pursuing fighter. "Split!" He shouted over the comm with Shadow Six and simultaneously they went in opposite directions wondering which bait the fighter would take. Val went left, Shadow Six, right.

[Slayn Cloak]

Slayn had just pulled his trigger when Vance shouted over the intercom to check his seven. Slayn was alredy well aware of the Rogue Squadron pilot behind him, it was simply a pitty he couldn't get that B-wing first...
Slayn shouted over the intercom while pulling back on his stick. " Split- S then double to his six and tag him." At the end of this statement Slayn was already in a roll to the right, while shadow nine had sucsesfully gotten into position. All of Slayn's manuvers had been imprinted into his mind by his father, as Jeseth had most likly forseen Slayn's commitment to Taylor, and the Shadow Squadron; Yet the force proved to be his best weapon in most situations...
As a result of that manouver Slayn found himself on a colision course with Val. "Shadow five locked on, Val break left, then up." Slayn shouted into the intercom and opened fire on the B-wing, that closely tailed him.

[Sarin Vorrann]

" Admiral, a squadron of enemy fighters has arrived in system."

" Frell!!!" added the tactical relay officer.

For the profane outburst, the Rear Admiral looked down into the crewpit to see one of the Davidoff's indigenous crewmembers staring at a readout.

" Warrant Officer. Have you something to add?" Vorrann asked, calm as a rock in a storm. Outside, his fighters and gunboats were beginning to engage system fighters, fire pulsing from the Imperial warships towards their targets, most too far away to damage. Their morale effect was astounding, though.

" Sir. The fighters' IFF signals..."

" Yes?" Vorrann asked.

" They read as Rogue Squadron."

" Frell."

Several of the bridge crew members who had known Vorrann for some time, let slip grins and smiles. Those who did not suppressed them.

" Well, that adds to the mix, does it not? Flight ops!"

" Sir?" snapped an aged, but fit officer who had grown out of TIE command due to his muscular width.

" Launch our TIE/d squadrons to protect the transports. Losing any is unneccessary.

" Gunnery! Bring all forward weapons, excluding ions, to fire in a progressive tunnel around the fighters. That should ward off any of the brazen Rogues.

" Launch the 115th as well. Those Defenders should add to the confusion the Rogues will suffer."

In a flash, fighters moved from the primary launch bay of the Davidoff towards the Rogues. The Imperial flotilla edged forward, nearing the yards.

And the Dreadnaughts which would soon be leaving with them.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il flattened herself against the back of a crate as bolts hit the very spot where she'd previously been, and with a curse, she knelt down to MMU's level. It was easy to tell that the little avatar was getting ready to burst with energy; he wanted to bring his larger self into the fight. Badly. s'Il could tell just by the level of intensity flashing in his green eyeports.

"Stay back," she warned; not because of his proximity to the blasterfire, but because she knew he was ready to pull anchor and come in with guns blazing; just as she'd let him do on Coruscant, at the gallery in the Till Tower. She spoke so that only the droid could hear. "I need you to lift the Shirow; get it ready to fly... "

Seeing Arya here had been a surprise; a beneficial one, but still surprising nonetheless. s'Il herself had taken an interest in a few supply runs that had filtered down through her pipeline of sources; not because she had any interest in running supplies, but because it gave her a chance to test out some of the modifications she put into her fighter. She had no problem running interference, and protecting a few convoys in or outbound to/from... TDK was it... ? might offer some interesting 'downtime' as she liked to call it. Something different to occupy her time with.

And from what she'd been able to tell from the tongue lashing Arya had given the Sgt., it just might be that the other woman had decided to take on some of the work that'd been offered by the individuals planetside.

Either way, s'Il intended to track Arya down, then join up with her and kick offa this damn shipyard.

With a quick look around the side of the crate she'd sought refuge behind, s'Il darted back out of sight. Millard and Thomas were both busy fending off the squad of NR soldiers. s'Il doubted there was anything else she could have done anyway; she'd stopped the alarms, but that really didn't matter now, and the fact that the dreadnaughts were slave-rigged pretty much nulled the need for her little 'toys'.

With a final order for MMU to do stay with Millard... That oughta drive the poor man nuts..., s'Il ducked to the far side of the crate, away from the firefight, and making her way to the nearest blast door, disappeared from the hangar.

She had to find Arya now... that, and get to her fighter.

[Bette Davis]

Bette checked her wing, Shadows Four, Seven and Eight splitting away from the main group and following her into the mass of B-wings. "Four, you're with me. Frell, Stavit!" His TIE streaked past her, overshooting his mark and nearly getting himself vaped in the process.

She kicked at her rudders, and veered left after him, letting Seven and Eight take care of themselves. A B-wing had him centered, but with a quick double tap on the laser cannons, the enemy fighter burst into silent flames. "Stay with me, dammit!"

His voice over the secure comm channel was terse with tension. "We've got more company."

"I see them." Bette gritted her teeth and grazed another B-Wing as she turned her ship about. The TIE Advanced shrieked through the expanse of space, Stavit close behind her and to the left. On her wing. Like he was supposed to be. "X-Wings. Looks like the Rogues."

She grinned suddenly, "Lets get 'em."

"Roger that, Shooter." Stavit followed her back around, as she danced her TIE through the B's, nearly getting blown up with a proton torpedo that skipped along her shield.

"Frack, that was too close." Stavit caught the offending B-wing with a burst of cannon fire, and the pilot ejected, preferring a vac suit and the coldness of space to a firey death. Bette sighed, and snapped her stick up, slamming her foot on the rudder pedals and sending the ship into a steep dive. Coming up behind an E-wing, she strafed it as she went by, Shadows Seven and Eight joining her wing once more.

"Right, lets get those X-wings. Have to keep them away from those transports!" They were already a little too close for comfort, Bette judged.

[Wedge Antilles]

"Tycho, come left six degrees. Take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right."

Wedge sent his X-Wing into a tight barrel roll, staying with the TIE Advanced as he did. The TIE began to pull away slightly, and Wedge let loose with a flurry of laser fire.

The TIE avoided most of it, a few hits glancing harmlessly off the energy shields.

These guys are good...Shadow Squadron...that's a new one.

It was then he noticed the TIEs weren't attacking the shipyards itself, but only keeping Rogue Squadron away from the transports.

"Attention all Rogues," he said, through the squadron's comm, "Those transports are the primary objective now. Keep those TIE Advanced off your back but focus on the transports."

He dove beneath an attacking TIE, then hit it with a quad laser shot.

His R2 unit tweedled that TIE Defenders were coming in. This made things more interesting. The TIE Defenders were faster than the Advanced, but their builky design made them less manuverable.

"Rogues Seven through Ten take care of those TIE Defenders...and see if you can't take care of one of those strike cruisers as well."

"I copy Rogue Leader...moving to attack."

Wedge switched to proton torpedos quickly, as the Defenders came into range. With TIEs buzzing all around him, he targetted the nearest one...got a lock and fired two of the torpedos. The TIE Defender shattered and Wedge swooped around to target another fighter.

He saw Tycho was handling his own against one of the TIE Advanced, but that Rogue Five was severely damaged and was limping away.

"You all right Hobbie?"

"Fine Wedge...got a little cooked but I'll be all right."

"Head back to base Hobbie, you're no good damaged like that."

Aye aye sir...sorry."

The New Republic General watched as Hobbie's X-Wing went into hyperspace.

"Rogue Leader this is Green Leader," a deep voice came over the comm frequency, "Thought we'd give ya a hand."

Wedge saw a dozen A-Wings come out of hyperspace heading straight towards the attacking TIE Defenders.

"We'll handle the fighters you handle those Advanced and the transports."

"I copy Green Leader...all Rogues...begin focussing on the transports."

He heard a chorus of 'Aye sirs', then began his own firing run.

Wedge stared at the station then all of a sudden saw all the lights go out. What was going on Kuat station?

[Val Torre]

"Blast me!" Val cried, pulling out of Shadow Five's line of fire as he had instructed. His manouver was swift and agile, moving clear of the explosion that had ripped the B-Wing apart. bringing his ship about, Val kicked at his foot yokes and witnessed the X-Wing that had been tailing him fly straight through the ball of fire. No doubt that would've gave it's pilot a shudder.

"Thanks for the cover, Zephyr, but keep doing that and my lifespan will be drastically cut. My poor heart!" He said with a laugh. Then he turned his attention back to that over-zealous fighter.

Thanks to the explosion, the pilot hadn't seen where Val went but it didn't look like he was too interested either, the X-Wings had veered off towards the transports.

"Looks like they've figured us out. Tear through any fighters in your way and get to those transports before those X-Wings do 'em harm." His words were relayed to all Shadow Squadron pilots, they'd have to leave the remaining A, B and E-Wings in the hands of the Defenders and the Davidoff.

Fingers flashing over the control panel. A pair of manouvering thrusters taken from a TIE Interceptor flared up on the rear of his ship and he began weaving in and out of the B-Wings and E-Wings. On his way, Val came across a pair of E-Wings tailing a TIE Defender, taking advantage of his position he deactivated his manouvering thrusters and flicked a switch that resulted in a high-pitched whining coming from the laser cannons.

"How do you like this, guys!" He called out, squeezing the trigger like there was no tomorrow the cannons rained down fire at twice the average speed for an eight second burst. The shields on one were already worn down and with a direct hit to the rear, the power generator blew and incinerated the pilot inside. The second of the two had reasonably strong shields but they were worn down in the matter of seconds in which Val tailed it. With a hit to the right drive engine and with no shields, that E-Wing was now a sitting duck.

Pulling away, Val left the pilot to await inevitable doom whilst he caught up with Shadow Five, Six and Nine, giving his laser cannons some time to cool down. There was a brief flash of light which rocked the ship then everything returned to normal. "What was that!" He thought, fearing the worst. His finger flicked over the switch, deactivating rapid fire.

"Ok boys, let's give this Rogue Squadron a taste of their own medicine!" With that, the four ships increased speed and strafed the side of one of the transports, looking for a good dog-fight.

[Bette Davis]

Bette whooped into her helmet mic, and heard answering calls from the other three in her wing. "You heard the man, get to the transports! Seven, Eight, you're on your own. Four, on my wing."

"Copy that Shooter." Seven replied. "Eight, on my five. Lets get 'em." The pair of Interceptors split off and started making their way through a sudden cloud of A-wings.

She could see Razor up ahead, being infuriatingly precise, as always. He cooked an E-wing, leaving its wingman dead in space, and spun away towards the Rogues and the transports. Bette worked the foot yokes, spiralling down towards the ship and destroying it wth a quick squeeze of the trigger. Four was behind her...no wait...where was he?

"Stavit -"

"I've got one on me...Shooter, get it off me!" Stavit was there behind her, where he was supposed to be, with a Rogue on his tail. She cursed, and yanked the stick back, kicking the rudders and looping up and away from him.

The pair of fighters zipped by underneath her Interceptor, and she manuevered down to their vector again, behind the X-wing, or strike as they liked to call them. "Hang on Stavit!" Bette gritted her teeth and came in fast behind the strike, trying to center it in her line of fire.

The pilot was good..whoever it was. The X-wing kept skipping out of her scope, just as Stavit managed to keep from being vaped in return. She saw his shields sizzling, and strafed the Rogue with her laser cannons. The ship veered off, and Bette accelerated forward, sitting on Four's wing.

"You're venting something, Stavit." They buzzed by the transports, and looped back around. "How are you feeling?"

"That was close." He sounded calm. "I'm going to buzz out, something shook loose."

"Take care of yourself Four." Bette spun away from him as he cleared the cloud of fighters and transports, and made her way back into the fray.

[Sincere]

EEEEEOOOWWWWWWW... Sin's advanced TIE turned tightly into a barrel roll, screaming as it passed over several E-Wings rebel fighters. It didn't take long for the E-wings to follow suit behind him, trailing his rear. Sin didn't even have to look behind him. He knew they were there, just as planned. He switched on his COM link open to all SS elites.

"This is Shadow Ten. Easy on the X-wings Two, leave some for me." He gave a smile as he looked through the glass towards Val. He scanned the endless lines of space, his mechanical red eye glowed in the darkness of the cockpit, illuminating it slightly.

Suddenly without warning he turned hard into a downward thrust, pushing the stick left. The two E-wings that followed him ran out of room quickly, and were forced to break off from behind Sincere. He quickly repositioned the TIE behind both E-wings as they came out of the thrust. He saw once of them yelling something in the dash-mounted COM link. Sin sped fire blasting from his cannons that laced up the side of one of the wings, sending it into peices. Then he turned suit to follow the other E-Wing into a desperate attempt to lose him.

[Taylor Millard]

"What..." Millard noticed s'Il's dissappearance as she ducked behind a crate.

A curse died in his mouth as he started firing upon the NRSF soldiers, killing two as his repeater rifle bullets pierced their armor.

"How far are we along in the attack?" he asked his communications officer.

"All teams are reporting casulaties, but Captains Xilarian and Ta have gotten two dreadnaughts out each."

Millard nodded, "Good...tell them to continue their work. If we get the Cronus activated we can slave rig the rest of the ships. Get on it Colonel...we need to be in the dreadnaught now."

The communications officer nodded, then went to the technicians. A brief conversation later, and the three men were heading towards the lead dreadnaught, avoiding laser fire as they did.

Vorrann's attack should be starting...now, Millard thought as he picked off another NR solider. He noticed the communications officer was down, shot in the head by a laser bolt and the technicians had succeeded in getting a door open on the Cronus.

"Get in there...go go go!"

It was then he felt it. A slight tapping on his leg. A slight, incessant tapping that would not go away.

The Imperial Grand Admiral turned, then looked down.

"HI!" MMU beamed, his cap guns pointed towards the air.

Millard felt his face fall briefly as he saw the little droid, s'Il had left him. Then it rose quickly. If s'Il had left the droid then it meant she'd come back. And Taylor trusted Lok that she would come back. She'd done it before...she'd do it again.

And MMU did know computer programs...

"MMU," he said quickly, seeing the droid look up at him.

"Go have fun."

A squeal of delight came from the avatar.

"I CAN DO THAT!"

Then it turned and ran in the direction s'Il went, his little cap guns blazing.

"Mister Xilarian, you and I are going to have to have a talk about what you give MMU for his 'birthday'," Millard muttered as he ducked several blaster bolts.

Humming to himself, the little droid made his way through the shafts and passagesways of Kuat Station. He'd prove to the grand admiral he was useful. In fact, he'd draw some artwork too to prove it.

He started drawing on the computer console...a small image of an Imperial making a rude gesture at whoever would find where the break in was.

Let's see now...weapons systems...OFFLINE!

Doors...OPEN!...well...he gave himself a five minute window.

Power...hey...power...

MMU made a look with his green eyes, like an artist surveying a portrait.

Then he grinned and turned it off.

Control Room of Kuat Station

"Prepare to send more troops to the docking bays!" the commander, a Calamari named Ghidar ordered.

His second in command nodded then ran off.

"Sir!" his chief technician yelled, "Something's wrong with the computer!?!"

If Ghindar had eyebrows he would have raised them.

"What do you mean something's wrong with the computers?" his dry voice asked.

The technician had a look of confusion on his face, "The systems...they're being bypassed..."

An image appeared on the screen. On all the screens. Of a little avatar waving.

"HI! The droid waved.

"YOU GO BYE BYE NOW! BUCKAROOS!"

Then everything went dark as the power and the computers shut off. Save for the one computer screen, with an image frozen on the screen...

<center>http://bonhelious.clanpages.com/youhavebeenMMU'ed.jpg</center>

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya scrambled to the side as a small droid skipped past her, waving a pair of tiny guns. pop pop pop! The droid...giggled? as it went by, and Arya rolled her eyes and clutched her heart from the momentary scare she'd gotten. Only cap guns.

That was...bizarre. She hear real fire coming from ahead, and poked her head around another doorway. Another standoff between the NR and whoever these jokers were. Wait...s'Ilancy was with them...and she didn't belong to any faction.

Nothing was adding up, but everything was adding to her bad mood. Arya pulled out her rail gun and put a bullet into the wall next to a ragged looking man. He flinched away from the slivers of bulkhead that splattered up, and she cursed. Next time take the time to aim, Arya. The look in the man's eyes though...it betrayed his disguise. This was the one in charge here.

Arya ducked back behind her doorway, and the doors swished shut...then stopped, with a foot to spare between them. Arya sat up and looked at it in confusion, and then the lights flickered and all went off at once. Krasst.

[Jux Ta]

The good news came just as suddenly as the bad, but with less warning. No thanks to the communications blackout... Badgil and Vernai had hooked their comlink up to their dreadnought's main power system and blasted a message right through the jamming... but that had been it, so far.

They were still separated from the rest of Team Two, which was still under heavy fire and pinned down. Sleve had nailed maybe four of the NRSFs, but Ta and Davitt had been kept down by the opposition's blaster fire. Winters himself was earning most of it, and was beginning to pull heavy explosives out of his slim, matte black backpack.

Then the lights flickered... and went out. Ta could still see Winters, but Sleve's movements were as choppy and stataco as if Ta was flashing a strobe light. The continuing blaster fire caused it, of course. But it looked like Team One had finally taken complete control of the station's computer systems...

The docking tube hatch snapped open. Ta only knew this because he heard it, as well as saw Davitt slipping inside it to take advantage of the better cover it offered.

Well, this was more like it. Communications were undoubtedly restored, as well.

Having taken advantage of the huge distraction the lights-out op had caused, Winters tossed something over his storage canisters. Ta, considerably, turned his head and shut his eyes as the flashbang/antipersonel combonation grenade went off.

Several minutes later, the team continued on to the next trio of dreadnoughts - they'd received word that the support crews were arriving soon. Davitt sent word of their status to Teams One and Three - three dreadnoughts, no wounded (The engineers had mistakenly broadcasted that Davitt had been killed, as they couldn't see him. He was, indeed, lucky to still be alive considering how little cover he'd had). Both statistics were likely to change in the near future, though.

[AmazonBabe]

:: It was just like the old days... except with new foes. And yet, it was almost like living in the past. ::

:: She acknowledged Wedge's order with a double click to her comm, turning her ship hard to port stepping on the left rudder. The ship snapped, "sitting" on it's left side, and then leveled as she followed sharply behind her wing, Rogue 11's, tail. ::

:: They were en route towards the nearest transport to their position, Rogue 11 beginning a lock on with his torps. AB remained with the cannons as her main weapon, watching her scopes for any pursuing TIE craft. Sure enough, there was one that had found them and was gaining rapidly. ::

Eleven, we got a TIE on our tail. Going to intercept.

Rogue 11: Copy Twelve.

:: Flipping up and over, she brought her nose to face the TIE Defender in a game of chicken. Dumping all her shields forward, firing her own lazers whenever the smaller ship came into her scope. But the TIE wasn't dumb, and after a few vollies of lazer fire at her shields, it peeled off, attempting to place itself behind her ship. She herself veered in the direction the TIE went, anticipating it's move through the Force, and kept the TIE from achieving it's goal. Though her ship wasn't as maveuverable, it did have the advantage of power. ::

:: The TIE again tried a loop to get behind her, and she surprised it by allowing it to do so. It immediately took advantage, throwing lazer after lazer volly into her shileds, sure enough, her shields began to slowly recede, making R2-C3 shriek a warning. ::

I know, RC, just hang on to your dome top.

:: With each volly, she slowed her ship to make the TIE come closer. It was a dangerous game, but one that had worked for her before. And then AB suddenly cut power from her engines and dumped all available power into her aft shields, doubling their strength. Though the TIE Defender is very maneuverable, it had gotten too cocky in it's attempt to blow her into smitherines, and now found itself colliding into her shields. A tiny pilot's seat shot out from the TIE, it's pilot going evac, moments before it blossomed into a brilliant orange ball in tandum with a shrilling RC. Immediately on impact, AB started her engines up again, and throttled downward, avoiding anymore explosions from the TIE as she could. ::

:: Then, leveling off, she placed her shields back on normal recharge power, and flew quickly to her wing's side. ::

Rogue 11: Have fun?

:: AB flipped a few more switches, her shields nearly at maximum and her lazers fully charged. ::

Not as much fun as you're going to have with those transports.

:: She got a chuckle from Rogue 11 as he let two torpedos fly towards the transport he'd been targeting, moving on to the next one. Again keeping an eye on her scopes, and utilizing the Force to "see" around her, R2-C3 made a rather rude noise commenting on her last maneuver. ::

Yeah, well, maybe next time you'd rather stay home?

:: Another toot, slightly subdued, from the droid brought a smile from her face. ::

No, I didn't think so.



http://junglecat.clanpages.com/AmazonBabe/x-wing01.jpg

[Ki-Adi Kindo]

: This party is just getting started :

Kindo flew swiftly beside Rogue 12, also using the aid of the Force to advance his reaction speed. Detecting one of the Assault Gunboats within his vicinity, he shifted his X-Wing towards his right to target the gunboat with lethal precision.

Has soon has he positioned his ship in direct sight of his target, he realized that he was being tailed by one of the multiple TIE Defenders within the battle. Ki increased throttle, steadily approaching his target. The Jedi pulled his fighter above the gunboat, the TIE still hot on his tail.

After taking a sharp turn, he dived back down towards his target at high speed. When the Jedi Pilot came within an extremely close premesis of the gunboat, he unleashed two proton torpedos upon his target, peeling off to his right just has the explosion began. Using the Force to enhance his reaction timing, Kindo escaped the explosion without any damage whatsoever. The TIE Defender was not as fortunate, catching itself in the middle of the explosion. Emcompassed by the fire, the Imperial Starfighter was destroyed, only adding to the devastation of the eruption.

: That was a close one, heh? :

[Wedge Antilles]

"Great shooting Rogue 12...Rogue 11," Rogue Leader said as he dipped beneath the wreckage of a destroyed TIE Defender.

Wedge allowed himself a tight smile...Rogue Squadron was performing well. Not as good as he would have hoped...Rogues 7 and 9 were damaged but fairing well and Hobbie had to bail out of the fight sooner than he would have hoped.

But still...he wanted to win.

"All Rogues, commence attack on the transports!"

He switched his torpedos to dual fire and locked on to the nearest transport. As he released the trigger on his guided weapons, his combat senses tingled accompanied by a squeal from his R2 unit.

His X-Wing shuttered from impact, as a TIE Advanced shot past him- spouting green bits of death, connecting with the shields of the New Republic fighter. His proton torpedos still connected with the transport, sending it off course...coolant trailing from a damaged engine. Five seconds later it blew up.

His comm crackled, "You are the Rogue Leader, Wedge Antilles yes?"

This wasn't on the squad to squad comm, this was broadband...everyone could hear.

"Yes, this is General Antilles who is this?"

The comm crackled again, "Tam Ghant...Shadow Squadron leader...and the person who will bring your death!"

Wedge's senses tingled again and he checked his scopes. The TIE Advanced was in a tight barrel roll right towards his X-Wing.

"Hold on R2!"

Rogue Leader sent his own craft into a barrel roll, avoiding the downward spiral of the Imperial fighter. Wedge turned his fighter around, then went right after the TIE Advanced, spitting blaster fire into the TIE's shields. The Imperial pilot pulled off, damage showing on his solar panels.

"You got one, Rogue Leader...you won't get another! Ghant yelled and he attacked again.

[Slayn Cloak]

Slayn shook his head as he heard Ghant bark into the communications link. He was a sloppy pilot and greatly over ambitious, it was time for a change. Slayn was in a position to aid Shadow leader, who he had for some time beleived to be in InterOrg, but he rolled to the left after a rouge of his own. He could feel this pilots Aura, it was a Jedi. He had swept down behind it at a great speed and tapped his trigger several times on his approach, the third of witch had knocked the ships astrometric droid offline.

[Bette Davis]

Bette whooped once more after the declaration of of Shadow leader. "You tell 'im, boss!" She saw Zephyr take off after one of the Rouges, and she winced as a transport exploded. "Can't let that happen, Shadows! Get your targets!"

Without a wingman, the Maneater screamed back into the business of shooting NR fighters. Bette double tapped her trigger, and watched as an E-wing spiraled away, missing one of those fixed wings. She upped the power to the forward shields, and flew through the wreckage the E-wing had left behind.

Looping back around once again, she flipped her comm on, accessing the secure channel. "Hey, I need a wingman here, I'm getting some heat...Crap! I got one on me!" She yanked on the stick and threw the TIE Advanced into a steep dive, toggling her rudders and veering to port.

The X-wing was hot on her trail, and red laser fire lanced out towards her. The TIE shook as the aft shields took a direct hit, and Bette cursed. "Frack, anyone out there? I can't shake 'em!"

[Vick Darseri]

I spun my X into a steep dive followed by a rotating barrell to shake off a TIE Defender which happened to catch my tail. The TIE kept trying to blow me out of the sky but missed quite a few times.

The R2 unit of mine squealed as a bolt slammed into the sheilds right close to it and caused me to jerk the trottle hard to the right and circled behind the TIE.

"Asta LA VISTA!" I shouted to myself, keeping the comm off for the moment, as I set loose a torrent of laser fire. Bolts hit left and right of the Defender and took out it's sheilds quickly.

THe TIE took a steep incline and tried to out maneuver me and getting darn well close to getting behind me. Slamming on the 'brakes' I lurched forward as the X came to a dead stop before lurching forward again in a boost of speed.

The TIE had slowed, thinking it' gotten rid of me and tried to flee when I came down from above with another hell brought torrent of quad-fire.

The TIE exploded and I picked a new target, getting closer to the Transports which Rogue Leader set as priority target.

Then one of the Advanced shot into my perpetual vision and just inticed me to follow it. The Advanced took a steep dive then veered portside, as I followed with fire.

"C'mon! Move faster and be some game!" I, again, spoke to myself (Which I do alot during these kinds of things.) sqeezing the trigger again..

[Slayn Cloak]

Slayn's mind seamed to tweak as he heard Bette call out over the comm, she wasn't that far away, and to him more important than dancing with some rouges. Slayn spoke in her mind, it was much easier then using the communications link.

" I'm with you Bette."

As the Dark Jedi spoke he jerked the controls and spun himself into a fairly complicated spiral, witch put him into Bette's direct path. Thanks to the modifications he had done, he came up on them quite quickly, moving at about 160 MLG.

[Bette Davis]

Bette twisted her head around, trying to catch sight of the X-wing behind her. "I can't see him!"

I'm with you Bette. She jumped, nearly out of her skin, and accidentally sent her TIE spiralling off starboard and down, as her feet jerked on the foot yokes. The X-wing wavered in its course, not expecting her to suddenly fly into the back of a B-wing. Bette gritted her teeth, squeezed the trigger to the laser cannons and flipped all the power to the forward shields.

She couldn't even blink as the B-wing exploded and the Maneater screamed through the wreckage. Bette redistributed power to the aft shields as the X-wing followed her through the fire of the B-wing. Her ship shook again as the Rouge scored her shields.

"Zephyr! Krasst, but I hope you weren't kidding." Bette yanked at the stick again, flying back towards the transports and the rest of the Shadows.

[Val Torre]

"You show him who the bitch is, Shadow Leader!" Val called over the comm-link. He was annoyed at himself for having passed that transport moments before it was hit by torpedoes. "Why didn't I see that one coming!" He was also thankful that he wasn't too slow and wasn't caught up in the explosion or he wouldn't be here. His jaw clenched, waiting to see Tam blow Antilles into space dust.

As soon as he heard Bette shout over the comm that she needed help, Val began looking about the battle scene of countless dog-fights to locate her ship. At first he saw nothing then the Maneater suddenly screamed past his tranparisteel viewport closely followed by an X-Wing. There was no sign of Slayn yet, where did he go? Not hesitating, Val fell into a dive after them, his ship racing along at full-throttle until he was right behind the X-Wing tailing his team-mate.

"Say 'Bye bye!" you piece of poodoo." He said as he squeezed the trigger. But there was nothing. That was when a small, red flashing light appeared on his control pannel. Then his ship rocked, he had an A-Wing tailing him. "Damn! Shadow Three, this is Shadow Two. My weapons have been ionized and I'm being tailed. How 'bout you scratch my back, I scratch yours. A good ol' game of Cat and Mouse like Ghant showed to us?" He asked, his ship rocked again. He diverted power to his aft deflector shield, it was holding stable for now.

[Bette Davis]

Bette heard Val over the comm, and threw her TIE into a steep climb, looping around and coming about 180 degrees. The Maneater shrieked, the X-wing's lasers dancing just to the side of it. Soon he'd get his range though. "Val, I told you not to install that rapid fire."

She sounded calm, and completed her loop, catching sight of the Fat Lady in her viewport. Bette thumbed the accelerator. "Zephyr, don't follow too closely." He was trailing the X-wing, but unable to catch it in his laser cannons. He was sufficiently distracting the Rogue so his aim was off when it came to Bette.

Which was good, because her aft shields were about to fail. Bette took down the forward shields all together and shunted everything into the aft shields. "You wanna go left?"

"No, right." Val sounded cheerful.

"I wanted to go right." Bette grinned suddenly.

"Fine!" He sounded annoyed now. "I'll go left."

The two TIE Advanced barreled towards each other, and Shadow Five peeled up and away from the Rogue. Bette couldn't even see the A-wing behind Val..no there it was. She lightly bit her tongue in concentration, the tip barely protruding out between her lips. "Cat and Mouse it is."

The Fat Lady was nearly on her..."Now!" The two pilots flew into action, tearing the TIES apart, and coming close enough to kiss shields. Bette's were down in front, so there was no jostling as the TIEs split apart,

But the X-wing and the A-wing suddenly found themselves flying straight into each other, with little to no room to spare.

[Sincere]

"Nice move Shadow Three." Sin gave a grin at the way she flew, like there was no tomorrow.

He turned tightly into the path of incoming X-wing, blasters raining fire. He gave the stick a slight tap to the left, nearly missing the path of projectiles. Turning around for another pass Sin noticed two X-wing's swipe down on his tail. Frell.

"SS, this Shadow Ten. I've got a couple back here that wanna play. How about a little help?"

Sin straightend out his TIE into a perfect half circle, eluding the fire from behind. These two were good.

[Vick Darseri]

I tailed the target as she went into loops and turns trying to evade my shots.

And then she veered right as another Advanced veered left and I found myself looking streight into a A-Wing's nose. Cursing, I jerked the stick forward and send Phenoix into a rough slant. The A-Wing began to pull up but scraped the top of the cockpit.

"Holy frelling fireballs, that was damn near too close." I spoke over the comm, swinging the nose left and up to go after another TIE. People said I had a short attention span, which was true, cause I would drop a target in a hartbeat.

As my X shot through the empty space torwads the TIE, the R2 squealed again as I jerked back and barely missed being hit by two bolts of green...

[Slayn Cloak]

Slayn was still on that rouges tail, though his encounter with that A wing was close, Slayn's aim left little room for Vick to maneuver; As unfortunate for him as that was, this was now the least of his worries.

As Shooter and Razor finished their maneuvers, it brought them both to Slayn's wing. The three now flew in a tight formation on the rouges tail.

" Come on shadows, fire on my mark. "

The group gained on Vick as Slayn squeezed his trigger and sent a barrage of green fire at the rouge.

" This ones been tolerated for to long. "

[Bette Davis]

"These snubfighters are good." Bette allowed the slight compliment to their opponents, and let Zephyr do the shooting on this one. "Razor, you got your weapons back yet?" She targeted the A-wing as it swung back into view, and sent a few glancing blows along its failing shields.

[Vick Darseri]

Vick cursed as the bolts laced past his fighter and quickly flipping a few switches to vert most of the sheild's powers to the rear while sending the Incom T-65 into a steep downward barrel-roll.

"Yo, R-8 here with three on my ass, Any help close?" He spoke over the comm, swinging left and accending. More bolts slammed into the aft sheilds and threatened the craft itself. Rolling into another sharp turn, Vick caught sights of the Advanced still on his tail.

Grimacing, he flipped two switches and held his thumb over the Torp launch switch. If he could just punch one out without thrust, Vick gave another sharp turn and flipped the switch. The torp shot out of the launcher and hung limp in the air active, Atleast one of the ADvanced would run into it...

Hopefully, Vick thought..

[Val Torre]

Still accompanying Slayn and Bette, Val watched his control panel eagerly waiting for a sign that the weapons were back online. They had pulled off the last manouver well unfortunately it took out neither the A-Wing or the X-Wing but nevertheless it had got them off their tails. Val opened a comm-link with Shadow Three.

"Nice flying, Shooter. I can't take this much longer, it wasn't the rapid fire, the weapons have been ionized. It's driving me mad!" he sammed his fist down upon the control pannel with anger, but squeezing the flight stick as he did so. A torrent of laser fire burst from his cannons. They were back online. "Yes!" He cried triumphantly.

A couple of shots hit the aft deflector shield on the X-Wing they were tailing. But that was enough, it didn't take three of them to take out that ship and when Val saw the A-Wing soar past and Bette unload a few shots at it, he immediatly pulled up and took off after it. "Come here, baby! Daddy wants to play!" He said, desperate for another kill.

With some swift manouvering he was tailing the A-Wing which already had reasonably low shields after the impact with the X-Wing and being hit a few times from Shadow Three. Squeezing the trigger Val began to unleash volley after volley of laser fire at the rear of the ship. Green light flashed as his cannons spat green at the fighter, it had now re-routed all deflector shield power to the rear and increased speed.

"You're not getting away from me. This is why we're Shadow Squadron, baby, just like your shadow, you can't get rid of us." He was now following the A-Wing at full-throttle, they weaved in and out of Defenders and Y-Wings until Val saw that Sincere had a couple of X-Wings hot on his tail. His eyes narrowed and he shouted over the comm, "Shadow Ten, bring your ship hard to port...now!"

With that, Val unleahsed a torrent of laser fire to the right of the A-Wing he was tailing, his shots were getting danerously close causing it to veer off to the left. Pulling up, Val narrowly avoided the explosion caused by the A-Wing as it went head first into the side of one of the two X-Wings. The A-Wing was history, having no forward deflector shields and as for the X-Wing it hit, Val doubted it would be of anymore use if it survived that.

"Did that get rid of the other one too or is he still tailing you, Shadow Ten?"

[Sarin Vorrann]

The view off the pointed bow of the Davidoff was noting srt of chaotic, with fighters zooming about in all directions. Ony a droid could keep track o it all.

" Under different circumstances, I woud be rather pleased."

The Davidoff's commander looked up from his crew pit station. " Sir?"

" The Rogues. They've centered their attack on a few tansports, all but two owhich hae rendzvoused with their Dreadnaughts, and our deployed fighters. They've not touched our capital ships yet: given their reputation with larger vessels, I would count this as a blessing. But, we are here to make sure those Draednaugts get out safely. Their concentrating on the transports hurt our ability to do that. We'll be leaving with two less than we should.

" Guns! Intensify flak fire. If they're's an open spot where the fighters can run, plug it with ion fire. Our fighters can take care of them. Bring the Omega forward onto their flank. Maybe we can box them in."

With the conveyance of the Rear Admiral's orders, the starboard most Strike Cruiser movin forward and keeping up its own enfilade at the Republic fighters.

" Omega and Echo are to launch their Interceptors."

The outdated craft were no more than nuiscance by the standards of modern war: unchecked,however, they could tear apart an X-wing. Their presence would draw off the Rogues, allowing the Shadows and the other Defenders to hit them harder.

Do not tempt the Empire. You will be scalded every time you attempt to fight a raging fire...

[AmazonBabe]

:: Most of the Rogues were taking care of the remaining transports, a majority of them either destroyed or disabled. Some, like herself, would spare a torp here and there for a transport, but mainly kept the buzzing TIE's off their comrade's tails while they did their work. ::

:: Now with that particular job dieing down, AB looked over to the capitol ships, noticing most of the fighters making their way back towards the Dreadnaughts. It didn't take a genious to figure out what they were up to. ::

:: She toggle her comm switch, contacting Wedge. ::

Lead... looks like those Dreadnaughts might be trying to leave this party unscathed. I have a few torps left in my bays. Want me to go invite them back?

:: After her question, she helped a fellow Rogue take out another TIE that had wandered to close to the Rogue's line near the transports, obliterating a wing and watching it spin off out of control. ::

[Wedge Antilles]

"Negative Rogue 12," Wedge reported as the dodged a laser blast from Shadow Leader, "Let the B-Wings disable the dreadnaughts. It's the strike cruisers I'm more concerned about."

Rogue Leader threw his X-wing into a dive, avoiding two of the TIE Advanced as they swooped near him.

He checked his scopes. A fairly even battle raged between the Imperial Forces and the New Republic ones. Both sides fighter compliments were down by half, and with the loss of Kuat Station Rogue Squadron was on their own for the time being, with half a dozen A-Wings, a full wing of B-Wings, and various assorted fighters.

Where's the rest of the fleet?

"Rogue Twelve, you and me...let's take out one of the Strike Cruisers. Rogues Eleven and Two, cover us."

"Aye sir."

"You got it Wedge."

The quartet of X-Wings shot towards the Strike Cruiser Omega.

"Wedge" Tycho's voice came over the comm, "We have TIE Interceptors coming in."

"Handle those TIEs, AB 'n I'll take the Strike Cruiser."

The duo of X-Wings went low, ducking beneath turbolaser batteries and concussion missile launchers. Wedge targetted the bridge with his advanced proton torpedo system and fired.

The two torps impacted on the surface of the bridge, most of the impact absorbed by the shields. AB's two torps pierced the hull, and another torpedo from Wedge sent the Strike Cruiser wobbling, like a downed snake.

"Great shooting Rogue 12! Now...let's go get us some TIE Advanced."

It was then, Wedge noticed...four of the Dreadnaughts were gone.

[AmazonBabe]

Copy, Lead.

:: She angled her ship and followed suit with Wedge's orders, coming up beside him and letting two of her three remaining torps fly. They impacted solidly on the strike cruiser, holing it, and causing it to list badly to one side. ::

That's one holy ship.

:: She could almost hear Wedge's eyes rolling at her joke as she pulled back on her yoke, and angled her ship at a group of TIE Advanced, Rogue 11 hot on her tail. ::

:: She picked one at random and started firing, making the TIE's pilot take a nose dive to avoid the blasts. AB merely followed in it's wake, anticipating the pilot's moves through the Force, and pumping lazer blast after lazer blast towards the ship. With dual fire on, she was able to score harder more powerful hits than single fire would have allowed. Pretty soon the TIE's engines would overload with the strain being presented to it by her lazer canons. ::

[Bette Davis]

Bette watched the A-wing explode under Razor's laser cannons, and then saw the strike cruiser under heavy assault. "Five, I'm going after the Rogues on the Omega. Follow me."

The Maneater peeled away from the transports, and needled towards the two X-wings whose torpedoes sent the Strike Cruiser into a slow death dive. The Interceptors, Defenders and the squadron of Advanced were keeping the NR forces sufficiently occupied. They'd only lost two transports, which was bad, but not as bad as it might have been.

She loosed a volley of red laser shots at one of the X-wings, swearing heavily over the commlink as her foot yokes froze up. Her TIE barrelled into a nose dive, and Bette tugged at the controls, begging a little more cooperation from them. Ah...frell. There was a Rogue on her tail.

Her aft shields were already cooked from her previous encounter, but with all the flak in the area, she didn't dare lower her forward shields again. Bette coaxed her TIE into responding, and yelled over the comm, "Shadow Three to any fighter: my TIEs got some damage, the controls aren't responding. Some help..?"

Her voice was calm, but even while she struggled with the sluggish controls, she rechecked the seals on her vac suit. Shields failing_ She cursed, and tried one last desperate move. Shooter aimed for the nearest dogfight, and dove right through the middle of it, hoping to shake loose the Rogue.

[Silus Xilarian]

Sir, Tethys and Dione just took off. Coeus and Epimetheus are almost ready, but im afraid the rig on Iapetus failed....

Silus grit his teeth a bit at the message...

Alright finish up what your on, forget about Iapetus and Pheobe.....

Silus' message was cut short by a blaster bolt whizzing by his head. He promptly hit the ground and lept back up firing....

LET UP FOR A MINUTE, IM TRYING TO TALK!!!!!!

Silus let out a fury of shots before ducking back down and getting back on the communicator...

Let me know when you finish on Epimetheus, im going to make us a little distraction...

Silus pulled off his coat and layed it flat next to him. Inside the coat were 8 thermal detonators. Silus quickly removed two and activated them, then sent them flying toward the NR ranks. Two large explosions followed as he ducked back down to avoid shrapnel and any return fire. As the smoke cleared he already has two more ready....

Thats when the lights went out........

Silus quickly grabbed his coat and got on his communicator...

Stark! How far along are we!?!

Even with the power out, blaster bolts were still flying in Silus' general direction, though they werent focused on anyone spot...

We're almost finished with Epimetheus

Keep things moving....I'll be on board as soon as I can...

Silus grabbed his saber and ignited it again, letting the green blade attract the blaster fire to it. silus deflected a few shots then ducked down, cutting of his saber and pulling another thermal detonator. Silus threw the explosive and took off toward the dreadnaughts again. Another explosion ensued behind him and was immediately followed by return fire, which was directed to the spot that Silus had just left.....

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She had to find Arya. She also had to get to her ship, but Arya would have to come first. As s'Il ducked from the hangar, she backtracked to where they'd first come into the shipyards; where the shuttle had exploded. That was where she'd last seen the other woman, and she was willing to bet that in the next hangar over from the ill-fated transport, she'd find Arya's ship.

Pounding footsteps reached her ears, and she sidestepped into a narrow side corridor, flattening herself against the cool metal of the wall. After the NR soldiers had passed, she stuck her head out once more to make sure there was no one else around, and satisfied that she was once more alone, s'Il began trotting off for the hangar she suspected Arya to be docked in.

And then the lights died.

She skidded to a halt, and once more seeking protection along the wall, she remained silent for a few moments.

She heard a soft curse come from around the corner she was just about to round, and with a grin, s'Il edged forward before letting out a sharp whisper in the direction she'd heard the curse.

"Ravenwing.....!"

[AmazonBabe]

:: AB followed behind the desperate TIE Advanced. The pilot was good, but lacking in something AB had an advantage over: the Force. She could easily sense the desperate maneuvers going through the pilots mind, even anticipating the dive through a rather thick dogfight. ::

:: AB dove right in after the TIE, zigging and zagging, avoiding various fighters in their own duals. Never once did she lose sight of the fighter she was pursuing, but in the midst of the dogfight with some of the other Rogues present, she didn't dare send a torp up the TIE's aft. Instead, she sprayed single fire here and there at the running fighter. Some of the shot went wide, while others scored marks on the twin engines. ::

:: Pretty soon, they'd both punched through the dogfight cloud, and she could finally lock onto the TIE. The firing arch went red, indicating a solid lock, and she let the torpedo fly. It sailed, faster than the TIE could outrun in it's present state, smacking into the the fuel line near where the wing and ball-like cockpit met. The pilot had enough brains to eject, as the lock-on warning system went off. The pilot's seat flew clear as the ship exploded into a brilliant flash of flame, before disapating in the dead of space. ::

:: AB saw the pilot's seat get buffetted about by the exploding ship, and there was a good chance the pilot had been knocked out. But a human could only survive so long in evac state. And there was potential for a prisoner. ::

:: AB circled her ship around the debris that was once the fighter, coming close to the floating pilot. She switched her comm to the retrieval vehicles. ::

Roge 12 reporting an enemy pilot gone evac. Position 221.45.890. Request immediate pick up.

:: She received a confirmation, and continued to circle around the enemy pilot, waiting for the rescue vehicle. ::

[Bette Davis]

Bette was realizing her worst nightmare, as the Advanced shuddered and all her indicators and alarms went off at once. Without a second thought, she punched the eject and went evac.

It was easier to do that in a TIE than in a pressurized X-wing. The TIE pilots already operated in vac suits, lacking any life support inside the bubble-shaped cockpits. As she blew past the Maneater, the explosion sent her pilots seat off on a vector away from the transports, and towards the waiting Davidoff.

The silent concussion from the exploding TIE knocked her towards unconsciousness, but Bette managed to fire the tiny propulsion engines inthe side of the seat, slowing her pace away from the remains of her ship, but not able to stop.

She slipped into unconciousness as her comm emitted an encrypted mayday, complete with homind signal.

[Taylor Millard]

"Go on, get on there go!" Millard yelled as the technicians succeeded in opening the lock to the Cronus.

"We've got some of the dreanaughts away, we need the rest! Go go go!"

A pitter-patter on the floor alerted him of MMU's return.

The droid, his eyes a wierd red color saluted him.

Mission accomplished Grand Admiral sir!

"MMU, what did you do?" Millard asked as he fired upon a couple NRSF troopers who were coming too close for comfort.

I cut power to everything...

If the droid could have seen it, the Imperial Grand Admiral smiled.

"Good job. You're with me..."

He called into his comm.

"Anymore men out there? Team Three what's your status?"

[Val Torre]

There was a distress signal. Shooter! Quickly veering off away from Shadow Ten, Val made his way over to where the distress signal had come from and where the firey remains of a TIE Advanced could be seen. His eyes narrowed.

"C'mon Shooter, where are you?" He said quietly to himself. It was twice as hard to see her considering the colour of her atmospheric suit: "Why can't they be a neon orange or something?" He thought when suddenly he saw something slowly floating upwards away from the wreck. It was her alright.

"I'm coming Bette!" He called out, not that she could here him and pulled back on the flight stick sending his ship into a climb until he was above her a fair distance. With a foot on his left foot yoke, he gradually rotated the decelerating ship about until the ingress hatch was facing downwards, in her direction. As she neared he opened the hatch as any TIE pilot can out in space, as there is no life support installed on such fighters.

He unstrapped himself from his seat and allowed himself to float upwards, once Bette's now unconcious body floated inside he manually closed the hatch. Silently, an A-Wing tailed by a Defender soared past and Val hoped that with the Fat Lady stationary, he wouldn't attract any unwanted attention.

"Ok, Shooter. I gotcha." He manouvered her to the rear of his ship were he could strap a passenger against the wall as there were no other seats inside. Luckily for Bette, if Val found himself in the same position as her, there was an automatic ejection mechanism right behind her.

"Let's get you back to the Davidoff." With that his engines roared into life and he decided to fly about the perophery of the dog-fights in order to get Bette back to a medbay as quickly and as safely as possible.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya poked her head around the blast door, and saw s'Ilancy standing there, hands on hips. She grinned, and stepped through the doors, placing her hands on either side...just in case the power was restored and they decided to slam shut on her.

Not that having her hands there would do any good in that case. Arya swore again, and added, "What the frell is going on around here? Are you..? No, I don't want to know. I've got to get to my docking bay."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il gave Arya a lopsided grin. "Long story. I'll tell you over a pint of Guiness later if you want... "

The sound of blaster fire reached her ears, and s'Il recognized a yell; Millard was shouting at someone, and she hid a smile.

"I hear you're haulin' goods to TDK. I'm here to run point for you." Another grin. "My fighter is ready to go whenever you are."

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus heard Millard over the communicator, and stopped playing "find the bastard with the bombs" with the NR boys for a second...

My status?? i stubbed my big toe, and I need someone to come hold my hand....

Silus paused for a moment, giving Millard ample time to jump his case about Silus' lack of focus, or whatever it is that he would fuss about, then gave him an update on the dreadnaughts...

We already have two ships out...the rig on Iapetus, and Pheobe isnt lookin too good either...Im gonna get these boys outta here, theres nothing more they can do...

Silus stepped over to the entrance to Pheobe, and upon cutting the lock, stepped in and began making his way to the main bridge...

So how has your day been Taylor?

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya stared at her for a moment in the semi-darkness, and an emergency light flashed a silver reflection in the other woman's eyes. Liquid Silver addict. She'd never touched the stuff, although she'd had the opportunity to once...but Aaron had hated the stuff.

"My ship is this way. I think." Arya turned her head and walked to a tightly closed blast door. She moved to the control panel and quickly unscrewed the plate covering it, discarding it to the floor with a clatter. The dark haired woman ran her fingers over the covered wires enclosed within.

Taking a small knife from her belt, Arya stripped two of the wires, and crossed them, causing a slight power surge through the emergency routing, and the doors slid open. "This way, s'Ilancy." Arya jumped through the doors before they were open all the way, and ran down the passageway towards Docking Bay 2.

[Kam Dapp]

Give this thing some atmosphere. Then some nice new engines. Maybe a little extra firepower..

Shaking his head, Kam stopped thinking about post-flight requests, and got back to the task at hand. As his graceful arc turned his TIE Advanced back into the melee, he began to scan for his fellow squadron. Everything seemed good, until he picked up one not moving. Checking his console, he saw that it was Shadow Two, Val's craft. It then began to speed up, turning back towards the friendly Capital Ships. Best see if he needs a hand...

Checking the near vicinity, Kam saw that three enemy snubs were close, all Y-Wing. Two were together, one a short distance away. While they werent an immediate threat, they could notice Val at any time.

"Hey Seven, let's get those Wishbones cleared. You take the single, I'll take the pair, affirmative?"

Hearing a confirmation click on the Comm, Kam peeled from his wingmate, and began pursuit. Switching the Torpedoes, Kam fired one blind, not waiting for a missle lock, before jinking to the right. As expected, due to the close proximity of his wing, one of the Y-Wings evaded the missile by cutting straght into Kam's sights. A hail of laser fire punished the craft, until the structure couldn't take any more, and it broke in two.

Glancing to his side, the Imperial saw that the other had headed into a dive below Kam, in an attempt to escape. Any Y-Wing pilot of any worth would know this was an unfair matchup. Kam hoped to prove this right.

Pulling his craft upwards bring his craft looping backwards, the blip on his forward radar showing his opponent slowly coming into the middle. As radar sight became visual, Kam altered his dive, and fired a torpedo. Too close to jink away, the projectile punched through the cockpit, engulfing the entire craft in a fireball.

Changing direction so he was staying near to Val's craft but not TOO close, he put more power to his lasers, to recharge them. Seven was still fighting his Y-Wing, which appeared to have found an ally who now regretted helping, but Kam knew he wouldn't have any troubles there.

"Two, this is eight. Do you need any help?" He asked over the comms, all the while checking for enemy.

[Val Torre]

"I should be alright, Oddball. Just keep an eye out for any letters headed my way if you can--" He suddenly cut off as an X-Wing swooped past his viewport and dissapeared behind. His sensors hadn't seen it and his knee-jerk evasion was all that had been left to get out of it's way.

"--I don't think that one is interested in me, I feel so cheap!" He joked over the comm to Kam. "I should be fine in just a minute, taking Shooter to the med-bay. Thanks for the back-up." With that he altered his course so that he was once again headed for the Superior. The Republic fighters were dropping like flys, but that squadron of X-Wings was still holding strong. It looked like the day would belong to the Empire nevertheless.

[Wedge Antilles]

"Oh Mister Antilles," Shadow Squadron Leader's voice came over the come, "I'm not finished with you yet...it's time to even the score...even if it is an outdated, overweight fighter pilot like yourself."

The TIE Advanced shot by Wedge's X-Wing, blasters blazing as some of them spattered off Wedge's shields. Rogue Leader pulled up and away from the attacking TIE, searching for open space.

The space battle was pretty much over, and the New Republic was losing. All ready most of the dreadnaughts had disappeared into hyperspace and the station's lights were still out. Wedge breathed in a curse as he kept avoiding Ghant's attack.

"I may have been put out to pasture a few years ago," he muttered, "But I'm still one of the best starfighter pilots out there."

The X-wing and TIE Advanced flew at each other, blasters blazing, and shield weakening as the two fighters played a dangerous game of 'chicken'. Antilles shot right and Ghant left.

They looped around for another pass.

"R2, increase the power to shields and weapons," Wedge ordered as he switched shields to double front. Then he switched to proton torpedos.

It was time to end this dogfight once and for all.

[AmazonBabe]

:: AB swung about, having finished with a rather annoying TIE that had made it his personal vendeta to obliterate her. Now, the TIE was a billowing cloud of smoke and debris. ::

:: As she brought her ship back on course towards where Shadow Squadron was, she saw that the pilot she'd sent into evac was being picked up by the Imps. Too bad. A prisoner of war would have made things a bit more triumphant than they were shaping up to be. Well, at least the Rogues were still intact, though she knew there were many other pilots that had not made it through the day. :

:: Her eye caught Wedge in a tight dog fight with another TIE Advanced. Her sensors showed both ships with failing shields and power losses in their cannons. They musta been going at it for some time for that to happen. ::

:: She knew Wedge could handle himself, but she wasn't going to take any chances. Setting her ship to full throttle, she b-lined it towards the one on one dog fight, switching over to her torps and anticipating the lock-on to the TIE. She'd use it as a last resort, but when it came to Wedge's pride or his life, she'd rather choose the latter. ::

[Kam Dapp]

Taking Shooter to the med-bay? thought a worried Kam, as he checked his display. Sure enough, Bette's craft was nowhere to be seen.

Sithspit!

Gritting his teeth, Kam watched his sensors. Looking, hoping for a Republic fighter to come his way.