Last of the Titans: the Hunt

[Telan Desaria]

The coldness of space was filled with many things: gas from nearby stars, dust from planets and passing ships, and debris from battles and stations of eons past.

However, that which could be seen was not all that was...

What could not be seen, but was more abundant than air, were waves. Of the HoloNet, ship-to-ship communcations, stary broadband signals, and every other type of transmission imaginable.

...to all ships....this is.....rea Telladann...under attack...large ship.....,000 meter......we're at....'i'van. Help.....s....Firing.......too much.....HEEEELLLLPPP....

This transmission was broadcast everywhere possible by a small freightor no one knew where. No one could identitfy it. No one knew what it meant.

So far....

* * *

Imperial Probe Droid XG-11245-JXV3 was launched fifteen days prior, into the depths of space. The probes would find a good spot and transmit every signal, passing ship, or sensor ping back to High Command.

On Thyferra.

The dutiful droid intercepted the transmission, as could have anyone within four sectors, eight with only half the signal. The signal was relayed through several other probes, and eventually to Thyferra.

Where the Imperial Central Decryption Office had been sub-terraenialy located since Endor. Where the best cryptanalysts in the Empire worked-and remained. Where the best analysts were deployed.

And where Lieutenant Commander Torl Voltaire acted as section chief, brother of the Sovereingty's flagship commander.
* * *




It begins...

[Alpha]

Satine had heard the signal. Now, as he sits at his command chair on Tolaria, reading reports of the search results of his other ships, Satine grimaces, taking a sip of klah. It had been a week since that odd distress call had gone everywhere, and he was still searching for the ship that attacked the cargo freighter. So far...nothing.

[Remnant Forces]

Kamaar Arms Listening Post M-392, Saidth Orbit

Private M. Jern was sitting around being lazy like always. He had the worst duty imaginable. Luckily it was only for a month and luckily he wasn't alone. There was one other private, who was down in the galley preparing dinner.

"...to all ships....this is.....rea Telladann...under attack...large ship.....,000 meter......we're at....'i'van. Help.....s....Firing.......too much.....HEEEELLLLPPP.... " It hit him like a sledge hammer to the head. It did not sound good.

"Flep get up hear pronto!" As the other Private arrived he replayed the message. His response was equal to Jern's reaction.

"Send it to Kamaar. Immeadiatly."

[Laric Nworb]

Laric was out on Agamar getting some fresh produce to bring back to Yavin 4. He finished loading all he wanted into the craft and had already taken off back to Yavin 4. He was in his Clawcraft when he received the distress call.

"...we're at...'i'van..." It said. The rest of the message made it clear someone was in trouble. But the problem was, Laric didn't know if "...'i'van" was the beginning, middle or last part of the planet, cluster, sun or system the distress call was made from.
Laric ran a search on the nav computer. There were quite a few results for ...'i'van. He reached for his comm and sent a message out on the same frequency as the distress call.
>>"If anyone might know where the distress call came from, please send me the information so I may be of assistance"<<

[Telan Desaria]

Commander Voltaire sat at his desk, a poorly-lit office over a kilometer below the surface of the city of Dezzare. The Commaner never liked the location, but the reasoning behind it could not be beat. There was an old bunker complex beneath the Shaaran Mountains several kilometers way, and many orders had been placed for material to be sent to the old complex.

Thus, opinion said the Decryption facilities wee in the mountain: any attack to eliminate them would pulverize the infrastructure of a pile of rocks.

At that thought, he fell asleep.

One hour later...

The door chime sounded in the granite walls of the office, and Commander Voltaie snapped awake.

" Enter."

In walked Lieutenant Jammison, head of the Intercepton Deprtment, whose task was to listen for everything, find them, decode them, and pass them on to Analysis.

" Sir, we got this today."

The Commander's young colleague and friend placed a datapad on his desk.

" What is it?"

" A transmission intercepted about three sectors from here. It was badl garbled and damn near impossible to make out, so I sen to Fan."

" And?"

" Well, he and his boys weren't able to get the planet in question or what the speaker was tlking about, but we did get the rest."

" Play it."

A lever was depressed on a pad the Lieutenant was holding, and the holoviewer on the north wall whirred to life. A Basic-speaking Evarian appeared, with the remains of a freightor cockpit behind. Sparks were shooting from the bulkheads.

" I am aboard the freightor Star of Imolarr to all ships. This is Aldrea Telladann. I am under attack from a large ship. She reads to be 8,000 meters at least. We're at....'i'van. Help....us....They're Firing again.......too much.....HEEEELLLLPPP...."

The viewer faded back to the Imperial emblem, then blackness.

" So...we didn't get the name of the attacking hip, or the location?"

The Lieutenant smiled. " It took our analysts four hours to find the vid feed. Give us a year or so, and we'll get it."

" hah!"

The Imperial Cryptanalysts were some of the best in the galaxy.

" Does any one else know tha we've got most of it?"

" No one outside this emplacement."

" Let's keep it that way."

" Smell something queer?"

" Not sure....but that aren't tha many eight kilometer ships out there. And none that I know of that attack random freightors. "

They chatted more about the weather and Thfyerran Soccer League the Jaguars beating the Centaurs ten to three, to the rumoured chagrin of their Grand Admiral.

Later, with no apparent rush, the Commander took a shuttle to the floating wedge above.

The Imperial IV-class Star Destroyer Interrogator, where his brother always enjoyed suprises.

[Arya Ravenwing]

The dark haired woman flipped a credit chit through her fingers, and then let it fall to the ground as a badly garbled transmission came through the comm. She automatically depressed the record button on the comm, and then picked up her chit and put it back into her pocket.

"...to all ships....this is.....rea Telladann...under attack...large ship.....,000 meter......we're at....'i'van. Help.....s....Firing.......too much.....HEEEELLLLPPP...."

Her ears pricked up at the only discernable name. Telladann. She hadn't known him well, but the ship tracer had led a quiet life. Arya's booted fete swung off the console and hit the ground as she sat forward and replayed the digital recording.

It was badly garbled...a ship over a thousand meters...possibly even larger than that. Was he still alive? Aldrea Telladann would not have called for help like that, unless he was in dire straits indeed.

It would require more pondering, and a little help from Aaron's excellent decryption equipment. Arya knew how to slice data streams, and could also figure out some simpler codes by hand...a long method of slicing that had all but disappeared with the advent of computers. But she didn't know how to build slicing equipment from scratch. Aaron had.

But enough about long dead boyfriends. Arya fed the recording into the decrypt, and went to take a shower while it worked on the garbled transmission.

[Telan Desaria]

Captain Voltaire was not in the launch bay to greet his brother, Commander Voltaire. This was as planned, so the elder Voltaire would be suprised a the arrival of his younger counterpart.

The Commander walked through the ship, receiving and giving many salutes, having forgotten how formal the Fleet-proper was. In Decryption, everyone knew one another, so formalities, even rank distinctions were tossed to the way side, until some large brass entered the secluded bunker.

The younger Voltaire had not been on the bridge of a Star Destroyer for years. The last was his brief stint as intelligence liaison to Admiral Piett, when he helmed the Executor. Voltaire had been lucky enough tobe transferred to Imperial Center, and avoid the Moddel Sector Fleet's fate.

He strode through the aft control corridor and onto the bridge itself. His brother did not see him, for he was standing facing the viewports, his eyes closed and mind deep in thought.

" Commander of the bridge!" Torl barked, making every officer and man glare at him with angered eyes. A Commander did not warrant an all attention, and his audacity made them shake.

A Fleet trooper approached him, the thought that he had been drinking too much foremost on his mind.

At the sound of the belted announcement, the Interrogator's Captain whirled about, his eyes ope and filled with the same annoyance as the rest of the command crew. But his face immediately lightened when he recognized his younger brother.

The Captain strode to him, his anger obviously assauged so that the Fleet soldier did a discreet about face and back to his sentry post.

" How are you, Ty?" the Captain aske, wrapping his brother in a manly hug. No one in the Sovereignty was afraid to show emtion-when it did not conflict with duty. The atmosphere was lax, when it could be, and tight when it had to be.

" Fine, Brem."

" Let's have a drink, shall we?" the Captain turned to his executive officer. "Commander, you have the bridge. I shall return in twenty."

The officer nodded, and took up position on the catwalk. With the Admiral usually aboard and an able Captain, he rarely got to do his job.

The pair went down fifty levels to the officers' lounge.

Drinks went round for ten minutes, Torl being introduced to the many departmental commanders aboard ship. One of which he immediately got along with: Lieutenant Rollin Tarinsky, the flagship's Intelligence officer.

The two spoke about many things, in a tongue filled with acronyms even the experienced officers about did not know. Then, as the two were discussingrecent job happenings, the subject of the message came about.

" What did it say?"

" We only decrypted it. Our analysts could not find a meaning. You want to take a crack at it?"

" Sure" the Lieutenant replied. " Until something interesting happens, this is as good as it gets."

* * *

The decipher team got to work, post haste, for mny of them did not have mcuh of anything to do. Their career was more of a hobby, enjoing the challange and benefits. They posessed a malaise only the genius possessed and the insane lamented.*

Hours later, into the Thyferran night, the shift commander struck upon an idea.

" Run a that through the database. Every system, planet, sector and spacial ...thing...that has 'i'van in it."

" Target area?"

The shift commander checked his datapad. " The transmission was weak when the droid got it, and given the intensity of it, iy could not been a first rate transmitor. Say, five sectors around the droid's location."

The team got to work, hoping for results.

But, everyone knew that three sectors Core-ward from the droid, were the Tallarians, whose language, when accurately translated, focused on commas. It be a near wild yammaan chase.



Extreme OOC-* quote, Autin Powers II*

[Telan Desaria]

As of yet, the Grand Admiral had no knowledge of the message, the Intelligence effort, or the planned search.

That would all change.

The time was 24.30, and third watch was helming the Interrogator. Since the formation of the Sovereignty, every watch was as fully staffed as the next and prior. Every position save captain was provided for, who was natrually required to sleep...occasionally.

Grand Admiral Desaria had a tendancy to wander about the flagship when there was no pressing business afoot. In doing so, he had discovered relaxing places in the most odd of situations: like the causeway over the ionization reactor's main combustion chamber, where the entire drive section could be seen. The window-laden passageway was seldom occupied, and there was a security desk that was rarely manned on the port end. There made excellent conditions for writing and planning.

It was here that Desaria received the scrambled call from the ship's Intelligence chief announcing the breakthrough.

The transmission was garbled due to the emissions from the reactor, so the Baron proceeded to the deeply concealed center of the superstructure where Intel hung its hat.

Upon entering, the Lieutenant proceeded to brief the Admiral. Who listened intently on this information for the first time as if it were his twentieth.

" And you have been able to locate it?"

" Partially. The clues were few, but we've narrowed it down. The Tari'vanian Nebulae Cluster, the I'vanit System, the Dar'i'van Cluster, and four other planets, all with "i'van" in their name somewhere."

" Any ideas, Lieutenant."

" Only one, sir. Whatever they were talking about might have been an a station...or an SSD."

An eyebrow shot up.

" Thank you Commander."

The Lieutenant grinned. " I am a Lieutenant, sir."

Desaria did not turn as he strode out of the room. He did say," not any more..."

[Khendon Sevon]

The darkness of space was shattered by a quickly expanding ice-blue speck, which bloomed outwards consuming all of the space around it. A wall of flame erupted and a hole formed in the center, an eerie hue resonating outwards. The Crimson Wake exited the sub-hyperspace route it had been taking, its Nihilist-class Star Destroyer escort falling next to it.

The magnificent Sevon-class Star Destroyer’s eight engines propelled the craft forwards at flanking speed as its two hangars released three TIE Executioner Mark 4 craft a piece, the small squadron forming around the larger craft as the Nihilist released its own half-squadron of TIE Executioner Mark 3 craft which took a similar spherical formation around their mothercraft.

“Task Force Iron Fist, this is Leader,” said Khendon, his arms clasped behind his back as he stood in a rigid military stance, “the sector appea…” Khendon trailed off as the advanced communications array began to receive an encrypted message. The highly developed quantum computers aboard the craft quickly ravaged the coding and resorted the data, an audio feed dripping into Khendon’s ears as he snarled.

As the message ended Khendon sent a notification, through his CTS implant, to trace the route of the message back to its origins, and as he did this he opened an optical link to the Nihilist besides his craft, “Friend, what do you think of this,” Khendon had the transmission beamed to his support craft and looked at the quizzical face of his officer.

[Sean Piett]

What the..." Piett's choice of words weren't particularly noble or befitting of a man his rank. Khendon's awesome computer systems must have decrypted what they could from this, because the message wasn't complete.



"I am aboard the freighter Star of Imolarr to all ships. This is ...rea Telladann. I am under ...tack from a large ...p. She reads to be... ,000 meters at least. We're at....'i'van. Help....us....They're Firing again.......too much.....HEEEELLLLPPP...."

"I'm not sure it's real, Khendon. Quite ironic one of the things we can't figure out is precisely what system they were at. Still, I distinctly heard 'thousand meters',. It's not anything small. I think we should hunt this ship down. It’s probably Lebron on some meaningless quest.”

“Agreed. I’ve got some cryptanalysts working on the message. It’s quite vague, but if we can figure out the system, we’ll be able to hold a funeral for a particular Telladann.”

Sean nodded and cut off the conversation. He turned to a Sub Lieutenant working at a navcomputer. The man saluted when he saw Piett looking at him. “Run a search query for me. Ships database, Star of Imolar. Class, freighter.” The man began typing feverishly at the interface. “Six hundred results under that name, Sir.” Piett shrugged. “Any of said ships have their captains and crew listed?” The Sub Lieutenant smiled a little. “Nine.”

“Hah! Well, any of those captains a Telladann?”

“No, sir.”

“Hmmmm… Wait, maybe Imolar has two ‘R’s. Try it.”

“Four hundred results. None with a Telladann.”

“Let’s go about this the opposite way, then. Try a search for Telladann…”

The comms crackled to life. “Aldrea Telladann, Mister Piett.”

“Much appreciated, Mister Sevon.”

“Three hundred results for Aldrea Telladan.”

“Profession, freighter-related.”

“Down to five, sir!”

“And how many of them are on the Star of Imolarr?”
“One, sir.”

“Pull up his record.” The man already had. Piett peered closely at it. Definitely not flawless. “Anything on where this ship should have been a week or so ago?”

“Yes. Yeah, I think something’s coming up. Gawd, it’s slow. Ah, here we are. The should have been in the Kroy’la sector.”

“Begin running a query for locations in the Kroy’la sector for planets with “I’van” in their names. Make sure Khendon’s people on Delteon get this.”

“Khendon’s people?” Of course, the Sub Lieutenant didn’t know about Khendon’s top secret R&D base on Delteon, where the Federacy’s best cryptanalysts and slicers were gathered. “Erm… Never mind.” He mentally hit himself on the head and walked off to relay the message himself.

[Telan Desaria]

Captain Voltaire had been summoned to the Grand Admiral's office, and was escorted there by two Fleet troopers, one of whom was the Grand Admiral's detail commander. The experience up the command tower had been mentally tormenting.

The doors to the Grand Admiral's office whooshed open, and closed behind him. He was alone with the low lights and an expansive obsidian desk. Behind which sat the dimly lit figure of Baron Desaria.

" Captain, please sit down."

Voltaire clicked and took up a seat ahead of the desk.

" I am, as you know, an officer who holds the lives of his men dear. As such, I take time to meet some one from every department. Yesterday, I spoke to some men from Intelligence. They informed me a message received several days ago contained allusions to a rather large vessel no more than eight sectors distant.

" Tell me, Captain. I was also informed that your brother received the transmission and relayed it to our department here. Why was this not relayed to me?"

Voltaire swallowed, and replied. " I was not sure whether it was accurate and did not feel the need to disturb you until we weres ure that the transmission was reliable and referred to anything larger than an armed Kuati Supertanker."

Desaria considered.

" Fair enough. Decisions are made by officers. If their reasoning is logicaly, no fault can be found. Dismissed, Captain. But do keep me informed."

" Yes sir."

Voltaire stood and departed. The guards at the door and came to attention as the Captain left. All was normal again.

With his flag captain gone, Desaria began to ponder.

Large ships....

[Khendon Sevon]

The prow of the Sevon-class swept lower than most star destroyers, almost like an eclipse, but far more angular. The aft of the craft also made a downward sweep in form, its eight engines burning invisibly, all of the after products becoming nonexistent shortly after release as to not leave a trail. The Mustang engines were peculiar, they produced no detectible heat nor a particle wash, as a matter of fact, they were fully stealth, even more so than the Dreamweavers, the father of the Mustang.

Every bit of the Sevon-class was mean, angular, clean cut, angry. The bridge’s viewports had a red tint when viewed from the outside and two horizontal crimson lines ran across the sides of the deadly creature, like war paint. All in all, the craft was equally beautiful and deadly.

Khendon looked around the spartan bridge of Flag class and smiled gingerly as he sat in the command chair, allowing one hand to come up to his chin and stroke the stubs that had gathered their like a small forest. Rest had caused the normally dark pools that lined his eyes to fade to nothingness, and his mind had been sharpened, as well, by his respite.

Now, as the leader of the Imperial Federacy sat waiting he looked upon the star field, calling the voice of the ill-fated Telladann. Admiral Piett had done good work, Khendon made a mental note to buy him a drink when they got back.

“Communications,” said Khendon softly, his message truly being transmitted via the relay in his thoughts to the lieutenant stationed at the comm., “please relay the data that the Admiral has provided us to Delteon via secure message buoy with anti-tampering systems, launch it into hyperspace and send a message ahead using standard methods to our men there to get it to Military Inteligence on the double and get us some coordinates, notify Piett of my intentions.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” said the nearest officer.

[Telan Desaria]

The Grand Admiral had learned well from Thrawn the Great. Enforcement of discipline was paramount, but needless waste only reduced efficiency.

It was these memories which played in Desaria's mind as he stepped onto the bridge, his eyes fixed fore. That eerie stare was a sheer sign not to interrupt the Grand Admiral's pndering.

The only person to ever risk it was Captain Voltaire. And he did it again.

" Sir!"

The Admra'ls trance faded quickly, and he rose from his comand chair. His hands clasped behind his back, he turned toface Captain Voltaire.

" Yes, Captain?"

" Sir, we've found it!"

* * *

The quartet of Imperials, Desaria, Voltaire, and two guards, made their hurried way to the Intelligence room.

Inside, the typically casual analysts and officers rse to attention. Before they completed the gesture, Desaria motioned for them to resume.

" Commander. What is this news?"

The officer nodded and activated a holoprojector in the middle of the expansive lab. A representation of the Athol Sector cam into view. Nebulae, star clusters, asteroid fields were all shown.

Not to mention planets.

" We have done our best to triangulate the source, d narrowed it down to the choices I stated earlier. Then, we found a partial vid feed piggybacked on the signal. From the arrangement of te stars, and a little creative reconstruction, we've narrowed it down to the exact location."

The other officers held their breath in suspense, the Admiral's least physicaly noticealbe-his drive could be felt.

" The Tari'vanian Nebula Cluster. Mr. Telladan was just outsde of it."

" Show me the video feed."

Another tech nodded, and the system map was replaced with the view that the unfortunate freightor pilot had last seen.

The picture was hazy, and lasted only for three seconds before disappearing into a hail of static. Lines crossed what did exist, making a view of anything impossible. The analysts had done it and commendations were in order.

After a second of watching, the Grand Admiral saw something which caught his eye. It was a brief glimpse, but what he saw sat there, in the not too great distance from the freightor. There were two horizantal lines atop each other, seprated by structures of a sort. Windows, mostly dim but lit nonetheless, could be seen dotting the expanse.

" Play it again."

The technician complied, the image going again. every detail discernable was recorded into the Grand Admiral's mind. He could make out one distict shape from one of the stuctures. It was undoubtedly the boxy turret of an Imperial twin heavy turbolaser, Omega-class.

At that realization, the Grand Admiral spun and strode from the room, leaving one of his guards, Captain Voltaire, and a very stunned Intelligence department bemused.

Desaria knew what they had seen.....

[Sean Piett]

Well, he beat me to it. Fast man. thought Piett. He stood up from the console where he’d been typing a short message to Delteon. He erased the document as soon as he heard that Imperator Sevon planned to send the information himself. The computer did the rest of the work for him, making sure the text wasn’t stored in some archive as a defunct file for just anyone to find. He knew the information was most safe in whatever afterlife files went to.

He walked out the door, happy with the situation. He hadn’t seen any military action for long time, and this looked to be something of that nature. A low ranking man was waiting at his door with a diskette of the three planets in the Kroy’la sector. Piett slid it into his datapad. I’vanit, the Tari'vanian Nebula Cluster, and La’I’vano. Each of the planets also contained a brief description.

“Thank you.”

The man nodded, turned, and walked off. Piett began walking in the opposite direction, towards the bridge. The short jaunt was uneventful. When Sean got there, he immediately spoke to the Comm Officer. “Send this to Imperator Sevon.” He handed the man a diskette. The man slid it into his communications array and Piett opened a asked him to open a convo between the two officers. Piett stepped into a ready room to the side of the bridge and say Khendon’s holographic image there.

“Three planets. I recommend we each take one, and if the ship isn’t there, we meet at the third. Any preference?”

[Khendon Sevon]

Khendon grinned and shook his head slowly, “You seem to be the most informed on the topic, you decide our fate.” In Khendon’s mind Piett was brilliant, he had been in the service of the Empire longer than Khendon, but had chosen to work under the Imperator rather than with another leader or as a leader, he was a man to be trusted. He felt that if the fate of the galaxy balanced upon the shoulders of one man, he would trust that fate only to Piett.

He started again, “by the time we get out of hyperspace, Delteon should have finished its ‘assignment’,” Khendon’s grin increased, his teeth showing as he enjoyed the beginning of the chase.

[Telan Desaria]

The Empire had built dozens of Super-class Star Destroyers before Endor, and dozens more after. The flagship of the Thyferra Sector Fleet had been the beautiful and imposing SSD III Decisive. Sleek and elegant, she had been able to slag a world or a fleet and still make a grand entrance.

What Grand Admiral Desaria had seen for only a fraction of a minute was such.

Unmistakably.

The prow of a Super-class Star Destroyer.

The weapons configuration of what could be seen boded that the ship was an old Mark II model. The layering of the armor around viewports and the external energy relays hinted at another fact which may help idenitfy the vagabond warship. The external relays, which were moved from the primary hull conduits, were not vital to ship functions. Thus, to make room for an increased power supply systems, the exhaust relays were lined under the armor.

Ships of this experimental, and later refined design, were only built four months before Endor.

With that thougt in mind, Desaria called up the Imperial Database, still operational even after the Fragmentation. There were at least a dozen dedicated relay stations, manitained under no one's authority. The inforamtion remained as it was.

Search concluded. Three results found. Vendetta, Animosity, Inquisitor.

SSD Vendetta, Mk II. Commissioned on Vall 7, Fondor standard calander. Placed as flagship, T'R'vin Sector Fleet. Ambushed while in drydock, two weeks following the fall of Coruscant. Captured by Republic forces. Scuttled by Imperial commando force XXXVI.

SSD Animosity, Mk II. Commissioned on Vall 15, Fondor standard Calander. Remanded to use of the Fourth Imperial Grand Inquisitor. Later made flagship, Fifth Assault Fleet, during battle of Orinoko. Service history thereafter classified.

***Dispatched with Seventh Flotilla into Vong space***

SSD Inquisitor, Mk II. Commissioned on Vall 17, Fondor standard Calander. Actions served at Devall V, VI, and XIII. Scrapped on Tarin 32, by Imperial Command Decree.

The Grand Admiral placed the datapad upon his desk, narrowing the choices down to the later two. The Animosty had lead a distinguished career, but its whereabouts wee unknown to Desaria, who did know every flag vessel sent with the Diktat.

There was no mention of whether the Inquisitor ever arrived at its scrapping. Odd still was the fact that a Command decree had been issued for it. Usually all scappngs and decommissionings were sent during Fleet daily communiques.

Either ship, it would be solved by the Sovereignty.

Either ship, it would fall into Sovereign hands.

Desaria made for the bridge.

" Captain, prepare for departure."

" Where to?" asked Votaire, having returned to the command deck in the half hour the Grand Admiral was pondering and researching.

" We are going hunting..."

[Sean Piett]

Piett pondered. It could easily be any of the three. Each was three or four syllables, meaning he couldn't rule out any of them due to that. It was his thinking, however, that the Tari'vanian Nebulae Cluster was the least likely, as Telladan most likely would have added the 'Nebulae Cluster' as he was delivering the message. Piett shared this guesstimate with Khendon. As he was speaking to the azure hologram on his desk he was typing a short message to the bridge, roughly twenty feet to his left, telling them to set a course for I'vanit. He broke off the brief communiqué with Khendon and stepped into the bridge. "Engage the hyperdrive for I'vanit. Top rating."

The ship burst into hyperspace the second he stopped giving the order. For a capital starship, the hyperdrive was incredibly fast. He'd be in the system with remarkable good timing. Khendon would be going to the La'I'vano system to check up on the goings-on there. In fact, he knew Khendon had probably left the system post haste. His trek would be a little longer than Piett's, though not by great lengths.

To occupy his time, Piett stepped into his ready room. There, he sat himself in front of an interface and began plotting a course from I'vanit to the Tari'vanian cluster. Looking at a holomap of the I'vanit system, the officer saw that he would need to scan a large amount of the system to get an idea of wherever the rogue ship was. That would be a hindrance, as it would take almost an entire day to move about, getting the scan. From there, he formulated a relatively simple plan. His ship would drop out of hyperspace, deploy a number of probes (all with faster hyperdrives than the Star Destroyer he was on), and have them zip around the system with their moderate sublight. It would be optimal for timing.

He polished those plans and then finished plotting the course to the cluster. With finality, he copied the plans to a disk and stepped onto the bridge. It was later than he'd thought, and the Luna Eclipse was a mere hour away from exiting hyperspace. He handed the diskette to a technician. The rest was done without Piett lifting a finger or saying a word. The ship dropped out of hyperspace, deployed the probes, and reentered.

The ship dropped out again. They'd reached the system. The probes were eighty percent done with a full scan, and the search results came in. Not a trace of any thousand-meter-plus ships, and no tracks left behind. "Any signs of life out there?" The ship could be fully automated, of course, but the search might turn up results. "No, sir." Piett sighed.

"Well, any large metallic bodies?"

"Several, sir."

"Is it possible they're all asteroids?"

"It is. All but a few of them are in the area we've already covered."

"What of the others?"

"None of them are large enough to be the mystery ship."

Piett cursed. It could be the Yuuzhan Vong, but he wasn't sure if they could block out his sensors well enough to maintain partial stealth. He doubted it.

"Has the system been visually scanned?"

"All of it, sir. Nothing."

"Then prepare to enter hyperspace. Tari'vanian Cluster."

"Course has been pre-set."

"Enter."

The stars rushed at the Luna Eclipse and Piett hoped that Khendon had succeeded in his own search.

[Telan Desaria]

The ISD IV Interrogator had een in hyperspace for some time, its only escort an Abolisher II Heavy Cruiser. Any attcks would be beaten off by the sizeable vessels. But who dare attack an Imperial vessel?

Grand Admiral Desaria sat in his command chair, a trance-like state the best way to describe his demeanor. Different from his typical pondering was the intense stare on the Grand Admiral's face. His eyes peered out just under his brows. His lips were contorted in a faint hint of an ominous grin, a mask of evil never seen by anyone.

Not even the Grand Admiral's closest friend, Captain Voltaire, dared rouse him.

Commands and status reports were either whispered or sent via text.

Ten hours later

The Grand Admiral had retured to his calm and calculating self, now standing at parade rest behind the bow viewpanes.

" We'll arrive in the Tari'vanian Nebulae Cluster, in three mintes, sir.

" Excellent. Captian Voltaire:"

The Flag Captain looked up from his resting seat in the crew pit. " Yes, sir?

" Prepare to dispatch two Defender Squadrons for patrol upon re entry. We'll e very close to a Nebula, and our scanners will doubtless fail us. We'll have to rely on short range passives and pickets."

" Aye sir."

Captain Voltaire turned to the flight ops officer to order the deployment, when the Interrogator unexpectedly reverted to realspace several minutes too early.

Ahead of the Sovereign flagship was a rather large asteroid, one that only seemed to spin in space, not drift as asteroids do.

And the pair of Sovereign warships were headed straight for it.

" Evasive action!!!" Voltaire ordered, not wanting to see his bridge evaporate before his very eyes. Many years ago, he had known an officer aboard the Stalker, an ISD that chased the Millennium Falcon through the Hoth asteroid field with Lord Vader. A three hundred meter planet chunk slammed into the command tower, vaporizing all.

Desaria stood unflinching as the rock grew closer and the Star Destroyer yawed down, listing to starboard. He felt competent in his command crew, not needing to interfere. He merely looked at the asteroid, noting it's oddity.

The Abolisher II Heavy Cruiser Entangler moved around the asteroid in an opposite way: up and to port. She was not lucky in her escape.

The ship fired thrusters a moment too late, her aft colliding with the earthen sphere. The Novaldex shields ate away cubic tons of debris, but the sheer mass overloaded the deflectors, and hit the hull. The ionizaton reactor was breeched, parts of the hull twisting in as the rock maintained its position, the Heavy Cruiser intruding on its domian.

The impact pushed the Entangler away. Around the asteroid, she drifted, slowing turning to stand on her nose.

" The Abolisher's been hit!!"

" They're launching escape pods!!!"

From the port side of the bridge, the ship could be seen, hundreds of small lifeboats jettisoning away. Her TIEs were launching, as was every shuttle she had, combat and not.

Without warning, her external relays damaged beyond repair, the reactor overloaded. He gundecks seemed to expand and shoot out, the nose breaking off. The command tower crumbled in, l then beng consumed by a sphere of fire and debris. Worse still was the lfeboats, consumed in the brief but intense eplosion.

There was no time to grieve, as parts of the once-powerful Entangler rocketed away in all directions, including toward the flaghship.

" Shields!!!"

" Down, sir. Our brush with the rock took all the dorsal power we had."

" All hands brace for impact!!!"

The Grand Admiral moved at a faster than standard gait to his chair of command.

What was left of the nose had drfited towards the flagship, speed along by the force of the explosion, her interia taking it the rest of the way.

The nose hit the aft port side, colliding with the undamaged ventral shields and the port gundecks. A hundred meter section of the hull became a flaming, twisted wreck. The innards of he Destroyer could be seen, illuminated by the orange and red flares of burning oxygen.

" Report!!!"

" Damages coming in. We've lost tubolaser batteries thirty and thirty one. All hull port of section 51 and aft of section 325 is gone or aflame."

" Weapons?"

" I'm reading only sixty percent of port weaponry active. The blast must've hit a main power relay."

" That's not good," muttered Voltaire, looking aft.

" That's fine, Captian." Desaria was on his feet, staring out across the bow at the nebula.

" That's worse." He pointed.

Voltaire executed a forbidden maneuver and pulled himself out of the crewpit. e looked fre and sw wha the Grand Admiral ha indicated.

The bow of a Super-class Star Destroyer was emeging from the purple sar nursery.

[Telan Desaria]

OOC: I see that interest in this thread has dropped considerably, and so I am picking it up. If there is no opposition in my chace, I will NPC it.

I promise it won’t be another hundred words and boom!!! Desaria’s back on the bridge of an SSD. It’ll be an involved storyline just like the rest of mine.

IC

The Imperial-class Star Destroyer Interrogator sat, partially dead in space, as the all-too familiar shape of a Super-class Star Destroyer emerged from the Tari-vanian Nebulae Cluster. Around her sat an asteroid field of almost constructed precision. Behind the wounded warship lay the scatted debris of what had once been the Abolisher II-class Heavy Cruiser Entangler.

“ Admiral?”

The commander of the Sovereign Armed Forces stood at his usual place; behind the bow view panes with his legs comfortably apart and his hands clasped behind his back. He seemed aloof to the danger that awaited them.

“ Admiral!”

Captain Voltaire did all but bodily rouse the Grand Admiral. Desaria had many more things on his mind than orders to his flag captain, who should have issued the appropriate orders without his commander’s approval. Desaria noted this, but erased it, for the situation was extraordinary.

“ Ad-”

Desaria muttered something for a half second, then turned to Voltaire. “ Have the fighter pickets been deployed?”

“ No sir.”

“ Do so, but reduce it to one squadron of Defenders. Three additional squads to launch, along with Gunboat Flight II. Open formation.”

“ Aye sir,” Voltaire replied, thankful for at least some sort of orders, even though three squadrons of TIE Defenders and three assault gunboats were laughable when compared to what a Super-class Star Destroyer could field.

Moments later, the primary launch bay cleared of all debris which had come loose from the racks above and the walls about, the assigned swarm of craft had taken up their positions ahead and around the Interrogator. Joining them were the six surviving Defenders from the Entangler, the remaining eighteen dead in their racks or now no more than frozen components.

“ We have full deployment.”

“ Good.”

By now, the SSD, moving at a slow pace, was almost half revealed from the purple and azure gases that had formed a picturesque backdrop for the mountain of lethal material. Still its command tower was obscured, but the cavernous launch bay on her ventral bow could be seen, along with the imposing array of armaments that composed her bow face.

The Grand Admiral spun about and marched to his command chair with an alarming abruptness. There, he bothered not even to sit; he merely began punching buttons on the right-hand console. A holoscreen replaced on of the starboard view panes, one of the external recorders feeding directly to the bridge. The Admiral manipulated the controls until he saw what he wanted.

Locked on the viewer was the ventral prow of the approaching SSD. In white Imperial Letters, the ship’s name read clearly and sharply.

SSD II Inquisitor

“ And so we have it….”

[Khendon Sevon]

A brilliant implosion erupted and subsided as the devilish looking Sevon-class Star Destroyer easily slipped from hyperspace, lines of energy being shaken from her magnificent body.

A hologram of the Crimson Wake’s location flashed in front of Khendon as hundreds of small red shapes formed around it. “Activate advanced sensors package, scan for traces of any activity by any ship in this sector.” The scan quickly narrowed as the boosted sensors aided by advanced processors sorted through the nearby targets.

After what seemed a long time, though it was only minutes, the ship displayed twenty-five odd shapes. “Use bounce-back particle bombardment systems and define analogs.” The ship’s sensor package strained under the command and warning lights flashed along Khendon’s console, so many targets were simultaneously being scanned and processed that the system’s load was at 100%, a dangerous level.

Khendon had to take the risk, he had to make sure he had every rock turned, besides, the redundancy system would allow any crashed systems to be replaced while they were rebooted. “Lieutenant! Reroute defensive scanner bands to the active scanning systems and allow their optical pathways to be used.” The system load quickly dropped to 85% and only one red dot remained with a return of a fighter analog, or what had been a fighter. The ship was cold, according to the temperature nodes that had scanned it.

The Imperator shook his head, “Helm, go to the rendezvous location, all stealth systems enabled and maxed.”

[Sean Piett]

As the Luna Eclipse prepared for the next leg of the trip, Piett ordered a probe to be dispatched. As it would beat the speedy cruiser, he sent it to gather what information it could. He would pick it up when he got there. A nod and a bow from a lesser officer told him that it would be seen to before the ship leapt back into hyperspace.

Sean Piett wasn't just an officer, he was something of a noble among the Imperial socialites. His father being an Admiral, and his father being a big banking man, Piett was something of a blueblood. The sharp bow he'd been given showed not respect for his rank, but his class. The officer must have been high-class himself, unless he'd just picked up the small curtousy through means other than family custom.

After another four minutes, the ship was reentering hyperspace. The wait had been lengthy by Imperial standards. Piett was in no particular hurry.

[Telan Desaria]

The letters stood out against the black and grey hull of the Inquisitor, and even more so against the purple and orange gases that created the Super-class Star Destroyer's backdrop.

For the first time in many, many years, the Grand Admrial was unsure of a clear, precise course of action. In such cases, he improvised.

" Do you read any comm traffic?" The Grand Admiral had taken up a seat in his command chair, but was looking deep into space. The answerer of the question was open.

" Negative, sir," replied the tactical officer.

" Do they have the capacity to receive transmissions of any kind?"

There was a pause almost a minute in duration as officers furiously punched controls. " Preliminary scans show their receivers need routine maintenence. As it stands, they can receive audio only signals."

" Send a standard recognition protocol. I want to know who is on that ship. Now."

[Telan Desaria]

" No reply sir."

Desaria clenched his jaw.

" Very well. That is an Imperial flying an Imperial flag and with an Imperial IFF code. As it stands, I am assuming responsibility for her. Captain, prepare a boarding party!"

" Yes sir!"

Voltaire spun about to the black tuniced officer seated near him, the man himself a liaison with the Fleet contingent on the Interrogator.

Before he was able to issue his orders, the Star Destroyer shook as her inertial dampers geared up.

" What was that?"

" The Super, sir. She's swinging towards us. We're catching exhauts radiation."

" Bring us about as well. Move us along side of her..."

" She's anglings towards the shortest exit vector!"

" Track her!!" Desaria yelled, an uncharacteristic display of emotion ringing through his voice.

" Done!"

" Can we knock out her engines?" Voltaire asked from the crew pit.

Desaria smiled. " You can't remember the Decisive that well, can you. Even with her shields down it would take an hour for us to chew through that armor. Helm...follow her until the boarding parties have arrived."

There was a chorus of affirmatives, but one thought could not escape the Grand Admiral's mind. What the frell is going on here...?

[Khendon Sevon]

The Crimson Wake emerged from hyperspace like a shrouded arrow, darting from the rift she had just created into real space, her wondrous sublight engines screaming in delight a fraction of a second before all of the sensor evasion systems kicked in. “Sensors, Communication. Once Pie…”

“Sir,” said the communication’s officer, “we’re receiving an encrypted communication.”

Khendon thought for a moment then spoke, “route it to my command console, format?”

“Text, Sir,” said the officer. This was a particularly intriguing factor.

Khendon looked to his right, observing the text as it was decrypted and his face scolded once it was completed, “Helm, prepare for another jump, activate all weapons systems, drop a communication buoy encryption double Alpha, have it relay to Piett that I’m heading to Wor Tandell, have him follow suit. This chase is over.”

With those final words the buoy was dropped, and the graceful Sevon-class Star Destroyer leapt into hyperspace, on route to Wor Tandell.

[Sean Piett]

"Entering the system, sir. It seems that Imperator Sevon left a message here for us."

"Let's hear it."

The Sub Officer read the message.

"Alright, all stop. Set a course for Wor Tandell."

"We have a course plotted in the nav computer."

"Then, by all means, engage."

The Luna Eclipse turned some fifty degrees and jumped into hyperspace.