Mrisst's fate (Lion El' Jonson, Teleran Balades, Jarek Tchort)

[Park Kraken]

Aboard the Battleship Glorious, in the outer system area of Mrisst....

"Admiral, the fleet is assembled, and is awaiting your orders."

"Very well. Communications! Punch me through to Commodore Balades."

"Yes Sir, line is connected, you make speak to him at anytime."

"Commodore, you may begin preparations for your assault at any time. Remember, your objectives are to use any means necessary to lure the Rebel Defense Fleet away from the planetery defenses. When Field Marshall Tchort gives the signal, you will jump in, and deploy your ships for the attack. You will have the Star Destroyer Illoustrious to command for this operation. Is everything clear?"

[Teleran Balades]

Conmmand center of the destroyer Illoustrious.

"Everything is under stood, Admiral. Moving into position."

Snapping of the com Teleran nodded to his helmsman.

"Bring the ship forward. Give us a hyperspace lane that will bring us as close to the planet as possible ."

"Yes, Sir."

The large ships slowly glided through pace ahead of the main force into a position that would bring her out of hyperspace just outside the Mrisst's gravity-well.

"You may intiate the jump when Marshal Tchort gives us the go ahead."

[Jarek T'chort]

Infiltration...., the very word itself conjured up images of sneaking, silent deception. Yet that was just Jareks opinion of the situation, sat here in a stinking rebel base, dressed in the drab overalls of a technician.

He was reasonably at ease, as much as can be surrouded by rebel personnel and pilots. A loose discipline hung over the area he was waiting in now, looking over the assorted aliens and humans Jarek found himself comtemplating the ability of the back slapping rebels to defeat the mightiest millitary war machine that had ever existed. He was dammed if he knew, millitary historians had puzzled over it for years and never come to one specific answer.

Beside Jarek were twelve men, dressed in similar garb. They seemed at ease, hands in pockets, giving off the air casual men just hanging around. In actual fact, the men were ready for battle. Eleven spec ops troopers and an Intelligence officer, Lt. Hoffer. They carried no weapons or explosives, the rebels were as adept at detecting hidden weaponry as the Empire. Cold logic was their weaponry.

The team had filled loosely into the main launch area of the Mrisst planetry defense base. Dotted around the large metallic bay were around 20 A-wings and 6 Lambada shuttles.

"You guys know what your doing?" Inquired a large human deck officer.
Jarek turned to him, adding a 'rim drawl' to his accent. "Yeah sir."
"Good, see your little buddies are raring to go." Joked the officer, pointing at the MSE-6 Utility droids trailing behind the Imperials.
"Yes officer they are, well we'd best get started." Jarek replied flipantly.

The droids scuttled off, into the launch tubes, their programing erased. They were walking bombs now, with organic components, which the rebels had not scanned for. The twelve Imperial soldiers scattered, the Lt. Hoffer pulling a full data dump of the base computer. The other men made themselves busy distracting the few pilots on duty and disabling the security systems. Jarek himself was already in one of the Lambada shuttles setting the engines on full. One by one the Imperials moved toward the shuttle, disappearing on board. With a burst of blue thrusters the elegant shuttle lifted off the deck. The rebels finally caught on as the MSE droids inner workings blew.

As the Imperials sped away, a huge orange explosion engulfed the launch tubes below them. Jarek transmitted the code for Admiral Kraken as a few rebel A-Wings on patrol above kicked their engines and pursed the shuttle. Jarek bit his lip, the relief force had better get to them double quick...

[Park Kraken]

Aboard the Glorious

"Admiral, we haved recieved the signal from Field Marshall Tchort. They are outbound."

"Very well, dispatch Task Force Beta to retrieve them. And tell Commodore Balades that he may now begin his assault on the enemy planet. We will follow when he gives us the signal that the enemy fleet has left the planet, and is preparing to engage him." Ordered Admiral Kraken.

"Yes Sir. Task Force Beta has been deployed, and the message has been sent to Commodore Balades."

Aboard the Lancer Frigate Valiant..............

"Captian Lockhead, we are emerging from hyperspace. We will be within 1 kilometer estimated of where the shuttles should be sir."

"Very well Leutinant."

::The lines of hyperspace receded into stars. Dead ahead of the Taskforce was the shuttles as promised, although they were being chased by several A-wing starfighters. A quick firestorm of bolts from the Lancer, and the TIE Defender Mk3 Squadron with her forced the A-wings to pull back, with one of them going up in flames. The Valiant quickly wheeled around, and procceeded to escort the shuttles out of the system. As he watched, more starfighters, and a few corvettes, and gunships began to pursue his Taskforce.::

"Sir, enemy squadrons are inbound."

"Very well, let's prepare to withdraw. Besides," added Captian Lockhead, glancing over to a patch of empty space to his starboard, "The rebels will soon have larger things to deal with."

[Lion El' Jonson]

It was business as usual at Mrisst. The lush forests and the general 'ho-hum' manner of the locals merely reinforced Colonel Dardis' assumptions: This was one of those dead-end jobs. He had once been the 2nd-in-command of the Pyraend Naval Outpost, with the promise of a promotion to one of the Outer Rim bases, practically a guaranteed fast-track to becoming a General.

That had been before three fighter jocks lost control of their X-Wings and slammed into a Diamalan Passenger Liner, resulting in the deaths of 138 rich patrons aboard the ship. He had been blamed for the incident, stripped of his command, and transferred. He had wanted to get into the Outer Rim...well, he got into the Outer Rim, all right: square into the middle of Sesswenna sector, the home of the New Republic's Capital: Coruscant.

Mrisst was known as one of the "security worlds". It held few strategic resources, and maintained a moderate set of droid production plants. A couple of repulsorlift coil factories were scattered across the planet, and the occasional fruit harvesting station could be encountered, but otherwise Mrisst was a thoroughly boring place to live.

Nevertheless, the New Republic needed Coruscant guarded from all angles. In case the immense perimeter bases were breached, the security worlds, such as Mrisst, would attempt to delay the enemy while Coruscant rallied reinforcements. A large NR garisson was based in the capital city of Myria, including several squadrons of fighters and a full division of Army personnel. In orbit was a large spacedock, which was capable of docking up to 5 capital ships. At the moment, two MC-80b's were docked, both of them with their respective battlegroups surrounding them. The planet's largest moon, named Kyrrist or "Angel" in the old native tongue, harbored a large fighter base with several squadrons of A-Wings and X-Wings.

"Fat chance of this stuff ever seeing action, though..." Colonel Dardis thought to himself. "Each of the perimeter worlds were at least 10 times as well defended as Mrisst, and either Admiral Ackbar or Admiral El' Jonson regularly docked at Coruscant with their immense battlefleets."

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. His office was in the garrison on the top level, well away from the command center below.

"No.." he said to himself. "The chance of me ever seeing any action again is about as close to zero as possible. I might as well toss in my pins right now and retire to somewhere nice and warm...maybe Mon Calamari, or even-"

He was cut off by a rapid knocking at his door.

"Come in, please." he called, and as the wooden door slid aside on miniature repulsorlifts, his aide stumbled in and saluted. Dardis returned the salute, and motioned for his aide to take a seat as he took a look out of his window. The sun was just about slipping out of view, casting a bloody glow across the horizon, and stars were becoming visible in the darkening sky.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Morris. What brings you up here at this hour?"

"I wish I could say it was a good evening, sir. You might want to read this." he replied, handing over an envelope with the words 'CONFIDENTIAL-HIGH PRIORITY' stamped across it. Frowning, Colonel Dardis took the envelope and removed the documents from within. It read:

SENDER: Wing Commander Markell (Cmdr, Kyrrist Fighter Base; SERVICE NUMBER: L04-773-0019-B3)
RECIPIENT: Colonel Dardis (Cmdr, Mrisst Garrison; SERVICE NUMBER: F29-043-0105-P5)
PRIORITY: CLASS RED (Level 3 Priority)
SUBJECT: Immediate Action Required: Potential Security Breach

Colonel Dardis, I fear we have a grave problem. Please contact me over the commlinks as soon as possible: Mrisst may be compromised.

///END MESSAGE\\\

Colonel Dardis dropped the letter onto the table and turned to his communications station. He selected Commander Markell's commlink and waited to be patched through. Markell immediately picked up the call.

"Colonel Dardis?" said Commander Markell.

"Yes, Commander Markell. What's your situation?" asked the Colonel.

"We're in trouble, sir. Less than 15 minutes ago, at 19:30 hours, a multiple explosion occured in the Hangar Bay Two. The two squadrons being stored down there are nearly unusable. 15 A-Wings are confirmed destroyed, the other 5 are heavily damaged. We're still trying to fight the fires. One of the Lambda shuttles has been stolen, the others are gonna be out of commission." Markell replied, sounding worried.

It was all coming too fast for Colonel Dardis.

"What do you mean, Commander? That sounds like sabotage." said Dardis, hurriedly. There was a cough on the other end of the line, followed by Commander Markell's voice.

"Exactly, sir. Looks like an Imperial Intelligence job. Unfortunately, that's the least of our problems."

"What, commander? Did you pursue the stolen shuttle?"

"Yes, sir. Unfortunately, the A-Wings were driven off."

The Colonel was puzzled.

"Driven off? By a shuttle?" he asked.

There was a short burst of harsh laughter on the other line.

"No, sir." the Commander replied. "No, they were driven off by a Lancer frigate."

"A LANCER FRIGATE?" Dardis practically yelled.

"Yes, sir. A Lancer Frigate...spearheading a taskforce of Imperial vessels."

The Colonel nodded.

"Understood. Thank you, Commander. Do whatever you must to get your base operational again. I'll notify the garrison. Do not attempt to launch an attack until ordered to do so. Colonel Dardis out."

He logged off and then hurriedly stood up, gathering his rank cylinders and other command items.

"Lieutenant Morris?"

His aide hurried up alongside him.

"Yes, sir?"

"Wake up the commanders. We've got a job to do." he said, marching out of his door and towards the turbolift. He stepped in, slid in his rank cylinder, and keyed for the vehicle to head to the War Room. Lieutenant Morris grabbed his commlink and began keying out orders to the other commanders of the garrison. Several of them were already in bed.

The turbolift stopped, and Dardis and Morris stepped out, merging into the flow of officers beginning to head towards the War Room. The Colonel cleared himself at the main checkpoint and proceeded directly towards the Command Center. The doors slid aside and he entered, surveying the chaos.

Dozens of officers were already manning the numerous stations. Hundreds of small monitors dotted the walls and consoles, but a massive projected viewscreen dominated one wall. On it was the sensor data from the recon satellites as they tracked the approaching Imperial battlegroup. It didn't look good. An immense Star Destroyer lurked on the outskirts of the area, even as a Lancer frigate sprinted away from the combat. Several other large contacts were being picked up just outsystem.

Without another glance, Colonel Dardis seated himself at a large table in the middle of the room. At least three dozen officers were seated around the table, including Brigadier General Lokaine, the commander of the Army division, and Commander Josmane, the garrison's fighter commander. Several holograms were being projected around the table, including those of Captain Likkan and Commodore Kaldar, the Mon Calamari in command of the naval assets in orbit.

"Good evening to you all. I apologize for waking you, but we seem to have a problem."

There was general assent around the table, as well as a couple of wisecracking remarks. Colonel Dardis continued.

"Approximately 30 minutes ago, a multiple explosion occured at the Kyrrist Fighter Base. The base is currently incapacitated, as the damaged and destroyed A-Wings are blocking the exit for the usable fighters. In addition, several capital ships have been detected inbound on at least three vectors. We need a plan, and we need it now."

Again, there was agreement around the table, as well as a couple of gasps from those who hadn't yet learned of the sabotage. Colonel Dardis typed some commands into his inset computer console, and another display rose from the table, this one displaying a strategic map of the system.

"Commodore Kalbar, would you like to comment?"

The hologram nodded, and the Mon Cal's began speaking.

"Thank you, Colonel. As you can see, perimeter sensors have detected several capital ships inbound towards Mrisst. Our gravest threat, however, appears to be a Star Destroyer loitering on the outskirts of the system. It's been ID'ed as the Illustrious, a ship known to be attached to Admiral Kraken's Battlegroup...therefore, we assume this is a Remnant attack." He paused to let this all sink in, the continued in his gravely voice. "Both of our cruisers have begun mobilizing their respective battlegroups: Reliance will be ready to move in 5 minutes, Morning Star will be able to depart immediately after that."

Colonel Dardis nodded.

"Thank you, Commodore. Let's get working on a battleplan, then."

And without further debate, the command staff got to work.

[Teleran Balades]

"Commodore, Field Marshall Tchort's objectives are complete and the Valiant picked his team up."

"Good, intiate hyperspace jump."

"Yes, Sir."

Starlines elongated as the cruiser flashed forward at an imessurable speed. Intra-system jumps took very little time to complete, but required carefully calculated coordinates, more so than usual. About three minutes later the Illoustrious emerged from the swirling void just outside of the planet's gravatic shadow. Already some of the enemy ships were manuvering toward his ship.

"Stick to the main plan. Helm bring us forty degrees port take us directly over the base on Kyrrist. Rotate us so that our keel is toward the moon we don't need damage to any crucial systems."

The angular warship turned away from the planet closed the distance to the moon. Tel wanted to know what the Rebel commanders were thinking, he hoped that his plane would work.

Several turbolaser lined the enemy base and started firing on the destroyer, their blasts illunminating the cruiser's shields.

"Foreward batteries take down those lasers."

The foreward turrets angeled downward and pulsed emerald energy blost into the guns. Molten melted and fried power conductors were blasted free of the moon's low gravity and floated free in space.

"Good work. Prow weapons stay alert for any other planetary guns. All other batteries are free the fire on the base."

Tel smiled as the Illustrious poured fire into the surface structures. If this wouldn't get their attenion nothing would.

[Park Kraken]

"Sir, sensors reports that the Illoustrious has made it insystem, and is proceeding to attack the enemy Lunar Base."

"Excellent, have the Entanglement prepare for her jump into hyperspace. Tell her not to jump until the enemy has jumped out to engage the Illoustrious."

"Yes sir"

[Lion El' Jonson]

The planning had been completed merely 15 minutes ago, and already Reliance and her taskforce were moving into position to attack the massive Illoustrious. The other MC-80b, Morning Star, would join the fight as soon as possible, but a ruptured hydrogen tank would keep her in dock for at least 10 more minutes.

In the meantime, the Kyrisst Fighter Base was being mauled. Virtually every aboveground structure was vaporized by the Star Destroyer's immense turbolasers, killing dozens. Luckily, however, starfighter command was dug 100 meters into the moon, deep enough that they barely felt the impacts. However, Kyrisst was out of the fight.

Captain Likkan shook his salmon colored head as he stood on Reliance's bridge. That Star Destroyer was going to be vaporized just like it was vaporizing those buildings, as soon as his taskforce got there...

He granted himself a rare smile, imaging the coming battle...

"It will be like a Krakana versus a Sand Crab..." he said, eliciting a chorus of laughter from the bridge. "All personnel, battle stations, battle stations. Prepare to jump to hyperspace. 5...4...3...2...1...Jump!"

The warning klaxons ceased as the immense cruiser entered hyperspace, the starlines elongating in the viewport. It would be a very short jump, less than a minute....

[Teleran Balades]

"Commodore, the enemy ships have made the jump. They'll be here in less than a minute."

"Very good. Bring us around the far side of the moon, we'll lead them on a wild gundark chase."

Teleran looked at holo-display. Every thing was going as planned, exept for one thing.

"One cruiser in the rebel force is missing. Where is she?"

"Intercepted comm chatter indicates she has not left the docks, sir."

This would be a minor set back, though Kraken's force should have no problem dealing with the Mon Cal ship. Tel keyed in to Gloroius 's comm frequency.

"Admiral, the rebel forces have left the planet. I'm trying to lure them to the far side of the moon. It will buy you extra time. Be advised there is still an MC-80 docked at the port."

The enemy ships entered realspace as the Destroyer stoped its bombardment and started fleeing to the dark side of the moon, at least that is what it would appear.

[Park Kraken]

Aboard the Battleship Glorious

"Sir, communications recieved from Commodore Balades. He reports that an enemy Taskforce has left the planet, and is in pursuit of his Star Destroyer. But sir, he reports that only one cruiser is in the Taskforce, the other one hasn't even left the dockyard yet." reported communications.

"Alright, I guess this is as good as were gonna get. But I am going to change the orders around a bit. Have Indomitable, Entanglement, and Valiant jump in to help defend Illoustrious. Have Entanglement deploy 2/3rds of her Gravity Wells to block any more ships coming in from the planet, and leave her other Gravity well on standby for now." Ordered Admiral Kraken.

::Kraken watched as the Taskforce jumped into hyperspace for a short five minute hop. He ordered a message to Commodore Balades for him to take command of all combat ships in the region except for Entanglement.::

[Lion El' Jonson]

Captain Likkan's battlefleet jumped out of hyperspace, and immediately everyone realized one thing: the Illoustrious wasn't where she was supposed to be.

"Tactical, get me a scan. Where is that Star Destroyer?" growled the Mon Cal captain. There was a few tense minutes of activity as the entire tactical section pulsed out a deep scan and attempted to locate the Star Destroyer. Finally, they located it.

"Sir, the Illoustrious is fleeing towards the dark side of the moon. If we hustle, we can catch her." said the Lieutenant in charge of tactical. Captain Likkan nodded.

"Thank you. The assault frigate Ferrus and two Nebulon-B's will come around the moon from starboard, the rest of the battlegroup will come around from port. We'll catch the Destroyer in a pincer movement. The grav-mass' of Mrisst, Kyrrist, and the Merindan Asteroid Belt will distrupt their hyperspace jumps for another 10 minutes, at least."

[Park Kraken]

Aboard the Heavy Cruiser Indomitable

::Captian Ardiff of the Victory Mk3 Destroyer Indomitable watched as the stars swirled past the viewport in the region known as hyperspace. Then, alarms began to sound as they approached their exiting point. Then the starlines faded, and reverted back to their natural states as the Taskforce left hyperspace. His ship was the first to leave hyperspace, followed by the Valiant to port, and the Entanglement to his aft. Then the screen of TIE Defenders Mk3, numbering well over a hundred, flashed in 2 kilometers ahead of them. The Defenders automatically assumed a wedge formation to screen the oncoming Star Destroyer Illoustrious, which was 10 kilometers ahead of them, and block off the pursuing Rebel TaskForce, which was split in two, with both halves each about 15 kilometers behind Illoustrious, until she was ready to engage them. Captian Ardiff smiled, then awaited orders to be issued from Commodore Balades.::

On Board the Interdictor Cruiser Mk2 Entanglement

"Sir, we are recieving orders from Admiral Kraken. He says to power up three of our Grav-Well projectors in order to trap the Rebel Taskforce here, and to prevent any more help coming in from the planet. He also says to bring our fourth Grav-Well powered up for a special manuever of his." said Har's aide.

"Very well, do as he orders, and deploy our screen of thirty-six TIE Defenders Mk3." Ordered Captian Hars.

::The three Grav-Wells aboard the Interdictor Cruiser powered up, closing the hyperspace lanes between the moon and the planet. The Interdictor was vulnerable to a attack from the rear, but Admiral Kraken had that covered.::