SWRPF Archive The Shattered Galaxy: Main Game Thread

IC: Supreme Prophet Kya
Jungles of Yavin 4

It had taken the crew of the Insipid more than seventeen hours to realise something was wrong, and to send down a shuttle. Kya spent that time planning all kinds of murder and slaughter of Jedi, and the Alliance, and the Empire, and the 'Imperial Knights'. He boarded the shuttle silently, the shuttle handlers have the sense to remain silent, and to not ask where the rest of the landing force and Moonshadow was. It didn't matter to Kya.

When finally aboard, he marched straight to his chambers and called his Captain to him. He began stripping out of his robes, tossing the blackened and dirty Prophet robes into the incinerator. He was in the refresher when his Captain arrived, and he called out. "Report, Captain."

"Supreme Prophet?"

"You heard me."

"Um, yes sir," the Captain said, detecting the edge in his voice. "Sith Intelligence reports that we've lost contact with the Deep Core. Byss fell, and warlords Harrsk and Delvardus have left the Sith Empire, seemingly. Warlords Krennal, Zsinj and Teradoc have became concerned by the loss of Byss to such an overwhelming Imperial force, and it seems confidence in the Sith regime is at an all time low."

"And Darth Sanguinis' response to this?" The Captain thought this news would irritate him even more, and he swallowed. The Prophet spoke, calmly, over the sound of the shower. "Don't worry Captain, I am not going to kill you for delivering bad news."

"Yes sir," he said, relieved. "No response, sir. The InQuestors of Judgment are most unimpressed, and the Alignment has made a demand to us directly that you do something." The Supreme Prophet fell silent, turning off the shower and dabbing at his skin with a towel, considering that.

Sanguinis had set himself up as a fool, not doing anything to limit the collapse of the Sith Empire. Losing the Deep Core meant perhaps a hundred sectors had been lost - ten percent of the galaxy. The Empire not had more territory than the Sith Empire, ruling forty percent of the known cosmos. The Sith Empire now had less than fifteen percent of the galaxy, focused entirely in the Outer Rim, with some Mid Rim territory provided by Admiral Teradoc. The Empire now held the Deep Core through to the Inner Rim, and the Commonality. That would have to be dealt with, clearly.

As long as the Hutts joined the Sith Empire, this loss would be mitigated, and Mon Calamari trapped square between the Sith and Hutts. Excellent. "And what of our Mandalorian spy?"

"He hasn't reported in, and the Alliance fleet struck at Kessel. With no orders, the Tund merc group has dispersed, sir." Kya blinked, infuriated. His agent had either taken his credits, or the agent had never met him, simply vanishing. This threw a wrench into his plans - the Hutts would never ally with the Sith after the fact, and the Alliance would recover all those prisoners, taking on more strength...

The Sith were losing the war.

Kya strode out of the refresher, stripped of his clothes and towels, and gestured, a new set of undergarements and robes floating over. The Captain shifted, awkwardly, and turned away, surprised by seeing the Prophet naked. Kya settled in his clothes and took up his datapad, looking at his list of mercs, ticking off everyone he'd contacted prior as 'traitors to be dealt with later'.

He checked his funds, aware he had less than half a million credits, even with Contruum assisting. Hopeless. The shipyards at Contruum were working overtime, simply requiring the components to complete the Sith Navy. And now he didn't have the Hutts, or a merc fleet to use. Kya settled in his flowform chair, and nodded to himself. The Captain remained silent, a blush still to his cheeks, clearly wondering if he should leave.

With a twirl of his pen, he hired several mercs. Salla Vivek, JaKKS Tranida and Ada Medina. With those he anticipated the ability to overwhelm the defences of Garos IV. He ordered them to meet him in orbit of the Velmor, nam

 

IC: Salla Vivek
Aboard the Red Spirit, Space

The business proposition that had led her to Tund had turned out to be a flop. Hours of waiting around had cost her time she couldn't afford to lose, especially when there were other jobs and opportunities out there. Then again, it had been nothing but her own fault. She had been the one gullible enough to fall for it and whoever this Contruum was, he sure knew how to jerk someone's chain. That's why when he ended up contacting the Spirit a second time, Salla toyed with the idea that maybe he wasn't all there mentally. It would certainly explain a few things.

Unlike the job description of last time, this one was offering a less significant amount of credits. Of course, no one would go around and claim that 15,000 was considered pocket change, but it was less all the same. That element right there was enough for Salla to consider not answering at all, but her curiosity got the better of her. For starters, Velmor, the planet of interest this time around, was far more inviting than Tund had been. At least there was something to actually look at on the surface, even if it was only grassland and forest.

And then there was the little matter of Contruum himself. The mysterious figure had managed to fool her once, that in itself was enough to pique her interest. Not only was she looking at enacting some kind of revenge on the phantom, but she wanted to know more about him - to find out what made him tick. Aregos had been the one to rub off on her in that respect. He had always been hunting for clues and looking for the answer to everything. It was just one of the many qualities Salla admired in her deceased mentor. If anything, she wanted to live up to his legacy and she knew he wouldn't turn down an opportunity such as the one that faced her now. She had to do this, if not for the credits, then for Aregos himself.

Shifting her gaze back to the controls laid out before her, Salla punched in the proper coordinates into the navicomputer and made herself comfortable as the ship shot into hyperspace enroute to Velmor.

TAG: Sinre, Other mercs

 

IC: Captain Sark Tokins
Aboard the Doneeta, Battle of Kessel[/b]

"This better be good. I have more important things to do than stick around in the middle of a warzone."

Captain Tokins scowled at the comm board as if Han Solo was actually here. "Solo! We need your ship as a transport. I have the - a Firespray available to do some pick-ups, but this'll be over a lot quicker if you'd help us pick up the prisoners." Sark purposely chose not to mention the Slave I by name, knowing Solo would hardly assist them with a Mandalorian flying it.

The Gladiator-class Star Destroyer had considerably better shields than a measly pair of frigates, returning a barrage that chipped away at the two ships. Their return barrage was more powerful, no doubt of that, but the Destroyer didn't seem to be bothered. Focused fire seemed to draining the enemies shields, but clearly not fast enough. Sark picked himself back up the floor and snapped. "We'll pay you!"

--
Fighter squadrons

Listening in on the command bandwidth, Lorelei Kya darted her X-wing over an Ugly, planting a quad burst in its rear before pulling away. The sky was thick with Headhunters and TIEs, more pouring from the surface. With a call, she summoned the fighters on the general Alliance frequency. "Squadrons, form up on me. We're drilling to the surface. If we hold together we should be able to punch a hole for Nakir and Solo."

She kicked her fighter forward, pouring fire into a TIE which exploded messily. The plunge was suicidal without support, but she could only hope they'd follow her in. Her front shields exhausted, she pulled back, comming the force. "Someone take the front of the sphere, my shields are down. Now!"

TAG: Zan, Sarge, Gunny, Chanbill, Mister_master, HanSolo29
---
IC: Supreme Prophet Kya
Aboard the Insipid, Velmor system

His Enforcer-class cruiser decanted from hyperspace at the very edge of the Velmor system and still Supreme Prophet Kya hadn't heard anything from 'Darth Sanguinis'. Kya began to assume he was dead. He also came to the conclusion that he had little to no assets beyond his personal bank account and this warship. That was an issue for him. Grand Admiral Declann's clone had gone missing, no surprises there, and the punch on the Core had never materialised. It was all lightly suspicious.

It also gave him a problem in relation to crewers for the new Sith fleet. But he imagined he could find them with some ease. There were many worlds that the Empire had violently recovered from the Alliance during the Shadowspawn Crisis, throughout the Core, Colonies and Inner Rim. It was simply a matter of finding a human one.

With a smile, Prophet Kya took a group of Pentastar Alignment crewers, dressed to appear typical pirates - it helped that most of them had been pirates hired by the Alignment at some point - and took his sole remaining Sentinel-class shuttle to the rendezvous point indicated in job offer. A squadron of TIE fighters surrounded his shuttle, all thirteen ships painted with pirate claws and various other boring motiffs. It painted his crew as a merc deployment.

He also brought the various tools he required for the capture of Garos IV. He'd lost the majority of his men at Yavin, but he had enough resources to capture a simple unaligned Mid Rim world. With a smile, he waited for the imminent arrival of his pirates. One of them, he noted, had been at Tund. That could be a problem. But, Kya had paid the woman, and had just paid her to come to Velmor, so she couldn't complain.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

TAG: Blu, HanSolo29, Li

 

IC: Han Solo
Millennium Falcon, Kessel

An indignant snort was Han's only response to the plea for help and he made sure it was loud enough for the Captain of the other vessel to hear as his hand hovered over the comm to cut the connection. Ferrying prisoners around for the Alliance wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Sure, it was common knowledge that he had a thing against slave labor, but it was something else entirely when he was being forced into the act and essentially playing hero. He was forced to play that card once upon a time to rescue a princess and that didn't exactly come out to his benefit. This would be no different. Besides, the idea of a Firespray accompanying him into the thick of battle didn't exactly send warm feelings to his heart. He only knew of one man who piloted such a piece of scrap metal and the last time they had crossed paths, he was out for Han's head.

"Bunch of kriffin' lunatics," Han sputtered as he muted the comm and glanced at his Wookiee co-pilot. "If they think I'm gonna risk my own skin to save a bunch of prisoners when Fett--Fett!" he paused with exasperation and gestured wildly with one hand to the viewport, his eyes now scanning the ranks of the battlefield for the infamous ship. "...is roaming free to blast me out of the stars, they have another thing coming, pal. No way!"

His protests were met by a ferocious roar from the Wook, which would've made any man shrink back in his seat out of fear of losing a few limbs, but for Han, this was an everyday occurrence and he hardly flinched. Instead, he returned Chewie's hard glare with defiance. He should've known Chewie would be the one to once again develop the soft spot for the Alliance and demand they take part in this suicide mission. He did the same thing back on Yavin IV and if it wasn't for Han's efforts, they would both be dead right now along with the farmboy. It was that very incident that prompted Han to come to an ultimatum. "Forget it!" he shouted to his partner, his hazel eyes ablaze with an inner fury. "I ain't budging unless they're willing to pay a pretty penny for my services. They don't pay up, we're outta here! Plain and simple!"

As if the rebels could hear their argument even with the comm muted, the voice of the Captain returned to the speakers and uttered the words Han didn't think would come. "We'll pay you!" the voice sounded desperate as the speakers cracked with the intensity of the delivery.

The Wookiee appeared to smile a toothy grin and settled back into his over sized seat, now more at ease with the situation and probably confident that Han would now be forced into doing the 'right' thing. And in many ways, he was correct in his assessment. Han blew out a heavy sigh that was accompanied by a steady string of curses. He was left with little choice now and if he tried to weasel his way out of it at this point, Chewie wouldn't be forgiving. "Damn them," he muttered under his breath as he pressed his shoulders against the safety restraints and flipped the switch to the comm with some reluctance.

"Alright, Captain, you caught my attention," he drawled in an even tone. "Since I'm a generous kind of guy, how 'bout we start off at 25,000 and depending on what kind of trouble I run into down there, we'll go from there."

TAG: Sinre, Alliance

 

Sanctum Porphyrogenitae and the Imperial Boudoir, the Residence at the Imperial Palace ? Imperial Center

Princess Arya Padmé Jello

An attendant had awoken her in the midst of a particularly compelling dream involving a chocolate opera house, so the princess was already predisposed to irritation. Her father could not be kept waiting, though, and would have presumably had a reason for waking her. Still, seeing as there were no alarm klaxons, she felt that she would have the time to make herself presentable.

Her attendants brushed away any stray signs of sleep from her face while she slipped her arms through a peignoir held by another handmaiden, and then cinched it herself under the bust of her negligée?both were purple silk, of course. Her coiffure, too, was rearranged in an elegantly simple design. It was all strictly unnecessary but appearances must be maintained?especially in the Imperial Household.

The importance of that dictum was to be proven once again. Arya had adjourned to her boudoir, which functioned primarily as a drawing room for entertaining her closest associates. When the delicately sculpted porphyry doors slid open, the ruler of the known galaxy entered along with a small retinue of advisors?clearly he had intended an impromptu meeting of some importance. She had a fleeting moment of embarrassment, not having expected her father to bring guests, but utility aside, her nightgown only differed from her usual classical robes in style and decoration, rather than cut or substance: modesty had no place in a goddess, and she was still having considerable difficulty getting used to both ideas.

But then her father seemed to have little difficulty with either. He had worn a simple woolen night-tunic?it wasn?t even purple?but nobody would dispute the awesome majesty of his presence. He carried himself as if possessed of some otherworldly magnificence, and she wondered. There was nobody here to fool, nobody to persuade, but he carried that aura nonetheless. He had often told her that it was no accident that the both of them had ascended to such rareified strata?no ordinary mortal could have risen so fast, he?d argue. Some would call it luck, but he argued that luck was simply a manifestation of a divine spark. Others called it the Force, but what had the Force brought to the Jedi? Once numerous, they faced ignominy and extinction. Was that true? The only other being to wield such power was Palpatine, and he had been widely regarded as a demigod. Since birth, her father had told her that there was something special about her, but she had dismissed it as the sort of things all fathers told their offspring?but now she wondered. Her family was, after all, descended from the Founders?could her ancient blood be accompanied by a tinge of holy ichor? For the first time, she actually started to believe the Jellonic mythos.

But then, had she a compelling reason not to? What was the source of her crippling insecurity? Did she really doubt her own talents, or was she merely afraid of disappointing her father? In a flash, she realized that she had compared herself to him her entire life, but because she?d always held him up on a pedestal, she?d always felt as if she?d fallen short. Even during her greatest triumphs--like placing third in the Anaxsi Stakes or performing ballet in the Galaxies Opera House--she?d always felt as if she had to achive more.

Perhaps crippling insecurity was too strong a condemnation. While she maintained a happy-go-lucky attitude around others, she was simply studious and determined around her father and always eager to live up to his expectations. After all, she?d always been poised outside his presence, possessed of an almost preternatural confidence that had seemed to be instilled at birth, so her insecurities seemed rooted in to her filial role.

Now that he had thrust his whole dynastic hopes, and indeed, even conflated her with the personification of the Empire itself. She understood his reasons for it, especially in that a program of cu

 

Joint post by myself and Jello!

IC: The Dark Lady and the Princess
Imperial Palace, Imperial Center

Lumiya came to the conclusion that the Emperor was a strategist without compare, and that getting away from him would be the safest objective for the last of the Sith. Mainly because his Imperial Majesty had just given her permission to do the unconscionable. She looked down at the datapad once more in her free hand, and nodded to herself slowly. She was to take the Princess to 'Darth Sanguinis' and use her, as opposed to a fake Sith Holocron. Lumiya looked down at the fake she'd been creating, filling it with all manner of information - totally unverifiable - from the time before the Dark Jedi arrived on Korriban. Lumiya had left her own Sith Holocron in a concealed place, far away from here. Not that her Holocron was particularly full. Philosophically, she was no Sith - she was an Imperial, through and through. But that simply could not be helped. Not yet, anyway. Lumiya had to deal with these pretenders, and then she could act. There was a vertiable nest of remnant Dark Jedi out there, and opposing Sith factions. Destroying them would take time, especially as they were far beyond her in numbers.

Lumiya checked the charges of her various weapons, one more time, and prepared herself, looking down. It had been quite a chore to 'sneak' past the holocams, using her old assassins training as a Hand to climb walls and move carefully over and under their view. Making her presence practically invisible within the Force, Lumiya had wedged herself in a niche in the ceiling, legs and a single arm holding her weight particularly well. With a smirk, she looked down at the Princess as she strode into the room beneath her.

With a grin, Lumiya boosted her presence within the Force to encompass the entire room, scattering the sound she created within the Force as she dropped, thumbing her multi-strand lightwhip and slashing it down at the Princess' head. Lumiya absently hoped the young girl would prove a decent enough Imperial Knight to not be killed immediately. That would complicate the 'kidnapping' attempt if so. But if she died, then she was not worthy.

The Emperor would understand. In her opinion, he was already half-Sith.

Still fuming from the discussion with her father, Arya had decided to take a walk through the corridors of her wing of the Residence in order to cool off before she retired for the night. There was no point in ruining her sleep when she could try to relax herself first.

While she was walking through a gallery of Andorran sculpture, her distraction very nearly cost her everything. She had been striding down the hallway when a sudden presence scattered itself through the room, and she cast glances all around to see what could be the matter when a humming wine not too dissimilar from that of a lightsaber sounded from above her.

She kicked her feet horizontally and jumped to avoid being hit by what turned out to be a lightwhip, but got tripped up by her peignoir and ended up skidding across the floor until she hit the wall of the corridor. She gave an elaborate literary swear first attested in ancient pre-Jedi poetry, and then focused on her assailant.

Whoever it was would expect her to have been temporarily incapacited, but they wouldn't have expected her battle conditioning--she wasn't given the epithet "goddess of war" in loco nihili. She used her powers of concentration to summon up an immense wave through the Force in an attempt to similarly batter the assassin into the wall.

They should have wished they were facing the Emperor, instead.

Lumiya was the Dark Lady of the Sith, and she was a mere girl. That perception was deepened by the clumsy manoeuvre away from her weapon, the lightwhip carving a gouge into the floor. Lumiya had fought with those of the Skywalker family ? her weapon was specifically designed to befuddle single-blade users. Lumiya was heady in her confidence, despite herself, and her disapproval at the young w

 

IC: Supreme Prophet Kya
Aboard the Insipid, Velmor system

His Enforcer-class cruiser decanted from hyperspace at the very edge of the Velmor system and still Supreme Prophet Kya hadn't heard anything from 'Darth Sanguinis'. Kya began to assume he was dead. He also came to the conclusion that he had little to no assets beyond his personal bank account and this warship. That was an issue for him. Grand Admiral Declann's clone had gone missing, no surprises there, and the punch on the Core had never materialised. It was all lightly suspicious.

It also gave him a problem in relation to crewers for the new Sith fleet. But he imagined he could find them with some ease. There were many worlds that the Empire had violently recovered from the Alliance during the Shadowspawn Crisis, throughout the Core, Colonies and Inner Rim. It was simply a matter of finding a human one.

With a smile, Prophet Kya took a group of Pentastar Alignment crewers, dressed to appear typical pirates - it helped that most of them had been pirates hired by the Alignment at some point - and took his sole remaining Sentinel-class shuttle to the rendezvous point indicated in job offer. A squadron of TIE fighters surrounded his shuttle, all thirteen ships painted with pirate claws and various other boring motiffs. It painted his crew as a merc deployment.

He also brought the various tools he required for the capture of Garos IV. He'd lost the majority of his men at Yavin, but he had enough resources to capture a simple unaligned Mid Rim world. With a smile, he waited for the imminent arrival of his pirates. One of them, he noted, had been at Tund. That could be a problem. But, Kya had paid the woman, and had just paid her to come to Velmor, so she couldn't complain.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

And then, suddenly, Darth Sanguinis acknowledged. Kya sprang up from his couch, and accepted the transmission. "Lord Sanguinis! About kriffin' time!" Kya spat at the hologram, allowing his indignation at Yavin to return. "I was attacked by a rogue Jedi and abandoned on Yavin 4 for hours! I've lost almost all my Stormtroopers, and we've lost the Deep Core while you've done nothing!"

"What the Sith are you doing on Korriban?"

TAG: Blu, HanSolo29, Li
---
IC: Captain Sark Tokins
Battle of Kessel

"Alright, Captain, you caught my attention," Han Solo drawled. "Since I'm a generous kind of guy, how 'bout we start off at 25,000 and depending on what kind of trouble I run into down there, we'll go from there."

Another barrage hit the Doneeta, shaking the ship and causing the lights to cut out, emergency lighting appearing a moment after. Sark, eyes ablaze as he tried to track the battle, snapped at the comm. channel. "Whatever. Take the Falcon down to Kessel. You're working with Nakir Tal'Orar, who I gave the Slave I. He's not Fett. He's gone, Solo. Your orders are to break through the net and start picking up prisoners." Sark scowled at his comm. officer, who sent off the list of the eighty or so Alliance surivors of Endor were expected to be in the southern complex.

The planet was defended by anti-starfighter missile launchers and blaster cannons, E-web guns around the prison mounted on towers to prevent anyone from escaping the mines. Roughly a dozen slavers, armed to the teeth, were already protecting the mine entrance, preventing anyone from getting in. In short - the two transports would need to hit hard, and hit fast, before the enemy coordinated.

--
Orbit

Lorelei Kya spun her X-wing, shredding the last TIE with a perfect quad burst, and started comming out orders. "Second wave incoming, Snapper Squadron." The TIEs had been smoked without any casualties, and Bilt and Thryta had accounted for several TIEs themselves - and Slave I and the Falcon were free to head towards the surface. The second wave was

 

IC: Salla Vivek
Aboard the Red Spirit, Velmor System

The starlines outside the viewport shrunk into individual pinpoints of light as Salla released the control lever after the Red Spirit successfully decanted from hyperspace. She blinked a few times to clear the sleepiness from her eyes and forced her vision to focus on the heads up display on the console. The area of space that stretched out before her was relatively quiet save for a tight-knit group of vessels approaching in the distance.

"Contruum," she whispered to herself with a slight tug of her lip as she adjusted her gaze so that she could take in the scene with her own eyes. So, he was real. She half expected a trap but here she was, sitting in the middle of nowhere and still in one piece. Maybe there was some credence to the mysterious man's words after all.

One way to find out.

"This is the Red Spirit," she said into the comm, noting that the approaching group of ships consisted of a shuttle and various fighters bearing a distinct claw painted on their hulls. "I've come to cash in on the prize."

TAG: Sinre, mercs

---

[b]IC: Han Solo[/b]
[i]Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Kessel[/i]

The comm board chimed and soon a rather lengthy list of names began to scroll across the computer screen, no doubt the identity of all the prisoners the Rebels expected him to extract from the mines below. Solo shook his head with a scoff after scanning it briefly and then slammed his fist down on the console to switch off the screen.

This was all a joke. A big joke. They couldn't possibly expect him to fly in there, take down their whole defense grid and save the lives of every prisoner down there while staying in one piece. It just didn't sound plausible. Maybe their true goal was to get rid of him for good, but then he would need to go the extra mile to prove them wrong. It would be more work for him, but at least he would have the bragging rights. Either way, he was getting his money.

[i]"Ok Solo,"[/i] the comm crackled with the voice of his Mando counterpart in this run. [i]"Lets work together and get this done. I know you don't like Mando's, but money is money."[/i]

"You make it sound so simple, you know that?" he growled into the mic, making sure his distaste for the man could be heard through the intonation of his voice. "But I think you better pay attention to the big picture, pal. You got some old friends on your tail that wanna get up close and personal."

He was referring to the flight of TIE fighters approaching the [i]Slave I[/i]'s position with a screaming fury. As soon as the words left Solo's mouth, the Firespray class ship was engulfed in green laser fire as the Imps got their way with the Mando. But he should have known better than to think that would be the last he'd see of his helmeted friend. Mandos were better than that and this Nakir character managed to handle the attack with ease.

Bursting through the field of laser fire, the [i]Slave I[/i] adjusted her position to head towards the surface as the [i]Falcon[/i]'s comm came back to life.

[i]"Solo, I'll take the Missile Launchers. I'll let you break through and land. You find and take out the ground support."[/i]

"Who put you in charge?!" he shot back to the Mando, clenching his teeth as he put the [i]Falcon[/i] into a steep decent towards the rocky surface of Kessel. Explosions and laser blasts immediately began to blossom all around them, a few bouncing off their shields and buffeting the freighter as they drew closer and closer to the heart of the beast. "Extracting all those prisoners ain't exactly a one person job, you know!"

But somehow, he knew the Mando was right. They needed to focus on different elements to ensure success. Although, it didn't sit right with Han that he had gotten stuck with the tough task. Landing on the surface and breaking into that facility wasn't exactly going to be a piece of cake.

"Alright, Chewie," he said to his co-pilot, flipping a switch on the console to bring the quad lasers online. "Let's get th

 

IC: Supreme Prophet Kya
Edge of Velmor System

Ah, so here she was. Salla Vivek. His shuttle was positioned, and a couple of other mercs in hyperdrive capable Y-wings had arrived in-system recently. Nothing as A-list as Salla. With a nod of amusement, Garen Kya opened the comlink, nodding to his un-uniformed Stormtrooper crew. They appeared to be a simple merc crew, and Garen had sold it, with varying amounts of cosmetic damage to the ship. Garen spoke. "Ms. Vivek, a pleasure! The credits Contruum promised are being transferred to your account as we speak. I'm her liason for today."

Of course, Garen was 'Contruum', but Salla wouldn't know that. Couldn't, after all. She'd probably work it out later. Afterwards. Garen gestured noncommittally, and the Stormtrooper dutifully understood and moved his shuttle to dock. "I have a package to deliver to you, and your mission from Contruum. Same rates as before, if that is a consolation. Your skills precede you."

Garen continued to speak over the encrypted channel. "Contruum would like you to smuggle this baradium bomb to a particular location on Garos IV. The central government/military complex on Garos IV. It is heavily shielded, and as such it would be impossible for us to destroy it in a bombing run. Our Y-wing allies shall be attacking the system and harassing the Garos defences, and then Contruum will be arriving himself to secure his prize. Your acts are a distraction, you see, for what Contruum is stealing."

His shuttle was poised to lock onto the Red Spirit. "Shall we proceed?" Garen half-expected that she was checking her accounts. The money was genuine, but he'd gone through this half-a-dozen times before. Not that mercs had proven useful as of late, but Garen had been cut-off thanks to the skirmish on Yavin 4.

--
Seven lights years away, deep space

Garen's personal ship, the Insipid, an Enforcer-class pocket cruiser, hung in the void. It's stealth armour made it particularly difficult to detect, especially as its running lights were dimmed and its engines were shut down. Then it's comm. channels flared up, giving away its location to anyone who was watching. But nobody would be.

The new Captain of the Insipid was one Jacob Kline, a man normally in employ of the Pentastar Alignment, now attached to the shrinking Sith Navy, and to the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side. He had been given explicit orders by the Prophet, who himself was hooking up with a mercenary band - a second force, to strike concurrent with the Sith. Captain Kline had opened the channel, and proceeded to hail the Captain of the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Deathbringer, under command of the Shadow Guard Kev-Mas Colcha, a member of the Sith Navy. Recently tasked by Darth Sanguinis to launch an kidnap attempt on the Princess, an attempt which hadn't been pulled off because of a complete lack of coordination, the Shadow Guard was still an extremely competent Sith.

"My Lord, I have orders from the Supreme Prophet, if you are willing."

TAG: HanSolo29, Kev-Mas-Colcha
---
IC: Captain Sark Tokins
Battle of Kessel

The Doneeta shook, hard, even as the Savior rolled away, refocusing its shields in one direction. That was a dangerous move, and the enemy would detect it. The fighters were, thankfully, busy, and the Gladiator couldn't take advantage of the situation. Captain Tokins scowled, and snapped. "Refocus our shields along one flank - and fire."

The crew murmured in dissent, but a moment later the shields of the Gladiator parted in several places, and a cheer rang out. The new configuration protected the Doneeta and the Savior from the return barrage, and the return fire peeled away several hull plates. Sark grinned, and then a call rang up from his sensors officer.

"Enemy vessel has shifted his shields to the fore, sir!" The Gladiator rolled, aiming to p