Union of the Empires greatest Warriors (Thrawn, Vader)

A Hutt? Mercenary? A HUTT?! o....k.... Well now i'm really curious what the next update is going to reveal.

 

Sorry, Ive been away making my new board so I didnt get enough time to come on. A Hutt mercenary?? What happens if he's fighting a bunch of fast people. He's not gonna be that successful is he?

 

Heheheh, i got you with that.

I suggest you two put some research into A.C.Crispins Han Solo-Trilogy or the "history" of Koozak the Hutt. You will see the giant slugs in a whole new light.

As already mentioned elsewhere, there seems to be a (technical) problem with my beta-reader and me (in any case blame AOL).

 

Next part is already finished, the only problem is the communication with my beta-reader.

J-K-Dart, where are you? Please contact me.

 

Finally the waiting is over. Here is the next part.



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors


A fearful quack escaped Bluubo?s broad mouth when he remembered, what he knew about Croma.

At the tender age of ninety he had left his elders to travel among the stars, visiting the places of former glory for the hutts: The Si´klaata-Starcluster and especially the world of Vontor, where Kossak the Hutt had defeated Xim the Despot, tyrannical ruler over several thousand star-systems, more than twenty-five-thousand years ago. Croma?s career had begun when he joined a small group of mercenaries. After a few less successful engagements he had challenged the leader of the mercenaries and taken over after he had killed the man. From then on things started to develop nicely, Croma?s group defeated enemy after enemy, got more and more lucrative contracts and grew vastly in numbers until an army had formed itself that could threaten entire star-systems. That forced the government of the Old Republic to finally react and a fleet formed from security-forces from Kuat, Corellia and Alderaan and supported by threehundred Jedi-Knights took off to bring an end to Croma?s activities. It spoke volumes in Croma?s favour, that he not only survived the Old Republic?s hunt for him, but also that more than two-hundred of the Jedi were killed before Croma?s army was finally defeated. He and a small group of warriors, who formed the core for his following activities. Learning from his defeat the Hutt-mercenary changed his tactics.

Instead of leading a huge army he created a net of numerous smaller groups and cells and offered their services together with plans and strategies to whomever was able to pay his prices. Depending on the requests of the assignment he assembled his forces and spread them out again, as soon as the job was completed. He had also become an agent for other groups who wanted to stay independent from him, groups like the Mandalorian Warrior-Army or others, or so the rumours told. Croma had become richer and richer, especially during the last decades of the Old Republic, when this system of government, that had ruled the galaxy for over twenty-five millennia, started to decay and to crumble under its own weight.

The number of conflicts and potential clients had increased dramatically during those times and so it had come as quite as a surprise, when Croma had suddenly retired from the active business and even from the more well-known parts of his work as an agent. It couldn?t have been the rise of the empire, since Palpatine?s rise to power started nearly thirty years later and nobody ever found out what had caused Croma to vanish from the galactic stage.

And it was Bluubo?s mission to change that.

"Who knows." thought the Hutt from the Giiverik-Clan. "Maybe Croma has lost his edge and skills over the years and then this entire enterprise is doomed to fail from the beginning."

He wasn?t sure what he should hope more: that Croma was no longer a threat to the members and ways of his own kind or that he was still the ruthless and efficient military leader from the past and because of that capable of defending the Hutts from the Therilias-Autarcy on the war-path.

Lost in his thoughts Bluubo hadn?t noticed that his small convoy had come to a stop.

"Excellence." the voice of his secretary cut through Bluubo?s musings like a knife.

"HEW? What is it, Dodra?" the huge head of the Hutt turned to the secretary from Rhodia.

"We have arrived at the manor of Croma Etruski-Koi, your Excellence," answered the Rhodian.

Bluubo looked up. In front of him was a massive, dark gate forming the only opening in a wall at least six meters high and crowned with another four meters of fence that was without a doubt electrically charged.

A small commando of Klaatonians, Gamorreans and Weequays, clad in martial looking uniforms, were guarding the entrance. One of the Klaatonians stepped forward.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked without showing the respect those beings usually displayed when close to me

 

So the Hutts are defending themselves from the Autarcy? Hmmm, and this Croma, he wouldnt happen to think the best way of defending his species is to ally himself to the Autarcy??

 

As always you leave open many options and i'll enjoy finding out which course you'll take us. Excellent update my friend and thx for the lesson.

 

Yeah we needed that clearing up.

 

Uppity.

 

Sorry for the delay, but the next part is nearly finished.

 

At last. An new update and the communication with J_K_Dart seems to work again. And lets welcome a new reader. I hope you´ll enjoy your stay.

Here is the next part:



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors


Or so he thought. To his great surprise Bluubo saw a second wall with a second gate fifty meters behind the one that had just opened for him. A broad walkway connected the two gates like a straight line, while the ground to the left and right was barren, dead. Bluubo was no military expert, but even his imagination produced dark images of hidden mines, sensors and hatches for battle-droids or automated guns. A death-zone for everybody who left the main path or tried to enter the mansion away from the entrance. Again Bluubo shifted uncomfortable in his sedan-chair. It seemed that Croma took the issue of his security very seriously indeed. The small convey reached the second gate and fortunately they were allowed to pass rather quickly, without the humiliating scenes that had taken place at the main entrance.

A gasp escaped Bluubo's broad mouth after passing the second gate. This time the sides of the main street were covered with plants, trees, sections right out of a swamp, all of them separated by narrow walkways. It looked like dozen or more eco-systems had been brought together. And at the end of the street the buildings of Croma's palace were visible. Cones, cubes and domes of different sizes were assembled, forming a kind of exotic, though asymmetrical, structure. A bridge was leading over a broad trench filled with clear water and Bluubo's eyes widened when he saw the figure of another Hutt watching and feeding the colourful fishes.

Was this Croma?

The small caravan moved over the bridge and the leader of the Giiverik-Clan realised with surprise that the other Hutt was barely two and a half meter long. Not enough for a Hutt in his fifth century, but perhaps for one in his first. Amazed, Bluubo watched how the youngling took a bundle of small fishes out of a bucket and threw them into the trench. A swirl of the water and a mix of golden, red, blue and white colours were the only indicators how hungry the inhabitants of the trench were.

"Excuse me?" asked Bluubo, trying to be modest and polite after the embarrassing welcome at the gate to the mansion. "I'm here to talk with Croma Etruski-Koi."

The young Hutt looked up. "And you are?" he asked, feeding another bundle of fishes to the predators.

"Bluubo Giiverik-Sui. I'm here as an emissary of all major clans."

The young Hutt watched Bluubo with sudden interest. "So the clans want to employ my fathers services?"

"Croma is your father?" asked a stunned Bluubo. Suddenly some things started to make sense. The age of this young Huttling fitted with the time since Cromas "retirement" from active business.

"Of course I am," rumbled a voice. A voice that was deep even for a Hutt. But it also had a smooth, velvet-like quality to it. A quality that reminded Bluubo of some predators shortly after feeding, at the time when their hunger rose to the fore once again and they became prepared to hunt once again. Bluubo, who had already left his sedan-chair, turned around.

Emerging from one of the palace-entrances was the being known as Croma the Hutt.

----

Bluubo swallowed hard when meter after meter and no ending of Hutt-body seemed to glide out of the huge building. The Hutt-warrior was at least twice the size of any other Hutt that Bluubo had ever seen. And although Croma's huge body looked very massive, he wasn't bloated like so many other Hutts. The emissary shuddered under the piercing look of Croma's left blue eye. The right eye was artificial and without a doubt connected to the shoulder-mounted gun Croma was wearing. After a second's closer look, Bluubo also discovered the unusual gleam on the skin of the other one. It seemed as if countless tiny crystals were covering the skin of the mercenary.

"Charad-Crystals," stated Croma, who had noticed the questioning look of his visitor. "Very useful to deflect heavy blaster-b

 

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Tse-tung (1893 - 1976)

Keep those updates coming!

 

Great update Fteik! Looking forward to more.

 

Hmm... this Croma is a nasty guy.

Up.

 

Expect an update tomorrow or on Saturday.

 

like i said... i'll be there to read it

 

Well, as promised the next part.



Union of the Empires greatest Warriors


From Cracken's threat dossier:

"Critics of downsizing point out that while there is less of a demand on the modern Defense Force; the ships that remain are almost continually involved supressing piracy and smuggling,patrolling and serving their portside rotations. While the total number of ships is in the thousands, the actual for available for quick response ranges from several dozen to several hundred. The debate over operational readiness of New Republic Defenses continues."

----

Lieutenant Podric watched the surface of the small moon move under his fighter. He could see the shadows casted by the other A-Wings and B-Wings of the small group of ships.

Patrol-lines were used by the New Republic to show presence and patrol space in regions that were considered "safe", what meant no picket-cruisers or stardestroyers were expected as opposing forces, might they be used by pirates, rogues imperials even despite the peace-treaty or other forces. They usually consisted of four to six wings of starfighters, two or three vessels serving as carriers and for maintanance and a supply-vessel. The existance of such lines wasn´t very well known as to not provoke ambushs and attacks and if units of a patrol-line meet with other ships, they usually pretended to be part of a bigger task-force.

The patrol-line Lieutenant Podric was part of consisted of two old Quasar Fire-Class-Bulk-Carriers, triangular shaped ships with a lenght of three-hundred-fourty meters, each capable to carry four squadrons of fighters and one three-hundred-seventy-five meter long Hajen-Class-Fleettender, an unarmed version of the Sacheen-Class-Frigate, that can carry three-hundred-thousand tons of cargo. The sole purpose of those three ships was to carry twelve squadrons of fighters around and support them with everything they needed. Six squadrons of X-Wings, four squadrons of A-Wings and two squadrons of B-Wings. Not the most modern versions of those fighters, but things could have been worse.

Some of their fighters could have been really old machines like Y-Wings or headhunters.

Service in a patrol-line, especially as pilot wasn´t an easy job. The Quasar-Fire-Class-Carriers were able to hold four squadrons in their hangars each, so there were fourty-eight fighters TO MUCH in the small group, what meant shifts of twelve hours in a small cockpit for the men, while their comrades were allowed to rest aboard the bigger ships. Every three hours twenty-four pilots out of ninty-six returned aboard the ships and were replaced with twenty-four fresh pilots.

They had been removed from their normal patrol-duty. New Republic FleetCommand was reorganizing sector-groups and territorial fleets to spare ships for a war, that hopefully never started. But for now they were on their way to the border-regions to reinforce the assembling fleets of the New Republic. They had just stopped in this remote system to make new calculations with their nav-computers and to allow exhausted pilots to leave their fighters.

To reduce the danger of getting discovered, the Line-Captain had decided to search for cover in the mass-shadow of the moon they were now orbiting.

----

Treker Hon had graduated at the top of his class and quickly risen through the ranks serving in the Autarcies "back-yard". Thanks to that and a somehow aggressive attitude he had reached the rank of Commander at the tender age of twenty-eight and been given command of one of the most modern picket-cruisers of the carrier-version, a ship of the so-called "Lupa"-Class, sixhundred-fifty meters long and with the proud name "Archduke". Contrary to the ships of this type that had participated at the battle of Attil the "Archduke" carried no Droid-Defenders, so its fighter-contingent consisted only of four squadrons of ordinary TIE-Defenders and not two squadrons of TIEs and four squadrons of Droid-Defenders. However four squadrons of the Therilias-Autarcie were still sixty fighters and therefor a force to be r

 

"Sign´s, symbols, all the whole propaganda ..., sometimes i think we are even worse than the Empire."

And they ARE, too! Terrorist scums!

By the way, cool story

 

I'll bet this will have quite the impact.

One does not stray in the minefield that is cold war... not even unintentional. (as you proved now imho)

 

Thank you for the comments. And welcome aboard Ice-Walker. I hope my other stories are to your liking too.

 

Thank you

 

I´ve updated the "Colliding of Empires"-Story. Besides that, i´ll consider a repost of this and my other stories as soon as i get the corrected versions of them (i worked for nearly over a year at them without a beta-reader) and although i got confirmation, that the number of mistakes dropped from three per sentence to three per page i don´t want to let them stay this way where everybody can see them.

 

Have really three weeks passed since i last updated this story with a chapter?

Shame on me.

On the other side i´ve been busy with other things (like updating my two other stories), so you can´t say i´ve been lazy.

Well, here it is. Enjoy.


Union of the Empires greatest Warriors



It was already late at night on the hemisphere of Coruscant where the former imperial palace was located. As a small, if not big city of its own there were still people at work despite the late hour.

One of them was an aged Mon Calamari.

Admiral Ackbar was sitting in his office and rubbed his big hands together. Although the dampness of the air in his room was at sixty percent and the temperature at fourty degree he felt cold. Shifting nervously in his seat he admitted to himself, that the years had finally cought up with him. Perhaps he should have retired two years ago, when the peace-treaty with the empire had been signed. But somehow he hadn´t been able to let go.

Mon Calamari had a reputation to be deep thinkers, partly due to their appearence to others: tall, heavy beings, who moved slowly on the dry ground and who talked with calm, respect-inspiring voices. Those people often forgot, that the Mon Calamari were an aquatic species, much more at home in the seas and deep waters, so the conditions of being on dry land influenced their movements and behaviour. On the other side this reputation was honestly earned with all the philosophers and artists Mon Calamari had spawned. The children of this outer rim world hadn´t been called the soul of the rebellion for nothing.

For a moment Ackbar allowed himself a minute of self-reflection. For more than a quater-century now he had been the highest ranking officer first of the rebel-fleet, then of the New Republics military. During that time the galaxy had seen other military leaders, smarter and more clever ones than him, more powerful and with more resources, too, men like Darth Vader, Grandadmiral Thrawn, the warlord Zsinj, not to forget the reborn emperor and many others. But contrary to them the Mon Calamari was still alive. Perhaps because he had never tried to fight the entire galaxy and never tried to force it to do his bidding. But there was a price to pay, since being alive also meant, that his fight wasn´t over, while time and age demanded their tribute from body and mind.

But while he had felt tired and exhausted more often lately, this evening and the nights before something had been different. After some thinking he realized, that the reason for this was that time- and nerve-consuming struggles, debates and arguments with the senate and advisory councils had dropped on the priority-level thanks to the new crisis. The New Republic was the good guy and the Therilias-Autarcie the enemy. After a long time the world was again coloured in black and white and not different shades of grey drawn by an ineffecient political system and a huge, slow moving bureaucracy. There were only two problems: First the enemy was from outside the republic and that meant, that the conflict was real, that the battles wouldn´t be debates over increases in budgets or changes of the military doctrine, but battles between ships and armies, where soldiers would pay with blood for the mistakes of their superiors. Second, as a democracy and to prevent the rise of a new Palpatine the New Republic had chosen power-division and compromises over clear responsibilities, flexibility, the possibility of quick decisions and strong leadership. What meant, that the advantage and the initiative were on the side of Raal Lordaq, the enemy, and that was never good in a war.

Ackbar was well aware of those weaknesses of his government, but he was also confident, that he could deal with them in a way, that they didn´t turned to much into disadvantages. However, there were other things, that concerned the Admiral and with a sigh he shifted his attention to those matters.

A small sound from the door of his office caused him to look up. When he saw, who his late visitor was he rose from his seat. "Go

 

I still don't see where this is going to end.. I love it! Nothing spoils a story as quick as an obvious ending. Great update and keep on writing!

 

BUMP