Another Coruscant. Those were the words that came to Aeon’s mind as he looked around Nar Shaada. The place was a small moon of the planet Nal Hutta, the planet the Hutt species had taken over after their original homeworld of Varl had been destroyed in a large war. Now the place was called ‘The Smuggler’s Moon’, and was a home to a very wide variety of aliens, mostly lowlifes though. Aeon was uncomfortable on the moon and wanted to finish the assignment. He stalked down several backstreets, glaring at anyone or anyone who came too close. He was of the Shi’ido species, and his natural form was a tall gray humanoid species. They were a mysterious species, that were often mistrusted by others because of their secretive ways. Now it helped him to frighten off anything that may be following him.

He stopped at a corner and took a moment to look around, he did not sense anything near him, he had not been followed so far. Continuing on, he stopped at a small cantina, his contact point.

“What can I get you?” The human bartender asked the tall gray-skinned being that entered the small, smoky cantina.

Aeon stepped up to the bar, and took a seat, “What kind of whiskey do you serve here?” He said, giving the code.

The bartender’s eyes widened for a moment before he regained his composure. “Best I got is Corellian” He said, giving the recognition reply.

“No thanks. How about a Lommin ale?” Aeon said, citing the secret answer.

“Uh…I’ll have to check the storage room” The bartender said.

“I’ll come with you” Aeon said, already out of his seat. The human nodded and they both went back to a small storeroom, where most of the older wines were kept.

“Do you have it?” Aeon asked in his deep voice.

“Yeah…give me a minute…”

The bartender shuffled around, looking behind various wineracks, touching the wall in certain places. Aeon stood by the only entrance and kept a lookout. The bar was getting crowded, and even more smoky, apparently t’bac pipes were quite popular in the Corellian Sector of Nar Shaada. However, there was nobody demanding sevice, at the moment. Aeon turned back to the human bartender, after a minute it was becoming apparent that the bartender was lost.

“Well?” He asked.

“Hmm…I know it is here somewhere…” The bartender said, coming upon the last winerack and touching the wall six inches above the ground and six inches out from the adjoining wall. A small panel near the floor slid open, revealing a hidden compartment. The bartender reached in and pulled out a small black durasteel box.

“Here. Just get it out of here…I don’t feel good with it in my bar” The human told him, closing the hidden area and ushering the large Shi’ido out of the storeroom.

“Oh…I almost forgot, you are going to need this” The bartender said, handing Aeon a datapad.

“Instructions on how to get that box open, you will get one shot at opening it, and trust me…the Shi’ido will not give your mysterious President another chance” The barkeep told him, already turning back to the bar. Aeon pulled up his hood on his robe and stalked out of the bar, heading for the spaceport.





“Oracle, you are clear to depart from docking bay one three eight seven nine.” The bored-sounding Nar Shaada traffic controller said over the comm.. Aeon pulled back on the throttle a bit and the YT-2400 freighter lifted of the pad of the docking bay smoothly. He pulled back on the control stick and gunned the engines heading into the atmosphere.

His destination was CN-1344. The package the contact had given him was of vital interest to the Outer-Rim Sovereignty. He needed to get the information to President Griff, and soon, or his people, the Shi’ido, may suffer. Suddenly, an indicator light began flashing on his console and he looked down at it. Sensors indicated that their was one ship on a direct intercept course, and would reach weapons range in a few minutes.

The Oracle sped out into open space. Aeon quickly did a scan of the system and identified the ship, a Marauder-class Corvette. A crackle of static announced a transmission from the ship.

“Freighter Oracle, this is Captain Nate of the Nal Hutta Customs Fleet. We have reason to believe you are carrying a cargo of contraband material. Power down you engines and prepare to be boarded”

Aeon didn’t bother to answer. He angled his ship away from the larger Marauder and ran the coordinates through the navicomputer. It would not take long to get to his rendezvous point, where the Sovereignty had positioned a vessel to pick him up.

A beep signaled the coordinates had been processed and were loaded into the navicomputer. He could jump to lightspeed immediately. Suddenly the Marauder Corvette launched a missile, only the sensors confirmed it did not have explosive material within it. Aeon could not alter his trajectory now that he was ready to jump to hyperspace. The missile struck the hull with a loud clang.

“Freighter Oracle we have placed a homing beacon on the hull of your ship. We can track you. Do not attempt to jump into hyperspace” Captain Nate’s voice came through the speakers. Aeon responded by pulling back the hyperspace levers. Space faded into starlines.





Aeon watched as the counter ticked down to zero, and then puched the hyperspace levers forward, and the swirls of hyperspace reverted back to normal empty space. Actually, empty was an understatement for this portion of space. Devoid of planetary bodies, stars, asteroids, or any matter what so ever.

“Come on…” Aeon said to himself, eyes scanning the vastness of space.

The indicator beacon once again began to blink and a persistant bleeping noise reverberated throughout the cockpit of the Oracle. Aeon glanced at the sensors, which confirmed what he already knew, the Nal Hutta Customs Marauder corvette suddenly sliced through space, coming out of hyperspace smoothly.

This time, Nate did not bother with threats or diplomacy, his only concern now was blasting Aeon’s ship out of space. Already green-gold laser blasts sliced through space, towards Aeon’s freighter. He punched the engines to full and deftly evaded the turbolasers. The Marauder followed close behind.

Several blasts struck the rear of the ships, knocking out the aft shields. Aeon continued to scan space for any sign of the Sovereignty vessel promised by Admiral Griff. He tried to evade the turbolasers, but his shields were weakening. He could not survive much longer.

Suddenly, space directly in front of the Oracle shimmered and became distorted. A large ship, almost twice the Marauder’s size, shimmered into view. It was a sleek vessel, with a boxy center, two sweeping wings on either side and an elongated ‘neck’ with a pod at the end. It was bristling with weapons.

A Type-1 Bird of Prey, backbone of the Sovereignty.

Oracle, this is Silencer Four. Nice flying, we’ll take over from here” A voice suddenly said from his comm. unit. Aeon sighed with relief as blue-white beams from the pulse turbolaser cannons began to lance across space and strike the Marauder Corvette, who suddenly halted its advance at the sight of the Bird of Prey.

Silencer Four continued to pound the smaller vessel as Aeon docked the Oracle in the Bird’s small docking bay, setting the ship down softly. When the ship was secure he walked down the ramp, with the black box in hand.

The Shi’ido guards snapped to attention as President Xander Griff walked through the doorway into the briefing room to meet with his Joint Chiefs Of Staff, and Cabinet. Sitting in the chair nearest to the door was Commodore Ilem, Commandant of CN-1653 and Chief of Operations of The Outer-Rim Sovereignty’s cloning project, Ilem stood at attention as Griff walked in. Next to Ilem was Griff’s Chief of Military Operations, Admiral Keyan, who also stood as Griff walked into to the room. Captain Xexes, Chief of Production, responsible for the shipbuilding and construction of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty. Then you had the various Commandants of the Sovereignty worlds, Kaell 116 for Khomm, Ylayic for Esseles, and then last but not least, Jolanic Olajes of Arkania. As Griff took his seat at the head of the table and motioned for everyone to sit, he noticed one particular absence.

“Where is Director Meer?” He asked.

Keyan spoke first, “Sir I believe he had some things to do within the Black Hand. I am not sure if he will make it or not”

“Ah. I see, we are on a time constraint so let us begin” Griff said. He looked towards the back of the room and nodded to a tall Shi’ido. Aeon glided forward and placed a blac k box down on the table.

“This was given to a Black Hand informant on Nar Shaada” Griff explained to everyone. “It was given by a Shi’ido government official, it contains the location of their homeworld. Aeon?” Griff said, and motioned for the shapeshifter to open the box. He did so by leaning over the table and began to grope the box with his long fingers, touching it in a seemingly random pattern. Griff and the Cabinet waited patiently for several minutes until finally the box hissed and cracked open, revealing a holo projector and a strange-looking datapad. Aeon picked up the datapad first.

“It is in Shi’ido but it does indeed contain coordinates” Aeon said to Griff.

“Good. Play the message” Griff ordered.

He did so and instantly, the tall form of a gray-skinned Shi’ido sprang to life on the middle of the holographic pad.

“Greetings, President Griff of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty I am President Tal Briar of the Sh’shuun Planetary Government. After long deliberation with the Council of Elders and my own Executive Cabinet, we have decided to extend to the Outer-Rim Sovereignty an invitation to visit our world, and discuss with myself and the Council of Elders a possible trade deal, and possibly an alliance. Circumstances here have suddenly become very grim. Unfortunately I cannot ask for more than an emissary, but things are not what they seem anymore. Our secrecy has been compromised and we are in dire need of assistance. We believe that an alliance with the Sovereignty is what we need most. I have enclosed the coordinates to a rendezvous point where one of our ships will guide you to Sh’shuun. You, or your representatives will be required to leave your vessel at the rendezvous point. Unfortunately we cannot disclose the location of our planet for…certain security reasons. But we would be happy to receive you, and formulate a respective agreement with our two governments.”

The hologram winked out and Griff turned to look at his Cabinet and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Well gentlemen?” He asked as Aeon replaced the datapad on the table and retreated back to his previous position.

“They are in trouble” Ilem remarked.

“Yes, but what could it be?”

“It could be anything”

“It seems like a good deal, however” Keyan said quietly from his position next to Griff.

“I agree with Admiral Keyan. An alliance with the Shi’ido will give us an edge in the intelligence field. It will make infiltration much easier. We could quietly get rid of enemies and replace them with Shi’ido. “ Captian Xexes said.

“I have also heard from Mr. Aeon that the Shi’ido are a technologically advanced people” Ilem said, turned to look at Jolanic Ojaes, Commandant of Arkania, “Some say they are on par with the Arkanians and Yaka in the cybernetics field.”

Ojaes said nothing, the tall Arkanian simply quirked an eyebrow at Ilem, and a hint of a smile touched his lips.

“Indeed?”

“Nevertheless. We must continue forward with out plans. The rendezvous point is at the border of Wild Space, we still have not completed many of our exploratory surveys into that particular region. So we are going to send a Bird of Prey. It’s stealth abilities make it a good scout vessel” Keyan said quickly.

“Agreed. I will go personally, however. In a case as important as this, it would do only for myself to speak with the Shi’ido. It took me months to get us even this far. But I am sure Sh’shuun will enter the Sovereignty, under the right circumstances. Do what you can, in your respective fields. Captain Xexes, prepare a Bird of Prey for my use. Admiral Keyan, you will accompany me. Dismissed” Griff said.






“Things are not what they seem, indeed” Griff said as he studied his three dimensional hologram of the galaxy.

“Indeed” Keyan said. “It seems like the Shi’ido’s rigorous security has proven to be…defective”

“Aeon, what do you think it is? Do you remember anything from your homeworld” Griff asked, looking over at the tall Shi’ido standing off to the side.

“I was there a very long time ago, and was brought to Corellia by merchants. But I do remember several instances where foreigners landed on our planet and we were forced to take shape as trees, rocks or wild animals to remain hidden. We had been taught to do that since as long as I can remember. However, as I said, there was one time where very unusual aliens landed on the planet surface. They looked like they were insects of some sort, they had a very distinct buglike aura to themselves. They had long faces and double-jointed limbs. They were also very tall. I remember them studying the planet for a few days before some of the elder Shi’ido decided to take the form of wild beasts and attack the unknown aliens. Their attack was unsuccessful, if I recall. The one time in our history we were unable to drive invaders back immediately. I think, though, that eventually their were discouraged off the planet” Aeon said.

“And you think these…insect beings may have something to do with Briar’s strange message?”

“It is possible”

“I see. Then it would be wise to take more than what we had originally planned.”

“What do you suggest?” Keyan asked.

“Simply that we may need some more firepower. We will leave in the morning. I must go put in a call to Captain Xexes…”

“Mr. President, welcome aboard” The Captain of the Silencer 2 said as Griff walked through the boarding hatch.

“Captain Braxton, I am glad you were available for this mission” Griff said solemnly.

“As am I, sir. In fact I was hoping for this assignment” Braxton replied.

“We must speak, if you wouldn’t mind” Griff said. Braxton looked at him, strangely. He was the President of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty, he could, very simply if he wanted to, take over the ship, and claim Braxton’s personal quarters for himself, but yet here he was, requesting Braxton’s permission for something he didn’t.


Odd.


“Of course sir. The Other vessels are signaling their readiness to get under way.” Braxton said as he and Griff began walking towards the turbolift.



“Excellent. All ships are to cloak and begin silent running as soon as we are clear of the Flower Nebula.”

“Understood” Braxton said as they entered the turbolift.

They arrived at the bridge in short order a minute later, and Griff headed for the conference room at the rear of the bridge as Braxton began issuing orders to the rest of the force that was accompanying Griff’s ship to the Shi’ido rendezvous. All six Birds Of Prey cloaked and set into the course that would lead them out of the multicolored gasses of then Flower Nebula.

Little did anyone, save Griff, knew that another cloaked Bird of Prey followed the invisible task force at an easy distance, monitoring the six vessels. This was standard procedure for all ships exiting or entering the nebula, all ships were examined closely, without their knowledge, before they were actually allowed in or out.

The task force proceeded, unhindered, out of the nebula, and then into hyperspace. After making sure all was well, Braxton joined Griff in the conference room. Aeon, the mission specialist, was already there.

“Captain, take a seat. We were reviewing the parameters of the mission.” Griff said.

“Yes sir, I would be appreciative if I could be fully briefed about what we may encounter, and what will happen once we reach the rendezvous.” Braxton replied.

“We have reason to believe that the Shi’ido may be in trouble, hence the extra force I decided to bring along.” Griff said, “They did not say how many ships were allowed to bring, but if we need to fight, I wanted to be prepared.”

“My people have remained safely hidden for centuries. They have received visitors, but using their shapeshifting abilities, they have been able to keep their existence a secret. Until now”

“What has happened?” Braxton queried.

“We are not sure, but the Shi’ido leader, Tal Briar, indicated they were in some sort of urgent distress”

“Sir, I have heard stories about Shi’ido in action, on Esseles and your own personal guard, and they seem to be able to take care of themselves” Braxton said, skeptically.

“Some forces In this galaxy are not dealt with so easily by turning into a…sufficient shape. All I know and remember was the Shi’ido had enemies, but I do not know anything about them.” Aeon interjected.


“Interesting. So you think that the Shi’ido need help?” Braxton asked.


”I do. And I intend to do everything in my power to help them, if possible.” Griff said, stroking his jaw thoughtfully.

“Well, we are ready. Captain Xexes and I selected five of our most battle-hardened crews and their respective ships. We are the best the Sovereignty has to offer, and we are ready.”

“Excellent. Aeon, what is our ETA?”

“At our present speed, three hours and forty minutes, Mr. President.”

“Okay. All ships are to remain cloaked. When we are ready to exit hyperspace, only the Silencer 2 is to decloak. We wouldn’t want to scare the Shi’ido off with more force than is necessarily needed.”

Both men, Shi’ido and human, nodded.

“Reversion to realspace in five…four…three…two…one…” The helm officer reported.

“Decloak, us only.” Braxton said.

“How is everything going captain?” President Griff asked, coming up behind Braxton’s chair.

“So far, so good. Sensors, give me a full sweep.”

“Telemetry coming in. There is one vessel, something I have never seen before.” The Sensor officer, studying his console.

“Anylisis?” Griff asked.

“It is a symmetrical design, no visible weapons. It is about eighty meters in length.”

“Aeon?” Griff asked.

The Shi’ido was leaning over the sensor operators’ console.

“It is indeed a Sh’shuun made craft. Vor’shuu-class I believe.” He said.

“Hail them.” Griff said.

“Go ahead.” The comm. operator said.

Griff took a deep breath, and tried to remember exactly what Aeon had told him to say.

“Sheassh’dutrath, Shi’ido, tokoreeth’eej se Sh’shuun. Doet’reth shu’shree President Griff se Outer-Rim Sovereignty” (Greetings, Shi’ido. People of Sh’shuun. I am President Griff of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty) He said, in the language of the Shi’ido. The message from Tal Briar said nothing of doing so, but Griff wanted to be friendly with the Shi’ido and make them feel comfortable.

There was a long pause.

“Aeon?” Griff asked.

“You said it right.” The gray alien said.

“Sheassh’dutrath, President Griff se Outer-Rim Sovereignty. Doet’reth shu’shree Tal Briar se Sh’shuun.” (Greetings President Griff of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty. I am Tal Briar of Sh’shuun) Came the reply from the other craft.

“I extend the invitation to come aboard the Silencer 2, to President Tal Briar.” Griff said.

“Indeed. I would be glad to do so.” Came the slightly amused reply.

“Excellent. We are prepared to receive your shuttle.” Griff said.

“Indeed.”





“President Griff.” Tal Briar said, when he entered the conference room, with two very tall Shi’ido flanking him – obviously bodyguards.

Griff stood, with Aeon gliding forward as well behind him.

“President Briar. It is good to finally meet you.”

“Indeed.”

“Please sit down. May I introduce Aeon, of Sh’shuun as well.” Griff said, indicating the Shi’ido behind him.

“Aeon?” Briar asked, looking up at the other Shi’ido.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Briar stared at Aeon for several minutes.

“Vototth a pepreive?” Tal Briar asked Aeon.

“Pepreive.” Aeon replied.

Griff watched all of this with interest, although he could not understand much of the launguage. He did know the basics and Briar had asked Aeon something like “Do you understand?”

“Well President Griff, you certainly are not one to be underestimated. Well I am sure you are wondering what this is all about.”

Griff nodded.

“The Shi’ido have long since been a very private people. Every time visitors land on our world, we always remain hidden. In the past we were persecuted for our abilities, and we knew from experience that other species would be distrustful of us if we openly revealed ourselves. The Empire regarded us as spies, and sneaks, as did many others. Therefore we always remained hidden and discouraged visitors.

“However, there was only one instance where we were unable to do this. One time, visitors came to our world, however they were not the usual curious scientists and geologists that visited. They were insectile creatures of great height. They did not use anylizing equipment, and instead carried weapons of destruction. Some of us, myself included, took the forms of wild beasts and attacked them, intending to drive them away.”

Briar lowered his head.

“Six of us were killed, I was the only survivor. We increased our number and attacked a second time. Again we were defeated. Eventually we were successful in driving them away.”

He sighed.

“But they returned no less than three times. Each time they come with more advanced technology. We have lost many of our young people, in our attempts to drive them away.”

Griff nodded, and interrupted.

“You say that they come back with more advanced technology. Is that what has happened? Have they come back again?” Griff asked.

“Yes. But by this time we are an openly space faring people. We have had the technology for centuries but rarely used it. Recently we have created ships of great beauty, it has become an art to us. Some of our ships have become highly advanced. The insect invaders, who are called the Narcati, have discovered this and have launched open attacks against us. We have been on the defensive ever since.”

“How long?” Griff asked.

“Three months.” Briar answered.

“And what about the Sovereignty?”

“We wish to enter the Sovereignty. We have realized we cannot defeat the Narcati threat on our own. And we have also realized that it is finally time to end our long isolation, with the Sovereignty or not.”

“I see. Well, I will sanction an emergency application into the Sovereignty, we can move into detail once we have secured the region around Sh’shuun. The safety of the Shi’ido comes first.” Griff said.

Briar slumped slightly, in relief.

“Thank you.”






“Reversion from hyperspace imminent” The helm officer said from his station at the front of the Silencer 2

“Griff, Aeon, Briar, and two other Shi’ido emerged from the conference room at Braxton’s summoning.

“What is it captain?” Griff asked.

Braxton only pointed at a holographic representation of the Lao-mon system.

Griff follwed his gaze and sighed softly.

There were dozens of them, dozens of eighty-meter craft. They were scattering at the sight of three large vessels attacking the Shi’ido shipyard.

“Those are Narcati Raptors…” Tal Briar said darkly, upon seeing the three attacking vessels.

“Do your ships have weapons?” Griff asked Tal Briar, indicating the Shi’ido craft.

“No. Those are civilian craft. Most of our defenses were located here…thy are all gone…”

“They were either destroyed or they retreated.” Braxton suggested.

Briar almost recoiled, “They would never abandon their people.”

“Indeed. I do not doubt their bravery, but it stands that they are not here.” Griff said diplomaticly.

“We should surrender then.” Briar said, resigned to his own fate, “We have no chance.”

“President Briar, I told you that the Sovereignty would help you.” He nodded to Braxton, at the comm. station, who began issuing orders.”

Griff looked out of the forward viewport and smiled, as five Sovereignty Birds of Prey decloaked.

“And so we shall. Captain, please relay to them that they have the green light and are to use attack pattern Logan 12.” Griff said.

“Yes sir.”

Griff turned back to Briar. “We can clean up this mess. I would advise the civilian vessels to retreat to Sh’shuun…”

“Yes. I will do it.” Briar said, a hint of a smile at his lips.

“All ships, this is the President, I am taking complete command of the fleet. All ships form up in formation Logan 12., and prepare to fire.” Griff announced over the continuous fleet-wide band.

The ship’s individual captains acknowledged and suddenly, the Bird of Prey’s changed formation, and formed an arrowhead formation, with the Silencer 2 at it’s head.

The three vessels attacking the Sh’shuun shipyards, instantly broke off their assault and turned towards the new threat. Each Raptor was 400 meters long and carried around 15 turbolaser cannons and other equivalent weapons. They had a distinct symmetrical, yet slightly boxy-looking shape.

Turbolaser blasts began to hit the Silencer 2’s forward shields, as the Sovereignty vessels entered weapons range.

“Fire the first wave.” Griff ordered.

And as he did so, concussion missiles were launched, forming a wall ahead of the attacking Birds of Prey. The missiles slammed into their targets, as the ORS ships switched to the next stage of their attack, as laid out in tactic ‘Logan 12’.

“Stage two. Fire!”

The proton torpedoes came next, hitting the Narcati Raptors, further weakening their shields. By this time, the enemy ships were able to return fire, but instead of concussion missiles, they launched bluish-black projectiles. The impact of the weapons knocked Griff clear off his feet, and into the rail separating the lower portion of the bridge from the higher. He felt a blinding pain in his chest, as he slumped over the rail.

He felt strong arms pick him up under the arms and carry him back to the command chair, where he was set down.

“Thanks.” He muttered, as he attempted to focus on the forward view screen and tactical holograph.

“You are welcome, Mr. President.” Tal Briar said, resuming his former position next to the command chair.

“Status report!”

“What ever that was, it knocked our sensors offline. We are using backups, but they are hardly sufficient in a battle situation.” The operations officer said, over the explosions that were now ripping through the bridge.

“President Briar! What the hell was that?” Griff asked the tall Shi’ido.

“The Narcati refer to them as transphasic destructors. They use a kind of nuclear power, I do not know the specifcs.”

“That was a nuclear blast?” Griff yelled, over the din.

“No, it was not nuclear energy. It is smaller than that. As I said, I do not know the specifics!”

Griff nodded.

“All ships return fire at will. I want two Birds to each Raptor!” He yelled into the fleet-wide comlink.

The Sovereignty forces redoubled their attack. Throwing planning and caution to the wind. They began to fight like crazed warriors.

The Narcati replied in kind, with more transphasic disrupters.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Griff yelled at the helmsmen, but it was already to late, the destructors struck home. But this time it set an explosion off within the Silencer 2
s bridge. Griff seemed to black out for a moment, before returning to reality.

He looked around ad saw the helm officer slumped over his console, his face horribly burned. The same was for other members of the bridge crew. Upon seeing this, Griff narrowed his eyes.

“Not on my bridge.” He muttered, making his way to the helm. He sat down at the console, his fingers flying over the board.

“Someone get to tactical and ops!” He yelled behind him, not caring who actually obeyed.

He brought the ship about, preparing to make an attack run on the now-heavily damaged Narcati Raptor.

“All weapons! Fire!”

“Launching torpedoes, Mr. President. I have instructed the turbolaser crews to fire whenever the get a shot” Tal Briar replied from the tactical station.

“Main power is holding, I am putting more power to the shields.” Aeon replied from the ops station.

Griff nodded, and sent the Bird down into a dive, directly toward the command center of the Raptor. Briar released the torpedoes, and Griff heard the turbolasers pulsing as the Silencer 2 came within range.

The Raptor visibly shuddered. Griff pulled the Bird up, and then back around, with three other Sovereignty ships joining him, as the other Raptors were now disabled and destroyed.

The Narcati, however, had one last effort to put up. They lauched dozens of desructors at the four Birds of Prey. Griff sent his ship in a weaving arc, in and out deftly avoiding the deadly missiles.

“Now!” He yelled. Briar obliged, sending more concussion missiles and proton torpedoes out to strafe the Narcati Raptor. The other Birds of Prey were not so luck, and one began venting ion gas, and had to pull out.

The torpedoes did their damage, and the Raptor exploded brilliantly.

Griff observed this with no satisfaction, and instead ignored the destruction outside,

And focused on the destruction inside.

He reached down and checked the pulse of the helmsman, now lying on the deck.

Nothing.

He looked around, at the exposed bulkheads, and other bodies. Tal Briar was speaking in his own tongue, in some kind of reverent prayer over the lifeless body of one of his personal guards. Aeon was leaning over the dead operations officer, checking his pulse as well, just to be sure.

“Well gentlemen. We won today, it was a short battle, and the Narcati are defeated today. But they will be back tommorow.”

He stood, and sighed sadly, as he surveyed the destruction.

“Let us be done with this.”

“Your ships can put in to dock at the Sh’nesh stardock facility.” Tal Briar said.

“Thank you.”

“No…thank you.”