Rear of Majority's Will

Cortex Sinar had not paid much attention to the conflict going on around Sullust- although his heart was in the battle, he was not a militray man, and beacuse the fightning was mainly occuring far away from his luxurious, heavily sheilded, compartmentalized quarters. It was surprisingly quiet, especially for a room near the engines and the main reactors, but also perfect for some solitude and silence, a place where Cortex could do his thinking.

Everything was going well until his personal communicator suddenly went off. Surprised, he picked up, and his eyes went wide. Still he was not a being who scared easily, and so he immediatly got up and walked to the back of his quarters. A panel slid away, leading to a short hallway. He walked down it, then opened a hatch, revealing the plus interior of a command class escape pod. He jumped in, and pressed the jettison button, which propelled him away from the ISD....

-------------------------------------------------------

The Diversity Alliance forces were marching, thier many feet a terrible reverberatiing sound that alert any enemy of their approach- and also signaled the begginning of the Imperial defender's deaths. Other sounds however, were also announcing the approach of the DA troops- large loudspeaker repaeting a message direct at the Sullustain people, pronouncing their force as liberators, and ask the Sullustains to stay in their homes, as far away from the fighting as possible. It was an inaudible roar now, to much echo to be properly heard, but when the forces made their way into the larger open areas it would be a message of hope to the Sullustain people, among the chaose and hell that would be the conflict.

Ciscero was busy locking down corridors that would not be used by the Imperials when his pad beeped.


Someone was trying to access the System Administrator that he had installed and copied over the alien version. The Imperial program served as a "mote" around the command areas isolated the controls from the actual functions.

When buttons are pushed on a command consol, the signals are sent to a program that identifies and translates the signals, codes, or sequences into action. The program does not perform the action itself (the hardware mainframes did that).

The readings that displayed to the bridge crew and everything that appeared to them was in fact, a sensor reading of a previous time.

The newly copied System Administrator took in the codes that were being entered but instead of matching it with the appropriate action (in this case, reactor shutdown), it scanned the sensor logs for any previous entering of this code to "know" what to display or show the bridge crew.


Somebody on the bridge was trying to be a hero. The codes were good and the System Administrator scanned the logs to find an appropriate response. Unfortunately, all it could find was a manual on Emergency Reactor Shutdown (designed when the onboard systems were designed and when the ship was launched) and give the textbook response:

>>>Protocol entered- Emrgency power down beginning<<<


But beyond that, the program did not know what else to display and so the display fell silent. The System Administrator knew what to "display" but it didn't know how to "act" because it was an Imperial Program and the codes were designed for alien use.

That lack of compatibility would be the major source of angst for Ciscero since all he could do is rewrite or copy over the alien program with it's Imperial counterpart.


Major Grell's entrance was strategically located to provide the best path to the engine room and other control centers.

Computer specialists from the station began their slicing efforts and Ciscero found that he could breath easier knowing that it was not just him anymore.

The vents were opened and the gas purged.

"What do we do with the sleeping?"

"Stun them again and put them in an airlock." Ciscero had to grin at Major Grell's order. Those found that were alive (including the bridge crew) were placed in an airlock. One door led into space, the other into a hall that had...well..

"Decompress all the areas surrounding that airlock." the Major growled.

With all the system problems due to the overloaded capacity of the ship, he did not trust the ship's brig to hold a fly. So he improvised.

If they wanted out of the airlock, they'd have to survive a vacuum. Power was shut down from the nearby sections and conserved.


Already, technicians were rifling through the targeting systems and the defense grids of the warship.


*

Sullust


The Sullust people blinked in confusion as the harsh alien tongue bellowed from the cave entrances. Most did not speak Basic given that Sullust was their native home and so many fled further into the caves to avoid the invading soldiers.


"Whatever they are saying, it's falling on deaf ears." Colonel Messer mused as he turned to chat with a citizen in his native language.

"Avoid the large caverns. We'll make our stand in the tunnels. Set up a series of runners.. we'll need them since our comms are being hampered by the ore in the rocks."

"Aye sir."

"Spread those charges out!" he hissed to a nervous soldier.

"Seargent?"

"Yes sir?"

"Send a Private over to the enemy for a parlay."

"Surrender, sir?"

And Colonel Messer shrugged. "I have to weigh my options, Seargent."

"Private Beckman!"

"Yes sir!"

"Private" Colonel Messer eyed the young man. "I need you to meet with the enemy and give them a message. Can you do it?"


The young man's eyes widened in slight fear but he sucked it up. "What do you need, Sir?"


"Good man! Now listen up."

Sullust

The first Barrtokk scouts nearly took out the Imperial courier, assuming he was one of their own breed, a reconnisance force probing for the enemy. They would have caught him easily by surprise, being some of the most elite of their race, one who often made a living as deadly but silent assassins. At the last moment however, they had seen that the Imperial was unarmed, a terrible faux pas for any recon operative, and they knew he was most definatly not one of their own. They could have killed him, but a live prisioner can proivde so much more information than a corpse.

They broke from their positions at the same time, a wonderful tactic enabled y their unique physiology and shared sentience, weapons rasied upon the Imperial soldier, awaiting to see his reaction...

Space
Onboard the DA-001

Tylir Vixo had watched the Majority's Will with quite a large amount of intrest, both with his own eyes and on the sensor operator's status console which sat next to his own. Everything about this 'expidition' had been so amazing to him- to think it had all started attending some obscure meeting back on Ryloth, just because he had heard they were doing a weapon's training seminar- and now he was sitting in a warship, a trained officer in a brand new Class 1000 Cruiser. He had been enamored the minute he heard Cortex Sinar's fiery oration, not truely understand all of it's finer points, but understanding the simple ideal that someone else was to blame for Ryloth's problems- and that only the Twi'leks themselves could end such a problem. Young and impressionable, he had become one of the many throngs of younger Twi'lek's who had become the core of the the Diversity Alliance. Of course, he didn;t see it that way.

To him the Diversity Alliance was his way to feel a part of something greater- something larger than himself. He was the perfect being for the Alliance, the type of person who once given a persuasive viewpoint would never flater from those thoughts. That's why had had been trained as a communications tech, and been assigned to one of the DA's new defensive ships- a coveted position in the growing organization. He enjoyed his job, enjoyed the comradiry of ship life, and found he had a natural inclination to dealing with communications, and basically starships in general. His dream was to serve on the huge wegde vessel which he was watching, wondering why it had moved closer and closer to the planet.

His consule suddenly came to life, and his mind began focusing on what appeared to be an unknown signal incoming. Strangley enough it seemed encoded, but wasn't emminating from any of the other DA warships. Puzzeled he looked it over, and began fiddling with the message- untill suddenly he realized the code was a recently implemented DA high command code. A bit thrown, he yelled for the Captain to come over and take a look, as he pulled out a manual from a draw and began looking for the decode program for that paticular strand.....

Space
Minutes later

The 6 Class 1000 cruisers began forming up in a pair of wedges, 3 ships to a wedge, and powering up their shields and other combat systems. They turned away from the hyperlanes and engaged their ion drives, propelling them toward Sullust...

Sullust

Private Beckman nearly pulled out his knife (the only thing he was armed with) as the alien invaders startled him. The startling efficiency the enemy soldiers moved impressed upon the Imperial soldier how quickly he could have been killed.

But, he had a mission to carry out.


Their weapons rose in unison making him feel very erie and Private stopped, raising his hands.

"I have a message for your leader.." he stammered out, hands slightly trembling. What Private Beckman would have given to have several AT-AT corps behind him..

He wasn't even sure the aliens understood Basic.



ISD

The technicians, once the gas had been expelled, had taken to ripping open consols and physically rerouting power conduits.

"It's going to get uncomfortable in here." one tech commented.

"I don't give a damn.. With that stink everywhere, I want controls I can trust.. not some damn alien program."

Ciscero nodded his agreement as he was listening in over the private comm channel. He entered a program that began to make several select programs inert. Partly drying up the mote so that bridge functions could interface with the Imperial System Administrator and application programs better.

They needed a little bit more time.

On the bridge, the equipment began to stop playing back old sensor logs and suddenly the present active scans displayed in their brilliant holographic representations.

"Sir? It looks like their support ships may have just wizened up."

"Range?" Major Grell replied, turning to the view port but not seeing anything. The blast shield had been lowered. "Lower those bloody things!"

"Justing leaving the hyperlanes, heading toward the planet."

"Then they are still out there. Let's use the distance to our advantage. Let's put the planet between us and them."


The engineering corps got the command as they attached their own equipment to the engine readouts.

Never trust alien designs, a motto most engineers held in high regard.

"Engine burn on my mark...3...2...1.. mark!"


And the ISD began to put the Imperial Orbital Station behind it and slip around the planet.

"Shields?" the Major asked?

"We can raise them but they lessen and strengthen in intensity at random. Until our engineers get that locked down..."

The Major nodded.

"Weapons?"

"Powered, targeting is flaky right now. Too many invasive programs is what our resident Intel Agent said. He is working on it though all the variables have been rewritten."

"So we are listed as friendlies .."

"And they are listed as hostiles."

"Well..there is that.."

"Our message to Imperial Center got out?"

"Yes sir."

"Adjust our rotation to reverse our orientation though keeping our heading. Angle our bow to face the planet.."

The thrusters began to fire...

"Keep sensors locked on the enemy ships...."


"Aye sir."

"And get me the Agent! I need a report! I want us ready by the time they reach the planet."

"Do you think we can take them?"

"I don't know, Ensign. I don't know. I can only hope Colonel Messer is faring better than we are."

Space

The Majority's Will , main reactor shut down, crewed by only a marginal number and plauged by incompatabilities between Imperial coding and the Diversity Alliance's programs was a wounded lion- dangerous, but too slow to run, and to injured to do much more than intimdate its foes. Fed information by Cortex Sinar, the Diversity Aliiance's Class 100 cruisers would play the role of the hyena, a pack of animals who under normal circumstances would never venture after the mighty lion, but in its weakened state would overwhelme the old titan.

The Imperials were attempting to use their head start to escape around the noxious atmoshpere of Sullust, and take the time they would need to get the ISD into a favorable working order. Unfortunatley, the ISD's speed, usually not a major factor in the sluggfest in which it was desgined to be deadly, would be it's downfall. Even at full speed, the ISD was lucky to make 12 MGLT, and running primarily on reserve power, it was unlikely it was going at even that speed. The Class 1000 Cruisers on the other hand, fully powered, were running somewhere n the area of 18-20 MGLT (the higher end with auxillary power locked in), a drastic speed difference wich would quickly close the gap and eat up the head start given to the Majority's Will. It was only a matter of time.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Sullust's Atmosphere

The flight of TIE Defender's began their ascnet through the torrid, noxious gasses that enshrouded Sullust, making thier break toward the vaccum of space, their main duties on SUllust fufilled, their ability to assist hindered by the fact that the fighting on Sullust would occur underground...

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sullust

Private Beckman had been led by the Bartokk scouts back through the swelling ranks of Diversity Alliance soldiers, allowing the meesenger a full view of the large force of aliens who would soon be bearing down on the Imperial defenders. The sheer numbers would no doubt have an effect on a young private, especially if he was alienophobic, because the mass of intimdating looking species would have quite an impression upon him.

The Bartokk had allowed him to keep his knife- knowing full well he would never have an opuurtunity to use it in anger . Any agressive or thretening movement would easily be dealt with by one of the lightning quick bartokk collectives (2) which were bringing him back to meet with the commander of the DA forces, a Twi'lek named Lerikc Goruna, offically Colonel Goruna of the Diversity Alliance Liberation Forces (DALF).

Goruna was in a old Chariot LAV command vehicle near the rear of the DALF column, preparing his strategy, and waiting for the battle to begin. It took awhile for the group to lead the Imperial to Goruna, but when the finally reached the mobile command vehicle, they turned the private over to a pair of Falleen, who were acting as Goruna's aides and bodyguards for the duration of the battle. One of the collective breifly explained the Imperial, and the Falleen nodded, and turned, then spoke in basic to the messenger.

"If you would please hand over you knife, human, you may speak with Colonel Gorun."

Sullust Space



The ISD was already in orbit when it began it's course to round the planet. The Class 1000s could be as fast as Fire Class Light Frigates but they still would not be able to cross the planet's mass shadow (from hyperlanes) to even an orbital location.


"The planet is between us, Major."

"Excellent piloting Helm."


Ciscero moved across the Imperial technicians as they worked to take out the alien hardware items and replace them with Imperial built hardware.

There were not many such items because the ISD was an Imperial design. As such, the hardware was also human designed as well as the operating software. To help the aliens in running and operating human designs, Ciscero found alien software placed througout the mainframe.

Delete the alien software though carried it's own share of problems.

"Reactor shutting down." a tech shouted.

"What's happening?"

"We had to bring the software mote you established around the system down and so there was some command floating there that ordered the reactor to shut down."

"Frell! Can we get it back up?"

"Of course, Sir. We have purged the alien software. The reactor shutdown will reset the system and we should be able to operate the ship. It was designed by humans after all, sir."


The tech turned to another engineer. "Lock that coupling down!"

Ciscero let out a sigh and the ship went dark as the power cycled down.


And then, the lights came back on.


*


"Shields!" the Major barked the moment the power came back on.


"Weapons are recycling sir. Powering up."


"Emperor! That was scary!" Major Grell murmured.


"Sensors picking up the enemy! They've reached upper orbit on the other side of the planet."

"Sir! Tracking fighters enroute to Class 1000s." the tracking officer looked up. "Where we used to be."


"Isn't this fun." Major Grell growled.



Sullust



Private Beckman's fear shot up but his hand slipped into his uniform and he pulled out his knife.

"H..here you go." he stammered.

Sullust

The Imperial private pulled out a knife and handed it to the Falleen bodyguard. The humanoid put the knife indie his robes, and then turned aside, leaving a pathway open for the imperial to walk in.

The other Falleen reached over to the parked vehicle, and tapped 3 times in rapid succession on its hull. It's entry hatch popped open, and a Twi'lek appeared in the pathway- Colonel Goruna's adjudndant.

The Falleen motioned for the Imperial to follow him.

"Come on,the colonel is inside."


Sullust Space

The TIE Defenders exited the atmosphere, the reaching the neseccary escape velocity and exiting from the noxious gasses that encased Sullust.

The 6 Class 1000 cruisers were speeding forward, flying at close to 20 MGLT, weapons and sheilds charged. They had split into 2 wedges of 3 ships each, sitting in close formation, overlapping shields to maximize there effectiveness. The 2 wedges however,were spaced quite apart, to prevent both groups from being targeted at the same time.

The TIE Defenders split up, splitting roughly equally with both wedges. A squadronstayed behind with each formation,while the other two formed up, and made a bee-line for the Majority's Will. They wereapproaching from opposite sides of the ISD, preparing to make converging attack runs on the wedge shaped warship.

If we can't have it, nobody will.

Sullust Space

The 2 sets of TIE Defenders swopped in from different vectors, twin ion engines running at full combat speed which propelled them at 144 MGLT toward the huge wedge craft. The ISD opened up with a hail of defensive fire, but devoid of laser cannons, it was more a light show than anything effective. Still, it was quite a show.

The Defenders swooped in over the bow of the ISD, lasers and ion cannons blazing. Small explosion pocketmarked the ISD's sheilds as they streaked across the plane the ISD, jinxing to avoid stray turbolaser fire. As they cleared the vessel they took a large arching escape path, as they began circling around for another pass.

Meanwhile the 2 wedges of Class 1000 cruisers sped ever closer to the Majority's Will . As the TIE Defenders began comign back for a second pass they had reached extreme firing range. The command wen throughout the vessel.

"Fire at will!!!!"

Sullust

"Well, private. What message do you bring to me?"

The Twi'lek stared down the Imperial private, waiting intently for his response.....

OOC- Sorry this post was pretty weak, but I wanted to keep this going.

Damages: ISD- Minor Sheild Damage

4 TIE Defenders- Light Sheild Damage
1 TIE Defender heavy sheild damage

Space..


Major Grell stared at the holographic map of the planet. Nothing was seen of the surface but the tips of mountains and several active volcanoes surrounded by toxic gasses, ash, heat and wind that could sandblast paint of a starcruiser.

The Intelligence agent who had allowed them to fight a little while longer walked onto the bridge and narrowed his eyes at the display.

"Is it time?" he commented.

Major Grell did not turn, accepting an updated systems report from a young technician.

"Not yet. Close. Those @#%$ hit just before we could begin operations."

"Damn.. Will that affect Colonel Messer?"

Major Grell now did look up. "Of course, the @#%$, it will agent!"

And then he sighed. "I'm sorry, it's not your fault." He pointed to another monitor. "It's theirs."


Ciscero noticed the sensor readings of the enemy and noted the Star Destroyers shift in course and speed. They were building up velocity.

"We are moving to top speed.."

"Defense guns fire!" the Defense Station Officer in charge sounded over the hum of bridge activity.

"Their sending their fighters." Major Grell commented.

"Our guns won't track.." Ciscero admonished.

"Tell me something else I know.." Grell quipped back.

"Gunners, lay down blanket fire opposite our turn. Make a light show for them."

"What will that do?"

"Cover our turn.."

"Helm, come about to vector 219, mass shadow exit vector."

Ciscero nodded. "It's too hot for us to do anything."

"Colonel Messer will hold. He has too..."

"Engage maximum thrust."

"Max thrust aye."

"Let's get out of here.."



Sullust


Private Beckman swallowed looking at the alien leader. "C..Colonel Messer would like to know how you expect to treat his soldiers and civilians should he surrender. What message can I take back?"

Space

The Majority's Will lept into hyperspace, gone from Sullust.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Sullust

The Twi'lek looked at the imperial, and paused a moment. His lekku twitched, not that the private would understand the connatation.

"You may tell Colonel Messer that we would graciously accept his surrender. He and all other Imperials will be treated with the dignity owed to prisioners of war. We will also make an attempt to trade you back to the Empire as soon as possible."

The Twi'lek gave the Imperial private the most sincere smile he could muster.

"Anything else?"