It was a long shot and it was extremely dangerous. So many things could go wrong at the simple touch of a button. The only problem was that he knew it was necessary for him to go. With the rate of growth of his sworn enemy, his fleet size was way too small to do any significant good. Fortunately, as long as they staid hidden out in the unknowns they would be fine. As soon as the enemy found them, however, things would get seriously ugly and Kamon didn't believe they would be able to withstand even a small scale assault.

Despite the risks entailed in the mission, he knew that it was up to him to get the job done. The Hope might not be an armed craft, but it was regarded as one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. If it came to a point where he was forced into a situation involving battle, he would hopefully be able to outrun the enemy. The things you could do with a Sekotian ship were amazing. If only they had been able to keep Zonama under their control.

Kamon had left Alatar Prime multiple days earlier in order to go about tacking a route that would be untraceable. He had micro-jumped so many times that had it not been for his computer he would have been lost. The co-pilot seat was occupied by a Chiss pilot that Admiral Cynic Pariah had suggested he take along with him. There were only six or seven Chiss in the ranks of the Dragons. Kamon wasn't exactly sure how they had even acquired them.

"How much longer do you think?"

"Not too much. The last jump was our last one. When we come out Hapes should be in front of us."

"I hope my old ID code still works. I'd rather not be blown up by accident. If I don't get blown up on purpose I mean. Dakkon and I have been friends for a long time, but it has been a couple years since I've been in contact with him."

"I wouldn't worry about, sir. The Hope will get us through anything."

Kamon nodded and let the tension flow out of his muscles and into the depths of the Force. It soothed him to be able to touch that never-ending power. In times of need it could give him strength. In times of reflection it could give him wisdom. It was like a reserve of energy that was always there, waiting for him to tap into it. He relished it.

"Reversion."

"That was quick."

The stars outside the viewport, that had been up until now a mass of white, returned back to the normalness of pinpricks of light. Directly in front of them was one of the most beautiful worlds in the whole galaxy. They were immediately hailed by Hapan forces and Kamon nodded to his co-pilot.

"This is the private ship Hope requesting clearance to land on Hapes. Transmitting Identification Codes now."

"I hope Dakkon doesn't want to turn me over to our enemies. If he does this could be a very short mission."

As soon as the freighter reverted to realspace a pair of fighters immediately peeled off from the squadrons CAP route to track its trajectory. It was un-registered and also not a craft indiginous to the cluster, so the pilots were immediately on guard.

With the basics of the identification process done the fighters eased off slightly, still maintaining a tracking pattern. It would be maintained until the craft was safely on the ground and/or destroyed.

Meanwhile Dakkon was standing on north eastern parapet of the Starhome, losing himself in the glorious starscape of the transitory mists. Suddenly his PDA beeped.

Glancing at it, he was about to ignore it when he caught the inital digits of what was part of his personal identification system. Intrieged, he snatched the device up, quickly identifying Kamons disused number.

Pausing to mull over his decision, Dakkon quickly commed for the ship to land aboard the Starhome.

No prying eyes....

"It seems that they want us to dock with one of their ships. Doesn't sound all that great, but it could just be routine."

Kamon thought for a moment before feeling out with the Force. The ships that had been designated as a landing zone for them was a rather large one. Fortunately, the only Force user on it was the one he was searching for. Dakkon's presence was indeed there for him to find. For the briefest of moments he allowed the touch to linger on his old friend before dropping it. All would be alright.

"No. Dakkon's on that ship. Go ahead and dock."

The Chiss nodded and commed that they were moving to dock with the vessel of war. The Hope, silently quivering from hunger, would need to be fed soon, but that shouldn't be too hefty of a problem. Rocks were its main diet anyways. Under tractor beam guidance from the vessel, they were drawn into the ships hangar and docked.

"We're docked. Now what?"

"We wait until they tell us to come out."

"Oh... right."

As the Hope ran through the taxi and landing procedure Dakkon had made his the floating castles upper regions towards its docking bay. His mind wandered in regards to why Kamon would come here but he quickly arrived in the hangar and so forced the thoughts from his head.

Moments later the craft landed and Dakkon got to look upon the Sekotian ship for the first time. Even despite all his experiences he couldn't help but marvel at the ships construction. The fact that it was alive intrieged him immensely but he couldn't also help but wonder about the deficiencies brought about by the ships living state.

Around him half a dozen royal guards, the feared cyborgs of the Charubah Olanji forges, formed up into a guard of honour around the Crowned Prince. At the same time a group of hangar crew activated their comms and ordered the craft open. As they were still communicating Provost Zakharov appeared next to his patriarch, immediately whispering.

"Do you know anything about this?"

Other than his wives, Prohktor was the only one who could address Dakkon without the need for senseless honourifics.

Dakkon shook his head.

"I guess we'll find out..."

"Ok they said open up and come out. Now do we go?"

If it wasn't already noticeable, the Dragon's were more of a loose group of people fighting for a cause. Most of his people didn't address him as Prince unless they were Tholatin born. Or unless they were high up in the military chain. Kamon stood from his seay and moved towards one of the compartments. Taking his lightsabers from their place there, he clipped them on his belt.

"Yeah. Let's go."

The Chiss got up from his position and moved back to the hatch with Kamon at his side. At the press of a button the hatch slowly extended itself to the ground below and Kamon walked out of the craft with his Chiss counterpart in tow. Stopping at the base of the craft, he looked around for a moment in order to admire the vessel he was in. Then, he slowly proceeded towards Dakkon.

Dakkon smiled slightly as he made eye contact with Kamon, inclining his head slightly in acknowledgement of his arrival.

As Kamon closed on him Dakkon cut straight to the point.

"It's certainly not bad seeing you again Kamon, but why now after such a long time?"

Kamon smiled. Dakkon was always straight to the point.

"Ok, you want straight to the point. Fine then. I need ships Dakkon and I have no way to build them. As I'm sure you know, considering how much it was probably televised, Tholatin was taken from me and I was imprisoned on Kessel by the Black Dragon Empire."

The hard part wasn't telling the story, the hard part would be getting him to actually build him some ships.

"Anyways, I escaped, somehow, and went somewhere a long way from here. I had constructed some new shipyards around the planet that my forces now occupy, but while my miniscule fleet was away on survey runs the Vong blew them up."

Yeah, that was a lot of coherent nonsense.

"Basically, Dakkon, our goal is the destruction of the Black Dragon Empire and in order to do that, and defend ourselves should we be found, we need ships."

As the final statement was made Dakkon couldn't help but notice a momentarily smile in the countenance of the Provost. He had been tasked with administrating the ship building contract from BDE that had allowed them to come to power. The full force of Hapan military production had fallen behind that project and evidently that was still paying dividends.

"Well, i can certainly sympathise with your plight, and i can order the increase of production for basic small arms and light vehicles.

And fighters would probably be a small step from that, provided you don't intend on requesting Hapan designs."

To his side Zakharov nodded in agreement. He was the primary force behind the autarky program that had led the Consortium to full military self sufficiency after the ravages of the Wraith virus, and he had no intention of letting that be usurped by a few 'rebels'.

"You'll have to be abit more specific when you say ships. They range from fighters to Star Destroyers..."

A momentary glance to Zakharov also reminded the Prince of something.

"You'll excuse me for sounding a little abrupt and perhaps rude, but it seems to me you are in massive financial disability. How exactly would you intend on paying for these craft if, of course, they are built?"

Kamon smiled.

"Despite my past lack of smarts as some would put it, I was financially safe all the time. Though people had it said that there was a massive fortune on Tholatin, it wasn't there. I was arrogant, but not stupid."

When he'd first become Prince he had been a little bit of both and had allowed his fortune to be left in the vaults on Tholatin. He'd lost a good sum of it to theft, too. After Alatar Prime was found during the search for Zonama Sekot, however, Kamon had had all but a quarter of his fortune buried in a vault there. It had seemed the logical thing to do and after the original castle was destroyed he was glad he had done it.

"I can pay for anything you can build, don't worry. As for vessels we need, I want average everyday stuff. Nothing that would be obvious as a mark. Fighters we could use consist primarily of A-wings or E-wings. Both would suit our purposes. As for capital craft, a couple Victory III's would be great."

The request for creating ships of that size did not surprise the royal, but it didn't mean it was going to happen. Then again, it served Hapes interests to fuel both sides in this war. The Hapan in the Prince was coming out now, already throwing numbers around in his head.

"Well despite our relationship you'll excuse me for not taking your statement at face value."

It still amazed Dakkon that Kamon had allowed this discussion to occur in such a relatively public area, despite the fact it was 100% private anyways.

"I can easily order basic small arms, as i've stated, but the request for heavy capital ships is a large one. One must of course consider the political ramifications of such an action. You are, of course, an illigitiment recipient of heavy arms by anyones standards."

He glanced at Zakharov, who was already taping away at his PDA.

"Fighters however are simple. By my basic estimates we can have a few hundred ready within a week, assuming payment in full is received immediately."

The Provost now passed his computer to the Prince.

"I cannot morally begin trading you top level fighters and capital craft immediately. At least not until you've proven in battle that you are using them in good concience."

He paused in thought for a moment.

"A-Wings will be produced forthwith. At least once you've shown us the colour of your cash..."

Zakharov had already produced another PDA which was offered to Vondiranach. It contained account numbers and a transfer screen for deposits to be made into the Princes personal account. Regisitered to a bank within the Helixian Commonwealth, a government known only to the Cluster, it was completely hidden and immensely secure.