The light faded over the stone floor of the room as the sun set below the high windows frame. He brought his hand to his forehead, proping himself up by two fingers to the temple as he stared at the screen ahead of him. Slowly he slouched farther into the chair as the sounds of drums enveloped him, a cerimonial beat of his people, a comforting noise in times of stress. The rotation of the world on the screen was cuasing him undue strain as he concentrated on its image.

"Dortas labi, dortasn omnei..."

The Dameun language was common to him these days, all he spoke. The people had been tought to understand it but never speak it here, the language was strictly reserved for the Tajan Dameun; the Royal Family, the living Gods.

"Settled by a race known as the Taungs in 200,000 BSW..."

The voice startled him momentairly as the sound of drums faded from the monitor to be replaced to the calm feminine voice emerging from the same source. Across the screen the same spoken words scrolled across as the spinning world image was reduced to an afterthought in the corner of the screen. He was being tought a lesson in history by a people he was certain hadnt set foot on another world, let alone documented events of a time long past.

"...The Taungs ruled for many millennia, prior to the dawn of modern humans. They conquered the other peoples of the planet, including the Zhell, in a series of bloody conquests. They were known throughout history as the Dark Warriors, after a volcano erupted during their final battle with the Zhell. The ash from the explosion wiped out the Zhell city, and the Taung adopted the name ‘Dha Werda Verda’, or “The Warriors of the Shadow.”

He couldnt recall that from his teachings back in the Imperial academy he went to, though, he didnt doubt there would be many omissions he had yet to find out about from the old Imperial history books. The New Order was nafarious for changing history to favor the victor, or itself as it were.

"Later, about 100,000 BSW, Galactic City, later known as Republic City and Imperial City covers all of the natural land on Coruscant. One remaining piece of land, Coruscant’s tallest mountain remains and is enshrined in what will be known as Monument Plaza. It is unknown exactly when, but we have determined it to be around 25,032 BSW that the cannibalistic sub - humanoid species called the Cthons, begin to devolve in the bowels of the planets undercity."

Monument Plaza? Must have been, in whats now, the undercity. All interesting information, but nothing that would really concern the coming actions... Staring at the screen he forced the machine to forward through history to more current, relevant information.

"Article Feed: Report about the planet Coruscant AKA Imperial Center. Author: Pollux Hax, former chief of the Emperor’s propaganda dissemination section. Do you wish to know more?"

Gazing across the screen he scanned down a few lines of intell on this Hax person before deciding to bookmark the Feed for later. No doubt it would be laced with lies and half truths, best to get through all the history lesson first before attempting to sift through documents. Interfacing with the computer directly he placed a mole to scan for all knowledge current and past on Coruscant military and defense.

"Your search has provided 1,237 responses in 74 categories. Do you wish to know more?"

He sighed for a moment looking up out the window the sun had so aptly positioned itself in moments before. It would be a long night, but he needed to be ready for the presentation to the Claw and Wing when the time came. The small spining orb still sat there, in the corner, just spining... insulting him...

Jade sat in her office doing the usual paperwork. Bills needed to be paid, payrolls needed to be taken care of this week, and BDE and SummerWind, which was stationed in Morthel and run by Empress Amethyst Night, Drako Night's and Jade's daughter, were running low on food and other supplies.

Her 1st advisor, Roal, had been through her back when she was a Jedi Master, and had stuck with her even now as a Shadow Jedi. He was her loyal supporter and most trusted friend, other than her best friend Dodge Rasson and her 2 Blood Sisters Jedi Master Millie and Dark Lady Huntress. Even letting her newest husband, Heir Raktus, do this whole thing thats hes doing.

She sighs and speaks softly to him, in the Daemun language.

"Why am I an Empress, Roal."

"I believe it was because it was passed down to you, Taja."

"Yes, I know that, but....I meant in my heart. Why am I an Empress? Why do I care so much about being royalty?"

She looks at him, her eyes narrowed.

"Why have you always stuck beside, no matter what side of the Force I was on?"

"Because, Taja, whether you were a Jedi or Sith, you have always treated me well. And because you were born royal.

Meaning, you are royal by blood, and Taj Raktus is royal by marriage, as far as we know."

She looks up at Roal, her eyes flashing a brief blood red in rage behind her reading glasses before turning back to her metallic dark green and silver flecked eyes. Roal turls ghost white, and he lowers hiseyes, knowing he said something he shouldnt have.

"Watch yourself, Roal. Raktus is my husband, and Im hoping he will be my last, and you are treading a very thin line. We have had this discussion before and it does not please me to repeat it again. Now the matter is closed on the subject of my husband and his royal blood, just as it is about Sumohn. Now am I clear, Roal?"

"Yes, Taja, like crystal."

"Good. You are a great advisor, but you are not perfect. I run my life the way I want. I will worry about BDE, my husband and Sumohn. You worry about my enemies and business associates and brothers and sisters sending assassins after me, again."

She sighs and nods, going back to her paperwork, this time on her laptop.

"But, yes, I suppose you are right. Now, get me a bottle of Rose Wyne and a glass. I think this is going to be a long night."

"Yes, Taja, as you wish."

Stopping at the door of her twin sister's office, she smiles slightly and continues on her way. She was here on a vacation, and wanted to enjoy herself, but first, she needed to make a private stop first.

Angel Doment DarkFire, another of the 4 Doment quadruplets like Jade and wife of Avone DarkFire, and walks down to where Raktus is. Looking much like Jade, her brother in-law does not know it is her, but rather Jade.

Wearing a simple white clothes, she is wearing hip-hugging capri pants with a matching sleeveless halfshirt, with ankle length white leather boots and a waist length white fleece sweater jacket.

Walking into his office, she stops beside him, and speaks, assuming he remembers who she is, but little does she know, he doesnt.

"Well, arent we having here? May I ask what is going here?"

Imperial Center


Quagmaine District
Sub-Level 29



Lira walked the entire section twice before scanning equipment picked up the anomaly.

"Pritchard, I've found it!"

"Where?" came a concerned voice. Pritchard was the lead Engineer of their district and responsible for most things going wrong and very little gowing right.

"Sub-Level 29."

"Dammit! The inspector was right on. What does it look like?"

"Well, it's not supposed to be there if that is what you're asking. So my guess is sabotage. Minor but there. Probably set up to reroute power to another station."

"Reroute it to where?" Pritchard asked confused. "The schematics show nothing around there capable of handling that much power."

"Check the previous schematic log, Sir. The anomaly seems to have been there quite a while."

"How long?"

"If wire-wear is any indication, during Senator Palpatine's bid for the Chancellorship."

Pritchard cursed and recalled the backlog.

Lira waited patiently. Even though the scans showed the air circulators working fine, she felt hot. Illusion? Or just another part of Coruscant falling apart.

"Hold on, Lira. I've got the schemes up now."

The accessway she was in ran the complete perimeter of the multi-leveled district. Unfortunately, most of the subsystems were automated which left pin pointing problems in the system rather.. problematic.

At least in the lower levels.

"There was a district command post ..local police or militia.. depending on the year.. but it was demolished years ago."

"What is there now?"

"They extended the corridors of the level and added more residences it looks like. Also opened a ramp to the general causeway allowing for better access to the commercial district."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Can the scanner identify the anomaly?"

"Sure. It identifies it as 'anomaly 1002"."

Pritchard sighed. "Get back here. We'll have to get a military eyes and ears down there to identify it before we can mess with it."

"Roger that. Heading back."



Quagmaine Engineering Division


Pritchard turned the monitor off and sighed. Too little money, too many problems.

He flipped a communications channel on.

"Requisitions?"

"Have the parts I ordered come in, Genner?"

"Uh.. no sir. Not yet. However, the Military seems to have placed a hold on all our requisitions."

"What?!! Why was I not informed?"

"It just happened a few minutes ago. A memo was sent to your station."

Pritchard was already checking his incoming. "So it has. My apologies Genner."

"No problem sir."

Pritchard just switched the comm off when his secretary buzzed him.

"Yes?"

"Sir. Grand Marshall Simon Kaine is requesting a visit."


Pritchard's eyes shot up in surprise. "Give him an appointment late in the week, Yance."

"Umm. .Sir.. he's here now."

What!!???

"Send him in."

The man forced himself to swallow and stand as he saw a black and gray uniform walk into his office.

Suddenly, Jade's notorious temper flares up and her desktop console goes flying out the door, across the hall, through the wall, and into the room where her husband is. Nothing was said or done to her to make her temper flare, but she has had some odd mood swings lately.

But she wasnt done yet. Her desk chair went flying out her office window, sending glass flying outwards and a rush of air to fly inwards. Jade's hair and papers fly around in the windy offcie, and still, her temper wasnt sated.

This time, using the Darkside, she sends her desk itsekf to go flying through the wall opposite her ceiling-to-floor window, lucky no one was in that hallway to get hit by her desk.

She storms angrily, her eyes a glowing blood red in anger, through a hidden door in her office leading to her quarters and trashes that room as well, sending clothes all over the room and the bathroom in tatters.

Finally, her anger spent, she collaspes at the foot of their now broken down bed, leaning against whats left of the ornante foot board, knowing eaxctly what was wrong with her, but not sure how to break it to Raktus. Hell, she had gone through 3 of them to know this is it.

She was pregnant.

Ah, the vast expanse of hyperspace, so colorful, so thrilling...

Yeah right.

Kate kicked back in the pilot's seat, propping her booted feet up on the counsol. She had been through it a hundred times all ready. The long journey to a planet far off in the middle of no where on a run to God-only-knew where, no info, save for scant clues and scant details with a little bit of money up front. This was her life in a nut shell. But hey, she wasn't complaining. It was good money, and more often then not promised an adeventure or two, or three in some cases. And there was always a rather nice lump sum waiting for her at the end of her galactic rainbow. Not to mention, the ride she had.

Not many people used the old J-type 327 Nubians anymore for anything else but maybe a luxury liner, maybe a med transport, but Kate had taken one of the old ships and turned her into a lithe, cargo transport while still retaining some of the history that had been instilled into her. The Phoenx and Kate went way back to the early days of her career, when she was still 'so green you could set a match to her and she wouldn't even singe.'

Shifting slightly in the pilot's seat, Kate sighed. Something about this run...didn't smell right,didn't set well with her. She wasn't running anything illegal, in fact, she wasn't running anything at all... The few details she had gotten was that she was to report to Dameo, wait for ground clearence before landing at a little spot just outside a palace of sorts in the capital. When she tried to get more info, the guy just cut her off mid sentence and ended the transmission. By now, she was used to it, but...still...

A bing errupted from the counsol beside her, marking the last half hour of her trip. Her hands skillfuly glided across the counsol as she made the preparations for entering real space. She took her headset off it's hook and slipped it on.

" Alright... here goes..."

Kate's left hand drifted to the stick in front of her as her right hand rested on the lever that would disengage the hyperdrive when she brought it back. Doing a mental count down, she slowly brought the lever back, the stars soon returning back to pin pricks. The ship seemed to make the transmission, the whine of the hyperdrive comming to a slow halt as the low purr of the sublight engines soon took over. Her right hand unconciously reached forward and tapped a series of buttons on another counsol that opened up her com channel.

She soon glanced up and smiled at the sight before her. The planet almost reminded her of Naboo, green, blue, but it had several areas of a tannish brown. In all reality, it was a rather nice change from the usual blues and greens she had seen in her many travels.

" Incomming transport, state your name and purpose." The voice was a bit timid and was making an attempt to sound as authoritarian as possible. Deffinately a male, maybe twenty-one, twenty-three at the most.

" Dameo, this is Katie Toran, Captian of the Phoenix request permission to land."

From the planets surface a minor flash arose from the surface, a rather large luanch, ballisticaly aimed to force its target into action. The flash was the ignition of a PIM missle site, in line of site of the Phoenix and moderatly aimed to her current trajectory. The planet spun underneath, unaffected by the proceding events as the small ship bucked to life, dodging over the missles expected path, its motions unchanging.

From the planets horizon three ships took form, their tiny sillouettes becoming much larger as they sped towards their slower moving target. The center ship had a thinner frame than its two compatriots, looking much more ancient than the rest. Its front was covered it what seemed to be Satilite dishes, srely this was merely a communications vessel and would be no threat. Through the emptiness of space, the unseen smaller motions of this vessel went unoticed as its small dishes tightened their directions and aim thier center antenea towards the Phoenix.

The flying V slowed minutely as the Phoenix reached the crest of her overpass from the Missle, the center ship ominously doing nothing at all, yet the lights on the outter hull of the Phoenix suddenly went out, as did the Rest of her systems that werent built in redundantly. The effect was minimal now, made to keep the ship at bay for the time being.

The second and third ships flew before their charged defender, Bulbous forms of dark armor that hardly shown in the night of space. Thin white tracer lights shone forth from their hulls as the known grasp of tractor beams grappled her hull and turned the ship to face down to the planet.

The same voice from before issuied forth from Katies comm, specific systems isolated from others, some kept runing, others not.

"Do not resist, you will be taken to the surface where you will disembark from your vessel. Further instructions will be issuied there."

[i]Before she could respond the comm cut dead...

(Dont know if I should post, but I am. If not yet, let me know so I can delete.)


By now, most of BDE was trashed due to Jade's renewed temper. Never before she had been like this with Amethyst nor the twins, so why now? She didnt know, but she still trashed the massive palace.

Hours Later . . . .

Now in the dungeon, she sits in a darkened corner, knees to her chest, an almost bottle of Rose Wyne in her left hand, with plenty more to her right side in the wine cellar (Yes, the wine cellar is in a back section of the dungeons...lol). She drains the inch of liquor and throws the empty bottle at one of her captives, shattering it across their skulls, then opens another bottle, draining 1/3 of the bottle in one breath.

Somehow, this pregnancy wastreating her different than her other two, and she intended to find out why.

Hands up. I got caught.

The New Order found me, and my anti-establishment brigade, and decided it was high-time that they put ‘that upstart Jakatta’ away for good. On the grounds of suspected schizophrenia I was thrown away into the dark cells of the aptly named ‘White Glades’ mental hospital, for the criminally inclined. I can’t say I’m pleased with their decision to classify me as mentally unstable, but I do have to had it to them for the excellent accommodation they have provided me with, free of charge, for the past two years. I do so love the smell of piss in the morning.

Bitter monologues aside, here I am, not exactly thrilled with myself. The prison guards gloat enough for me to know that my ‘corporation’ broke apart within weeks of my departure – well, Jakatta Corp just wouldn’t be Jakatta Corp without the man behind the name, would it? Needless to say, I was disappointed at first, but two years is a long time, and in all this long time I’ve been able to think.

Someone will come for me, and you know what? It’s going to be sooner than you think. They say what goes around comes around, and in these past years I’ve had mine come around more than enough to know that I have a hundred karma points waiting to cash in when it comes to judgment day. It’s just a matter of waiting for my guardian angel to turn up and liberate me.

Any time now.