On the world of Umgul....

"This is the secondary infantry division. We have engaged elements of the planetery defense force just outside of the village of Geride. Am now bringing up the scout walkers to engage the enemy infantry positions. Enemy artillery and vehicle support is not in attendance." reported Major Hallam of the second infantry division. Currently the stormtrooper unit was moving away from the main city torwards a major military base for the enemy security forces that were trying to resist the Imperial occupation. However many of Umgul's citizens welcomed the Imperials, and many dissenters were causing trouble for the army, making the Empire's job of stabilizing the planet's population much easier. Overhead, reconissance data taken from an Imperial inserted satellite showed the second infantry division flank attacking a group of security officers entrenced in what appeared to be a picket line. Enemy estimated strength was two hundred, and was probably all the nearby city could muster to help with the defense of the nearby military base. As the satellite zoomed in, twelve all terrain scout transports trounced through the shrubbery at the edge of the forest and fired their grenade launchers into the enemy trenches, eliciting death and destruction upon the defenders, which reponsded by opening up with heavy weaponry on the scout walkers. One walker took a lucky hit that caused it's head to exploded, leaving the legs standing admist flames and smoke and shrapnel. Four of the remaining walkers fired red flares into the enemy lines, then withdrew. A number of enemy infantry began to charge after the walkers with grenade belts, but were quickly cut down by special forces snipers.

Then, a screaming sound turned heads skywards, where a half wing of Scimitar bombers were making diving runs on the enemy infantry. The men, realising the predicament they were in, did a number of things to try to save themselves. Some went prone on the floor of the trenches, and more than a hundred fled the trenches and retreated in the direction of the military base through the woods. Others tried to pick up the flares and throw at the Imperial forces, but these men were targeted and cut down by the snipers in a hurry. Each bomber dropped four proton bombs, then pulled up and away as the forest floor erupted into explosions and fire. When the smoke faded away, some seventy five of the two hundred men were left alive, and about a quarter of those were wounded to some capacity. With a yell from Major Hallam, the entire second infantry division rose from their own trenches and charged the enemy lines. A few brave men that had survived by being prone in the trenches rose and fired on the advancing Imperials, but these were quickly cut down. Within thirty minutes the pursuit was all over, the remaining fifteen rebels having been corraled by Imperial speeder bikes and captured by advancing stormtroopers. In all fifteen stormtroopers had been killed, with another nine wounded. With the picket line eliminated, the second infantry division was free to move through the forest to the open plain near the base, and to set up a siege and prepare their artillery for the bombardement ahead.

Back at the main city, official surrender negotiations were being held. Commodore Brand was the highest ranking official in attendance, and other figures included Agent 000, his real name and rank, Commander Bushnell, being used for the meeting, and other captians and generals now conducting campaigns against the resisting forces of Umgul. With the main security chief dead, his subordinate was now attending the meetings in his stead. He was a weak man, with no real authority over the planet's security forces. The former chief had apparently set up the equivalent of a dictatorship, and now it was proving time consuming to either negotiate a surrender, or tear apart the planet's security forces. Currently there were four main bases. Three of them were able to be bombed out of existance, but a fourth one has a modern shield generation station that proved too much for either planetery bombardement or bombing runs by Scimitars. The second infantry division, based on board the Ancheron, was now engaged in that area. Commodore Brand had just recieved word that the division had broken through the last line of defense, and was now rining the base in preparation for a siege assault. Finally, the aide requested a short break so that he could convene with his followers. Commodore Brand agreed, giving him five minutes to talk over with his staff. When the five minutes was up, he did not appear. Instead another man, a hero of the security forces, appeared with the diplomatic rank bars of the chief of security forces. Commodore Brand was about to inquire as to where the former negotiators was, when a blaster shot rang out, coming from the direction of the aide's quarters. Negotiatios then resumed, and finally reached a point.

"Then, will you agree to a ceasfire, while the terms of our surrender are negotiated?" asked the security official.

"Well, I don't see what terms you could possibly offer, but yes, for the meantime, our forces will not fire on any planetery officials. However, the siege of the last military base will commence until your surrender has been accepted." replied the Commodore.

"I see. Well then, let me lay down our current offerings and reasons behind them. Number one, our forces would turn all their weapons to the Empire. Number two, our forces would be disbanded and allowed to return home to their families, and the ones killed in battle would be allowed to be laid to rest properly. At the end of thirty days the active and inactive comissioned officers and men would then return to duty under Imperial law if so desired." stated the security officer.

"That is asking a lot, and to be very lenient in case of recent events. And what would you offer in exchange?" asked the Commodore.

"Our bases and equipment would be turned over to the Empire, for starters, including cached weapon reserves that had originally be slated for use against the Empire as an eventual resistance tool well after it was realised that the Empire would in time completley conquer the planet. In addition, we would offer all our information concerning the smuggler's hidden bases, and their contacts within the Empire, as well as where their current rendezvous point is right now after this debacle." answered the chief.

Commodore Brand leaded forward, interested in the last statement that the chief had made. "Go on, tell me more...."

On the world of Triffis...

The smuggler, Major Hans as he was known to his fellow comrades, picked up the bundle of wiring being offered to him by the merchant owner of this store. He was a triffian, as well all merchants on this planets, big blue bugs for a lack of a better description, wings flittering as they hovered above the ground. They were best known for their barganing skills, and their buisness like attitude, and so it was here on their main planet, nearby Umgul, that the smuggler's had chosen to rendezvous here after the Imperial fleet had largely destroyed or damaged their fleet. The kingpin had been killed in the battle, when his flagship had been destroyed in a climatic space battle with a large Imperial capital warship. Major Hans had remember seeing it through the cockpit of his starfighter, as the two ships had slid besides each other and exchange broadside after broadside. Well, it was only three broadsides really before the smuggler's flagship had begun to break up, it's shields breached, it's hull peppered with turbolaser hits. The ship had lost power and began to descend torwards Umgul, firing off escape pods, when it had exploded, raining shrapnel across nearby space. The kingpin's personal escape pod had not been recovered, and so now he was assumed dead. The Major himself had barely escaped the battle, the damn Imperial Interdictor cruiser giving him a very tough time. If not for that ship, his entire squadron might have escaped. Instead his wingmen sacraficed their lives so that he and his partner might escape, valiantly fighting against a half squadron of TIE Interceptors that had gone in pursuit of them. Major Hans was now scrouning around for parts along with his wingman in order to find enough to repair their two starfighters which had sustained damage in the initial dogfight before the retreat had begun. The Major had himself vaped two TIE Fighters and one TIE Interceptor, and his partner had vaped a single TIE Fighter, better than nothing he had supposed. That made his wingman an ace, and himself a double ace, both of them vaping plenty of enemy craft from other campaigns and battles against planetery authorities, and pirates who had made the mistake of attacking their merchant ships and convoys.

He finally worked out a deal with the barganier, another five hundred of his hard earned credits going down the drain. The wire he had acquired would be more than enough to replace the damaged wiring that had already been stripped from his fighter. All he had to do now was to get some paint to repair the cosmetic damage his fighter had sustained from a near miss, and he would be ready to go. His wingman would have a tougher time he decided, for she had to replace her shield generator, unless she wanted to fly without any additonal protection. Hans doubted this was the case, she was a wise person and would more than likely buy one no matter what the expense was. He loaded his items into his hovertruck, then took off, heading downtown torwards the most likely store she was at. She was there, waiting on the curbside, a large crate waiting on the hoversled next to her. She flagged him down, and he settled the truck into park mode, and got out, coming to her side and embracing her in a passionate kiss which she gladly returned. They had developed a relationship ever since he had saved her from certain death at the hands of her former employers, agents of the criminal organization Black Sun, when she had failed to deliver a shipment of spice, thanks to the efforts of the Black Dragon Empire to shut down the spice smugglers in their space. Then they slowly broke the embrace, and she proceeded to slap the shit out of him. He smiled, and slapped her back. It was an old inside joke between the two of them, and then they proceeded to kiss one more time before loading up the crate, and driving off torwards the spaceport, leaving behind several Triffians with wide shocked expressions on their faces, left to mutter, "kids", before proceeding back to whatever buisness they were up to earlier.

The two lovers arrived at the spaceport, to find it crawling with ships. The two of them were not the only ones to escape the space battle, there were several other starfighters and shuttles at the spaceport showing signs of battle damage. Their own ships were both old T-65a X-wings. Hans popped the rear fuselag access point off of his starfighter, and holding some wiring in one hand, and the hydro-spanner in the other hand, he went to work. His lover, Adrianne, similarly went to work repairing her own starfighter. In the meantime, a Y-wing class assault bomber, showing much laser scoring along it's length, landed roughly in the same landing bay. Occupying the fourth spot in their medium sized bay was a captured Imperial Sentinel class Assault Shuttle, refitted as a personnel transport, used for transporting higher ranking personnel of the organization to meetings throughout the galaxy. This ship had not been at the battle, but had arrived with personnel for orders for the various people who had escaped the battle, and also to assess who was left, and what condition they and their ships were in. At this point one of the personnel from the shuttle, Leiutenant Kapperal, emerged from the craft in his former Imperial uniform, one of a TIE Fighter pilot, all black, with the Imperial igsignia removed, replaced with that of the smuggler's banner. He glanced at the Y-wing and it's pilot, busy going over his craft, seeing what needed to be replaced and what could be repaired on the spot. The pilot slid down the side of the craft, and took a datapad from his cockpit, and began typing on it, assembling the parts list he needed to find from the local various merchants. The lieutenant approached him, and talked with him. When their converstation was finished five minutes later, the pilot hurried off, taking one of the hovertrucks from the lot the organization had rented, and taking off into the streets of Triffis to look for the parts he needed for his starfighter. The Leiutenant then approached Major Han's starfighter. Hans was poking his head out of the starfighter to get more of the wiring when he spotted the Leiutenant approaching. Wiping away some of the grease on his head and hands with a towel, he slid out of the starfighter's engine compartment and saluted. The Leiutenant returned the salute. "Major, we have an important meeting coming up in six hours. You and the capitan will need to be there. It will be held in the shuttle. Please, come well dressed." said the Leiutenant, before proceeding out of the docking bay and into the adjancent one. The Major let out a breath he'd been holding in, and then proceeded to get back to work.

In orbit over Umgul...

"Yes capitan, peace has been agreed to, but this is not the reason I am calling you." said Commodore Brand. He was now talking to capitan alderon of the Dominator class Star Destroyer Binder. The ship was now in stationary orbit over the planet, which was now a lot more peaceful that it had been earlier. In the peace negotations we have learned the location of the smuggler's rendezvous point. It is somewhat of the local planet, by the name of Triffis. No doubt they chose that planet in order to scrounge up enough spare parts to help repair their fleet before they choose another more suitable location to settle down at in the meantime. But we cannot let them escape. At the same time, most of the ships here are busy. The Ancheron is busy repairing battle damage, and it's infantry are even now preparing to ship back up for the now planned occupation of Triffis, but will not leave before relief occupation forces to keep Umgul safe arrive, and we expect it will take another twenty four hours, which is by far too much time to spare. Therefore you will go ahead and assault the planet. I am now giving orders for the 263rd Imperial fighter wing to transfer to your ship in lieu of your pilots. These pilots are the best you have. Once you arrive in the planet's orbit, you will proceed to launch an assault on the planet's surface. Shoot up any enemy starfighter craft and shuttles you can find. These are your primary targets. Other ships are to be considered targets of opportunity. Commodore Carson is currently enroute to the world with a strong taskforce of warships borrowed from the Ishori. He will arrive there twelve hours after you do, and will help you with mopping up. An additional twelve hours after that and we should arrive, and proceed to conquer the planet. God speed to you captian. Time is of the essence in this operation.

In the orbit of Triffis...

"Reversion in five....four.....three.....two.....one......reverting." said the navigator. The long starlines faded back into their normal dotted shape, and right there in front of them was the world of Triffis. "All systems reading normal." followed up the navigator.

"Excellent" replied the captian, "Sensors, scan the surronding area, tell me what you see."

"Sir, I report many medium sized ships in orbit around the planet direclty ahead. A number of other ships strung out in one primary direction. Some of them incoming, some of them outbound. Profiles are coming up now sir." reported the sensors officer.

"Ok then, we are here, and the enemy appears to be here too. We should be careful with what shipping we do and don't hit. All crews to their fighters, prepare to launch. Guns, bring up the power on your weapons. Shields, I want the shields brought up immediatley. Engineer Chief, go ahead and power up the gravity well projectors. It's time to announce the presence of doom." said the capitan in an ominous voice, elicinting slight chuckles from the crew eager for action.

On the planet...

Alarm klaxons blared across the spaceport. Most of the local civilians began running for the shelter. Returning back to his starfighter from the meeting, Captian Hans hurriedly leapt into his starfighter, and powered it up. He keyed his comm.

"This is Major Hans, report, what is going on?" he said into the comm unit. He almost immediatley got a reply.

"All ships, this is General Keyes. An enemy Interdictor cruiser has been detected coming up our way. It has already powered up it's gravity well projectors." reported the General. Major Hans took in a quick breath.

"This is the Major again. Any sign of escorts or starfighter deployment?".

"No, none. We are scrambling our starfighter squadrons to attack the ship. Major Hans, I am trusting to you the task of escorting the bombers in for their attack runs. Be careful, General Keyes out." said the General one last time before signing out.

Major Hans blew out the breath he had been holding in. He keyed his comm frequeinces, and changed to that of the one used by the starfighters. Looking over at his lover's ship, he powered up the repulsorlifts, and then keyed the comm.

"All starfighters, this is the major. General scramble, rise torwards the north-eastern quadrant, and wait there for my arrivial. Once there we will form up into squadrons and then attack an enemy inbound capital-class ship. This is not a drill." said the Major. Then, popping his canopy, he ran at a dead run to the nearest changing station to change into his flight suit, and retrieve his helmet from his quarters. Aayla was already awake, and was running torwards her own starfighter, fully dressed in her uniform. She shot him a glare, then a smile as they passed each other in the corridor. He increased his speed to the maximum. He had no time to lose.

Minutes later, he was again in the cockpit of his fighter, and powering up the repulsorlifts, he rose out of the docking bay. Goosing his thrusters, he headed for the north-western quardrant, where the other starfighters had already gathered. He glanced at his sensors, and shook his head. There were three and a half squadrons assembled now in orbit, including his starfighter, most of them A-wings, with a good mix of X-wings and Y-wings, and a couple of other kinds. He assigned his personnel into four squadrons. Squadron Alpha consisted of six Y-wings, with the six X-wings in the force escorting them. Squadron Beta consisted of eight A-wings escorting four Y-wings, while Squadron Charlie consisted of eight A-wings escorting four Y-wings also. This left Squadron Delta, consisting of two Z-95 Headhunters, and two R-41 Starchasters, escorting the final two Y-wings. With the squadrons formed up, they headed into space, in the general direction of the enemy Interdictor cruiser, which was coming their direction. They also saw that they it had no starfighter screen, and no escorting captial ships.

"Stay tight groups. Something is not right here." said the Major.

On board the Dominator Destroyer Binder...

"Sir, enemy starfigther group incoming from the main capital city on the planet. Incoming squadrons detected as consisting of sixteen A-wings, fourteen Y-wings, six X-wings, two R-41s, and two Z-95s. The enemy starfighters are divided into four squadrons sir, and are approaching us in a general crusing formation." reported sensors.

"Hangar Boss, deploy all squadrons. Comm, get me their frequencies." ordered the Capitan.

"Sir, you are now patched through to their comm units." reported the communications officer.

"Attention, all starfighter squadrons. Enemy squadrons reported inbound. Your primary task is to engage and eliminate the enemy Y-wings. All other craft are considered targets of opprtunity." Capitan Alderon ordered. He then signed off, and let go a small breath. So many enemy starfighter had not been anticipated. He hoped that Commodore Carson would arrive here soon with his backup, otherwise the Binder was in trouble.

Aboard the lead TIE Interceptor...

Lieutenant Askold watched as the range finder clicked down from five kilometers to four. He keyed his comm unit one last time to a general squadron frequencey.

"All units, primary targets are the enemy Y-wing bombers. Mass fire on the first pass, then break up into your individual assigned pairs. Primary wingmen are to go after the Y-wings. Secondary wingmen are ordered to keep other enemy starfighters off their back. And don't worry, there are plenty of enemy starfighters to go around. Leuitenant Askold out." The Leuitenant from Coruscant let out a sigh, then switched his comm frequencey to squadron standard.

"Ensign Yetter, you ready to vape some Y-wings?" asked Askold.

"Ready and eager commander." replied the young woman, also from Coruscant.

"Then let's do this. I'll take your wing and keep any enemy escorting fighters off your back while you go to work. And may the Sith be with you." declared Askold.

The range was now down to three kilometers. Askold put his thumb on his trigger. Then, a noise from his cockpit distracted him. It was the h.u.d., warning him that an enemy had a torpedo lock on his starfighter. He yelled into his comm for his wingman to break, then broke away from the incoming cloud of starfighters, heading straight up, followed by his wingman. Other craft in the squadrons broke and headed either up or down, exactly as rehearsed in the squadron breifing chamber. He no longer heard the tone of a target lock on his craft. Below him, the enemy starfighters engaged his own starfighters with laser cannons that had not broken off. They returned fire. Five bright explosions eclipped the landscape as the two groups of starfighters passed through one another. Three TIE Interceptors and two Y-wings had been hammered and exploded. Then the two groups of starfighters were hopelessley intermixed, until a moment later, when the Y-wings broke through and continued torwards the destroyer. The Lieutenant smiled. He then inverted and dove, followed by his wingmate.

On board the lead X-wing....

Major Hans could have cheered if he had wanted to. By getting targeting locks on the enemy starfighters, he and his wingmates had managed to get a number of them to break off at the last moment, allowing his pilots to concentrate their firepower on fewer craft, thus achieving more kills. Now the escort squadrons were mixing it up, and the Y-wings were largley getting though and beginning their run on the destroyer. He pulled out of a steep dive and was confronted head to head with a TIE Interceptor. He immediatley fired his lasers, but at the same time the squint immediatley broke off the run, realising who would have won the head to head. Major Hans shook his head, whoever these guys were, they were extremley good. Then, a series of explosions caused him to glance to port. There, the TIE Interceptors that had broken off earlier were pouncing on the Y-wings, destroying five of them in a single pass. The Major let his jaw drop, surpised that he had forgotten about them then realising that they had deliberatly stayed out of the engagement zone so that they could go after the Y-wings when they began their runs on the capital ship. He pressed his squawk button, ordering the remaining X-wings to come to his side. Four ships rose into formation with him. He looked at his sensor data.

"Where is Ensign Tabanne?" asked Major Hans, fearing he already knew what had happened to her.

"Damaged by squint fire sir, she was forced to eject. She is fine for the time being." replied Aaylna.

"Ok then group, our job is to protect the Y-wings, let's go after those squints." said the Major, then banking away from the engagement zone to go after the six TIE Interceptors now engaged with the Y-wing squadrons. Bringing his targeing reticle over one of the TIEs, he let loose with a hail of laser fire. He saw his lasers score the enemy starfighter's solar wing panel, and saw it come shearing off, the TIE now beginning to spin....

On board Askold's Interceptor

The cry came over the comm, the classical I'm hit, and for a second Leuitenant Askold didn't know what to say. He then issued the necessary orders.

"All starfighters, break off attack runs on Y-wings, and come around to engage pursuing starfighters. Ensign Yetter, report damage." ordered Askold.

"Sir, my solar wing panel is gone. I'm in a rapid spin, I cannot see where I am going, I..." a massive explosion cut off Yetter's damage report. Leuitenant Askold looked down, and saw where the ensign's interceptor had collided with a Y-wing, both starfighters being destroyed in a massive explosion. Gritting his teeth, he turned around to confront the X-wings. Now, vengeance would be his. He set his targeting reticle on an enemy X-wing starfighter, banking to go after a TIE Interceptor that had broken off it's attack run. He and the enemy X-wing both fired at the same time. The Interceptor that it had been pursuing exploded, and then the X-wing itself exploded into a million fragments, an ejection seat fired at the last minute being the largest intact piece, although itself was studded with fragments, Askold doubting that the pilot was still alive.

On board Major Hans's starfighter....

The Major watched as his wingman, his beloved, vaped another TIE Interceptor. He really admired her flying. Then he watched as green laser bolts stitched the rear of her starfighter. It exploded instantly, an ejection seat popping out at the last moment. He opened his mouth to scream, but immediatly went into shock instead. His starfighter banked away from the engagement zone and back torwards the planet. He was done, he was tired of the bloodshed, of the losses. Other starfighters joined him in the retreat, A-wings, a Z-95. The starfighter engagement was done, the majority of the Y-wings being vaped, their mission to destroy the enemy capital ship, failed. Hanging his head down, he began to cry over the loss of his loved one.

In orbit over Triffis...

The Dominator class Star Destroyer Binded fired up her engines, coming to engage a pair of Corellian gunships tasked with taking her down. Obviously the smugglers knew far less about this kind of ship if they thought that a measly pair of gunships could gun down such a ship. Out ahead of the star destroyer were the TIE Interceptors that were pursuing the remaining fleeing starfighters. The capitan gave a quick recall order calling them back to the ship. Now was not the time to be out there, with other gunships deploying to go after them if necessary. The remaining two and a half squadrons of TIE Interceptors acknolwedged the recall order, and formed back up into their respective squadrons, all of whom were missing one or two, if not several, pilots.

* * *

Askold swung his TIE Interceptor around, having vaped two more pilots, both flying Y-wings, to head back to the ship as per orders. And it was probably a wise choice as well he thought, for there were at least eight corellian style gunships out there, and of those, two were currently moving torwards the Binder, while another two were setting themselves up to where they could intercept the TIE Interceptors soon if need be. Askold smiled to himself. Clearly these gunships didn't realize the predicament they were in by choosing to engage the mammoth vessel. Or else they did realise it, and were merely seeking to distract the ship for something. He opened a comm to the vessel.

"Binder, be advised, these gunships are up to something. Standard smuggler tatics would not warrant the waste of these vessels." reported Askold.

"Roger that squadron leader. We are aware of the situation." retorted the communications officer.

"Roger, out." said Askold as he cut the communications line, "All pilots, form up on me. Let's clear out of here."

"Copy that flight leader." came a chorus of voices.

Askold proceeded to straighten his Interceptor out and headed back torwards the rapidly approaching star destroyer, looking forward to hopefully a little bit of time to recollect his thoughts and memories.

* * *

Major Hans led the remaining starfighters not down to the planet, but instead to a series of ships in orbit. He himself landed inside the bay of a modified corellian corvette, bristling with turbolaser cannons. He popped the canopy on his starfighter, and proceed to the bridge of the vessel to await orders. There he met, suprisingly enough, the Lieutenant that he had met earlier in the day when they had been given their briefing.

"Good effort out there Major, although I'm afraid that it wasn't good enough." said the Lieutenant.

"Thanks Lieutenant. Any word on pilot recovery?" asked the Major.

"Well yes unfortunatley. They were recovered, but not by us unfortunatley. An Imperial shuttle recovered them all. We tried to intervene, but could not get there in time." said the Lieutenant with a pang of regret and pity in his voice.

"Okay, thanks for the effort, even if it wasn't good enough. So now what is our course of action?" asked the Major.

"Well, we are attempting to take out the enemy Interdictor cruiser right now, with a pair of gunships." replied the Leiutenant.

"Wait, am I missing something? There is no way that an pair of gunships can take out an enemy interdictor." said the Major.

"That is not their mission. They are tasked with punching a hole in the shield to where they can get to and disable the gravity well projectors. If they succeed, then we will retreat immediatley, if they don't, then we will all launch and attack it from all sides." said the Lieutenant.

* * *

The capitan smiled as the gunships closed the range and opened fire with all their weaponry. The smile faded some as he noticed that they were targeting specifically the gravity well projectors. He ordered the helmsman to turn the ship forty five degrees to port. The gunships replied by turning forty five degrees to starboard. The Binder then unleashed her true complements of weaponry, turbolasers and ion cannons raining down on the enemy vessels. Both turned away sharply as they fell under this barrage, but it was too late. Both of them were disabled or destroyed in short order, one of them exploding violenty with it's missile magazine being penetrated by a turbolaser bolt, the other one simply being damaged and disabled by ion cannons.

Then the capitan watched as the entire remaining array of smuggler ships form up about and come torwards him and his ship. He frowned, and ordered that the rear half of gravity wells being shut down. Then he ordered a deep space message be sent to Commodore Carson.

* * *

The Lieutenant saw on his displays where the rear gravity wells were cut off.

"Interesting. He doesn't want us to escape, but at the same time, he's not willing to risk his ship." said the Lieutenant.

"Well then, let's proceed to engage him. One pass only, then proceed to lightspeed. Some of our ships take damage or are disabled, but the majority of our ships and personnel escape." said the Major, with the lieutenant nodding ascent.

The Lieutenant ordered all ships to full attack speed.

* * *

Commodore Carson glanced out the viewport of the Illustrious cruiser Indomitable as the ship reverted from lightspeed to normal space. The stars reverted to their normal lines, and there they were, just behind the Binder. He watched as the ships that were coming to engage the ship wheel around suddenly and flee the other direction, but far too late.

"All ships," ordered the Commodore, "Engage and destroy the enemy."