More and more soldiers landed on Hephastus. The few cities held armies many times the Revoloutions' size The forestswere being combed. Surely they were doomed, now.

Yolem led on deeper into the woods, pressing ahead with a gun hrld tightly in both hands. The At-Ats are coming to meet them. From there they'll get deeper into the woods and avoid capture.

The sounds of their pursuers suddenly broke into a terrified scream. Regrad returned, on his ship, the Day-Break. It struck deep into the forest, and The Revoloutionaries cheered as they hurried to meet him. A great general, a symbol, thats' what they needed...

Regrad was breifed on the situation. Ourvix had alwalys been weak-willed. A nice man, but abit weak willed. Now he was dead, and Dolash was over-confident.

Well he had another thing coming, the @#%$. The fleet was loyal to him, all he had to do was get to the Command Tower in the main millitary complex and he could end the damn war now.

His men armed themselves with what weapons they had, and lay in wait near the base. Regrad, his ship, and the Ten At-Ats were behind the other side. Dolash was in this fortress, preparing to expand his holdings. If they killed him then... He had no Idea what would, happen, but he was hoping it wasn't determinimal. He'd prefer to catch him alive.

The Guns roared, and battered the walls of the compound with ringing shots of doom. Terrifying bolts of Crimson and turquoise light arced across the plains from many different weapons. Cracks appeared on the impact zones, and noise roared from the barrles.

Then the enemy fired back. Terrible streams of deadly light smashed into the revoloutionaries. The At-Ats were pummled with more lasers then anything else. But then the huge shape of the MC-40a raised into view, and launched much energy bolts into the walls.

Hell rained lose into the defenders' lines, as they were hit from both sides. Terror racked them as explosions scattered onto the wall-tops. The battle was fierce, and it had only just begun.

Josef Aghrad was on a routine patrol of the Calamari system. It was the same route he had taken every day for the last few years. Nothing had ever happened. He just flew around, then went home. But today would be different.
"Sir," his communications specialist said, breaking the usual silence of the patrol "I'm recieving a message. The signal is very weak, but I think we should be able to catch some of it."
That was strange.
"Put it on." Aghrad said.
His comm unit burst with a crackle, and then a broken voice started talking. "This is ..... Regrad of ..... Azgardi .... ctic .... Military. Our leader, Dolash ... becom ... insane. He ... killing ... ryone for .. fun of ... An rebelli... has be.. organized. We reques... immidia... ass...tance in fight.. this threat. If ...nyone rec..ves this, please ... to our aid. Come to " He then listed some coordinates.
"Hmmm," Josef said. "Send a message to the fleet, tell them that we're going to investigate. Then set course for that system."
"Sir," the navigational expert spoke up, "Those coordinates are in Wild Space."
"I don't care. They need help. Let's go."
"Yes, sir."
When the message was sent, the twelve MC-10 Starfighters set course for the place said by Regrad. Josef watched as the stars turned into long lines, signalling a successful jump to hyperspace.
"We should arrive at 0300. Be prepared." he said.
<hr />
They were about to arrive. Aghrad began to wonder what they would find. Would it be a planet, or a fleet gathering to strike? He would soon find out.
He watched as the clock ticked down, and with a jolt the sqaudron reverted to realspace.
Right in front of an Imperial Star Destroyer. A beep from Aghrad's sensor board caused him to look down. There was at least three other Star Destroyers and some Cruisers out there.
"@#%$!" he said. "Let's get out of here." His squadron turned to leave, but not fast enough. In an eyeblink, eight of his pilots were destroyed by the Star Destoyer.
"Evasive maneuvers!" He shouted. Two more of his fighters were incinerated. It was just him and Dack now. An alarm blared in his ear, signalling that his shields were down. He heard a thump from his engine area, and quickly checked there status.
They were shot. He desperately tried to restart them, but to no avail. He looked out, expecting to see the giant triangle shape of the Star Destroyer coming ever closer, but instead he was met with the sight of a planet.
And the surface was coming on fast.
<hr />
When he awoke Aghrad found his entire body coursed with pain. For some time his only thought was that he was alive. It was all that mattered. But soon his vision began to clear.
He knew he had problems when he saw a black mark blocking out most of his eyesight. Perhaps he ahd not been so fortunate.
After a while he realized that it was something blocking his vision. He moved to brush it out of the way, and with a sudden horror he realized that it was the bloody stump of what was left of his left arm.
He stared down of the part that was still left attached to his body. It was spilling his green blood everywhere, and he realized that he would have to stop it before he bled to death. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and tied it tightly to the stump, then rummaged around for the med pack. When he found it, he pulled out a painkiller patch and slapped it onto his shoulder.
After he felt like he was capable of moving, he popped open the hatch on his fighter. It opened partway, and then hit something hard and unyielding. He crawled out through the gap that was there, and looked around.
He was in the middle of a forest. He could see the wreckage of another fighter nearby, and he could see a Mon Cal sitting on a stump nearby, feasting on a self heating meal. He rushed over.
"Dack! Are you alright?"
The Mon Cal turned to look at him, and asped in horror. "Your arm!"
"I'm fine." He looked around catiously. "I have no idea where we are, but I think we should get moving. Hopefully there will be somewhere where we can make a call to the fleet."
"Yeah, let's go." Dack stood up, and they started walking throguh the forest, not knowing where they were headed, or even if there was any intelligent life on the planet.
But they were alive.

The revoloutionary forces were fighting for their freedom, and Urofax was left to guard base camp. He felt embarassed at the thought of brave deeds going on, and him saying "Yup, I guarded that base, even when nothing happened"

But a large streak of flaming ship is something. He and his hand-picked unit of twenty men rushed to the down site, to find a crashed ship. It was strange, covered in markings, and near it were two squid-people, one leaking green stuff all over the place. Cautiously, the team approached, until unfamiliar voices shouted in Azguardian:

"Stick your... flippers... where we can see them!" Loyalist troops stood, guns poised to fire, looking at the two aliens. Urofax wasted no time, and his unit leaped towards the Loyalists.

A spray of fire from each side ensured, but the surprise and cover for the Revoloutionaries gave them an edge. After a rapid fight, the Loyalists were in retreat. Now what about the aliens?

Urofax approached one, and prodded it with his rifle...

Aghrad watched as the scene unfolded in front of him. These... aliens must have seen his fighter going down, and had come to investigate. He suspected that one of the groups was the rebellion soldiers, and the other was the evil forces. But who was who?

When one of them stepped forward and prodded him, he jerked in alarm. He pushed the gun away and said "Point that thing somewhere else." Immidiately all twenty troops snapped their guns into position.

He raised his intact arm over his head.

The group of soldiers were suscpicous of their new arivals, and immeadietly decided to take them to their commander. The fact that he was in the middle of a battlefield did not deter them.

So with much hand-signs and pointing of fingers they directed the aliens to the battlefield.
____________________________________________________

The combat around the fortress was intense. The walls had crumbled and the Azguardian rebels had swarmed over it like ants on sugar. Now they had raised the flag of revoloution and their home-base in the middle of the compound grounds. Artillery bombarded the main building, pot-shots whizzing between the two sides.

The prisoners were taken before the General, Regrad, in the command tent. A tall, grey, fanged, fearsome warrior, standing at a stratiegic map, looked them in the eye.

"Did you come to our distress signals?"

OOC:In case your wondering Mon Cal blood actually is green, I didn't just make that up.
EDIT-4,908 words, Hurrah! And we've still got plenty more to do!

IC: Aghrad looked nervous, jumping each time an explosion went off, which was often.

"Yes, sir, we did. We were far away, so the message did not vcome through very strong. We missed a few bits and pieces, but I think we got most of it." He paused to think for a moment.

"Do you have a long-range communications device? I may be able to call High Command and get them to send in a fleet."

Seeing the confused look on General Regrad's face he continued. "I am a Mon Calamarian. The starfighters you saw crash were all that is left of my sqaudron. We were shot down by a Star Destroyer in orbit. The Mon Calamari Republic's Supreme Commander, Admiral Teebo, will see this as an act of war against us, and I am sure he will offer his aid."

Regrad was unsure, but accepted. "Just don't kill anyone" The radar dish was ontop of the fortress though, so a path needed to be cleared. Yolem and a unit of rocketiers lay down a cover-fire wave to knock out the two turbolasers nearby. Then a unit of troopers rushed up the ladder.

Firing quick bursts of stunner fire the unit advanced across the roof. Enemy soldiers broke in the face of determined advance. Several explosions followed as the last resistance was cleared, and the Calamari were escorted upwards to call in the big guns

Ahgrad sat himself down at the communications console, and targeted the signal to Calamari. He switched it own and the familiar look of a Mon Cal face greeted him.

"This is Commander Aghrad." he said. "I must speak to Admiral Teebo immidiately."

The Mon Cal replied "At once sir." The scene flashed to show an image of the MCR insignia, a sign that his call was being rerouted. The screen flashed again, this time to the face of Admiral Teebo.

"I recieved your report of the message you recieved, Commander." Teebo said. "Where are you now?"

"I am on a planet deep in Wild Space." he said. Aghrad turned to the side for a moment, talking to some one out of view. "A planet called Hephastus (sp?). I was shot down when I arrived by several Star Destroyers sitting in orbit. They belonged to the Loyalist faction, the one the rebels were fighting against. Ten of my pilots were killed, and myself and one other crashed on the planet." He paused for a moment to gather his breath. "We were then picked up by a group of Rebels, who are currently assaulting the Loyalist fortress, but they have no space vessels. We need your help. I request you send a fleet to aid them. I am sure they will reward you."

Teebo nodded slowly, gathering in all that had been said. "If they shot you down, I will most certainly come to your aid, as well as that of these... Azgardians, I believe you said they were called."

"Yes, sir, that's what they call themselves."

"Well, I'll be there as soon as possible. I'll also want to speak to their commander when this mess is all over. I'd be interested in hearing where they came from, and how they managed to get some Star Destroyers. Calamari out." He cut the transmission.

This was certainly interesting, Jeori thought. These Azgards were in some sort of Civil war, where the good guys were badly outnumbered. Much like his own war against the ogue Empire. Hopefully their's would not end the way that his had.

"Take us to Hephastus, Captain." He said. "All of the First and Second fleets."

"Are you certain? That might be a little much." the Captain replied.

"Perhaps we can scare them into surrendering."

"Yes sir." Several seconds later, Teebo was greeted with the familiar rumble associated with a jump into hyperspace. The stars faded into long streaks, and they were on their way.

<hr />

"We're about to arrive." the Captain of the Viscount said.

"Excellent." Teebo replied. He watched the sconds tick down, and when they reached zero, the starlines changed into distant pinpricks, and a planet materialized before him. They had arrived.

"Admiral!" a sensors officer shouted "Five Star Destroyers and various other Cruisers have been detected in blockade formation."

"Open a channel." Jeori said. "And give me a visual."

"Done, sir."

A strange looking alien materialized on his screen. "I am Jeori Teebo of the Mon Calamari Republic." he said. "Surrender now, or we will be forced to open fire."

He awaited the strange creature's reply.

The Azguard fleet surrendered without another word. They had already questioned Dolash, and this was the final straw. The Mon Cals were alowed acess to Hephastus.

On the world, only the most loyal and elite troops protected Dolash now. The Rebels prepared to do a final strike. All they needed was support from the mon-cals