"One wonders," Trinity said lazily as the Coalition's announcement was replayed over the bridge speakers, "if they understand the language they speak."

There was some laughter at that: the Empire's message could not have been clearer, and the Coalition's response, while not unexpected, was ridiculous nonetheless.

"Tell them," the Line-Captain went on, "that this system belongs to the Empire. And that they [the Coalition] have six hours to be gone. Or we will drive them out."

Frakutsk had just been summoned and led into the Asteroid once more. The passageways totally threw off Frakutsk's usually reliable sense of direction, and Frakutsk found himself marveling at the architechture until he was adressed by a Verpine dressed in formal robes.

"The Verpine have considered the Coalition's offer."

Frakutsk nodded, bowed slightly, and wished that he had had more training as a Diplomat before he said.

"Andsa what verdict have yousa gotten to?"

"We have decided that, in light of recent events, we are required to accept your generous offer."

"Thisa is good news!"

"Indeed, but the Verpine wonder, what of the Imperial ship stationed outside the belt?"

"Yesa, they are problemsa. But mesa doubts that thosesa onboard aresa permitted to start asa war."

The Verpine made an anamolous face that looked like it included disgust and apprehension.

The diplomatic meeting proceeded politely for a while, and then ended. Frakutsk returned to the Enforcer corvette of the Mon Calamaris.



"Sir, while you were gone, those filthy Imperials sent us a message."

Frakutsk was mildly suprised, he coulden't think of anything the Imperials would want to say.

"Whatsa was dat?"

Rakebaz sneered, "Something about them being fat bullies and us having six hours to leave."

"Asa threat?"

"Yeah."

"Well... no matter what theysa says. Thisa our system now."

Rakebaz nodded.

"Tellsa them that thisa system has already agreed to become part of the Coalition, that this is Coalition space."

Rakebaz looked mildly suprised, "Me?"

"Yesa, you. Butsa leave out de part about thems being 'filthysa bullies'."

"Yes, sir."

Ariel Trinity listened to the Coalition's offering with a muted smile on her face. Clearly, the Galactic Coalition failed to grasp the situation. And it was quite clear that they where not planning on leaving.

Which left Trinity with only one option.

"Alert Command that we will be engaging Coalition vessels in the Roche system. All vessels, launch fighters, shields to full once they're clear.

"Give me a sensor sweep of the asteroid belt - target any rock with life signs. All batteries to commence firing on my mark."

Lined up as they were, it took the group only a moment to turn so that they could bring their guns to bare on the asteroid field.

"Captain, Command indicates they have received our message and is deploying a task force to assist you in clearing the asteroid field."

Trinity nodded.

One way or another, Roche would join the Empire. Not that that should surprise anyone.

"Very well. Jam enemy communications. From here on out, it's us and them."

She paused, considering.

"Let us show them we mean business. Forward guns, target the closest rock showing life signs and open fire."

There was a moment's hesitation, and then the guns of the Star Destroyer rumbled and sent their darts of energized destruction into the nearest asteroid.

It exploded spectacularly, and the fleet fell silent once more, waiting.

(Ships en-route: One Archangel Class Star Destroyer, Three Star Avenger Tactical Assault Platforms)

The flames shot up around the asteroid, engulfing it in a blazing inferno, so fiery and cataclysmic that it dazzled anyone looking directly at it.

Deep within the asteroid, a radio wave exploded from a small sphere and a bar on a holographic display lowered itself.

Then, the flames receded, like dust settling. Sections of space around the asteroid glowed strangely for a few moments, then everything was still.

Everything, including every one of the Vepine who froze in mid-task, the minds of millions springing into action. Telepathic communication rung through the entire system.

Hovering near the surface, the weapons of the Verpine suddenly raised themselves out of their asteroids, and they were a sight to behold. They bristled from every asteroid of significant size in the entire system, shining threateningly. If any two were exactly the same, it was sheer coincidence, for each weapon was a balance, or imbalance, between hundreds of aspects of technology.

Were the Imperials to fire, or charge up for firing, again, the Verpine would consider themselves forced to open fire. Any weapon that could would douse its enemy in its fire, which could be from classic lasers and Ion rays to tactical switches between exotic super-sonic pulses, which could tear through hulls, and electron streamrays, which were adept at disabling shields.




This time, Frakutsk wasn't summoned or escorted into the asteroid. His ship's communication had been cut off, and he needed to know what was going on.

He certainly didn't like the way it looked. The only reason that he could think of for such an abrupt jam was the Imperials, and if the Imperials had jammed communication, goodness knows what was next.

The first Verpine he saw greeted him politely and asked him if he needed anything.

"Mesa needs to know what'sa just happened!"

The Verpine visiably frowned, nodded, and motioned for Frakutsk to follow him. It was a short walk and Frakutsk knew that wherever he was going, the Verpine who he was with now was communicating with them as he walked.

Frakutsk was led to a small chamber, where another Verpine was waiting.

"Greetings, Frakutsk." Said the older-looking Verpine.

"Greetings," responded Frakutsk, and then promptly continued, "What'sa just happened?"

The Verpine shook his head sadly, "As you've probably guessed, my friend. It's the Imperials."

Frakutsk would not have know what to say, had he not been a Gungan. Instead he was startled and said, "But... yousa not dead yet..."

The wisened Verpine sighed, "Let me tell you a story," he began as he motioned for Frakutsk to sit down, "about Roche and the Vepine."

"A long time ago, as you know, the Verpine slowly began to recede from galactic society. We never made our reasons clear, and the process was slow enough that we never had to.

Of course, this was not for no reason. Our mechanic and computer specialists filled many important positions in the galaxy, and indeed their graceful resignations were very difficult things to coordinate for more reasons than one, but it was very neccisary.

Back here, at Roche, we needed every last Verpine we could get, because a terrible thing had stricken us. Apparently, we, and our position in the middle of a very imprtant trade route, had come to the attension of a vicious pirate clan called the 'Bomu'. These Bomu showed no mercy in destroying us and taking our asteroids as bases of operation.

We had been forced to adapt our technology and develop devises to conceal ourselves, or what was left of us, in a very few places. Slowly, from these places, we rebuilt.

It took all of our technological genius to create weapons, for we had very little time before the Bomu would have completely taken over. But, working tirelessly, we did it, and forced the Bomu out of the Asteroids.

At last, we were able to restore ourselves. We reproduced and spread throughout the entire asteroid belt. And, determained not to let millions of us be killed by those brainless pirates again, we created defences.

The Bomu and other pirates tried to destroy us again, but our defences held easily, and since then we have been left alone. We have been given time to improve our defences. We have been given time to fortify ourselves so that we would not be destroyed again, and might I say that our zealous engineers have truely proved themselves."

The corners of the old Verpine's mouth twisted upward, he was quite proud of his friends.

Frakutsk was stunned. An entire history! These Verpine had been through so much! And to think, the only mention of them on the galactic scale was the occasional mechanic who wished that whichever Verpine he knew was there to help with a particularly stumping problem.

All Frakutsk managed to say was, "So... thatsa being why yousa not dead yet."

The Verpine nodded deeply.

Not entirely sure exactly what to think, the one thing Frakutsk knew for sure was that this wasn't good.

(OOC- Unfortunately, the ships that you're sending were not created at the time of this thread. I think that that means they're not allowed.)

Coalition Command was a place of constant, furitive activity. Being the underdog in a galactic struggle meant you had to work much longer hours, and there was no such thing as a week-end. It also meant that there was someone watching everything, someone monitoring all activities and trying to keep an eye out for important things or emergancies. Were it not for the skill and dedication of the staff - each chosen carefully from many candidates - the Coalition could not operate. Their speed and their focus was what kept the Coalition together, as they were the link between the Coalition's leaders and their many operations.

That was why the report landed so quickly on Regrad's desk, and why he responded as fast as he did - Frakutsk was in trouble.

"How long have communications been cut?" he said, quickly throwing his day-clothes over his bath-robe.

"Only a minute or so, sir, but it's definetly not natural interference." said his aide, carrying the stack of reports at the Prime Minister's elbow. "We've compared his last few reports and signals, and we're pretty confident of what it is."

Regrad grimaced "Let me guess, the Empire, right?"

"Spot on, sir." he said "They're based close by, and sure to react aggressively to such a move on our part."

"Well, they can go hang!" he barked "I'll be damned if I let them take Roche simply because we want it." He calmed somewhat, and regained his more usual composure "I want a full alert on this one. Military deployment immeadietly - all available forces are to redirect from the Eastern Province and provide support to Frakutsk. I'll not lose so good a Gungan and brave an ambassador as he to this sort of circumstance."

"Sir, it is possible that it might NOT be the Empire..." added the aide.

"Well, if they cut his communications, I'm willing to bet they are." he said, directly "Even if they aren't they're not friendly. No, I won't take the risk. Send the soonest force out of the Eastern Province on the double!"

"And if they find the Empire, sir?"

Regrad paused, considering, and then turned to the aide "If they're responsible for this? Shoot to kill. Time we sent them a message."

(ooc: An unspecified fleet moving from Eastern Province to Roche)

"Response?" Trinity asked, watching as the targeted asteroid blew apart under the fire of the Eternal.

"Nothing yet, Captain. But we're reading increased energy levels on some of the asteroids - suggesting weapons systems."

The Captain nodded - the Verpine would be expected to have some defences, though their species was far to small to have inhabited the entirity of the Roche system, and indeed the sensor reports showed only a small number of weapons coming active in the field.

Nothing the Empire could not handle, if the need arose.

(I've done you the courtesy of posting what form my fleet and reinforcements take - none of this "unspecified fleet" bullshit, please.)

Zivv still wasn't finished with his device when it was ordered into deployment. There were several areas in which he felt his device was not yet sufficiant. The cathode system was not very well aligned, among a few other prominant things. Consequently, he had to go to quite a bit of extra effort to fix his device while it was already above the surface of the asteroid.

He had contancted a friend who was willing to let him borrow an R-7 unit. Now, he communicated with the droid as it conducted maintenence for him.

With an expert's eye, Zivv had the droid realign the cathode system until it was perfectly in place. At last, his electrons would be firing in the perfect beam.

Now, he just had to update the software for his targetting system. He had R-7 do it, and it didn't take a very long time. Now his electrons would be in a perfect beam and hit.... oh, what was it?... within a few nanometers of their target? Maybe 2.78? Zivv knew he should remember this...

Anyway, what was left? Oh, yes. Zivv told R-7 to activate the neutral energy emitter. Yep, they sure were playing up those 'cloakers.' Zivv always worried that their enemy would recognise the obvious contradiction that these devices created between how many Verpine there were and what the sensors sensed. But, then he remembered that, of course, their enemy had absolutely no knowledge of the Verpine history.

Finnally, Zivv told R-7 to make one last modification to the cathode system, he never could quite get happy with it. He convinced himself that it was good enough, and then had R-7 come back down, reminding himself that he should prbably clean R-7 before he gave him back to his friend.

It wasn't that far from the edge of the Coalition's Eastern Province to Roche, and already a fleet was moving from there. In the lead, the Claymore Battlecruiser Iron was commanded by none other then the foremost amongst White Knights, Ruuvan - recently returned from settling a racial dispute on Mon Calamari.

The calamarian stood over a tactical layout holographically emitted over a table. There, he could see maps of Roche, call-signs of his hastily assembled fleet, the lot. "We're flying blind." he said, with a sigh. "This isn't unlike the situation Regrad flew into over Kiyar - the one he's still marshalling a plan to deal with."

"Yes, sir." said a lieutenant quickly assigned to relaying the orders of the Knight "It is true that we do not know the circumstances of this sudden blackout, but for it to be another alien attack of unknown origin seems unlikely - Roche is considerably more centrally placed in the galaxy then Kiyar, it would not go unnoticed."

"True." said Ruuvan, circling the table "But then, Kiyar didn't go unnoticed, did it? That's why I think Regrad reacted how he did - didn't want to take any chances this time. Doesn't want to lose another world." Ruuvan sighed "It's our job to make sure that doesn't happen. No matter if it's alien, Imperial, or what-have-you out there, we're tearing it apart if it threatens Roche - I've read our dossier on the Verpine, I really doubt it's them who're trying to pick a fight."

Ruuvan wandered back to the center of the command bridge in thought. He had with him every ship the Eastern Province could spare, mostly in the hopes they'd be back intact within a day or two. A dozen battlecruisers, twice as many Longswords, and plenty of escorts and fighters - it was a veritable armada. Regrad really had gone all out this time, and Ruuvan could only wonder if that would be enough.

"Double check our course and make us ready for arrival. It might be rough."

The Imperial fleet continued to hold its position, seemingly unwilling to fully engage the Verpine defences and see the unncessesary waste of life, or perhaps to risk their ships in the midst of the asteroid field itself.

Frakutsk was quite on edge. The imperials weren't attacking. This was good. The way Frakutsk saw it, if the Imperials woulden't attack, the Verpine certainly woulden't, and if no one was attacking, that gave him time to figure out a solution to this mess. Could he just leave, and consider Roche a full memeber of the Coalition? Maybe, he thought, but he didn't feel comfortable with it at all. He had a bad feeling about the near future.

Finding no course of immediate action that would be beneficial, Frakutsk's deep thought, not entirely through concious decision, turned into meditation.

He would think and wait.