A blinking light on his console alerted to the sensors officer to the imminent arrival of another ship into the system. The officer hovered his hand over the alarm switch, prepared to sound a general alarm should the new arrival prove to be an unknown or hostile. However, the ship was immediatly classified as an Imperial Regent class star destroyer, and a moment later, the computer classified the ship's transponder I.D. as the Fuhrer. The sensors officer turned from his station to announce the new arrivial to the captain.

"Captain, Regent class star destroyer Fuhrer has arrived in system and is heading for her pre-assigned orbital pattern." reported the sensor's officer, before turning back to his station to resume his watch duties.

"Very well. It seems all of the captial ships are present and accounted for, Admiral." informed the captain of the destroyer they were currently standing on, the Imperator Mark V Tyranny.

Admiral Kraken took a quick stride to the forward viewport to gaze out at the new arrival, before turning back to face the captain.

"Indeed. Send out a signal addressing all arrivials, meeting onboard the flagship in one hour's time." ordered Kraken, taking his leave of the bridge to head to his personal quarters.

"Aye sir." acknowledged the captain with a crisp salute. The tubby character of medium height turned to his communications officer.

"You heard the man. Send a signal to all ships. Meeting onboard the Tryanny in one hour's time." ordered the captain. The communications officer acknowledged before going about his duties, leaving the captain to pace the bridge and keep a close eye on the other men under his command.

* * *

The last of the officers assembled into the meeting room, well within the one hour time limit set for the start of their meeting. Present were the commanders of the Fuhrer and Regent, line captain's Abe and Karl, respectivley, along with the commander of the fleet's starfighter and ground assault forces. Also present were the protocol droids that would record the meeting's minutes and conversations.

Last to arrive, flanking each other through the doorway, came captain Fungu, and Admiral Park Kraken, leader of the MRP forces and overall commander for the planned assault to come.

"Let me begin by thanking you all for your promptness in showing up on time. I value punctality very highly in the officers under my command." stated the Admiral, before gesturing for everyone to be seated.

"Now then, to the matter of which you all have been summoned here today..." began Park as he walked over to a holotable and activated it. The image of a single planet, with three moons around it, swept onto the screen.

"The Carione planetery system. The planet you see here is named Truk, and will be the objective of our new offensive. The planet is surrounded by three medium sized moons, labeled at this time as Alpine, Blackvine, and Cedar. Any questions so far?" paused the admiral to make sure everyone was keeping up. He was suprised to see one raised hand.

"Yes, general Keeva?"

"Is our objective only the planet, or are we to assault the moons as well?" inquired the general.

"For the time being, according to our information, the moons are devoid of life and use, so we will focus our attention on the planet. If we later discover the moon's to be a threat, then we can assault and capture them, if need be." answered Park, before moving on.

"According to intelligence gathered by probots and intelligence agents, Truk serves as home to a black market shipbuilder, of sorts. In other words, we are dealing with a corporation that builds starships, but mostly warships, to sell to uncouth third parties. Most of these starships are small, but there are a few reports of larger capital ships, so we will need to be on our guard." stated the admiral as he swept his eyes around the room. None of the officers were paying anything other than strict attention to his briefing. Good.

"We will approach the system from this point...."

Roche Asteriod Belt

The trio of star destroyers were busy taking on supplies from the Imperial station within the system. Two of them, the Regent class star destroyers Fuhrer and Monarch, were almost completed, while the third destroyer, the Tyranny, progress was going a little slower because of her bigger bulk.

Governer/Vice Admiral Park Kraken took this opportunity to make a tour of the station that defend this system from Coalition or otherwise outside aggression. Their progress had been slowed by an accidental reactor leak on the destroyer Regent, meaning that she had to go to the shipyards of Corellia for repairs, while the Monarch took her place in the small battlefleet. Luckily, no one had been killed in the accident, although several crew members had to be treated for radiation poisioning.

A steady stream of shuttles were heading to and from the station, carrying supplies, munitions, and other tools and provisions as needed . Docked at the station was the supply convoy that had met the Imperial fleet within the system, consisting of four Titan class cargo haulers and an escorting Ferro class medium cruiser, the Mucinex.

The station was fairly impressive in the Admiral's view, but as time wore on he became bored, and hitched a ride on an Imperial supply shuttle back to his flagship, the Tyranny.

His arrivial was fortunate, since a message now recieved by the communications officer on the bridge indicated that all provision of the three ships was completed.

"Ok soldiers, we have an appointment to keep. Captain, get us moving out." ordered the admiral as he took his station on the bridge. The Monarch and Fuhrer fell into flanking positions around the flagship as the trio of wedged shaped battleships moved away from the mass shadows of the asteriod belt and into open space, preparing for the jump into hyperspace.

"Aye sir. Helm, all ahead flank, and prepare to engage the hyperdrive. Seal all space doors, and have everyone belt down." ordered the captain as he settled into his chair.

Moments later the fleet made the jump into hyperspace, bound for the Carione planetery system.

Rear-Admiral Jorshin Kadil was the overall commander of the planet of Truk's naval forces, although he was not the senior commander of the planet's military forces. But, except by direct order from his superior to do so otherwise, he had the directive of dealing with any problems in the space surrounding the planet. It was into his lap that the soon to be problem would fall.

The first indication of trouble was the blaring of certain alarms that denoted the detection of cronau radiation, indicating that a ship or ships were exiting hyperspace. Ordinarily, this alarm was a small beeping one, but then other sensors detected the size of the incoming ships and noted that they were large vessels, setting off a slightly louder, more urgent alarm.

Officer Jones was monitoring the sensors, concern furrowing his face as he read his instruments. He called over his superior to have a look.

"Sir, we have three large ships exiting hyperspace in sector twelve, distance from upper orbit three hundred kilometers. Each ship is over one thousand meters in size." reported Jones.

His superior walked over and for a moment studied the information before hurrying back to his own station.

"Calling up visual view of that sector of space now." muttered the superior as his fingers flew over the keys.

An image came up on the main monitor, and there were several gasps around the room as the officers and anaylsts immediatly recognized the familiar triangle ships of the Galatic Empire. Although nowadays those ships were commonly seen in other goverments as well.

"Identification, I want identification on those class of ships." yelled the superior sensors officer, sending the anaylsists scrambling to do their jobs.

A mere moment later, one of them had an answer.

"Star Destroyer, Regent class, only known user, the New Order." reported the officer, showing his source as various news holocomms and reports.

"Sir, I've identified the lead ship. It registers as the Tyranny, an Imperial Mark V star destroyer." spoke up another officer.

The superior took another look at the screen, and could notice some different features from the lead ship and the two flanking vessels, although they were enough alike in size to be mistaken from one class to another. Oh well, the Galatic Empire had so many damn different types of ships anyways. Probably didn't like the particular shade of white paint from the previous class to introduce the new class.

"Get me the admiral!" yelled the superior officer to the communications assistant.

* * *

"What in the hell are those ships?" muttered the admiral incredously as he eyed a trio of three distant white specks from onboard the Golan II battlestation which served as his flagship of sorts.

"Sir, communication from the main sensors station." reported his aide, a beautiful young broad from the planet below.

"About bloody damn time." the admiral again muttered as he jabbed his finger on the comm unit.

"This is Admiral Kadil. This had better be good." he almost yelled into the comm unit.

"Major Kirill sir. We've identified a trio of star destroyers that had entered into our system, sector twelve. The lead ship is identified as the New Order Imperial Star Destroyer Mark V Tyranny. The two vessels flanking her have been identified as New Order Regent - class star destroyers." ran through the major before pausing for both breath and to await word from his superior.

"Any communication from them yet?" asked the admiral.

"None sir. We are monitoring all frequencies. No detected transmissions between their ships either." reported the major.

"This doesn't bode well. We'll be going up to alert status two." muttered the admiral.

"Aye sir." responded the major before going off the air.

"Cindy..." began the admiral, addressing his aide.

"Yes sir?" she asked innocently, not sure what the admiral wanted.

"Send an alert to the fleet, all hands battlestations. Tell the planet defense force to activate the planetery shield, all traffic is to come to a halt until I or a superior orders otherwise." ordered the admiral.

"Yes sir." she responded before going to work on the comm units.

Moments later, alarms began blaring throughout the station. The other defense stations and various capital ships scattered around the planet's orbit came to life and started forming into cohesive fighting units if need be.

"What do they want..." wondered the admiral through gritted teeth.

"The fleet is assembled and awaiting your orders sir." reported the comms officer after recieving signals from the destroyers flanking the flagship.

"Have them standby for now. The time for action is later, the time for talk is now." responded Park.

He stood there in front of the viewport for a good five minutes, letting his gaze wander from the Golan II platforms and military vessels forming up in the orbit of the planet, to the civilian stations and traffic scattered about, and finally to the planet itself.

"Open a channel, general frequency." ordered the vice admiral.

"Yes sir, channel is open." replied the comms officer.

Park brought out his comm unit and clicked on the transmit button, taking a moment to compose himself and wet his mouth before speaking.

"Attention citizens and rulers of the Truk planetery system, this is Governer Park Kraken of the New Order. I wish to open negotiations between the Galatic Empire and the rulers of this planet. To whom may I speak on this matter?" asked the admiral over the open comm waves before signing off and awaiting a reply.

He didn't have to wait long.

* * *

Rear-admiral Kadil listened to the message broadcasted from the flagship of the New Order fleet, and waited a moment or two before deciding to issue a response.

"Governer Kraken, this is Rear-Admiral Kadil of the Royal Truk Space Navy. May I inquire as to your intentions within this system?" asked the admiral, playing for a little time while the leaders were woken up and dressed.

* * *

"Our intentions eh? Either this man is stupid or is playing me for a fool..." muttered Kraken under his breath as he wondered how anyone could mistake the intentions of three large capital ships of war entering into a planetery system in which they have no affiliation.

"Rear-Admiral Kadil. Our intentions are peaceful as of the moment, we wish only to speak with your planetery leaders, to negotiate with them, to open talks." replied Kraken, keeping his voice cool.

* * *

Peaceful? But only for the moment? Hmmm thought Kadil to himself as he pondered the governer's reply.

"You say you wish to open negotiations with the leaders. What do these negotiations or talks concern?" replied Kadil, looking for the Empire's true purpose in being here.

* * *

He's cute. Very cute. thought Kraken as he struggled now to retain his composure. He decided that that was enough subletly, and to let the truth be known.

"We are here to negotiate Truk's petition to become a member world of the New Order." said Kraken simply, waiting for the rear-admiral's response.

* * *

Dammit.

Kadil's worst fears were realized when Governer Kraken issued those orders.

But maybe the Governer was of the reasonable type.

"And if we refuse to open negotiations?" asked Kadil with a slight quiver in his voice.

* * *

In his mind, Kraken could see himself rolling around on the floor in laughter on the bridge of his flagship.

But instead of doing that, he merely smiled in the direction of the front viewport.

"Truk will become a member world of the New Order, one way or another. Either we can open talks and peacefully settle that transition from neutrality into the New Order, or we can do it in a less...peaceful...manner." stated the governer.

* * *

Gulp

So much for that idea.

Kadil signaled for comm to close the connection, then put in a call to the planet below.

"Have the leaders and their staffs been awakened?" asked Kadil in a nervous voice.

"Yes they have, and listened in to your little exchange." replied High Admiral Horun, overall commander of Truk's military forces.

"What do they want us to do?" Kadil asked.

"Maintain your alert status, stay on your toes, and we'll negotiate for the time being. I'm transmitting you the location and time for which the Imperial delegation will be recieved. See if they'll accept it." offered Admiral Horun.

"Very well sir. Close connection." said Kadil as he recieved the information.

"Open the connection to the governer." ordered Kadil as he read the information off of the flimsiplast sheet and memorized it.

"Sir, he's on the line." reported the comms officer.

"Governer Kraken, I have a proposal from the leaders for a meeting. They propose holding the negotiations onboard the Golan II station Krieling in six hours." rattled off the admiral from his memory.

* * *

Kraken smiled and shook his head as he heard the admiral's proposal.

"I'm afriad that simply will not do, rear-admiral Kadil. As the visitors, we insist on hosting the leaders onboard our flagship, the Tyrannic, in one hour's time... or else." counter-proposed the governer, before signing off.

Let's see how this affects their composure... though the governer with the smile on his lips curling upwards even more.