Day 1 -- 0735

Chief Minister of the Minos Lesser Union (MLU) is found dead in his chambers. There is no apparent cause of death. The vice minister takes over as Chief Minister of the Minos Lesser Union.

Day 1 -- 1253

Following a swift autopsy, it is found that the Chief Minister was poisoned, several suspects are laid out including members of the cabinet of the MLU Chiefs of Staff. Six generals and an admiral are relieved of duty.

Day 1 -- 1750

The Minos Greater Union (MGU) places its forces on alert status.

Day 3 -- 0945

The MLU Senate convicts General Deram Tkriz of conspiracy to murder the Chief Ministe and is sentenced to life in prison. The other chiefs of staff await await their own trials in their own cells. MLU forces suspect that MGU is involved.

Day 8 -- 0800

Newly emplaced Chief Minister Sean Karl outlines the ultranationalist plans for the MLU. Stating that the 'tyrannical governments of the twin moons' must yield and accept the dominance of the MLU/MGU sovereignties, he sends a pair of warships into the fringes of Karean Parliament space. The Karean Parliamet - rulers of Sesharile 5 and 6 - demand that the MLU fleet withdraws.

Day 10 -- 0900

When a peaceful resolution cannot be assured, The Karean Parliament seizes several political hostages belonging to the MLU. The MGU condemns this act publicly.

Day 10 -- 1036

The MLU enters negotiations with the Karean Parliament to discuss the release of the hostages.

Day 10 -- 1620

After a failed attempt at diplomacy, the three emmissaries from the MLU are killed as well as four of the twelve hostages. Minister Karl orders the MLU fleet to open fire on the industrial planet. Hundreds of civilians are killed with minimal impact on military targets.

Day 12 -- 1854

Chief Minister Sean Karl declares war on the Karean Parliament and begins with several attacks on outlying bases. The MGU condemns this act as well, and dispatches peace keepers.

Day 15 -- 0900

Admiral Stargrin receives a distress signal from the MGU while on patrol just outside the Yaga Minor Protectorate. Relaying this back to Bakura, President Griff gives the go ahead to intervene and mediate as necessary.



Mon Calamari-Class MC90a Star Cruiser Nova Gaze
Day 15, 1245

The captain's feet tapped down against the durasteel with a constant ringing tone to them, accentuated by the near silence of the corridors he walked through. The floors he walked on now felt more stable than that of the Star Destroyer he had recently served on, which were generally lined with grates rather than actual decks.

But the floor was the least of the captain's worries at the moment. He didn't care what it was like, it could have a million holes in it right now and he would probably hardly even notice. Rather he was being drawn ahead down the various corridors, turns, and lifts that took him to the command chambers.

A place he'd only been a handful of times in his live - enough to count on one hand. Captain Stargrin was still young at thirty-two, and it was shown by his being the only one holding a flag rank without any sign of greying or balding hair. He had risen through the ranks relatively quickly - a great series of promotions due in part to the education he received back home.

Just a month ago he would not have been allowed to even watch a captain enter a command chamber in fear that he might glimpse some kind of valuable intelligence that could later be extracted.

Now here he was, commanding his own ship, walking down the halls with his own staff, making his way to his own command chamber to discuss political situations. It sent both a thrill and a feeling of anxiety through him at the same time.

He was being called from a rather important duty as it was - monitoring the routes in and out of the Yaga Minor sector of space, the stronghold of Bhindi Drayson's own private Empire. President Griff had called it a priority objective - and now here he was going to deal with a dispute literally on her door ste.

If that wasn't an invitation for an Imperial fleet he did not know what was.

Maybe Admiral Me'Vere had them tied up in the Core in the midst of his Tyrant's Bane campaign, and Ubiqtorate forces would be unable to try to interfere with the peace process.

But what had inspired President Griff to recall Stargrin and his ship in orde to help some ex-Imperials was beyond him. The man was kind of odd for a ruler...too moral in Stargrin's opinion.

He was too much of a believer and not enough of a, well, bullshitter. He was unwilling to tell a lie or walk a little outside the line for the greater good. He was too into dotting every i and crossing every t.

So now an entire Mon Cal Cruiser was being sent to intervene with a brewing war between a corrupt Karean Parliament and a Minos Lesser Union fleet just itching to bear down onto the former.

Just as the thoughts began to cross his mind, he found himself stopping in front of the enormous double blast doors that made up the entrance to the command chamber. On either side there were two standing ready guards, weapons held at the ready over their chests.

Stargrin simply reached over and punched in his code, causing the doors to slowly grind open. In the moments it took for the enormous black barriers to part, he turned to the staff on either side of him.

His tactical advisor stood to his right, Commodore Dwaren, a middle-aged man who had seen a bit too much combat in his life, which showed by the wrinkles that had assailed a large portion of his visage, and his ghostly white hair at age forty.

But the man was a genious of a commander and that was exactly what Stargrin had been looking for.

To his immediate left, there was another relatively young figure, a twenty-nine year old fields specialist whose job it was to map out and identify advantageous terrain. If it came to any kind of ground conflict in the Minos Cluster, Stargrin specifically wanted Lieutenant Yerald.

Behind him stood Lieutenant Commander Antrion, the executive officer of the ship and therefore needing almost every bit of information the captain did in the instance of his absence or his untimely death.

Seeing as Stargrin had a habit of leading from the front, either possibility was not that farfetched, especially with two trigger-happy governments vieing for power of a major star cluster.

Stepping through the now open passage way and taking a left - there was a wall erected just past the door as a kind of barrier so none could see what exactly was arrayed in the command chamber if they passed by - Stargrin tried to conjure up all the images and lessons he'd heard on the Minos Cluster throughout his life.

All he really knew for a fact was that it was a major trade-cluster that used to be in the firm hand of the Empire, just bordering Yaga Minor and Garqi. However with the wars of late...the cluster simply slipped away from the New Order's grasp, and the totalitarians who used to run it confederately now had a complete and independent hold over their own specific systems.

Not to say the entire Cluster was one of heart-break and murder, but most of it was.

Especially Shesharile Five and Six, the "Twin Moons" that were bound by the Karean Parliament. The corrupt officials there drove the people with an iron fist, utilizing Imperial technology and culture in order to drive the normally beautiful moons into nothing but industrial waste lands, much like Raxus Prime or Coruscant's Underground.

Stargrin's father had been to Shesharile Five, he had not come back with nice things to say about it.

He had said the smaug was so thick it could probably kill an Ewok, and the people were unclean, unbathed, and unwelcoming. Swoop gangs that could not be held by the LA-LA (the private military prefect guards of the Karean Parliament) ravished those people who the Karean Guard did not.

Theft, rape, murder...these were as common as any other words down there. Unfortunately maybe even more so.

When Griff had first given the order to intervene, Stargrin had spoken with Yerald extensively about "what ifs", most poignantly being "what if it came to ground warfare?". He had said that it would be the captain's job to make sure it didn't, because there was no way that armored vehicles were going to navigate without heavy collateral damage.

Just what the young captain needed.

The command chamber - much to Stargrin's surprise - was completely filled, and before he had arrived too. Taking a glanec down at his chronometer he wanted to make sure he wasn't late.

Though it turned out it was quite the contrary, he was five minutes early. Looking back up, the aged men around the table watched him curiously, as though measuring what the new captain would do on his first mission out.

Realizing this was as much a test by the men as it was by the president, Stargrin adjusted his coat and cleared the few feet between himself and the enormous conclave table in a few steps, pulling out one of the onyx chairs and seating himself in it.

He nodded his head to the other members of the ship's command, the various commanders who made up the heiarchy of the tactical, fire control, marine corps, and navigational systems of the ship and the like. This was, if not the heart, truly the brain of the vessel.

"Gentlemen," Stargrin started, allowing himself to bring eye contact with most of the commanders before looking down at the flimsiplast in front of him. The room's lights were intentionally dimmed for two reasons: one if there were a spy present it would be that much more difficult to observe what was going on and two if they were going to use the holo projector in the center of the table, they did not want the bright lights to effect the maps.

On the flimsiplast before him, illuminated by the green and blue glow of the holo map that was floating before them of the Minos Cluster, there were several reports of skirmishes throughout the sector that would be pivotal in his plans for intervention.

Looking up at his fellow commanders, he finally just let it all go in one sigh, placing his palms against the table.

"We will be reverting into real space in four hours. In which case we will be entering the Minos Cluster - this is border line Imperial space. If the Ubiqtorate wanted to take advantage of this scenario it would simply take a flick of a wrist and we could have a major Imperial warfleet on our hands.

"I'm sure you have all been briefed on the situation nonetheless though, we have been called in here as peace keepers to keep the lid on a war between the Minos Lesser Union - also known as the MLU - and the Karean Parliament, which we will simply refer to as the KPL."

"Any word on what sparked this conflict, Captain?" one commander asked, leaning forward in his chair. Stargrin looked up to see Commander Fend, a political supervisor for the operation.

"At the moment we really don't know anything other than that the Chief Minister was found dead in his chambers the other day and this new Chief is an ultranationalist, trying to unite the Cluster under his own rule. Common purpose, one leader as he says."

"Convenient," commented one commander dryly. It was the way all former Imperial worlds worked that were broken left for their own. With just a taste of the Empire the already bloodthirsty warlords took in the vices of the New Order and literally abandoned any virtues.

It was like fighting a less restrained Palpatine.

"Indeed," Stargrin responded. "After the Ultranationalist Chief Minister took over, calling his new party the 'Free And United Minos Party' or Trait Party, he began trying to enforce military sanctions on nearby systems, the hammer seemed to fall the hardest against the Twin Moons, Shesharile Five and Six.

"These were former Imperial factory worlds which were confederately ruled by hard and literally evil regimes. They are people who pride themselves in the size of the guns on their arms. They rule through fear and oppression, stripping the money and assets from the civilian populace and generally liquidating it to fund the LA-LA, their private police or prefect force.

"The people literally have nowhere else to go, they have been trying to move to Yaga Minor for some time but between the clean up of the accidents on the planet and the transition from Jutraalian to Imperial garrison the people could not squeeze in - the rulers would not have such a population boost...for good economic reason, it would have been enough to drive the local government bankrupt without outside support."

"And supposing we landed troops and peace keepers on the ground, what could we expect them to be met with?" another commander asked, Jarkin was his name, a Corellian fellow who had been aboard every kind of ship someone can name.

Stargrin shrugged his shoulders just a bit. "Intelligence hasn't given me much to work with other than that the people don't like their government. Whether or not that means they want the Outer-Rim Sovereignty in there is a mystery to me, so we won't be landing troops until we get some clearer intell."

"Intelligence seems to have been kind of a strain lately..." the ship's XO commented curiously and suspiciously, eyeing his superior. "Between the false intell we've been getting and even down to the lack of it I'm starting to wonder who the head of Military Intelligence is exactly and what the hell he's doing."


"I've spoken with Admiral Me'Vere extensively about that. Most of it is simply an illusion - the Outer-Rim Sovereignty is finally making its push into Imperial space. The fall of Abregado-rae opened up a whole new perspective for the war and we could no longer go on just leads. The commanders are trying to adapt to the fact that now it's no longer someone saying 'it's the Imperial facility' and us making the connection that the one Imperial facility on the planet is the one they are referring to."

That seemed to be enough for the XO for now.

Stargrin continued.

"Our objective is relatively simple. We just need to go in there and make sure the MLU and the KPL stays in their borders and don't fight. In the instance of a strike our fighters need to assist the defenders."

"Sounds an awful lot like the Sepan Civil War..." someone said.

"Maybe it is...maybe it's an exact repeat of the Sepan Civil War...only this time it's the good guys going in to help the Sepans."