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<font color=green>Space is infinite.

It stretches forever in space and time, unending, unmoving, an unaware. Space has see thousand of battles, trillions of deaths, countless acts of violence and death. Space has seen it all.

Space is the perfect place to hide.

In the vast blackness of space, far away from any kind of civilization, a starship could go for eternity without detection or fear of detection. It could go forever without worrying over such petty concerns as war, life, and death.

The Star Destroyer Reliant moves through the inky blackness of space, her colors proudly displayed. There is no need to hide, no need to cower, now. The ship can come and go without fear, without worry.

Without warning, the Reliant vanishes. Accelerating hundreds of thousands of kilometres an hour, past the speed of light, into hyperspace.

Space is infinite. It stretches forever in space and time, unending, unmoving, an unaware. Space has see thousand of battles, trillions of deaths, countless acts of violence and death. Space has seen it all.

And space now sees the tiny, insignifcant, planet of Questal, where the Reliant has reappeared. It sees the battle to stop Reliant, and it sees the end of the day. Space sees the new ships arrive and fight one another. It sees a new ship, the Vigor appear and aide the Reliant. And space sees LFX Industrial as they call the planet theirs.

Space sees this, and knows.

<font color=green>Questal System

What is this place? He wondered, not for the first time. He was standing on the edge of a great cliff, looking down across the raging waters below, expressionless and silent. The fierce winds whipped his black trench coat out behind him, as much as was possible by the garment, at least.

The planet was Questal, home to a new LFX Industrial Mining Base, the location was Aphlyn Hights, the number one 'tourist destonation' on the planet.

If you considered the few hundred miners who visited the planet each year to be tourists. Frankly, he wondered how a place like Aphlyn Hights could attract any visitors. It was remote, barren, and utterly and completely devoid of anything interesting. It was desolate in that.

"Si? Sir, we're ready here." He turned towards the voice, a young man in a thick windbreaker. The figure nodded and moved away from the edge, coming to the voice under a shallow crevice in the wall of rock that fell behind this part of the bluffs. It was, he mused, probably the only part of the area that was even remotely sheltered.

"If you'll just follow me, sir?" He nodded, saying nothing, and the young man led him around the rock and into a tight metal tube of sorts that led, as far as he could tell, down into the rocks. "It's quite cool down below, sir." The young man said. The figure did not reply, and they continued on for some time in silence.

Tell me again why I'm here? He thought to himself as they delved deeper into the rockbed. This was not a place where a man like him would be found, in the middle of nowhere hundreds of meters underground, in a metal tube. Almost like... a tomb. He entertained a breif fantasy of the man turning on him, burrying him alive under a million tonnes of rocks, before returning to the question of why he was there.

Then the man led him into the diamond room, and he forgot everything.

<font color=green>SSD Deal-breaker - Questal System

He looked out across the empty regions of space that made up the 'backyard' of the Questal system. This was dead-space, barren and black. The nearest star, besides the planet's sun, was one hundred and twenty years distant at the speed of light.

The light that just now struck Questal's northern pole had been born more than a century ago. Before the birth of a man named Palpatine, before the creation of the Death Star.

The light that now struck Questal had been witness to the rise and fall, and the rise again, of the Empire. The Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The Jutraalian Empire's war with the New Order. The rise and fall of the Galactic Defence Initiative.

He pondered all this as he gazed out the viewport of the Deal-breaker, the second-largest vessel in the LFX Home Defence Corps. starfleet. A Super Star Destroyer, arrowhead-shaped and combat ready.

This ship was not a weapon, he had decided, but a symbol. A monolithic dagger, ready to be plucked up and wielded against the enemies of the Corporation. Wieled with a fury, he knew. It was a symbol of the might of the Corporation, as was her larger cousin, the Destiny.

"Sir?" The voice was twittery and high. Without turning, the man knew that this was an aide or low-ranking officer. Certainly not someone used to addressing such important people. The man turned slowly and looked at the man. He was young, not out of his twenties, and wearing the rank insignia of a Naval Ensign. He wore the uniform like an old military-man, though, and the man thought that was curious. Most new officers aboard the Deal-breaker were aquard. Being stationed aboard one of the greatest warships ever created would do that to a man, he thought.

He gave a curt not, signalling that the Ensign should continue.
"Sir, Lord Drayson is here for his meeting, sir."

"Thank you, Ensign. Please show him in." The officer gave a salute, and left the room. Moments later, the door whispered open once more and Lord Protector, a.ka. Grand Admiral, Hiram Drayson entered the lounge of the Great Star Destroyer.

He gave a sharp military salute, which the CEO ignored. Seti Ashar gave his friend a warm smile and embraced the man briefly.

"Hiram. How are you?" It was the other man's turn to smile, and he did so as he sat down across from his boss.
"I am well, Mr. Ashar, thank you. And yourself? How are you, sir?" Seti gave a slight shrug.
"I'm very well. We've just contracted one of the most valuable substances in the galaxy. No small victory, I daresay." The Lord Protector chuckled.
"No small gain, indeed, sir. The Adranium should boost our economy greatly." The CEO nodded silently, still smiling.
"One thing troubles me, though. That man who tried to kill me, in my own office."
"We are investigating, sir. But we have no leads... so far." Seti gave a sigh and stood, turning his back on the other man, to contemplate the glorious planet below.
"I do not like near-death experiances, Hiram. They look bad for the corporation, and," he paused a moment for effect, "they reflect poorly on the security of the firm. I want this killer tracked, and I want to know who he was, and why he tried to kill me. And I want to know soon, Hiram."

The Lord Protector rose and nodded.
"We are investiating, sir." And he was gone.

---The Manta Ray, dropping from hyperspace into the far edge of the Questal System---


I was lucky to be alive. I was lucky to be in one piece.

They had ambushed me. Surprise surprise. It was either the Imperial Rem...The New Order, old memories clashing with the new ones. Or one of the Corporate sectors, who has time to keep track of all the coming and goings of commerce.

Void knows I have enemies on all sides, kept only slightly closer then the few I dared call friends.

It was pure luck...or the Force, depending on culture. They'd pinned me with a gravity well, and they would have had me, if not for the Dovin Basal. A quick burst of laser fire, then the jump into hyperspace, blind, with the navicomputer screaming in protest.

Pinpoints of light, stars distant by millennia, had jumped, turning into long trails of starlight. And my luck had almost run out.

The motivators got jammed again. Backwash from the organic parts.

I was blind, jumping into the unknown, and my hyperdrives were jammed open. Exhaust tanks filling quickly, if I didn't shut down the engines within 30 mins, the tanks would fill past capacity and...

Unfortunately, that was looking on the brightside. Ten minuets or six hundred seconds, was an unfathomable amount of time to spend on a blind jump. You were bound to collide with something in that time, if you didn't, then the chances are you'd just found a viable hyperjump.

The rest was a blur, like it always in when I use that much luck with that much Force.

I'd just thrown myself into the crashwebbing when the hyperdrives cut out. Flat out deceleration, the engines cut out before they had the time to slow down, which is never a good thing.

The inertial compensators did they best they could, but I was still thrown hard against the crashwebbing with my face stopping only inches above the fore instrument panels.

Being so harshly affronted with such intense G-force energy would have taken a much harsher toll on any other species... I, simply, faded to black.

The last moment of recollection before falling into a deep, dark well...were filled with the screams of my alarms as the sensors located, moving around one of the planets, the arrowhead shape of a Super-Class Star Destroyer.

<font color=green>Bridge - SSD Deal-breaker - Questal System

When the Emperor signed the contract to begin construction of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, he did so fully believing that this ship would become a pinnacle of the Empire's might; an unstoppable weapon to inspire fear in the hearts of enemies across the galaxy.

Who would have guessed that, thirty-odd years later, it would be only slightly less common than the Eclipse? The galaxy had, in every aspect, turned upside down since the end of the Vong War.

So it was that the privately owned Super Star Destroyer Deal-breaker, scaled down from the older Executor by half a kilometre, fell into the hands of the LFX Industrial corporation.

And, eventually, arrived at Questal during that planet's signing of the Decleration of Membership to the Corporation. That selfsame ship now hung in orbit, a monolithic dagger profile, seemingly to be plucked from the heavens and used against the stars themselves. A Star Destroyer. A Super Star Destroyer.

Captain Tantith, standing now on the bridge of the monolithic command vessel of the Second Corporate Fleet, watched the slowly changing starmaps with little interest. This was boring work, far removed from the vigor of combat, or even the 'excitement' of keeping his ship in a constant state of battle-readiness.

A voice, that of a young Naval Ensign, perhaps, floated up from the crew pit below.
"Captain, sir. We're detecting a hyperspace annomuly. It could be nothing, but it's within our sector."
Tantith was awake already, accessing the information on his own consoles.
"Give me a sensor focus, and prepare for a launch. If this is something, I want us ready for it." The data came up within seconds, an enlarged image of a freighter or transport, unidentified, said the computer, due to damage sustained. Probably from a blind hyperjump, which would explain the annomuly detected earlier.
"Life signs positive for one person, sir. Damage estimates total loss of life support equipment, and deorbitilzation in seventeen minutes." Tantith rested his head on his knuckles, staring at the display.
"Time to intercept?"
"Six minutes on Deal-breaker, two if we launch a scout."
"Do it. Order a sqaudron of Defenders to break off and bring that ship in - break orbit and set intercept course immediatly."
"As ordered, sir."

There was a rumbling, a trecherous shaking of the Manta Ray, her hull bucking violently.
It was the tremor that woke me, my head getting shaken about in the crashwebbing. It took only moments to draw in all the needed information. Lifesupport was failing, not that it mattered yet, but worse then that, the abrupt drop from hyperspace had damaged my ion engines and there was no way to counter the pull of the orb filling my viewscreen.

My sensors had lost the angular Super Star Destroyer on the eclipse of the planets horizon, not that this would matter either if I smacked into the planets atmosphere.

Then came a calm, a preminition that things would be alright...that someone would save me from having to save myself. Bless the luck, bless the small miracles.

Time, I needed to buy time. They needed it to reach me, as my estimation put the Ray beyond the reach of their tractor beams, so the trick would be to save myself enough time until they could "capture and rescue" me. What a laugh.

"Hal, get to work on those engines, I want to be operational now." I'd do what I could from the cockpit, but the real work would be up to Hal. The trick would be to come out of this without having to owe any favours.

Ideas...ideas.

Her nose was pointed too low, I was coming in at the planet too fast. I had sheilds, yes, but they wouldn't hold against a full frontal collision like that. I'd need to get the bow up.

The torps. That would be it. Safe.

A strong enough concussive force ahead and below the bow would force her front end up and around, bringing the flat underside of my craft on a slighter track at the planet... I'd skip harmlessly off of the atmosphere.

The problem is firing live ordinance when you aren't fully aware of the situation. Like what that SSD would think when I loosed a missile at the planet.

Flashes. Inspiration.

With a glance at a transponder display, I gathered what information I'd need.

"Deal-breaker, this is the Manta Ray... I am in need of assistance...", now feed them static, throw the jammers online and make the Ray look dead in space...not too far from the truth.

Take the bait, take the bait...The last thing I want is something that big thinking I'm it's enemy.

"Torpedos away." I heard myself say it before I really knew I was sure...

Two crimson tails burn bright as they screem away from the Manta

....20 seconds....

<font color=green>Bridge - SSD Deal-breaker - Questal System

The deep rumbling of the massive ion engines gave proof to the fact that the Deal-breaker had successfully pulled out of her orbit and was under way.

Far ahead, the small transport that had been tentiviely identified as the Manta Ray was coming about, seemingly still able to fly. It was a shock. The ship must have been up against nothing smaller than a Star Destroyer to have suffered that kind of damage.

"Sir," a young voice sung up from the crew pit, "transport has fired - two missiles, bearing 0001-Mark-20. Towards the planet." Tantith stood and, a frown crossing his face, looking towards the bright specks that where two concussion missiles.

"Defender Flight to raise shields and arm weapons, ion cannons only - hail the Manta Ray, order them to cease fire-"

"Sir? Transmission from the Manta Ray!"
"Deal-breaker, this is the Manta Ray... I am in need of assistance..."[/i]
"No kidding, Manta Ray. Launch shuttle. Prepare to bring her aboard." There was a pause. "Have a sqaudron of Defence Corps. Personal meet them in the hanger bay. And have them set their weapons to stun. No chances."

As the explosions rocked off of the atmosphere no more then 10 klicks off my bow and the Ray skipped harmlessly along trailing sparks of ionized atoms.

I felt reassured that they had assessed the situation and knew what I had planned. A moment of fright passed down my spine as Hal reported the fighters powered up for combat, but was easily calmed a moment later when Hal reported that a shuttle had been dispatched.

A sigh passed my lips at that. Maybe this day could turn out better after all.

Hal started reporting systems stable, but the maneuvering jets, and hyperdrive we offline. I could go no where but straight. I still had shields and weapons, not that they would help much in this situation.

On the bright side, the voice I heard over the comm sounded like someone better then a standard comm operator, so maybe I had a sympathetic ear.

"Deal-breaker, this is captain Pike aboard the Manta Ray. We're a personal craft out of the Corellian system, and unfortunately got caught up in some sort of trade squabble. If you could provide assistance, I would be more then willing to handle any expenses you may incur do to my passing."

The statement was so full of half-truths and lies that I couldn't even begin to work it out, but the story sounded viable. I knew it'd be some time before they responded, checking my background and history against the transponder, which hadn't failed me yet.

Nothing to do now but wait for the return call and assistance.
Nothing to do but be prepared. My permits and passports are all in order, so there shouldn't be a political problem, depending on who we're dealing with.

It's at times like this I wish my mind could function on a more linear level.

A quick stop at the weapons locker, get all dressed up and await the word of my saviour.

Damn. I hate debts.

((Could someone help me with getting my itallics to work?))

(You have to select the button labelled "HTML" when you post... or use "[" and "]" in place of "<" and ">".

<font color=green>Bridge - SSD Deal-breaker - Questal System

The bridge was alive with activity now, as the massive Super Star Destroyer rushed through the wake of the smaller transport. Within minutes, if current projections were correct, the vessel would hit the atmosphere and be torn to shreds.

"Captain, sir! Further transmissions incoming:"

"Deal-breaker, this is captain Pike aboard the Manta Ray. We're a personal craft out of the Corellian system, and unfortunately got caught up in some sort of trade squabble. If you could provide assistance, I would be more then willing to handle any expenses you may incur do to my passing."

Captain Tantith nodded, watching the transport as it skipped across the upper atmosphere. Only moments, now...

"Target vessel in range! Activating tractor beams." The Super Star Destroyer reached out across the space between the two vessels with two of its invisible tractor beams and latched on, reeling the transport in.

"Alert Hanger Sqaud I. Target is being brought in."

I felt the shudder, it rang through the bulkheads. They had locked on with a Tractor beam, and if their protocols matched, I'd be docked in one of their more secure bays.

I had little or no idea what was to come, but I was ready. Armed and armored, I had thrown a long overcoat on top, so as to come across as spacer scum, keep my weapons and such in low profile, and hopefully seem inoffensive.

Slipping my headset on and activating the ocular H.U.D. I leaned casually against a bulkhead aside the airlock with a niccig hanging from my lips...waiting.


(( OOC- next scene can move at Setis' discretion. No plan to try and pull and fast ones. ))