The Shoto class Battlecruiser Brummer drifted through the blackness of space, surronded by distant stars, and planets. Their location was the Vegresso system, a short distance away from their targets, and objective. The taskforce consisted of a number of ships, mainly six of the powerful Shoto class Battlecruisers, twenty cutter class gunships, and thirty kessel class pickets. In addition to these powerful warships, the fleet also had several of their modified 418 Interdictor cruisers with them. Their target was the Vergresso Asteriod Field, and Vergresso Base, a small planetoid that is the largest asteriod in the field. In the height of the Galatic Civil War Ororo Transportation had called it home, and had a small shipyard within the asteriod it's self. Ororo manufactured many starfighters for the Rebellion, mainly X-wings, and Y-wings for the Alliance, in addition to refitting older types, and performing mantinenence, and repair on the starfighters. To say the least, Ororo was doing good buisness with the Rebel Alliance. But Ororo made the mistake of siding with the Tenloss Syndicate in the war of spice smuggling, and Black Sun, ever eager to defeat the Tenloss Syndicate, and score points with the Empire, furnished the location of the Ororo Transportation Base to the Empire as a nest of Rebel smugglers. Darth Vader himself had personally been dispatched along with his Death Squadron, consisting of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, several other Imperial class Star Destroyers, and hundreds of Imperial starfighters. At the time when they showed up, the Alliance had two escort frigates, a corvette, and five hundred starfighters stationed at the base, with some of the starfighters undergoing mantinence or repairs, and others having been freshly built and were being picked up by the new rookie pilots that would fly them. They put up a brave fight, but the Alliance forces were utterly crushed, and few lived to escape. With that done the Executor, in conjuction with several squadrons of TIE bombers, attacked Vergresso Base, destroying the shipyards within the asteriod.

That had been then, and this was now. Several groups of slicers, and independent companies with ties to Ororo Transportation has kept track of it's movements ever since the disaster, just in case the company made a comeback, but they never did. They rebuilt their base on the asteriod, since the asteriod it's self was hardly touched, and went about building up a sizeable fleet to defend it's self with in case the Empire should ever return. Several groups of well known mercenaries are known to have joined in with them, some formerly known to work for Black Sun, and others known to have worked for Admiral Tavira. Some were Naval Mercenaries, with Battleships, and Fighters, and others were ground mercenaries, with troops, and commandoes. While the fleet would take out any naval assets the enemy had, the ground fight would have to come to the armies of Farfalen, and BDE. The infantry of the BDE were prepared for the fight, and had their rifles, machine guns, and grenades all primed and ready to go.

At that moment, on the bridge of the Brummer walked Admiral Vincent Harker, a tall regal man, six foot three, with broad shoulders atop rested a red cape, matching his grey and magneta uniform perfectly. Harker strode straight to a number of chairs near the viewport, and turned around, facing the way he had come. Once again, he would serve with a man with quite a reputation on the battlefield. A General in the Black Dragon Empire, he was something many feared. "Show him in", ordered Admiral Harker.

"Time?" the General of the Black Dragon Empire said.

His room computer answered and gave it to him.

Ah. Only a few minutes remained before his meeting with the Admiral of the fleet. It was but a short walk through the protected corridors to the bridge of the Brummer, not much beyond where his quarters was nestled deep inside the inner recesses of the capital ship. A short distance, no more; a brisk stroll would put him there in a few minutes. No hurry. He did not want to arrive early.

A chime announced a visitor.

"Enter," Grevious said in his deep, vocodored voice. His bodyguards were not here, but there was no need for them in his sanctum-- no one could penetrate its defenses. And only a few of his underlings had the right to visit him here, all of them loyal. As loyal as fear could make them.

A bridge officer came in and bowed low. "General Grevious."

"Yes?"

"Admiral Vincent Harker is requesting your presence at this moment, now. Your escorts will accompany you to the bridge. It is time to make leave, General."

General Grevious gave the bridge officer a measured nod of his metallic head. "Good. Have my field officers begin to make their way to the bridge, while they wait for my arrival. Request to the Admiral to offer them drinks and make them comfortable."

The officer produced a small package. "Before you go, here is what you have requested. The information from the Vergresso Asteriod Field."

General Grevious took the package, thumbed it open with his metallic fingers. Inside was a datapad, a recording rod, and datadiscs. The cyborg monster held up each item, turned it in his clawed metal fingers, nodded. Excellent. "Very good, Commander. Your talents impress even me. Go now and announce my arrival to the Admiral, we cannot be rude."

The bridge officer saluted and backed away.

When he was gone, Grevious stood, stretched to his full height and peered onto the starmap in front of him. There were other affairs waiting to be dealt with, and ordinarily he would sit and attend to them, but not today. Now it was time to go and see the Admiral. If all went well, within a few days, there would be news of the takeover of the Vegresso system across the entire Holonet and the scapegoat to lay the blame on its loss would be the remnants of their organizations. They would take the fall and that would be the end of that.

No resistance would ever be encountered by the sheer mass of their fleet. And if one was found, General Grevious would make sure it would be eliminated quickly. This in turn, would put the general into a most positive spotlight. No one then would question his authority and superior force under the Black Dragon Empire. No one must suspect their oncoming presence, not if their plans were going to succeed. And succeed they would, he did not doubt that.

Because they always did.

Minutes later, the presence of the cyborg being known as General Grevious, graced the doorway of the bridge to the Brummer, accompanied by his elite guard.

"You wish to see me, Admiral Harker?"

"General Grevious, how nice to once again meet with you. It has been a few weeks since the operations against the world of Lowick. Come in, take a seat, would you like something to drink? Waiter, come get the General whatever he wants to drink. I'll take Whyren's Reserve, red, chilled, dry myself. Before we begin the negotiations General, may I inquire as to you current state aboard the Battleship Brummer? Also, I would ask whether or not you are used to fighting in zero gravity, as may be the case when you attack the enemies's main base. If not, we have some simulation facilities that our troops are currently using where you could use them to your advantage. This battle will be fierce, by all means. We are fully expecting the enemy to vent the atmosphere of the asteriods. Since this fleet doesn't have much in the way of ion cannon weaponry, we can't adequatly disabled the electonics needed to disable the vents from opening, so unless you have a plan to prevent them from venting the atmosphere, it is very likely that you will be fighting in zero-G gravity, and our troops will also be equipped with the latest in enviro suits for this operation as well." said Admiral Vincent Harker as the waiter took their orders, then went off to prepare the drinks.

The Admiral paused for a moment, studying the General as he listened in. Then, he continued, outlining his plan in great depth in detail. "Phase one of the operation is to eliminate any enemy forces found in the area. Unfortunatley, this is the most trickiest part of the operation, as peace negotiations are currently undergoing between the goverment of the BDE, and that of the Galatic Colation, and Outer Rim Sovereignty. Right now, if we encounter any Coalition, or ORS freighters in system, we will not destroy them, but will inspect them to see if they are smuggling in or out any illegal contraband. If you want, you can play a part of these boarding actions, if there are any freighters to be found. We will also engage and eliminate any enemy warships and starfighters found, and according to the latest intell reports, there are quite a few to be found, for Ororo Transportation does not want a repeat of what happened to them several years ago to happen again, which is why it will take this large a squadron to successfully complete this operation. Targets of Opportunity include numerous freighters working for the Ororo Transportation, or other criminal syndicates working for or with, or hiring the services of, Ororo Transportation. Once this has been done, Phase one will have been brought to an end."

The Admiral paused once again to regather his thoughts, as the waiter arrived with their drinks. Eager to wet this throat, the Admiral accepted his wine, and took a small sip before setting the amber colored liquid down, and continuing on his way with the outline of the operation. "Phase two consists of the infantry assault on the asteriod. I have acquired, through great expense, several MSE-6 Utility droids. Released onto the surface of the asteriods by pods launched by a cruiser at a safe distance, these modified droids with treads will roll into the barrels of any enemy weaponry on the surface of the asteriod, and detonate, ruining the weapons. With it's secondary defenses disabled, the asteriod will be left open to invasion. Being covered by a squadron of Cutter Gunships, and Kessel Pickets, the Shotos will launch the twenty shuttles and dropships needed to bring the two Battlations of one thousand men apiece to the asteriod, where in the main hangar bay the battle will begin, and probably where the most brutal losses will occur, but who knows, maybe they will try their venting manuever in there, and keep their troops in the corridors leading from the bay to the yards or quaters, or command facilities. The disabling of the second layer of defenses, and successfully establishing a beachead in the Asteriod wraps up phase 2 of the operation." said Vincent Harker as he took another sip of his red wine, and smacked his lips as the liquid ran down his throat.

"Finally, Phase 4 of the operation. Simply the capture of the asteriod, the execution of all enemy personnel, and the securing and any necessary repairing of the facilities on the asteriod. I don't know whether or not we will use the yard operationally, but we will use the asteriod as an outpost, for hyperspace lanes meet here that eventually lead into the Tion Cluster, thus the reason for taking it, and explaining how pirates were able to launch raids so easily into the cluster, and Perlemian Trade route. Also, this base will serve as a fleet base, possibly for this flotilla right here pending approval from Fleet Command. Total BDE/Farfalen assets for the operation currently stands at Twelve Shoto class Battlecruisers, twenty Cutter class Gunships, and twelve Kessel class Picket Ships, along with thirty shuttles and warlord type dropships, and two thousand, five hundred standard Farfalen combat General Infantry troops. Now, any questions about the operation?" Harker asked as he finished off the glass of wine, and threw the glass to the floor, shattering it and causing another MSE-6 Mantinence droid to come out from under the bed, and being cleaning up the slight mess.

General Grevious rose in the seat within the conference table on the bridge. "There are no questions about the operation, Admiral Harker. It is quite clear what the mission will require of me," he stated.

"If there are no more comments, I will now relay the orders to my men and assemble my units for battle." He spoke no more, the cyborg monstrousity stepped out from the room, escorted by his death commandos.

Hours passed...

Onboard the flagship Brummer somewhere in the nowhen and nowhere of hyperspace, General Grevious spoke to his crew of death commandos. They wore experimental envirosuits with weaponry and expendable battle armor. The Dameun scientists had made up just this one batch with the those particular modifications for this mission.

Grevious stood in front of the holographic wall, images of Vergresso Base floating just behind the caped cyborg general. "Soldiers," he said, "here is our target. There are five main entrances, three emergency hatches, nine service portals, counting the main hangar bay. Our primary entrance will be the number one aft hatch, here." He pointed at the shimmering image. "Secondary entrance, in the event of blockage, will be the number two forward hatch here. Tertiary entrance will be the number one emergency hatch, here."

The death commandos watched, not speaking.

"You will be armed with blaster rifles to encounter any hostile targets. While these are pirates trained in combat, we will have surprise on our side-- they are not expecting us. Plus we have other ammunition in our arsenal."

"Any crew and pirates will be eliminated until we complete our mission and Admiral Harker has secured the perimeter with his fleet. Access the tactical computer for your individual assignments, full data base assimilation by 0400 tomorrow. That is all."

The commando soldiers sat, still unspeaking. They were, Grevious knew, up to the task. There was some risk of failure, a tang of spice, as it were, but Grevious did not doubt that he could overcome the slight chance. He had worked out the plan in the finest details, he had covered everything. He was the best there was at this kind of thing, and he would succeed. That was the point, really. Not the glory he was given, not the fortunes the Black Dragon Empire would take, not the deaths of his soldiers or the other crew. The thing was, as always, the challenge.

This was perhaps the trickiest job he had ever taken on, and he intended that it come our as smooth as machine lube on polished Aegeon crystal. General Grevious had but one goal, the same as it had always been: to win. Anything less would not do. Better to die than to lose.

He grinned under that pale metal mask. He wasn't ready to die yet. So he wouldn't.



The fleet jumped out of hyperspace and made its steady approach toward the Vergresso asteriod field.

As they pulled armor from the carryall and began to suit up, Lt. Cmdr. Kix Davin remembered his squad on Lowick. Were these guys as good as that unit had been? Probably. It was hard to say for sure until things went sour-- drill wasn't the same as before, no matter how you tried to make it so. This squad had better scores in training and they moved real well when the return fire was nothing more than to scatter them away.

He hoped to all the gods that they moved better. It was one thing to come up against a horde of pirates, another thing to be on an asteriod full of the damned scum. If this team was going to go down and come back, they needed to be good. They needed to be the best. If he could teach them everything he remembered, if he could drill them until they could pointshoot a credit out of the air, if he could teach them what they'd be up against...

"If" was a big word, even though it didn't look it. There wasn't going to be any room for error in this mission. Screwups would get somebody dead.

And not just dead. The old saying was wrong here: these pirates and mercs could kill you and they would do worse if they took you alive.

The team began to amble back. Davin brought his thoughts away from what might be to what was. "All right, troopers, let's see if we can load up and cross that asteriod field without getting smashed by one of those rocks, shall we? Pilot! All squads accounted for. We are ready for immediate dispatch."

"Copy. Dispatching now."

The retrothrusters came to life and the assault shuttles belched out from the invading ships toward the impending asteriod field ahead.

"It'll take forty-five seconds for the holocomp to display the entire playing field for Vergresso Base. That's what you got, soldiers. See if you can't look like death commandos of the Black Dragon Empire and not a bunch of turds on legs!"

Davin spoke into his comlink.

"All assault shuttles dispatched. Give us that cover fire, Admiral! We're going in..."

With the meeting concluded, Admiral Harker strode out of the small conference room, and headed to the bridge of the vessel. He glanced at his chromometer. It was five minutes before they were scheduled to come out of hyperspace in the Vergresso Asteriod Belt. The Battleship Brummer was but one of twelve impressive warships in the mighty Farfalen fleet, consisting all together of over fifty captial warships, and picket ships. At that moment, the Admiral strode onto the bridge. The captian came up to greet him, as well as the Farfalen general that would be working with General Grevious on this assault, and would be the base's permanent ground corps commander after the base was seized, and a permanent joint Farfalen/BDE contigent was stationed there to protect the shipyards. Harker dispatched the General to help Grevious get prepared for the assault on the shipyard. Then Harker ordered all his ships via hypercomm to prepare for an almost certain interception as soon as they came out of hyperspace.

*&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp *&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp *

Moments later, the ship exited hyperspace. All around them, the other ships of the fleet left hyperspace, and together as a whole body they powered up shields, and weapons. Missiles and torpedoes, some of the most vital weapons on the Farfalen vessels, and usually what inflicted the greatest long range damage in any fleet engagement, were rammed into their tubes, and locked, prepared to fire against the enemy fleet. Speaking of the enemy fleet, when he glanced out of the viewport ahead of him, Admiral Harker felt his eyes widen considerably. Out ahead, their size and profile unmistakable, in orbit around the shipyard sat three Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, of the powerful MC-90a type. Riding with them were a pair of Escort Frigates, and several smaller warships. Freighters of all sizes could be seen, some with Galatic Coalition tags, others with Outer Rim Soveriengty tags, and some with the criminal organization tags of the Union attached to them. All in all, some ripe targets for the taking, err, inspecting Admiral Harker corrected himself.

Then, the whole thing went straight to hell. For a message came over in the comm unit, the voice of General Grevious requesting the cover that he needed to get to the shipyard. Out ahead, the unit's shuttles blazed ahead at full speed. The Mon Calamari cruisers were swift to respond, deploying hundreds of starfighters, and coming about to engage the Farfalen fleet. "@#%$" muttered Admiral Harker, before he issued the orders that he needed in order to protect the over anxious General's shuttles, and get him safely to the shipyard. "Order the thirty Kessel A class Pickets to form up on the General's shuttles, and see him safely to the shipyard at any costs. Bring the rest of the fleet about, and ahead at full speed. All missiles, prepare to fire on the lead Mon Calamari cruiser. Wyvren cannons and quad laser cannons will tear into the enemy starfighter formations. All ships, good luck."

The shotos all shuddered as they came about, and at the same time deployed and fired their proton torpedoes, a total of some almost two thousand proton torpedoes firing off as the fleet came about. They swept across the battlefield and impacting against the shields of the Mon Calamari cruiser in the lead, blowing them away, and savaging the hull. The cruiser began to drift off course, and lose her way, heavily damaged. Then, a follow up strike from the Cutter class Gunships, some twenty total, consisitng of eight concussion missiles, hit home, utterly destroying the cruiser. Then the other two cruisers opened fire on the approaching Farfalen fleet. But the Farfalen vessels ignored them, and fired instead on the starfighters now coming to attack the shuttles that contained General Grevious, and his men.

The enemy starfighter formation consisted somewhere near two hundred and fifty fighters, mostly older models in the hands of common pirates and smuggler fleets, Z-95 Headhunters, CloakShape Fighters, but some newer, although obselete models, such as the I-7 Howlrunner, the A-9 Vigilance Interceptor, and the Hornet. Explosions dotted the space between the asteriods and the approaching shuttle fleet as many of the shots found their marks on the enemy starfighters. Then it was the turn of the shuttles themselves and their escorts to fend for themselves. The Kessel class pickets opened fire first with their wyvren cannons, and then their other weapons as the enemy fighter group came into range.

More explosions dotted the space ahead of the shuttle fleet, and then, suddenly, the surviving eighty or so enemy fighters were among the shuttle formation, firing, manuevering, and dying, explosions littering the space around the shuttle formation, and within it. Suddenly, an escort frigate cut out from the enemy fleet, and across the path of the shuttle formation, it's turbolaser and laser cannons firing on the oncoming shuttles. Two shuttles detonated as the Shotos came forwards to assist them. Two Shotos, the Twilight, and Kirishima, broke off from the main formation of Shotos, and opened fire with their full complement of weapons on the backs of the enemy escort frigate. This was where the shields were at their weakest, and after a few salvos, it was all over, the enemy frigate having been snapped in half, then exploded, leaving it's wreckage to join that of the asteriod field spinning around them.

A bright explosion caused Admiral Harker to avert his eyes from the battle scene. When the light cleared, a cutter class gunship in the main formation had fallen prey to a swarm of missiles from the smaller enemy escort ships. Admiral Harker silently cursed his misfortune, and hoped that the remaining shuttles would be able to make it to the shipyard okay. Four of the thirty Kessel A pickets had been immobilized by the enemy starfighters, which were now down to fifty in number, but luckily no more shuttles had been hit. They were now approaching the dropoff point for the insertion into the shipyard.

Admiral Harker thought for a moment, then issued one last set of orders. "Order Assets and Tracking to get the identities of those ships. It's obvious that they don't belong to the Coalition, or Outer-Rim Soveriegnty. And prepare a second wave of troops, and shuttles. With the losing of two shuttles, and the possibility that those warships were carrying full loads of troops, General Grevious may need reinforcements. Now let's move out." ordered Admiral Harker as the battle continued to rage around them..........

Zem Renneyn, assassin and intel agent of the BDE, prepared herself for war once again. She got the call from the bridge that her unit was next to move out to board the next wave of assault shuttles.

She moved to the sink in her tiny quarters to wash her face. The mirror frowned back at her. Her reflection was medium height, slim and tight from all the compulsive time she spent in the exercise room. Her blonde hair, usually cut short, had grown almost below her neck. Pale blue eyes over a straight nose, a mouth just a hair too big. Not an ugly face, not nothing to cross the room to get a better look at. Not ugly, but cursed, sure enough. Some god somewhere must have her in his sights. Zem wished she knew why.

"ETA, twenty minutes, Zem. Report in full gear." A voice suddenly chirped over the intercom.

"Copy," she simply replied. Her quarters shuddered as the battlecruiser she was aboard took another hit to its shields.



Even inside his bulky envirosuit, Kix Davin could feel the cold of space bite at him. Sure, the assault shuttle he was aboard had a heating system, and one of his commandos had one of the heating units turned up to full, pretending it was a campfire, but it was still cold. It was the best they could do-- the majority of their power was being routed to their shields and weapons, therefore whatever remained was led into the rest of the systems, including life-support. How he could survive like this and keep his senses alert, as he swerved the laser turrent to find another target, was unreal.

"Dax!" he shouted to the rear gunner. "A-9 on our tail... watch it!"

"I can't see it," came his trooper's panicked response. "Where is he? I can't see it!"

"He's on me tight!" the voice of the pilot sounded in Davin's helmet. "I can't shake him! One of you guys back there vape it!"

Twisting, spinning, to avoid an asteriod, the assault shuttle looped back toward the course of the Ororo shipyards ahead, but the A-9 trailing it was persistant and showed no sign of relinquishing pursuit.

"Hang on, Dax!" Davin called, wrenching the turrent around so steeply that straining gyros whined. "I'll get him."

Electronic crosshairs lined up according to the computer-readout instructions, and Kix fired repeatedly. There was a small explosion in space-- tiny compared with the enormous energies being put out by both fleets inside the asteriod field. But the explosion was of particular significance to three people: Davin, his pilot, and most particularly, to the pilot of the A-9 Interceptor, who was vaporized with his ship.

"Got him!" Kix murmured.

"Good shooting, Davin," the pilot commented. Then he added quickly, "Watch out, more coming. I'm taking evasive manuevers."

Within the envirohelmet the gleeful smile on the commando's face vanished instantly as he looked around, unable to spot the pursuers. Something flared brightly nearby, so close that he was nearly blinded for an instant.

Two gigantic asteriods hurtled toward the shuttle. Its pilot quickly made a daring banking maneuver that brought it skirring out of the path of those two asteriods, nearly to collide with a third.

As the shuttle attack group darted in and out of the field, there were followed closely by more A-9 Interceptor's, Z-95's, and Howlrunners that veered through the rocks in hot pursuit. Suddenly, one of the assault shuttles was fatally scraped by a shapeless chunk of rock and spun off in another direction, hopelessly out of control. The other assault shuttles continued their course, accompanied by a Cutter-class gunship, which was blasting speeding asteriods and pirates in its path.

The pilot of Davin's shuttle glimpsed the pursuing ships through the canopy of his cockpit as he spun the craft around, speeding under yet another oncoming asteriod, then bringing the shuttle back to its right-side-up position. But the assault ship was not yet out of danger. Asteriods were still streaking past it. A small one bounced off the shuttle with a loud, reverberating thunk, terrifying Kix and causing the rear gunner, Dax, to cover his polarized lenses with a gloved hand. The impact caused the small rock to change direction and veer into one of pursuing Howlrunners, taking it out of commission as it exploded.

Kix sat stone-faced as he stared at the swarm of asteriods, wishing he was thousands of miles away from here.

"The Cutter is slowing down behind us, the field is getting too thick for the larger craft," the pilot announced, checking his computer readings. "We'll be on our own, soon."

The view outside the cockpit was still thick with racing asteriods as Kix dictated orders. "Pilot, try to get in closer with the bigger rocks." He added. "The shipyards will try to target their guns on us, but with the asteriods providing us cover, we'll get that fighting chance to board them..."

"Sir, the assault shuttles are running into trouble. As if the enemy fighters are not bad enough, they are also having to contend with the asteriods. At least one additional shuttle has been disabled by an meteroite impact." reported the sensors and communications officers.

"Dammit. Ready the second wave. And dispatch the Kirishima, assign her to rock bashing duty. Order her to clear a way in for the shuttles using all weapons at her disposal. Bring up the Valorous, Soyuz, and Conderitti to engage and hold the remaining Mon Cal Cruiser on the starboard side. It may go for the shuttles any minute now. As for the rest of the fleet, bring it about at flank speed, target any remaining starfighters, and small picket ships. Let's mop up the small shrimp now." ordered Admiral Harker.

One shoto cruiser, already detached from the main fleet, headed off in high speed towards the shuttles weaving in torwards the shipyards. It fired proton torpedoes in groups of ten and twelve in order to use their combined explosiveness to deflect larger asteriods drifting in torwards the general paths of the shuttles. However, this tatic was abandonded shortly afterwards when the shuttles began asteriod hopping using the bigger ones to stay clear of the small ones. The Cutters with the shuttles had been ordered at all costs to protect the shuttles, so with some showing hull damage from asteriod impacts, they drove all the way in hard, their turbolaser, and wyvern cannons pumping energy into the enemy starfighter ranks. It was now a game of attrition in that area of the theatre.

Elsewhere, three more Shotos moved to engage the third Mon Cal Cruiser in line. A five hundred torpedo salvo blasted away it's shields, and left it's hull vulnerable. It tried to fight back, but was outgunned, and soon succumbed to their better armed opponents, it's wreckage left to drift freely in the asteriod belt, becoming one with it, as it's hull was battered apart by the rocks.

Admiral Harker continued to watch the screens as the assault shuttles drew close to their destination.........

General Grevious looked like a metal-alloyed silent god as he stood on the main control deck of the leading Cutter cruiser as the battle raged on.

The cyborg terror was staring through the large rectangular window above the deck at the raging field of asteriods that was pelting his ship as it glided through space. Hundreds of rocks streaked past the windows. Some collided with one another and exploded in brilliant displays of vivid light. Others collided with the enemies the Imperium were fighting against. And yet others impacted with their own fleet, reducing their number by one ship at a time. The general's assault shuttle had docked with the leading cruiser in time before the field became thicker toward their voyage onward to Vergesso Base.

As Grevious watched, one of the assault shuttles disintegrated under the impact of an enormous asteriod. Seemingly unmoved, he turned to look at a series of several holographic images. These holograms recreated in three dimensions the features of several shuttle pilots, representing the partial assault group on their way toward their target. The image of the pilot whose ship had just been obliterated was fading rapidly, almost as quickly as the glowing particles of his exploded ship were being flung into oblivion.

The captain of the Cutter vessel and an aide quietly moved to stand behind their pale-cowled master as the general turned to an image in the center of the holograms which was continually interrupted by static and faded in and out as Kix Davin, the leader of one of the death commando teams aboard a shuttle, made his report. His first words had already been drowned by static.

"... we're making progression toward Vergesso Base, but our scopes are having a hard time tracking its location from constant asteriod interference," Davin continued, "Considering the amount of damage our assault group has sustained, we need those reinforcements now."

Grevious disagreed. He knew a small assault group was significant enough to penetrate its defenses and at least establish a foothold. "No, Commander," he boomed angrily. "your forces are adequate enough to make a significant advancement. For the time being, I will request to the Admiral to have every ship available to clear a path through the field, until you have set foot upon our objective."

As soon as Grevious had given his command, Davin's image and those of the other pilots faded completely. When the last hologram vanished, the cyborg general, having sensed the two men standing behind him, turned. "I assume you have a progress report?" he asked imperiously. "Speak."

The captain's face turned pale with fear, his trembling voice shaking almost as much as his body, as he stared at the general's deathly pale, alloyed, mask. "Admiral Harker requests an update."

"An update?" the deep, cybernetic voice behind the pale mask repeated.

"Yes," the captain replied.

"Inform our good Admiral that we will soon establish a foothold in the Vegresso field," he dictated. "Tell him to continue his tactical approach until my men reach the base. And have his ships continue to clear a path for our assault group. That is all."

"Yes, General."

"And inform me immediately when my men have reached the complex."



Making a few simple adjustments on the cockpit controls, the pilot swerved the assault shuttle between a few larger asteriods, then aimed the craft directly at one the size of a small moon. Commander Kix Davin eyed the canopy as his stomach turned and tried to avoid the feeling of vertigo as he stayed put inside his envirosuit, clutching his blaster rifle tightly.

A flashy shower of smaller rocks exploded against the enormous asteriod's craggy surface as the assault shuttle, with the pirate gang in full pursuit in their starfighters, flew directly above the asteriod. It was like skimming over the surface of a small planet, barren and devoid of life. The rear gunner, Dax, swerved his gun turrent at the targets behind him and began firing volleys of rapid laser fire at them. He now had an open shot.

There was only a brief, brilliant flare of light, then nothing. The shattered remains of the Howlrunners and A-9 starfighters drifted away into the darkness and the tremendous asteriod-- undeflected in its course-- continued on its way.

Dax felt an inner glow as bright as the spectacle that had just lighted up the view. He smiled to himself in quiet triumph.

At the shuttle's front, Kix Davin noticed an image on the main scope of the pilot's control console and nudged him. "Look." Davin pointed to the image. "A Blockade Runner, obviously manned by our pirate friends. Get a reading on that. Looks pretty good."

"What do you have in mind?" the pilot asked.

The death commando ignored his question. "Order one of the Cutters to open fire and incapacitate its shields," he said.

As the assault group flew near the Corvette's range of fire, Davin looked down at the readings the scopes generated. There were serveral airlocks outlined from the image. He switched on his comlink.

"Men, get your gear ready. We're going to do a Trojan Horse," he ordered. "The Cutters are going to reduce her shields and we're going to take her. We'll then lead her straight into Vegresso Base..."

"Sir, the Kirishima is reporting that she has caught up with the lead Cutter class Gunship, but it is apparently motionless. She has recieved a tight beam transmission about something having to do with a Trojan Horse, sir." said the communications officer.

"All right then, I think I know what that devious little General is up to. Let's make sure nothing interferes with him. Have the Kirishima target all her weapons on all weapon batteries on the surface of the main asteriod, and bring up two Kessel Pickets to clear any asteriods between the path of that enemy Corvette and the main base. And form the rest of the fleet into a line of battle, with our ship in the lead. Put us on a course between the main base asteriod, and the remaining enemy ships. Have our port weapons, and missile launchers prepare to fire on the remaining enemy ships. And launch the second wave now. Errr, no wait, belay that last. Transfer all shuttles of second wave to the Shoto Cumberland, and the Cutter Gunships Haruna, and Bombay. Have those ships speed towards the main base, using their weapons to chew through the asteriods and any remaining enemy fighter units, and don't launch the shuttles until they are close enough to the main base to launch them without threat of interference with asteriod. Now let's move out people." ordered Admiral Harker.

The Shoto Kirishima cut out in front of the lead Cutter, using her turbolaser, wyvern cannons, and torpedo octects as well as her ion cannons to fire on the main base, targeting suspected weapons emplacements. Almost all of the obvious enemy weapons were eliminated immediatly, but there were hidden emplacements that opened up to fire back at the Shoto. Turbolaser bolts, and Diamond Boron Missiles shot out of hidden emplacements to strike at the already damaged shields of the Shoto, collapsing them at some places, and striking the hull. But the Shoto was a powerful warship, and within five minutes, the last enemy weapon batteries fell silent, allowing the Corvette to slip quietly into the hangar bay. Following it into the hangar bay were the two Kessel Pickets, using their smaller weapons to help kill off any enemy troops not near any vital systems. Of a recieving force of 500 enemy men dressed in scavenged Republic and Imperial trooper armour, one hundred ten were killed. The remaining brought up their blaster cannons, rifles, and portable rocket launchers, and took aim at the Kessels, for the moment perhaps fatally ignoring the derelict and adrift Corvette.......

In the meantime, one shoto class cruiser, and two more cutter class gunships collected the several assault shuttles that made up the second wave, and made their way into the asteriod belt, mowing down whatever asteriods were leftover from the passage of the first wave, and the single or paired units of remaining enemy fighters trying to come together for one final counterattack, and heading at a brisk pace for the main base, stopping by to pick up surviving troops of three assault shuttles that were knocked out by asteriods........

Finally, the other ten shoto cruisers, along with the remaining cutter class gunships, and kessel class pickets formed into a single deadly line, cutting across the enemy's path to the main base. And speaking of counter-attacks, the enemy was launching his latest one, soon to be his last one. The final remaining Mon Calamari cruiser, along with three escort frigates, and ten IPV series system patrol craft, were advancing on the main base. The first five Shotos in line focused all their firepower on the Mon Calamari cruiser, massive amounts of proton torpedoes tearing apart it's shields, allowing the turbolasers, wyvern cannons, and ion cannons mounted on the ships to tear apart the Mon Cal cruiser's hull, and vital organs/systems. The cruiser came about, and attempted to flee the system, but a sudden overload in one of it's reactor cores caused the cruiser to explode, and break apart, leaving it to join it's two earlier comrades in the heart of the belt. The next three Shotos concentrated on the three escort frigates, their turbolasers, and wyverns softening them up in preparation for a small concentrated torpedo salvo that broke their backs, and snapped them in half, secondary explosions finishing off their fatal damage by killing their remaining crews. The IPVs, though, pressed on instead of fleeing. Before they died, the Mon Cal Cruiser, and Escort frigates had managed to get off some good shots at the smaller craft, and the IPVs sought to finish this damage at least in a suicide attack. Fire on from the remaining two Shotos, and remaining cutters and pickets, they all succumbed fairly quickly, but not before they destroyed two cutters, and one picket ship. With the enemy guardian fleet eliminated, Admiral Harker could turn his full attention to helping General Grevious with his assault.

Kix Davin and pointman Dax squatted behind the remains of the shattered hangar bay of Vegresso Base, a waist-level row of bent, scorched metal and twisted rebar the only protection against the hangar's E-Web blaster cannons. The pirates couldn't see them but the infared sensor mounted on the weapons could probably pick up some heat leakage from their envirosuits, and every now and then one would pop off a couple dozen blaster rounds in their direction. At least the strategy worked. The Corvette had been successful in smuggling in the entire commando unit into the hangar bay. The question now was making it further inside the base.

"Frak!" Dax said. "Bastard's got us pinned down!"

"Maybe not," Davin offered. "The thing's got a power convertor and service portals aft. I can launch a grenade in the right spot, it'll blow the power. Then we got his ass."

Three rounds of cannon fire scorched a couple of centimeters of metal over Dax's head. He squatted lower. "Damn!"

"Okay, look," Davin said, "here's the play. You scoot down about twenty meters, put your weapon over that pile of twisted debris, and spray that bastard. I'll circle around behind it and vape that gunner while he's potting at you."

Under the clear plasteel faceplate of his helmet cover, Dax frowned.

"Unless you got a better idea?" Davin said.

Dax shook his head. "What the hell. Let's do it. Gimme a signal when you're ready to dance."

"Copy," Davin said. His voice was crisp in the helmet's comlink. The comm was standard military tightbeam and scrambled, so the pirates in the base couldn't slice and eavesdrop, or even if they could, they wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying.

Dax moved off, keeping low. Every so often the E-Web would cap off a few more shots.

Davin lit a low-heat flare and dropped it. With any luck, those idoit gunners would think it was a suit leak and zero in on it. While they were doing that, he would blow them away. He moved off. He was good, one of the Imperium's best, and damned if he was gonna get drilled by some smelly, sweaty pirate.

When he got into position, Davin said, "Do it!"

Thirty meters away, crouched behind a big chunk of rubble that was probably once a speeder, Dax whipped his T-21 blaster rifle over the top and triggered it full auto. He waved it back and forth, so he would get full attention of the weapon's sensors. The gunners would have found him pretty quick anyhow, but he didn't want to take any chances.

Blaster fire spanged off the rubble, chopping it away. They knew he was here, alright. Dax pulled his weapon back so it wouldn't get hit.

Five seconds later, two things happened: a grenade went off and the E-Webs stopped shooting.

Dax grinned. "Yeah! Way to go, Commander!" Kix must have rammed one right up a pirate's drainpipe. Hell of an enema.

Ten seconds went past. "Commander?"

"You're buying the Bakuran ale tonight, pal," came the reply.

Dax grinned. A round exploded above his head.

"Oh, frak!" If it had been lower, he'd be history. "Frak! Frak! Frak!"

A squad of death commandos in envirosuits quickly crouched nearby. Davin quickly chirped over the comm. "All squads move in! The E-Webs are down, but we got more coming! Get inside that base before this hangar bay becomes our last stand!"



Zem Renneyn and her escort reached the security door leading into the main briefing room of the Shoto battlecruiser Cumberland. A scanning laser tapped a red dot against her eye and by the time she had finished blinking, the door's comp had ID'ed her and begun to roll open. The escort said, "Go on in. I'll wait here."

Zem did as she was told. She felt the pressure of stares against her, knowing she was being watched by computers and probably the general on a secret frequency, that her every move was recorded. Great.

There was only one other door in the corridor, so she couldn't miss it. It opened as she approached. She stepped into the office. Nothing but an oval table, big enough to seat a dozen people, three chairs. Two of the chairs were occupied. In one was a full bird captain, probably the one in charge of this battlecruiser. The other man was in black garb, and he had the look. Zem would bet a month's pay this guy was Intelligence. Any odds anybody wanted.

"At ease, Zem," the captain said. The assassin in battle gear wasn't aware that she'd been at attention.

Zem noticed that the captain, his name tag said "Xander," kept his hands behind his back. Like maybe he was afraid to touch her.

Not so the agent. He extended one hand. "Agent Ix"

Zem kept her own hand down. Shake with one of these guys and you might need finger grafts.

The agent nodded, withdrawing his offer of a handshake.

"You read the orders?" Xander said.

"I saw it."

"What do you think?"

"I thought Sij Olith would be here instead of Ix. I only work with him for Intelligence."

The captain and the agent exchanged quick glances. "Agent Olith is currently indisposed at the moment," Ix replied.

Yeah, right, and I'm Boba Fett, Zem thought.

"You've done these kind of missions before, have you?" the Intelligence agent named Ix said.

"Yeah."

"Tell me about them."

"What can I tell you that you don't already know? You've seen the files of my hits on Risban, Brigia, and Cadinth, haven't you?"

Xander glared at her. "Give the man the story, Zem."

She shrugged. "Just get to the point. I have a shuttle waiting on me. The second wave is about to leave."

"You got a bad attitute, Renneyn," Xander said.

Ix smiled. "Captain, it is quite alright. She's definetely the one to pull this job."

After a moment Xander nodded. "All right. That being the case, you've read the orders from General Grevious, Zem. You will be boarded on a captured freighter and flown to Vegresso Base, undetected if possible." The captain continued. "You are to infiltrate the base, find the main nest of pirates and take out its leaders. Without leaders, the gangs will have no guidance and eventually will surrender the base. The files you read describe the leaders of the pirate and smuggler rings."

She took a deep breath. "Okay," she said. "Is that all?"

Agent Ix smiled, and when he did, something unhappy roiled around in Zem's belly, like a trapped beast wanting to get out. She had done enough killing to last a dozen lifetimes and it was starting to get taxing on her, especially when some of them were Tion rebels.

"Yes, that is all. Dismissed."

She turned her back on them. Ix spoke up again. "And remember, leave no one alive..."

Damn...