Saarkin, Taicho

“Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. Landoo, Verlexian Redwood is an exceptional wood,” agreed Specialist Ehard, “but the Confederation already has many hardwoods flowing into its shipping lanes already; from Pedducis Chorios, Cularin, and a host of other worlds. I can almost guarantee you from the CMF’s office that Verlexian Redwood wouldn’t be accepted as collateral for the newest round of our trading. It’s almost too common of a commodity, and there is no certainty that even if we could sell it, we would get the unit value as provided by this world’s trade consortium. I am sorry, ma’am. I really am.”

The CMF trader spared a quick glance from his negotiations to enjoy the world’s beauty through the planet’s sole skyscrapers windows. Encircling the city, hardy trees of endless varieties planted themselves among the snowy ground. A lively, sylvan beauty in the harshness of the world. But to the trader’s mind, the trees were not a triumph of nature, but a failure in commerce.

The aging woman whipped up her hands in indifference, “What does a backwater world have to offer an emerging galactic government like your own-”

The CMF officer politely objected, “The CMF is owned by the Contegorian government, and even has some special arrangements provided by the government, but we are otherwise run in a day-to-day fashion in these regards just as any other large-scale shipping firm. May I ask, have any of the other corporate firms that have talked to you said similar things about the investment?”

The woman sat down her chair motionlessly. Ehard apologetically smiled. Your silence tells me everything. I know they’ve been here. I’ve even talked to them about it. It is your world that must learn that not everything is accepted at face value or appraisals according to some inspection board sponsored by Taicho Trade Consortium. She merely sighed.

“I fear that the woods are not sold well…my people will suffer. You can understand that? People will lose homes when their loans fall through because they’ve been laid off or haven’t been able to sell their wood? Can you picture your child being hungry?”

“Yes,” quickly rejoined Ehard, “I can. My child if I were to regularly accept offers such as yours. Your people must be looked out for, and so must ours. Surely if the positions were switched around, you would understand that, right?”

But the woman merely stared past him in shock. A deafening thud and subsequent concussive shockwave assailed the pair and shattered the windows by them. Ehard spun about him, noticing in horror that in the middle of this sylvan world’s capitol, there were a multitude of explosions. Hordes of semi-circular starfighters flew overhead, dropping small, but deadly, munitions throughout the small city. He watched in fear as a flight of the defence force’s headhunters were promptly reduced to scrap by mass laserfire from the enemy. He watched the invaders fly, each craft dancing the sky in almost perfect, unnatural harmony with another. Ehard frowned as more objects plunged from the sky. But these were not bombs. No, these were larger and brought a terror more devastating than any of the small explosions. These were dropships, and with them they brought the vengeful hordes of Entymal soldiers.

A gust of cold, sharp air slapped at the man’s face. He shook his head out of the shock, and turned to face the Taicho trade commissioner. But the elderly woman simply stood still in her chair. The man jogged over to her, felt pulse, or rather lack of it, and frowned.

Nighthawk Corsair-class Corvette Shogun, in orbit via Taicho

“They’re not going to make it; what fools,” dryly commented Captain Taro Aso

Several of his crewmen nodded in agreement; all of them watching the Shogun's sister ship charge headfirst into the quartet of invading Entymal carriers. The semi-circular starfighters buzzed around their motherships, and surged as a swarm towards the Samurai like Nesst Space Wasps protecting their hive. Flares of light and the flashes of explosions erupted all around the Samurai. While Aso knew some of them were more likely than not the enemy starfighters, but he knew the inevitable outcome. Aso cleared his throat.

“Signal our surviving forces to form up on the Shogun and prepare to make a jump to hyperspace. Navigation, plot us the fastest course out of here to Confederate space. I take that back, the fastest way to Soroya?”

“Sir?”

The officer’s beady eyes squinted almost imperceptibly, “Do not question your orders. Yours is do; mine is to know.”

“Yes sir.”

“Incoming!”

The bridge’s view was filled with a fireball; the ship shuddered; the lights flickered; and they all swore. A chaotic choir of voices chanted across the room, managing to send orders and information quickly and even somewhat efficiently.

‘The Samurai disappeared in an explosion…I think we’ve lost her..”


“Our fore shields are at 37%. That’s not good enough…”

“Reallocating energy to bolster shields…”

“Seems to have been a missile attack from those fighters…”

Aso rolled his eyes. “We’re not designed to take out fighters. Get the remenants of Shuriken wing to keep those fighters busy-”

“We’re ready to make the jump, sir.”

“Nevermind that last order,” shouted Aso, “transmit the nav data, and let us make the jump immediately.”

“Aye sir.”

With that, an almost pristine corvette and a smattering of X-wings and Y-wings jumped away from their burning homeworld into hyperspace. Several of the invading starfighters futilely flew at them running on their sublight drives; when it was clear that the defenders were truly gone, the Entymal pilots turned their sights back to their fleet, and the forest world of Taicho. The four boxy cruiser-carriers, accompanied by their swarm of starfighters, idly floated towards the emerald and hazel mottled planet. Each cruiser-carrier casually slipped into orbit, and with a few bursts from their ion engines, positioned themselves over various points of the planet. Assault shuttles and landing barges disengorged from the craft in flights of four; each one loaded with Entymal soldiers packed tightly like Andoash sardines. Bright bursts of light lanced upward from the planet below, smashing into the two carriers which hovered over Saarkin. The carrier-cruiser’s shields absorbed the brunt of the attack admirably, and in reaction, released capsules towards the ground that appeared to be escape pods. But nearly five kilometers above the surface, and the guns, the Magpulse ordinance exploded virulently; temporarily disrupting all electronic devices in the area, whether it be a house’s simple circuit board or the most advanced droid vehicle. The surface guns ceased firing as they too succumbed to the insectiod attack. And with their silence, the last major opposition mounted by the Taicho Security Forces faded. Taicho was now firmly in the grasps of the Entymals slender, scaly arms.

Nighthawk Corsair-class Corvette Shogun

“Tea?”

Yes. Tea. Tea is really what I want. I have just watched my homeworld get bombed, invaded, and my comrades-in-arms incinerated. And we have survived by cowardly running away. Yes, I’d really care to enjoy a spot of tea. Captain Aso vigorously shook his head, and continued to gaze at the flowing lines of hyperspace. The ship’s steward continued across the bridge, passing out cups of steaming tea to the crewmen who fought against the mental exhaustion of a fourteen hour shift and its associated insomnia, as well as the emotion effects of the invasion. Aso glanced to his side. Really? I thought better of you Osika.

“Lieutenant!” barked Aso.

The slumped-over man whipped his head up from his console and gave a sloppy salute. Taro glared at the man, and bit back his tongue. In any other case, failing to pay attention and do one’s duty would have been a court martial case regardless of situation at hand. But how can I? There would be no-one to take his place…especially with a third of the crew being on shore leave when they struck. The bastards.

“Cap…tain,” stammered a weary voice, “Soroya is coming up quickly. We’ll arrive in two minutes.”

“Hah! Then the fighter jocks can actually take a leak,” exclaimed an almost delirious sailor.

A little part inside of the captain grinned; both from the internal service rivalries, and that at least one person had pushed through the drama already, or the drama had broke him up completely. Two minutes quietly passed, and the Taicho’s hull groaned as the starship dragged its hull into realspace along with the accompanying starfighters. But stars did not greet their arrival, nor the glistening ball of Soroya or its famed spoke-wheel space stations. Instead they had reverted into a realm of solid grays, whites, and reds. A few voices rang out in panic among his crew.

“Multiple weapon locks are on us..”

“We’re surrounded…”

“Captain, we’re being forcibly hailed. It’s passing through all of communication links and channels. We’re not even position to talk to our starfighter pilots via personal comlinks.”

Staring at the hulks of scrambled Montcalm frigates and clouds of Piranha drones which blotted out the starry vista, Aso sighed.

“Very well. You may turn on the receiver.”

A virulent voice rose up as if to answer him.

“This is Captain Armour of the Confederation Home Fleet, Soroya detachment. You are unauthorized, if not somewhat unexpected, to be in this area, and the nature of your vessels and the amount of weapons carried by them is illegal without the express consent of the Contegorian Council. As such, standby for boarding by proper Confederation military and customs officials. Any hostile action or attempt to flee will be met by force, and possibly destruction. Power down your vessels immediately or risk destruction…”

Taro Aso merely laughed. “Yes. So unexpected that reverted right into the middle of a war fleet.”

“Sir…”

“Do it. Power down everything. We can explain things to them, I hope.”

Brandenburg, Genon

Atlas Hall bathed the Contegorian Council in a dimmed brilliance of its cerulean glowstones. Whether reptilian, humanoid, or of some other nature, all of the council members and their aides seemed to move placidly and calmly, despite the nature and tone of their words. The central holo-projector flared sporadically, changing with the peoples who briefed the Council on the Taichoan situation. With the briefings ended, the councilors debated…

“…they’re being held in the Custom’s impound yard currently.”

“I think their story is true,” announced Director Howe, “several of our agents in the area have not reported in. And from what I understand, the CMF agent that was groundside on Taicho has not reported in yet, and he’s late for three days then. An unlikely occurrence to say the least.”

A holo-graphic visage merely nodded his head, and everyone immediately stared at him. Admiral Lucerne could not be physically present for the meeting, with his flagship stationed temporary at Kashyyk while Serendivus reinforced one of its hidden bases. And yet while the Supreme Commander was light years away from the Council, his word still garnered more importance among them than most of the Councilors. Seeing the Council quiet, the younger Lucerne explained himself.

“There can be no doubt that some unknown force has indeed invaded Taicho. We have the ships’ recordings, the crew testimonies, and what we know about our own people in the area. It would be too elaborate of a hoax to be pulled that none of our specialists can find faults within the evidence. Moreover, the Taicho crews have no reason to lie, given their detainment, nor anyone on their planet. I see nothing to gain from this for them.”

“Unless they’re working for the Empire or some other hostile force. It smells like a trap to me,” rebutted Councilor Knots of Brachnis Chorios, “I think we need to be cautious.”

“I respect my fellow Councilor’s concern for the protection, and consequently the welfare of the Confederation, and I think he truly believes that his course of action is the best to defend our citizens,” deflected Pro-Consul Thorn, “however, it is my belief based on our experts’ opinions that the best defence for our nation is that of others. For if we loose buffer states, we loose some of our defence in distance. Moreover, we ourselves could be attacked by this group.”

“I would like to add to my Pro-Consul’s remarks,” stated Councilor Harding, “that it is unlikely that the Empire is behind this. They are being attacked by unknown groups themselves; at Onyx, and now there is talk of trouble going on in Hutt space. They were already stretched before, I’m not sure if they’d go through the trouble to clandestinely conquer a planet that they will not be able to control in the future, or if the Taichoans are indeed on the Empire’s side, why they would want to engage an enemy of our size. It might be large enough to topple or severely hurt them given their stretched out state.”

“I agree to your statements, Councilor Harding,” replied Metalorn’s councilor quietly, “but this is not our war. We have at the very least no pretense to going for war, aside from possibly, possibly getting attacked in the future. We will need at least a veneer of legitimacy, or even perhaps more wisely, keep our noses stuck in clearly our own business.”

The Admiral cleared his throat, once again redirecting attention to his holographic figure. “That will not be hard. As part of the CMF’s trading agreement with Taicho, the CMF, and consequently the Confederation government, is bound to stop piracy and other criminal elements from intruding in their space, for our mutual benefit. We really do not know who these conquerors are. They could well be pirates, like those that occupied Budpock previously.”

The Budpock councilor nodded. “And if that is the case, I am inclined to deeply sympathesize with them. I am obliged to support Taicho.”

“But let us not move hastily,” added Christina, “military action may be necessary, but I would prefer the Confederation not embroil itself in a needless battles with countless lives lost. I suggest a more covert option to better inform us of the information, and possibly act if the Taicho people are indeed being oppressed by unlawfuls.”

“I suggest we vote on this motion,” said Harding.

“Seconded,” added Knots, “for better or worse.”

Hands, claws, and other appendages were raised and counted; the motion passed by twelve votes. With that, Confederation High Command set apart plans and order of operations for the motion, ordered the personnel, supplies, and ships needed for the mission. Within a day, the fast-response commando teams were well on their way to Taicho.

The space above Taicho was in a state of mild chaos. Wreckage from what had not more than 2 days ago been the Taicho defense fleet floated about unchecked. While above the planet itself the Entymal Cruiser-Carriers still ominously held their position, continually shuttling personnel to and from the planet below.

The planet below was not much better. On the surface Entymal forces were still in the process of rooting out the last bits of resistance and taking full control. Anyone that resisted was killed on site or shortly there after, anyone that helped those that resisted shared their fate. The xenophobic and ruthless Entymal invaders felt no remorse and spared no effort in making life for the Taicho natives a living horror.

Each and every Taicho citizen prayed for help, and while light years away the Confederation Council debated on what exactly was to happen in the coming days to do exactly that. The Confederation’s first response was already on the way…

Almost two days after the Entymal attack a medium sized freighter jumped into orbit. Ordinary in everyway it began its communications to the now nonexistent Taicho Control, unaware of the events that had taken place.

It powered forward seemingly ignorant of the 4 large Cruiser-Carriers that sat in orbit. Until it was too late.

When they finally noticed something was wrong, as streams of fighters shot towards the merchant ship, they made a futile attempt to exit orbit and jump into hyperspace. They were too slow and the fighters overtook them explosions blossoming across the freighters hull.

It listed to port as the onslaught continued its engines going silent, the ship crippled and damaged.

But the Entymal continued their attack not to be content with anything but the merchant freighters complete destruction.

With a final explosion the freighter broke apart its structure coming apart explosions blasting apart the ship’s interior. A second later the ship was finally no more.

The expanding debris field was all that remained of the ship. None of the Entymal noticed or cared as debris began to rain on the planet below them.

__________________________

Over the Taicho city of Saarkin it rained. Wreckage fell from the sky over they city. Entymal and citizens alike looked up to watch the freighter’s burning wreckage fall towards them.

Most of the pieces burned up in the atmosphere but some larger pieces survived, and among these were 8 chunks that went unnoticed among the rain of flaming debris.


No one noticed when these 8 veered off slightly from the large group. Nor when each fired tiny stabilizers that righted and somewhat stabilized their descent towards the city.

Only a few finally noticed these curious objects when they came crashing down. Dispersed they landed in a rough circle around the 4 planetary guns in Saarkin’s center.

The citizens who saw them come down cared little when compared to the invasion that had just swept up their planet, and the Entymal had the subjugation of a planet to worry about.

So they went unnoticed, and as the dust settled around the craters left from their crash, the figures that slipped out went unseen and unnoticed as well.

Ducking through alleys and backstreets, they made their way on towards the 4 turbolaser emplacements that stood tall at the cities center.

These were strange creatures that stalked the city’s streets. Not flesh and not completely mechanical. They were something interesting and different.

They moved with fluid motions impossible for most robots, yet had the mind and thought of sentient beings not merely droids.

They were neither droid nor human, they were Sojourn.

They were the first wave, and as they finally reached their targets one different from the rest activated a small device. The preprogrammed codes it sent reached a single cloaked ship in orbit. Within moments it was gone, off to report that the team had been inserted without notice. They were ready.

“Sir, our descent is in two minutes.”

The Jensaarai idly nodded back, and pulled his mind back into the realm of meditation; he had great need of it. He had journeyed several light years with a squad of CSIS commandoes in nothing but a hyperspace-capable escape pod taken of a recently decommissioned Corellian corvette. Space was rather limited, with the troopers all crammed in foot to foot, body to body, within the boat’s circular bench. Throughout it all, most of the troopers simply slept or read datacards on their datapads; there was nothing better to do. Only the CSIS technician, who monitored the escape pod’s controls and subsystems, had any semblance of physical activity. Yet, this was their job, and as well as could be expected, they were comfortable.

But he was not.

His consciousness deftly waded through the Force; through visions and thoughts long forgotten within his mind, and every once in a while, he managed to glimpse some unsurprising scene in the future; most of these revolved around the Academy. Or were these mundane events things that had already taken place? He could not recall, nor could he really focus to figure that out. For as they neared their destination, some darkness grew and withdrew into nothingness with the power and speed of a Corellian sandpanther. Adrian felt as if he were swimming at night in some sea, and a sea monster silently swam around him, merely toying with the victim before it would eat him in a single gulp. Worse yet, it seemed to reverberate in his mind in various states of power like sound in a cave wall.

The escape pod reverted into realspace, just above Taicho’s atmosphere, and almost immediately plunged into it. The darkness lashed out at Adrian with thousands of strikes. He ripped his consciousness out from the meditations, and shuddered. There is something here…no, somethings here that are one with the dark side. But so many…who could they be? The invaders perhaps? Such a large force though…not all of them, no, not many of them could turn that much to the dark. How could they not help but to destroy themselves? The Jensaarai considered. It does not feel like the malevolence fo the Sith, nor the veneer of a darksider like Callie. This is something different; more sinister. Perhaps some long-forgotten darkside spirits inhabit Taicho? Surely the terror that the invaders brought would bring them something to relish and nurture them? Adrian shrugged, and spared a glance out of the viewports. Flames of atmospheric reentry licked away at the pods heat shields and ablative plating. Gravity gradually shifted back and forth as the planet’s gravity and the inertial compensators fought a tug of war.

Several of the soldiers glanced at their chronos once more. One shouted. And everyone, including Ravenna, grasped their restraints tightly. The pod hit with a thud, jolting everyone within the craft. The Jensaarai watched with some amusement as the soldier’s heads moved up and down like those of the ancient bobble-head toys. Several sparks rained down on the armored men, and the technician swore.

“What the hell? How can it be this off? What did..oh,” swore the man, “so I’ve got a little news for you…”

The camouflaged soldiers merely stared at the technician, and Adrian slightly tilted his head as he faced the man.

“And what might that be?”

“Well…it turns out that someone programmed the computer wrong, didn’t take into the account the atmospheric disturbances…so we’re five kilometers off course. And we’re not in the forest…”

“Where are we then?” questioned the man.

“What appears to have been a local school…”

Adrian frowned. “What kind of school?”

“Um…well…my computer says that it was an elementary school, at least it was two months ago. We’re in the gymnasium…”

Ravenna rolled his eyes. “All right then. There’s nothing we can do about that. Let’s get ready to move out.”

The Jensaarai warrior half-rose, and walked over to the pod’s escape hatch. He grabbed the handle, and pushed it down; the door opened half-way. It’s jammed…really? Adrian pulled little tendrils of energy from the Force and felt them sublime into his body. With a deep, meditative breath, the Jensaarai punched the block with armored gauntlet. The latch broken, and Ravenna stepped through the broken doorway into the deserted gymnasium, closely followed by the CSIS commandoes.

“Ooooh…it looks like the fleet compies got it right,” grinned the technician, “And that’s not all…”

Adrian quietly spared a glance at the commandoes, most of whom shrugged or rolled their eyes. Rob, the technician, was proving to be a handful. When the programmer had noticed the hole the escape pod had put into the gym’s roof, he had jumped up and down, he had exclaimed with glee. It took the prodding of five of the commandoes to get him to keep walking through the deserted school to a computer lab of sorts. Once there, Rob had deftly hacked into the local security network and pried what information he there was left in it; most of the holocameras and networks had been knocked offline by the magnetic pulse ordinance. But several of the holocameras, running on redundant batteries and sheltered by the thick duracrete walls of their buildings, managed to record and transmit their data to the back-up security hub. The tech froze a holo, and pointed at a group of Taichoans being escorted by the insectiod invaders.

“Look at this; see that ring around their necks? It seems to be a slaving collar of some sort…”

Ravenna nodded. “What species are we dealing with? They all seem to be the same in all of the holos we’ve seen so far.”

“That’s because they all are, genius,” retorted the programmer, “but I don’t know what species they are; I’m no xenobiologist. But what I have done is transmitted a request through the escape pod’s transmitter to Command to get a match. But anyways, looking at the municipal grid, the Entymal are rounding them up and parading them here.”

Ravenna squinted his eyes. “Is that a bludgerball stadium?”

“Pft…are you kidding? It’s a Limmie stadium; see that ball on the sign? You didn’t get out much as a child, did you?”

“What’s security look like for the stadium?” asked Ravenna, slightly exasperated.

“Can you see the holo? Those specks over there are guards. Let’s see…internal stadium cams show that they’re just being packed in there…I mean, the civies are being packed in there. It doesn’t look like the invaders have any vehicles or anything…there just seem to be guards posted at the gates, and random patrols walking through the building. And too many guards for us to deal with.”

Adrian considered. “How do those slaving collars work, do you think?”

“Probably electro-shock or some kind of chemical inhibitor syringe placed in them. Comlink controlled, probably…”

“Is there any way to jam the signal?”

“Eh…probably…”

“Well then, that’s your job: disable the slaving collars.”

“And then what? It’s not like the aliens won’t shoot them or anything…”

One of the commandoes gripped the tech’s shoulder tightly, “Rob, behave. Or I’ll file a report about your attitude problems with the mission commander.”

“What? I wasn’t-”

The commando glared at the programmer, who fell silent. Several of the commandoes nodded in improvement. Adrian grimaced. Sometimes free-wheeling personalities are a good thing; they see things that others don’t. They solve problems with solutions that no-one has ever thought of before…and they also create problems no-one has ever dealt with before…

“All right,” announced the Jensaarai, “while Rob is working on those collars, we are going to eliminate some of those guards. We won’t kill them all, but we’ll put them in a disarray, and if we’re lucky, we might be able to even draw most of them away from the stadium.”

“I take it sir,” said a soldier, “that you think that these things…are enemies of the Confederation?”

“Any people that enslaves another is morally in the wrong, for most cultures. But especially when one enslaves an entire, and as far as we can see, innocent people. So yes, it’s assumed that they’re not in the right. Only the Empire and criminals practice slavery, and even in there, there are people who despise it…”

OOC*anything in italics is essentially a sojourn to sojourn communication only no verbal communication*

“Team 2 in position at northern tower.”

“Team 3 in position at eastern tower.”

“Team 4 in position at the western tower.”

Xiantus listened intently as each of his teams reported in, anxious to hear that all of his men had made it safely this far. He amused himself by thinking of his soldiers as men, humans, but liked the thought and stuck with it.

He too sounded off, “Team 1 in position at the southern tower.” That was all the other teams needed. All of them knew to attack at their discretion now.

Xiantus risked a look around the corner of broken building he and his team hid behind. Rubble lay strewn across the courtyard beyond that led up to the turbolaser tower’s entrance.

He spotted the 6 insectoid Entymal patrolling it, idly picking through debris as they went. They wouldn’t be much of a problem to get through, but there was also a repeating cannon position they had set up near the door. Protected by a small wall of debris the cannon would tear apart or pin him down pretty quickly if it wasn’t taken out quick.

He made a motion behind him with one hand. One of the Sojourn behind xiantus appeared next to him. Xiantus risked a look at him, gave him a nod, another oddly human gesture and returned looking toward the courtyard.

He had to time this when the guards weren’t looking. He got lucky when a piece of rubble stirred, a bloodied taicho native crawling from the rubble. The Entymal turned for a moment and moved towards the wounded human.

Xiantus waved his commando forward. Quickly the lithe synthetic sojourn jumped from cover and sprinted towards the other side of the courtyard. Ducking behind cover here and there he reached a large crumbling wall unnoticed.

He sent a “ready” signal and poked the large sniper rifle he carried through a hole in the wall.

Xiantus waved the other 4 team members forward.

To all of his team he sent, ”Go.”, and without a seconds hesitation or thought otherwise all 4 members of the team and Xiantus leapt from cover into the courtyard.

Their assault was announced when the team’s sniper fired, the head of the Entymal manning the repeating cannon snapping back a cloud of mist all that remained of most of it.

The silenced slug thrower that he was using was powerful but gave very little muzzle flash or sound when silenced making him invisible to the Entymal in the courtyard.

Xiantus and the other 4 were already half way to the entrance and the Entymal were still huddled around the dying taicho man.

The sniper fired again, this round cutting one of the Entymal in half. The group of entymal looked around franticly and noticed the repeating cannon operator dead and the 4 soldiers rushing through the courtyard towards them.

Confused they scattered into the cover provided by debris. The sniper fired again, taking off a leg of one of the bugs. Falling to the ground crippled one of the other sojourn ended its life with a single shot.

The Entymal finally started returning fire, shots now flying through the courtyard. Xiantus and his commandos were close enough to take most of them out easily enough and the sniper’s final shot killed the remaining bug.

Xinatus looked around the courtyard making sure that all of the enymal were dead.

Sure the courtyard was clear he moved out from behind a piece of building he had taken refuge behind. The rest of his team too the cue and moved towards the door with him.

Xiantus looked them all over. One he noticed was limping, a burn on his upper leg.

The sojourn nodded as he noticed Xiantus looking at his leg, ”No worries I can keep up.”

Xinatus nodded and motioned towards the door. It wasn’t hard to open; the Entymal had been confident or stupid enough to leave it unlocked.

Once in Xiantus found the tower was essentially empty. Xinatus shook his head as he looked at the body of the only entymal that had been in the tower. It had been simple enough to snap its neck and they had control.

Now to see where his other teams were, “All teams report in.

“Team two, we’ve taken the northern tower without much resistance.”

“This is team three, tower secured, entymal resistance almost nonexistent.”

“This is team four, we have secured the tower with only moderate resistance Tre’arn is down, damn Entymal used a blade to cut him in half. We did however retrieve his black box.”

Xiantus’s face which had become one of anger, relaxed a bit. The black box was basically the sojourns brain, if their body was destroyed it could be removed and the sojourn could be literally reborn at a later date. He was relieved the black box had survived.

Xiantus replied, ”Good all teams hold your towers and execute programs, then fall back to the southern tower.”

Xiantus got conformation signals from all of his team members, he nodded at one of the Sojourn behind him, ”Get it done.

The technician walked to the main control console. He accessed the controls easily enough and inserted a small card into the console through a data port. He turned after shutting off the console display, ”Its done, the AI is in.”

”Good, ok everyone to defensive positions; they’re going to notice us soon.”

All of his team began to file out of the room as the fist boom echoed from above them the vibrations from the firing of the guns felt through the tower.

Yes, Xiantus thought, they would be noticed very soon.

This isn’t quite what I had in mind…

Another red bolt soared through the air at him; the Jensaarai barely repositioned the cobalt blade to intercept the bolt. The two connected with a sizzling crackle, reflecting the crimson dart back at the Entymal patrol. One of the alien’s made a harried chattering noise, and all four aliens quickly scrambled out of the bolts’ way. Ravenna flicked his wrist: a chair flew through the hallway and smashed into the lead insectiod’s abdomen. As the creature let out a chittering screech, the Jensaarai bolted down the apartment complex’s hallyway and rounded a corner. A voice emanated from just outside his ear, from the earbug of his long-range comlink.

“Boss, you’ve really pissed them off…they all seem to be very anguished right now, and everyone nearby is converging on your building…”

Adrian scrambled into an apartment room and bolted the door. “I can imagine. There is something different about them…whenever I try to focus on their thoughts, I just get a collective flood of them. I think we might be dealing with a hive-minded species…”

“So they all felt the pain you’ve been giving them?” questioned the tech.

“Perhaps? I’m no xenobiologist, and I’d rather not speculate. How much longer do you need?”

“Five minutes, I think…”

The husky man let out a sigh, “Well, you don’t have that much. I can’t keep them running like this forever. They’re going to catch up to me eventually if I keep distracting them like this.”

“Don’t worry, the sergeant’s got his distraction ready now.”

“Good, tell him to do it now,” ordered Ravenna, “I’ll be back at the computer lab within ten minutes. For the people of Taicho’s sake, I hope your work will be completed.”

“Yes sir.”

Footsteps and chittering from dozens of Entymal began to reverberate through the hallway; growing steadily louder like a rising tide. Well, all of the doors were open before…they’re going to realize that this one isn’t, and that I’m probably inside then. Time to go. Adrian hurriedly glance around, noticed an emergency exit staircase, and began his descent.



S16 Prowler-class Starfighter Raven Three, hyperspace

“SHUT UP!” demanded the woman, “I didn’t switch to the S16 to have conversations with an astromech about my weight. Leave it alone, you know its neglible to our overall weight…what? I meant the ship’s, you tard.”

The droid warbled back again, and for the first time in the last ten minutes, it wasn’t derisive. It had been bad enough that she had to spend forty minutes of jumps with the droid thanks to the long-range CSG-1 module fitted to her ship. But the torment was almost at an end. Mere seconds later, the blurry starlines shifted into pinpricks of light as the craft reentered realspace. Other S16s flooded her viewports to either side of Raven Three. Directly in front of her floated the orb that was Taicho; it would have been a beautiful vista if the stars and planet were not marred by the Entymal Fleet and the Confederate forces, led by the Shogun. Bright flashes of light lit up the space between the two fleets, most of it focused on the Shogun and the Task Force Valeur Flagship, the La Galissonière-class Star Destroyer Foudroyant. A new voice reverberated throughout her comm.

“Welcome to the fray, Fighter Group Green,” greeted the disembodied voice, “You have new orders, to achieve air superiority over the capitol city Saarkin, and support the landings taking place there our troops. The Entymal are retreating before our superior numbers, so you will have help, or rather competition, pretty soon…”

A series of acknowledgements and typical banter flooded her comlink, but Sheba ignored them; almost preferring the conversations of her irate and rude astromech to them: at the least the droid’s thoughts were somewhat true. Rather, she focused on managing the power of the systems to gain more speed to enter the fight soon: Prowlers were a bit slower than most fighters without any power-shifting, but given the ship’s defences and weapons, it was a rather dangerous ship: once it got to the enemy. A minute later, Raven Three was plunging through the atmosphere towards the landing below. R6-B43 let out a warning shriek.

“A missile lock, but from where?”

A orange concussion missile broke through the clouds towards her craft. She swore. Sheba tapped a button, and a countermeasure flare surged out of the rear of the craft. The two missiles collided midair, resulting in a near-miss that rocked her heavily-shielded starship. Another fireball blossomed through the cloud in front of her. A S16 with its six guns still firing flew through the plummeting debris of its kill. Roger…

“Don’t worry Three, you’ll pay me back for that save a little later, I’m sure.”

“Roger, Eight,” replied Sheba.

Sheba gently pressed the joystick down, and Raven Three descended like a dove towards Saarkin. Quartets of Confederate landing craft idly drifted towards the ground, trading fire with the planet’s conquerors. Most of the groundside fire was from small arms, but Sheba quickly noticed two quad streams of laserfire erupting from near the capitol building. That transport isn’t going to last long at this rate…

She deftly toyed with the stick, and Raven Three gently banked towards the two quad laser cannon emplacements. Sheba tapped a few buttons, bracketing both turrets in the yellows of her proton torpedo launchers. She pulled the dual triggers three times: Three proton torpedoes surged forth from different launchers…skidded above the cityscape, and came crashing down on the emplacements. As fireballs suffused the emplacements, the Entymal laser fire disappeared, allowing more Paladin IIs and Confederate ground troops to land and help mop-up the last remaining Entymal forces in the system. Entymal had been reclaimed by its citizens with their new alliance with the Confederation.