Ooc: please delete the other thread by the same name posted by Jan

Commodore Ganges surveyed the force he had been given to command for this step of the Coalition's plan to attack the Black Dragon Empire. Already hundreds of lightyears away a force with a similar mission was beginning the long slow penetration of Black Dragon Space. Unfortunately the Dragon's had done a very good job of putting grav-well projectors around their space and those had to be destroyed before any incursion could be made. Ganges did not doubt the ability of his men to destroy the grav-well generators, he just did not want to alert the enemy of another incursion upon their space. Surprise was the best advantage an attacker could have, and unfortunately it was not going to be present in this battle, though numbers would make his job a whole lot easier too.

When he'd been assigned this task his first impulse had been to turn it down. He did not want to lead an incursion hundreds of light-years into enemy held territory. Deep-strike missions had never been his favourite tactic, but High Command had ordered him to do it. Plus, the thought of more innocents dying due to aggression by the Black Dragon Empire was revolting to him. He was extremely glad that his family was back home safe on Onyx, one of the few planets that could be considered safe.

"3rd Wing reports they're ready sir."

Ganges turned and nodded to his second-in-command. He paused and cast one last look at the assembeled fighters that were floating before him in space. It was probably the last time he would ever see them all, it was never fun to send young men into battle.

"Give me a transmission to the Wing," he ordered his comm officer.

"Channel open."

"Men, you are all on the brink of what could be one of the most dangerous missions of your careers. It will be difficult, but you will suceed. I have faith in you and your training. For months we have been training for a war. Our enemies, they have been complacent, armchair fighters, no match for you, the best that the Coalition has to offer. If ever your courage is to falter, think of the innocent women and children waiting at home. Nearly all of you have lost somebody near to you in the senseless rampages of the Empire and the Black Dragon Empire. Today is the day that we begin the trod the first steps on the path to vengeance for our love ones. We will strike fear in the hearts of our enemies, such as they have never felt before. And when it is all over one less enemy to freedom will remain in the galaxy. Good luck and thank you from all of us."

<center>****</center>

<b>Some Time Later</b>

With a crash 3rd Wing, made up of a half-wing of Firewall Bombers and a half-wing of Cypher fighters were pulled out of hyperspace. Immediately all the stealth systems went active with the Firewall bombers spewing out clouds of sensor dampening smoke. Gange's speech was still echoing in their ears and they were motivated and ready to go. Any barrier that the Dragon's put up would be hammered.

Blue 1, a Cypher fighter, slowly nosed up out of the fog and adjusted his sensors. "Look's like they have two cannons mounted top and bottom. Recommend long range attack, set your missiles on impact detonate."

Nothing greeted his comments, the men were trained to talk only when necessary.

The Firewall bombers and the Cypher's scattered and began to attack the Grav-well generators from a distance. There was a flash under the nose-cone of each ship as the missiles were fired off. These missiles did not have enough power to reach their target but there was no need. Kinetic energy did the rest.

Missile after missile slammed into the Grav-Well Generator each travelling at their maximum speed. Explosions lit up space and the Generator was ripped apart leaving nothing except a rapidly expanding cloud of gas and other matter.

Blue 1 checked his sensors and looked for any other gravity anomalies that were along their course. He couldn’t detect any in the immediate vicinity but there always was the chance of some beyond his sensor range. The Firewalls and the Cypher’s could get through the grav-wells without blowing them up the forces following them couldn’t.

3rd Wing resumed their course now making small jumps so as to be able to detect a generator before they hit it.

//......... Begin Transmission
//To: LA Kyric Zen/A0000000001
//From: CP Alet Vorgenrist/D2038487372
//Header: Threat
//Level: 3
//Subject: M-Class Disappearance
//Message: M-Class gravity wells are disappearing in sector G-329B through G-321C. Possible invasion force from Galactic Coalition. Advise investigation.
//Sincerely: Captain Vorgenrist
//......... End Transmission.


//......... Begin Transmission
//To: CP Alet Vorgenrist/D2038487372
//From: LA Kyric Zen/A0000000001
//Header: Response
//Level: N/A
//Subject: Re: M-Class Disappearance
//Message: Investigation approved. Recommend caution. Use extreme politeness.
//Sincerely: Kyric Zen
//......... End Transmission.

For the third time the wing of starfighters leading the invasion force dropped out of hyperspace. Once again each ship began to scan for any gravatic anamolies that did not match anything on the charts. Except this time they found something.

"All units, this is Red 5. I detect a gravatic anamoly on heading 55-69-103. Acknowledge."

All the fighters in the unit trained their sensors in the direction that the fighter had detected the anamoly. Acknowledgements of the anamoly began to come crackling over the comm waves.

Blue One thumbed his mike.

"Alright, we'll go in, attack profile 6."

The wing jumped again into hyperspace racing at impossible speeds towards the target. A minute later most of the wing dropped out of hyperspace, while a half-squadron of Cypher's continued on.

A minute later the remaining Cypher's dropped out of hyperspace beyond the range of the gravatic anamoly or any weapons on the anamoly. They would scan this anamoly, see if there was any surprises waiting and then bring in the rest of the unit.

With a flash the Cypher's reverted to find themselves facing another M-Class Gravity Well. Scans showed it to be nothing more than a standard generator so the rest of the wing was commed to come in.

Once again the wing set their weapons to detonate on contact and fired from beyond the range of the generators weapons. Once again there was nothing left but rapidly expanding space dust and the wing continued along it's methodical attack across Black Dragon Empire space, carving a clear path for Caluula and the fleet that followed them.

Captain Alet Vorgenrist was a reletively old captain for Farfalen. He was a Captain aboard one of the Star Destroyers amongst Kyric Zen's Jutraal fleet. When Farfalen was made, Kyric Zen had hundreds of seasons Captains serving him and that made an older man like Vorgenrist find opportunities to advance were slim. So slim, in fifteen years as a Captain, Farfalen brass felt bad for him and gave him the rank of Line Captain. But that difference was enough. From commanding a single ship, to now a task force.

Currently, duty called him to protect Caluula--an outer-Dameo planet. While it held little value to most Farfalen troops, it was very valuable to the Black Dragon empire. It disgusted him really. The way that the shock soliders of the empire were so lifeless and hallow. Not exactly the best form of troop, but they were effective. Before, when he knew of them it was rough, but now that he commanded them... sometimes he felt queasy from it, to say the least.

From his Captains post, he gazed out into the blanket of stars that surrounded the planet and his fleet. Naturally, his command post was a Shoto- class battle cruiser, the Sunset Raider. Prefered amongst all Farfalen commanders. And his task force comprised of a Tion- class Star destroyer--with a full compliment of Dragonclaws, as well as six Cutter-class gunships and twelve Kessel-class pickets, half regular and half A. The planet itself was well secured as well, powerful shields lie over any of the military installations, which held thousands of troops and vehicles.

Commodore Ganges stood on the bridge of his command ship and watched 3rd Wing as they floated motionless in space. For the past hour they had made good progress and were now over 25% of the way to Caluula. If the Dragons hadn't figured out where his force was heading they were stupider than he expected.

<i>Of course that is part of any strategy. Being smarter than your opponent.</i> Ganges thought to himself and he was pretty sure he was smart.

"Alright we've set a diversion, by know the Dragon's must be rushing ships to fill the void at Caluula. The real attack is about to begin." He told his Executive Officer. "Order 3rd Wing to initiate the second step of the plan."

Immediately the wing split up into three seperate groups. One was made up of only 6 craft in total, 3 Cyphers and 3 Firewall bombers. They would continue the march towards Caluula though at a slightly slower pace than before. The second group of a smilar size, backtracked for a few minutes in hyperspace, though the distance would be incalcuable in realspace and began to do the short jumps towards Ciutric. The third largest force engaged the Argon, Anti-grav fields and began the hyperspace flight towards Corvis Minor 4. They would be undetectable and wouldn't be pulled out of hyperspace until they reached their destination.

Pretty soon the Dragon's would notice a second string of grav-wells going offline, this time aiming towards Ciutric while the largest fighter force flew undetected through the heavy defences set up by the Dragons.