It was the first time in his life that Rob Stellar had actually set foot on a planet he had only recently found out about. From the moment he had read the small news article about this world, however, Rob knew he had to come visit and see for himself. The article had not made the front page, but it had stood out greatly in Rob's mind. From that moment he had read whatever he could find about it.

What he read had sent a shock through him and into his core as a member of the human race. The world was a living tragedy that stretched back thousands of years. It had been ravaged by war for centuries, before being slowly rebuilt and reinhabited, just to have a massive space station crash down into it. He could not or more like would not believe that after such a tragedy nothing was done about it. Almost no help had been sent. The planet was almost abandoned.

It would have stayed that way for who knows how long, if it had been for a family from that planet turning up on Varn. They had told their story to a local news organization, before it slowly trickled down to Rob's eyes. He had been so moved by the family's story, that he personally went to visit them. It was there, while talking with these great survivors that he had made the promise to save whoever he could on Telos. The promise had made news, but that had not been Rob's intentions. He did, however, want the galaxy to realize what they had let happen.

Now he stood on the surface of the scared planet and gazed over the destruction that littered it. It was a horrible sight, but also one of much hope and determination. From many small, primitive shelters, citizens of Telos began to emerge and gather around the impressive showing that landed on their planet. It was something none of them had seen before and did not know what to make of.

As Rob looked upon the shattered remains of a once large city, he was vaguely awake of the motion all around him. Freighters of various sizes and configurations were starting to land and disgorge hundreds of worker and medical droids each. Along with these came squads of combat droids to secure the area again any criminal elements that existed on planet.

After the droids set about clearing small paths, air speeders were pushed out of the freighters. These would carry two man teams all over the city in search of more survivors. They would also inform everyone that help was on the way and if they could more, they should make their way to the west side of the city. Anyone that needed medical attention would get it as soon as possible from the medics brought in by Stellar Enterprises.

Rob could see a few people already getting treated at a makeshift med station that had been established at the edge of the city. He knew that many of them would need treatment for countless conditions associated with living around pollution. Even after only a few moments on planet, Rob could already feel his nostrils burning from the haze that covered the ruins. Industries, war, and the great crash had ruined the planet and covered it in polluted clouds.

There were only two or three places on the whole planet that would be able to support life for an period of time. One was the poles, but another was only 160 kilometers to the northwest. It was a valley that had for some reason been mostly spared, probably from the hills that surrounded it. This valley would soon be a new home for the survivors of Telos. While they were getting gathered around the city, more ships were landing all over the valley and offloading prefabricated buildings. Workers immediately started putting these together and setting up power generators as well as water and sewage systems.

This would just be a beginning. Once the makeshift city was completely, Stellar Enterprises would start operations on cleaning the planet. They had learned much while doing so on Anoat and those lessons would be greatly used on Telos. It was hoped that over the years, Telos would finally, once more become a paradise.

(Edit: this is Jarvis Ragnar)

Fires burned on the deck of the heavy freighter Fading Light, but these fires weren't burning from overloaded power conduits, or damage dealt by an enemy assault; these fires were burning because they had a tale to tell, the tale of those who had fallen into shadow, of those lost to the rolling seas of chaos, those whose lights had faded, and would never again shine.

Jarvis Ragnar finished the list of names and sidestepped away from the podium, walking down the stairs and approaching the center of the bay with the most solemn reverence. He was whispering to himself; everyone could

see, but no one was sure what he was saying, not even Ferril, who was pretty sure he was speaking in Ryn. Jarvis began to pace back and forth, up and down the rows of sealed coffins and open, empty ones. He waved his hand gently over the small torch set beside each one, and the fire vanished, a long, lingering string of smoke all that remained to give testament to those who had fallen.

Jarvis turned silently toward the exit and gave a slight gesture; everyone filed slowly, reverently, out of the docking bay. Once they were all gone, Jarvis turned once more to look over what remained of those who had fallen under his command. He turned, his head bowed in shame, tears escaping from tightly shut eyes, and left them there, all alone in that room.

"Farewell, my brothers," He whispered in Ryn only a moment later, standing in the docking bay's command room, separated from the dead by a thin sheet of transparisteel. He pressed two buttons, and the magcon field that maintained the docking bay's atmosphere vanished, the cold torches and colder coffins spilling into the black of space, drifting not toward the system's primary, as is the custom of so many, but into the endless darkness of interstellar space, where they would drift until destiny chose a place for them to rest, once and for all.

"Signal the survivors; we're heading out."


* * *


The trip from Belgaroth to Telos had been uneventful, as expected; it was the arrival that everyone was worried about. They were escorting a rather large convoy of Stellar Enterprises ships from Belgaroth, which had been dispatched on a humanitarian mission to Telos. Stellar must have been in a hurry, because when the convoy reverted to realspace, there wasn't much in the way of friendlies in-system, and Jarvis suddenly felt very alone in a very hostile place.

"Well," Jarvis said absently, staring at the sensor readings of the desolate system, "I guess we're the advance group. Let's go make ourselves useful; dispatch squadrons to survey the system and check our blind spots. Leave group two with the convoy, and take us in; let's test the waters."
Jarvis and a few of his ships accelerated away from the convoy, proceeding further in-system, starfighters fanning out on either side, heading for the sensor shadows cast by various planets, moons, and asteroids.

"We've got launches from the planet's surface," Ferril reported nervously.

"They're probably just curious," Jarvis responded hopefully.

As more ships ascended from the ruined surface of Telos, Jarvis and his small group of ships continued their approach, trying to gauge the intentions of the launching craft. They came in all shapes and sizes, from uglies and T-wings, to an aging gunship and a couple of corvettes.

"Comm," Jarvis ordered, "broadcast the following on all frequencies: This is Jarvis Ragnar to all vessels within the Telos System. We are here on behalf of Stellar Enterprises to offer humanitarian aide to the planet of Telos and its inhabitants. Please allow us to continue our approach; we intend no harm."

"Uh, Jarvis," Ferril said, as soon as the transmission had ended, "I've got matches on several of those ships' transponders: I've got pirates, smugglers, and general, all-around scary guys. Something tells me they don't want any kind of aide, especially not the humanitarian kind."

"Order all nearby fighters to fall back to this position, and slow our approach; I want to be able to fall back to the convoy, if needed." The Telos starships had stopped their approach, forming a wall of starfighters, freighters, and few light warships, but that "wall" was disjointed and uncoordinated, which implied that these ships weren't under any single command; to them, this was probably an alliance of convenience.

Jarvis was in a bad position; he had orders from Stellar to ensure the safe arrival of the convoy, but these "natives" apparently didn't want him to do that. While there wasn't any indication of a central government—of any government, for that matter—on the planet, Jarvis really didn't have any authority to interfere. Fortunately (or perhaps not so fortunately), the decision was made for him. Without warning, without any attempt at communication, the wall of hostile craft lunged forward, firing madly and attempting to envelop Jarvis' advance group. Friendly fighters were approaching from all around, and more had been launched from the convoy farther out-system, but it was going to be close.

"Take us in, right through the middle," Jarvis ordered, hoping it was the right move. Jarvis' ships responded immediately, accelerating and drawing into a tighter formation. Weathering the fire from the enemy ships all around, Jarvis' group plunged through the center of the enemy formation, and Jarvis was given the chance that he needed: the enemy ships, uncoordinated and so close together in their wall-like formation, broke in all directions as they attempted to turn and pursue. The instantaneous disintegration of the wall formation threw ships and crews into a state of chaos as they fought desperately against their own momentum, trying to avoid collisions with friendly craft.

While his enemy struggled to regain some sense of cohesion and order, Jarvis ran for the planet, joined by friendly starfighters who had adjusted their approach vectors. The first of the enemy ships were soon closing, however, and Jarvis needed another plan. A plan that he had.

Jarvis had kept his ships away from the planet's gravity field, skirting it in a wide arc. Most captains would have ran toward the planet, using its gravity to slingshot their ships into a higher velocity, but Jarvis had a better plan. His arcing path had put the planet's gravity field between himself and the approaching enemy. Following everything they knew about maneuvering near a planetary body, and probably not aware of Jarvis' more distant path, they fell into a standard approach vector, planning to use the planet's gravity to slingshot around the world, as they assumed Jarvis would do. But instead of continuing in his arc around the planet, Jarvis broke in the opposite direction, instead heading for the planet's moon, which he did in fact intend to slingshot around.

The approaching enemy was forced to break from their course, but they being much closer to Telos, their course adjustment caused them to sheer significant speed as they found themselves fighting the gravity they had intended to use to their advantage. By this time, Jarvis was on an entirely new vector, sailing away from the planet. The SE convoy altered course, meeting Jarvis half way, as it were. With his forces once again consolidated, the enemy didn't have a chance, and both sides knew it. Many of the hostile vessels broke away, fleeing into hyperspace, while some turned back towards the planet and landed. Still, a few decided to stick around, running into the edge of the system from which they hoped to watch the events to come unfold.

With the exception of three actual collisions, no lives had been lost in dismantling the hostile group, and the convoy of Stellar Enterprises ships were then free to approach Telos. As the SE transports and freighters descended into the atmosphere of the scarred world, Jarvis deployed the bulk of his forces into orbit, then dispatched small teams to chase the remaining pirates and smugglers from the edge of the system.

Looking out of a viewport at the ruin below him, Jarvis watched as a lone Corona-class Frigate dispatched a shuttle, escorted by several starfighters. The shuttle descended toward the planet, surrounded by freighters and transports, and finally disappeared into the distance. Jarvis could imagine Rob Stellar stepping from that transport, surveying the ruin all around him, unfazed as he issued orders and watched hope be restored to a people who had lived for so long in despair.

Somewhere Over Grid 9,5 (1300 Hours)

God this place is a hellhole. Thought Relf Golster as he looked out of the side and forward windows of his scout speeder. He'd been on Telos from the start of the rescue mission, having come planetside with the first group of freighters. His job proved to be quite easy and getting boring by the minute. All he had to do was survey the massive city below him, grid by destroyed grid, and check to see if there were any survivors. If he located any, his orders were to call it in and drop beacons so other teams could come out and get those people out.

As he lazily flew over the ruined megalopolis, there were very few buildings still intact and those that were seemed to have been cobbled together after the city had been destroyed. How these people had survived for so long, Relf could not imagine, but for some reason, he did not feel anything for them. For reasons even immune to himself, Relf was completely indifferent to what these people must have endured over the many years of living in rubble and dieing slowly from radiation sickness.

What he did care about, however, was his own life. Stellar Enterprises and its employees were unwelcome on this planet, they had all found out early on. Apparently a quiet large criminal organization had taken root on Telos and they were not about to let their base be taken from them. It was not just their base, thought, Relf knew. They had had completely control of this planet and everyone still living on it. Control that was now slowly melting away as more Telosians were moved into the protected Eastern Sector.

No one liked having their control over others taken away and so the criminals were now fighting back against anyone they could, Stellar Enterprises or civilians. Attacks against the Protected Sector had been limited, but ambushes against rescue workers were increasing. With only a limited security force on the ground, it was hard to protect everyone going out on evacuation missions. If too many forces were fielded, the Protected Sector would become vulnerable to attack, endangering the lives of many more people.

He cruised over what had once probably been a busy city street and swung his eyes over the desolate, ruined buildings that now lined it. Something in front and below him ran across the street quickly, ducking into a debris filled alley. Relf adjusted his course and slowed quickly to take a good look. Something inside him knew it wasn't a civilian. They usually never ran away, however, things had quickly changed on Telos for everyone.

As he closed on the location, Relf wondered how quickly change happens sometimes. Upon the arrival of Stellar Enterprises on Telos, lives for the survivors had changed almost immediate for the good as well as for the bad. While many were being rescued and treated, others, in more remote parts of the city, were being even more oppressed by the criminals. In the fear of loosing all control, the criminals had now established checkpoints throughout to prevent civilians from leaving their areas of occupation. Even food drops were being disrupted. The criminals were getting the food and in turn distributing only small portions to the population. This gave them total control over anyone living in those areas.

Relf slowed almost to a stop and hovered around the area slowly, carefully looking at each building. Something was not right here. He could not have been more correct at that moment, as a flash of light caught his attention to the left. Pushing the control stick sideways, Relf quickly turned in the direction of the flash, only to find a small group of men standing in a broken alley. It seemed that one of them was holding something on his shoulder, aimed directly at him, but they were too far for Relf to be sure.

What was sure, however, was a rapidly growing trail of exhaust, arching up towards him. Relf's eyes widened quickly as his mind slowly realized what had happened. He pushed the stick forward to gain speed, but it was already too late. The shoulder fired surface to air missile streaked in at Relf's speeder at over 2500 kilometers per hour and slammed into it just aft of the cabin. It bore its way into the speeder before the delayed fuse ignited, triggered the fragmentation warhead to explode. In milliseconds the speeder was ripped into pieces, with the remaining debris raining down on the city below, adding fresh destruction to Telos's resume.

Eastern Protected Sector (1333 Hours)

Rob Stellar smiled at the little boy who looked up at him from the mess table. The boy smiled back, his face covered in chocolate from the bar he held in his hands. It was the first time in his still young life the boy had ever tasted chocolate and seemed to be enjoyed it tremendously. Rob reach out and run a hand through the boy's already ruffled hair, before slowly looking around the mess tent.

There were over a hundred people sitting at the tables and eating fresh food. People that less than 24 hours ago were living in filth and eating god only knows what. As he looked from face to face Rob felt a genuine joy at helping all of these poor individuals. It was sad to think about what they had all went through so he made the decision not to and concentrate on getting them all better and moved into the new town being constructed for them.

At last count they had rescued almost a thousand people and that was just a tenth of the city. He had never expected to find so many still alive, but somehow they managed to survived and he would do everything in his power to help them live much longer. The doctors had informed that some of those rescued only had days too live from the radiation, but for the most part treatments were having their effect.

He looked off towards the large field hospital. Almost everyone rescued needed treatment of some kind and the medical staff worked around the clock to save as many people as possible. Do to pollution and radiation, cancers and tumors were common on Telos and almost everyone had them from microscopic ones to large ones that had spread throughout a patient's body, eating away at their organs.

Rob looked away slowly and walked out of the mess tent, letting the people eat in peace. He gazed over the prefabricated buildings that had been erected over the area. They were in such contrast to the devastated old ruins that lay nearby.

As he stood there thinking, Rob was startled a little by a tap on the shoulder. Turning, Rob stared into the face of Colonel Pettreias, the commander of the Stellar Enterprises military force on Telos. Pettreias was new to the company, but Rob knew his record and it was exceptional. His organization skill on Telos and quick thinking when attacked by the criminals had endeared him to Rob. It was great having someone like him on Telos.

"Sir, we have an incident." The Colonel paused and look at Rob Stellar, expecting a reply, but not getting one back. He should have known better, he told himself. Rob Stellar was a man that wanted everything in the open, no matter what it was and wasted no time.

"We lost contact with a forward scout in grid nine five at around 1320. I sent out a recon drone to that location and we received this image back." The Colonel produced a datapad and showed the image on it to Rob. "We don't know what happened at the moment, but I suspect it was shot down. I'd like to mount an operation to rescue the pilot, if he's still alive, and secure that zone."

Rob looked at the image and slowly turned his eyes away. He was tired of death. Good men and women were dieing out there all because criminals were trying to hold their power. It was not going to happen on his watch.

"Colonel, from this moment on, you do not need my permission to mount rescue missions. I trust your judgment. Do what needs to be done." He paused for a moment. "Do we have enough troops to try and dismantle this criminal organization?"

"The Katana just arrived in orbit. She's got two brigades with her. I believe we now have enough forces to secure the Eastern Sector and launch operations against the Ulysian Cartel."

"Very well Colonel. I'd like for you to commence operations at once. We need this threat taken care of."

The only light inside the room came from a wall of monitors projecting data gathered from around the city. Each monitor showed different relevant information that would be the most useful when conducting war fighting operations. Looking from screen to screen, Colonel Pettreias slowly surveyed the targeted city grids.

He knew what was about to come in the next moments as he looked at a small compound of buildings illuminated and centered on the middle display. The image was being fed in real time by a microdrone positioned at 20,000 meters in the air above the city. It was one of three drones that hovered over the ravaged city and would lend their services when needed. The drone was impressive in the amount of data it could send back through its many different sensors.

At the moment that very drone was transmitting thermal imaging data back to the command center, allowing the Colonel and his small staff to witness individuals patrolling around the buildings. There were other beings on various rooftops around the compound, forming a sort of protective perimeter in case of attack. Earlier zoomed in shots had confirmed the presence of heavy weapons in those areas, making the Colonel wonder where they had acquired such technology and why they would need it on this planet.

That was not his concern at the moment. Pettreias had been tasked with eliminating the Cartel treat and he was going to do so with all the resources available to him. One of those many formidable resources was on station in Grid six eight, almost two kilometers away from the watched compound. It was a new Defel Class reconnaissance scout and it had launched the drones that now patrolled the city in search of both civilians and criminals. With its many sophisticated intelligence gathering tools, the Defel had been responsible for finding this compound of buildings. While on patrol it had picked up a concentration of communication traffic coming from that particular area and had launched the drone to investigate.

The source of this traffic was quickly confirmed to be a headquarters for the criminal organization of Telos. It was sending out instructions to all its operatives around the city and that had to be stopped before any other operations were launched.

"Light up the targets." Colonel Pettreias ordered finally as he took a seat.

The orders were quickly acknowledged and carried out. Within seconds three strobing dots appeared on the buildings that made up the compound. These were joined by three others almost immediately on three different buildings around the initial ones.

"Targets lit up, sir. Raider flight reports on station and ready to execute."

Pettreias took a slow breath and lean towards the monitors slowly. "Execute the strike."

Circling at almost thirty kilometers off the planet's surface was a flight of two stealthy AB-10 Hornet bombers. They had arrived on station half an hour ago and were waiting for targets to be designated for them. The two moved in perfect formation, but had nothing to do until the transmission to execute was received.

Upon confirmation of the attack code, the two linked droid brains accelerated as one and came out of their lazy turn. Both of the Hornets tilted their noses down and descended quickly to 10,000 meters before leveling off. Once leveled they increased their speed steadily until reaching 1,740 kilometers per hours and screamed over the planet's poisoned surface.

Within just forty seconds to flight time the Hornet bombers were in position to strike out at their given targets. Their droid brains gave command for the main bomb bay doors to open, revealing their carried ordnance. Almost instantly the seeker heads on each of the six activated bombs picked up the laser designation beam emitted by the overhead drone. Each weapon confirmed a good lock and in seconds dropped away from each bomber's belly.

Six bombs, three from each bomber, dropped in the atmosphere and accelerated towards their targets. Their maneuvering fins worked hard to keep them on target, proving successful when each of the bombs impacted their respective buildings.

In the control room, the Colonel watched as the drone monitored bombs sped towards the buildings on his screen. Their surprise was total as none of the beings within the compound or around them tried to run for safety. The guided bombs slammed into the roofs of each of the six structures and penetrated into each build's center before detonating.

One moment the group of builds was there and in the next it was gone. Most of each target atomized upon the detonation of the proton warheads, causing what was left to collapse on itself. If anyone had survived the initial blast, which was most unlikely, they would be killed by the rest of the building falling on top of them. Within seconds some of the only standing and rebuilt structures on Telos were reduced to nothing but rubble.

"Any reports of comm traffic?" The Colonel asked calmly, completely unphased by what had happened.

"Negative sir. Drones report cessation of all comm activity after detonation."

Colonel Pettreias nodded and leaned back in his chair. It was time to commence with the second part of the assault, while the enemy was still disoriented. He looked at one of the last screens, showing tactical data from space. A large group of drop ships hung there, loaded to the brim, waiting for the order to descend.

"Commence deployment Lieutenant."

He could feel the hoarse, raspy breathing beside him, having no doubt in his mind that the same was going on with himself. The heart beating inside his chest was pounding so hard that it seemed that it might break through and kill him on the stop. Everything had a cause and effect relationship, this being one of running for over an hour.

There had been stops along the way of course, but none lasting more than a few minutes. The ones that had rested for longer were probably dead or dieing. He would have checked his comm link to see if there was anyone left in this part of the city, but he had thrown that piece of equipment away some time ago. It was hard to remember things in the chaos that evolved after the initiation of the assault.

Things had happened so quickly since the destruction of the command headquarters and subsequent death of the Triumvirate leadership, that it was no very hard to tell how long they had been in combat. To Renkliv it sure as hell felt a longer than the 21 hours and 32 minutes since the dropships arrived.

The ships had landed in three separate area's and had disgorged large numbers of droids and armored vehicles. All of them new and never before seen. The show of force had been almost paralyzing to the Cartel's troops, if they could even be called that.

Renkliv remembered that they had tried to organize a defense, but that had failed almost instantly. The military might brought against them had been too advanced and two powerful. Sure they had killed some of the droids, but more kept coming and had a way of absorbing tremendous volumes of fire. Not only that, however, they could locate the attackers and counterattack almost instantly.

The remaining leaders had tried to then split what men they had into kill teams and stage them throughout the area. This plan failed as well. The leaders had been killed almost as soon as their orders had been issued through the commlinks. Once that happened, everything broke into anarchy and it was every man for himself.

Renkliv had been running from the law from the age of eighteen, but he had never been scared like this before. Even scared, though, he wasn't completely stupid. He saw that everyone using a commlink was somehow getting targeted first, meaning the Stellar Enterprises droids were following those commlink frequencies. That was the only reason he could think of why he was still alive and most of the others were not.

A loud explosion to his rear shook the ground violently, causing Renkliv to bring himself back to reality. He looked up slowly and could see the arch of white exhaust vapor slowly dissipating from the sky. Someone had probably died, but he did not care. He only wanted to survive and get off this irradiated hell planet.

Just as the thought ended, Renkliv flew off the ground and into a pile of rubble behind him. The nearby wall exploded out as something blurry smashed through it and proceeded on into the next building. With his head throbbing and ringing from the blast, Renkliv slowly got back on his legs just as the wall shattered and flew out. Through this large opening a massive droid stepped through.

Renkliv guessed the droid was over two and half meters tall and as it turned towards them, he could see large blasters emerging from its chest and hands. His partner must have opened fire, because Renkliv saw red bolts of energy fly from beside him, but knew it was not him doing the firing. The blaster carbine seemed to have no effect as the shots deflected off the armor.

Without a word, there was a small flash from the droid's left hand weapon and once again a blast wave hit Renkliv, propelling him sideways into what was left of the building's structure. As he tried to sit up, he could see something wet covering his body and running down over his face. He slowly, in a daze, ran his hand over his cheek and glanced down at it.

What he saw was red. His fingers were covered in it and as he looked down at his body, he could see that he too was soaked in that red liquid. Having lived a life of crime, Renkliv knew quickly what it was and looked over to were had he stood only seconds before.

The vision would haunt him for years to come. What had been the person he called his friend, was now only body parts, shattered into hundreds of pieces like the wall the droid had come through. The pile of debris was now red instead of gray, dripping with human matter. With nothing more left to do, Renkliv looked once more at the massive machine before him and raised his shaking hands.

Telos was once full of rolling grasslands and diverse wild life. That is, until the Sith bombarded the planet and nearly annihilated the whole system, what few survivors there were abandoned the planet.

Later the Republic would use Telos to test out rejuvenation efforts on planets devastated by both the <i>Great Jedi War</i> and the <i>Mandalorian Wars</i>. With the help of the ecological and agricultural geniuses known as the Ithorians, Telos was well on its way back to prosperity. In fact the planet would be a popular destination for nearly thirty-nine hundred years.

In the year 94 BBY famine struck, and then in 49 BBY it was civil war. Telos' prosperity had come to an end. To further add to Telos' grief, a Space Station crashed into the surface around the year 0 BBY, leaving most of Telos unihabitable except for a few key areas.

<i><b><center>Telos

One year following the Battle of Yavin

Baskalari Region</i></b></center>

Kennedy and Heidi Baskalar were just starting to get back on their feet. From their personal starship hovering above, they looked down at the region the Baskalar family had called home for too many generations to count.

They looked down at the large complex that had once been their home, all but destroyed by the space station that had crashed nearly a year ago.

"All these years, and then something like this happens." Kennedy Baskalar said to his wife Heidi, as they both stood there looking out the viewport.

"Telos must be cursed." She replied.

Kennedy paused turning to look at his wife who kept staring out into the barren wasteland.

"At least the Ithorians are kind enough to help us out. I don't know how I could live anywhere else."

"<i>Kind enough</i>? Heh." She chuckled. "I'm sure the credits we're throwing their way don't have any influence over their decision."

Kennedy continued, glossing over the sarcastic comment. "Our house was too big."

"Way too big. It was like a castle."

"I'd like something smaller, you know... for when the kids come."

Heidi paused for a moment as she looked at her husband. "The doctor said..."

"I know. I know.." He interrupted. "We'll keep trying. It's gonna happen babe. Don't worry." He said as he leaned over kissing his wife on the forehead.

<i><b><center>Two Years Later</i></b></center>

"Wow." Kennedy Baskalar said. "I can't believe it."

"Neither can I." Heidi replied. "It's just like I remember it."

"Like you <i>remember</i> it? It wasn't <i>that</i> long ago since we were here."

"Sure seems like it."

Kennedy nodded in reply.

The Ithorians had setup a network of shields which allowed the the weather to stabilize throughout the region of Baskalari. Then, they slowly returned plant life, and eventually animal life back to the region. It had cost the Baskalars a fortune, but to them it was money well spent. There were about a dozen families all related to the Baskalars that inhabited the region, and they'd all contributed to the renovation.

Kennedy and Heidi stood there on the soft grass outside their new home. A small dwelling compared to the mansion they'd lived in previously. A beautiful home nonetheless.

"You know..." Heidi started, pausing. "We've still got a lot of work to do."

Kennedy looked out into space, knowing that much of Telos' surface was still uninhabitable. "I know dear, I know."

Sitting inside the rather spacious cockpit of his Hammerhead Space Superiority Fighter, Captain Preskov watched the last of the technical crew back away. The last one had switched on the four pods attached to the fighter's hardpoints and on the weapons display Preskov saw the red indicator light turn green. He turned his helmet covered head towards the man standing to the right and below him, giving him a thumbs up.

The other nodded and spoke into his mouth piece. Before the man even finished, a voice burst through the Captain's comm system.

"All systems appear green Captain. You have a go to proceed with the mission. The deck is yours, you may take off when ready."

"Roger that launch control. I should be back before dinner, keep it warm for me." Preskov acknowledged and looked back over at the technician, who gave him a quick salute.

Preskov returned the salute, hitting the repulsors as he brought his hand down. The Hammerhead barely shook as it started to hover and retracted its landing gear. Once leveled out, the Captain pushed the throttle forward and enjoyed the sound of the large engines powering up to push the craft towards the space beyond, through the MagCon Field.

Once out on the other side he pushed the engines harder and quickly accelerated towards the world below him. It was mostly a barren place, but with large oceans and seas covering the surface. As the world rotated slowly, Captain Preskov could see the red orange hue of the atmosphere, indicative of most irradiated and polluted words. He smiled a little, thinking about how him, a fighter pilot, would be put to work fighting non other than pollution.

"Launch Control, this is Captain Preskov. I'm entering the planet's atmosphere. ETA to dispersal point 20 minutes."


Twenty minutes later Captain Preskov was cruising in his Hammerhead at an altitude of forty thousand meters. With the order to deploy the pods given, he took one last look around the air around him and wished the best. He rechecked all the systems and hit the release.

The pods on either hanging on either side of the large space fighter popped open and almost instantly started discharging hundreds of round grenade type objects in all directions, except up. As he flew past, Preskov watched as some of these exploded out close by while others traveled a greater distance before doing so. Each one was time triggered to cover as much area as possible.

It seemed as if the explosion was all that happened, but that was far from the truth. The explosion was a means to release and spread out a tightly packed arrangement of nano particles. These particles had been specially designed for the pollution and radiation found on Telos. Each one was capable of absorbing massive amounts of radiation particles as well pollution. Many of them working together would help to clean up the air in the deployed area.

Of course unless the whole planet was cleaned up, the pollution and radiation would once again spread into the cleared area. If this test worked, more Planet Scrubbers would be deployed all over Telos to work in conjunction with ground based cleaning systems.

With his mission complete, Captain Preskov accelerated the Hammerhead up into space. He would hate to be late for dinner.

<center><b><i>Nearly Two Weeks Ago</i></b></center>

"Heidi..." Kennedy said, as he sat there viewing a small blurb on the HoloNet. "Did you see this?"

"See what?" She said peeking out through the kitchen into the living room. "You know I'm not psychic..."

"Rob Stellar..."

Heidi stood there, rolling her eyes, waiting for her husband to explain the importance of <i>Rob Stellar</i>.

Kennedy stood up, turning to face his wife.

"He's coming to Telos..."

Her eyes narrowed as she heard the news.

"To..?"

"Yes!" He interjected, knowing the answer to her question before it was even asked. "He's coming to complete the restoration project which should have been done over <b>twenty two</b> years ago."

Kennedy had always been upset that Telos had never been fully restored. The Baskalar family was able to use their combined wealth and influence to persuade the Ithorians to restore the region known as <i>Baskalari</i> to its former glory.

It had always been the plan of the Baskalar family to ensure that Telos was restored to what it once was. Unfortunately, it was just too large a project for them to undergo by themselves, and they had little to no outside help. Until <i>now</i>.

"That's wonderful honey." She replied, a smile hung on her face neatly.

"I've gotta get ahold of this guy, and see if there's anything we can do to help." Kennedy said as he retreated to his office, anxious and excited at the prospect of giving Telos the helping hand that was long overdue.

<center><b><i>A Few Hours Later</i></b></center>

"Were you able to get ahold of him yet hon?" Heidi Baskalar asked her husband, Kennedy.

"No.. I keep getting transferred around. They told me that they'd put me through to his secretary though, apparently they thought it was pretty important since it had to do with Telos. They said he'd want to talk to us directly."

As he stopped the hologram of Mr. Rob Stellar's personal secretary appeared.

"Hello, Mr. Baskalar?"

"Yes this is Kennedy Baskalar, how are you?"

"I'm well Mr. Baskalar. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mari Mostamandi, Mr. Stellar's personal assistant. I hear that you are attempting to contact Mr. Stellar regarding <i>Telos</i>? Is this correct sir?"

"Yes Mari.. my family and I live on Telos."

"Excuse me for a moment. Did you say you and your family <i>live</i> on Telos?"

"Yes ma'am."

"But.."

Kennedy cut her off before she could continue, knowing where she was going. "I know, Telos is uninhabitable. I'm sure you're as surprised to hear about us as we were to hear about you.

We were able to restore a small part of Telos with the help of the Ithorians. Thanks to the restoration efforts of the Ithorians, the Baskalari region remains intact and is as vital as ever."

Mari paused for a moment, clearly shocked by the news. "How.. many of you are there Mr. Baskalar?"

Kennedy paused for a moment before answering, seemingly counting the number in his head. "Roughly one hundred altogether, in the region."

"I definitely think Mr. Stellar will want to speak with you directly. I'll put him in touch with you as soon as he becomes available."

"Thanks Mari." Kennedy said, smiling all the while.

"Thank you Mr. Baskalar, I look forward to speaking with you again in the future."

With that the 10 centimeter tall hologram faded into the projector unit. Soon, Rob Stellar would be coming to Telos, and he'd help restore <i>all</i> of Telos to its former glory.

"Sir, we have something you might want to look at." Suggested the voice inside Rob Stellar's head.

Of course he was not schizophrenic, the voice was that of Colonel Pettreias, the man placed in command of all military forces on Telos. The man had been doing a great job so far and the military operations had all gone according to plan. There were still small criminal elements left to be dealt with, but the majority were either captured or killed. All attacks on Stellar Enterprises personnel or civilians of the region had ceased and progress was beginning to be seen daily.

Rob moved away from his shelter and towards the hospital building across the way. It was there that the Colonel wanted him to see something. He already guessed it was something not pleasant, but as he walked, Rob decided to think of something better. Something like the saving and relocation of 3,405 Telosians to a newly built, fully functional city. There they will be able to gather their lives, send their children to a brand new school, and even find jobs if they so wish. Most of all they can finally recover from their hardships and try to live as a society again.

There were a few, however, that chose to leave the planet and settle elsewhere. They had had enough of Telos and needed a new place in which to live and gather their thoughts. Stellar Enterprises had been happy to provide them safe passage to anywhere they wished to go. Some had even asked for jobs with the company and had received them off world.

The success of Telos was more than humanitarian as well. Since the first test of the Cleaner nano bots, more had been deployed daily. The air was already starting to clean up and radiation leaves in the atmosphere had dropped rapidly. Telos was on the road to a slow, but hopefully successful recovery, as were its long time residents.

Inside the hospital's morgue, however, the mood quickly changed as Rob looked upon the two bodies that there. One man and one woman lay on the examination tables, side by side. Both had been murdered, there was no doubt about it.

"They are Olmis and Golara Tolanio. We confirmed that with some of the Telosians we rescued."

"We wanted to investigate since they were killed in an area already under control." Interrupted the head coroner. "They have blaster wounds, but unlike those from weapons carried by the Cartel."

"It seems that where brother and sister andthey had been wounded inside the city's old sewer system and crawled out just before dieing. The people who know them say they always went out to explore parts of the city that legends said were haunter. That sewer they were in is said to be haunted as well. Guarded by black knights, as they called them." Stated the Colonel as he walked around slowly, studying his datapad.

"Has the family been informed yet?" Rob asked as he looked away from the two bodies.

"No sir, we are trying to locate and contact them now. We will also investigate the tunnels once we wrap up operations. For now, however, that area has been closed off and made off limits."

"Do they have family? Anyone else we can contact?"