Stormtrooper number K-1011, MRP, was patrolling the streets near the Garrison when three young children raced up to him, jabbering insults, and prodding at him with sticks. K-1011, also known as Mark, had seen this behavior countless times, but this time his orders were different. Bringing up his blaster rifle, he stunned the three children, then, taking what seemed to be the leader of three, and slinging him over his shoulders, the stormtrooper set off back to base.

Soon after he arrived, he dumped off the child, an Ishori, and settled down at his workstation to type up the report after summoning one of the Intelligence officers. An officer came soon afterwards, looked at the child, then at Mark, who nodded his head, and said, "The usual, sticks, and words." The Intel officer nodded, and scooping the child up in his hands, he headed back to the prison ward and interrogation chambers. No matter what the cost, thought Mark to himself, they would get to the bottom of this revolt, and make the organization behind it pay.

** * * * ** * * * *

Aboard the Battelship Tormentor, riding low orbit over the world of Isht

Vice Admiral Kraken sat tense in his cabin, tired and aggravated after hearing report after report of casualties among his men, and the citizens of Isht. He would stop this revolt, no matter what it took. Prehaps the answer was not with action, but with words. But with so many violent uprisings, and protests, they first had to remove the source of the aura that is setting off the Ishori.

"Sir, another report from the capital." said the communications officer through his personal comlink. Park Kraken sighed, and then signaled with a double click for the communications officer to proceed. "Sir, thirty Ishori have been killed, along with five stormtroopers, when another peaceful demonstration suddenly turned violent. The stormtroopers were killed when someone threw a homemade concussion grenade into their ranks, then, when our troops responded by firing tear gas canisters into the crowd, the thirty had been killed by trampling as the crowd ran away." reported the communications officer.

Damn, thought the young Admiral to himself. We must get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, we must try to make other means of settling the anger of the Ishori. "Have their bodies, along with the bodies of our troops, buried in a cementery with full military and civilian honors. Find out their identities, and invite as many of their relatives as we can. Don't force them to come, just inform them that they are invited. In the meantime, conduct polls to see how many Ishori are truly against the Empire, and let's try to form a sort of riot police in order to try to prevent all of these deaths from trampling." said the Admiral.

The funeral was set to take place very soon. The Admiral got up from his chair, and strode over to his closet. From the wardrobe of his uniforms, he selected a totally white one, in line with the uniforms normally reserved for Grand Admirals, and Warlords. Donning the outfit, he then took off, summoning his escorts, and ordering his shuttle prepared as he walked towards the hangar bay of his mighty ship.

Taken from Operation: Iron Drill

"Imperials, victory can be measured in many ways. Our valiant defense will prove this to you. You may win a battle, but the means needed to acheive victory over the Ishori are not within your reach."

The Ishori zoomed forward, and then with a start, their war cruiser opened fire on the closest Imperial vessel.



Present

It was the climax of a frowing resentment among the Ishori popualtion. Ever since the first assault on an Imperial Garrison, a few days previous, the Ishori had become more and more bold, especially as they saw the Imperial soldiers seemed to be under orders not to shoot to kill. Emblodened by sucess and, und as of yet, not in fear of massive retaliation, a huge group of impassioned Ishori were gathering in the Ishori capital city....




"... WE WILL REMEMBER!!!"

The crowd roared with the charismatic speaker. His rhetoric and diction clear, he was marshalling a growing crowd, a growing angry crowd, emotion's surging through this tremendous bunch, a demagraphic of the Ishori people.

"We shall not forget their valiant sacrifice, we shall never bow our heads to the Empire we shall never desecrate their memories, and we shall NEVER ANSWER THIS PETITION!!!"

The Ishori drew himself up to full height, and tossed a disposable datapad to the floor. It exploded in a shower of splinters, electronic bits flying in every direction. The datapad was the Imperial's attempt at a planetwide poll to determine the cause of the uprising.

With a roar the crowd began screaming and followed suits. The crash and clatter of thousands of peices of equipment shattering rasing the volume to exponentially high decibels. Barley audible over the din of the crowd, the speaker screamed into his voice amplifer.

"We we remember our fallen comrades! For Commodore Furip! Long live Isht!"

If he said anything else, it was drown out by the din of the crowd. The mention of the viliant leader of the Ishori defensive navy, the martyr who had died protecting Isht from Imperial agression was one of the major sparks of the rebellion. The name of Furip would live for generations in the minds of the Ishori.

The crowd was surging in all directions, many producing weapons and other contraband. The huge crowd was pouring out in all directions, across the center of the Ishori capital. Organization was minimal- what exactly the mass of aliens were trying to accomplsih had not yet dawned to even themselves. The mere fact they were there, and on the move seemed to satisfy them.

Somehow over the huge noise, the leader, lost in the mass of the people was heard one last time.

"Let nothing stop your crusade. They can't kill you! They won't kill you and for that..."

His amplifer cut out and his last bit of the message was drowned out. The crowd was taking on a mind of its own...

In orbit over the world of Gorulag

Commander Gareys relished in his newfound duty as protector of this world. The world was a vital lifeline of tibanna gas into the Empire, and since they had began pumping it in earnest quantites, the world was very vital indeed. It had never occured to the Commander that sabotage of the station could come from the inside instead of from the outside. Nor should it have. Imperial security was very strict, and there were even backup repulsorcoils installed in the station, laying dormant and hidden just in case any acts of sabotaged were pulled off successfully. No matter what happened, the disasters of Taloraan and Bespin would not occur a second time.

But occur a second time, they almost did. A bright light enveloped the world below them, momentarily causing the Commander to avert his eyes from the station. When he turned back, one part of the station was on fire. Immediatly he suspected sabotage, and ordered the fleet into full combat status. A short time later, a report came in from an Illustrious class cruiser on the far side of the world. A shuttle was trying to sneak out in it's vector. Immediatly, the cruiser fired four salvos with it's heavy ion cannon batteries. The shuttle was quickly disabled, and tractored into the hangar bays of the ship, where the man inside was found to be licking the carpet. He was taken off into the medical bays, and it was a short time later found that he had known that he was about to be captured, and had tried to inject himself with a posion, only that when the ion beams had hit, he had dropped it, and it had smashed into the ground. His mouth was quickly washed out with water, and it was found that he hadn't absorbed the posion, a common one for crime gangs to use, in any lethal or unhealty amounts. With that done, he was dragged off to the torture chambers this cruiser carried to see exactly what he knew.

In the meantime, the engineers had cut in the backup repulsors, and the city was stable for the time being. The Star DestroyerDecimator, Garey's flagship, dispatched several shuttles loaded with spare coils, and several groups worth of engineers, and emergency personnel, along with a full doctor and nursing ward to help with the dead, and wounded. So far, from the initial reports, it appears that thirty engineers, and twenty civilians died, along with another forty or fifty people wounded. It could have been a lot worse, if the repulsor coils hadn't been avilable for backup duty, and if the Tibanna Gas that had once surrounded the station been immediatly stripmined as a afterthought to security after studying what happened to Cloud City. Commander Gareys then ordered an emergency message be sent to Admiral Kraken informing him of this sudden turn of events.

In the meantime, back on the world of Isht

The funeral had proceeded well, and the Imperials were on their way back to the main barracks building when the roar of a noise stopped them dead in their tracks. From around a corner came a marching crowd, weapons galore in their grasp, their intentions extremley hostile. Kraken beckoned his men to come up front, and then came forward, with his diplomats, hoping to be the first to calmly settle this debate. But he decided to try something with this bunch, who more than anything looked like they had been incited to this latest uprising.

"Who the hell do you think you are, Ishori? You come walking up here with a mean, demeaning purpose, and to what avail? What do you think you will accomplish with violence?" shouted Admiral Kraken at the crowd in front of him. They responded, "We want our navy back, we want our commodore back, why did you kill him? Why invade us? Why have you done this?" shouted the Ishori in discored and deciet.

"And let me ask you all a question. Your navy is in ruins, your military leaders are dead. That is all in the past. This is the present, and we are here in their place. We are not the Empire of old. The Empire of old would have slagged this world, and spared no mercy, and would have slaughtered every single crowd that would have protested it's reign. This is not the old Order. It's the New Order, and it's called that for a reason. We are not the brutal enemy of old, but the peacekeepers of the new. You want to know why we, as you called it, invaded? It's very simple. The Ishori senators came to me, begging me to help. Why? Because the Ishori and Diamala militaries were prepared to go to war once again, and the Ishori military commander was pushing things along even faster. Is that who you want for a leader, a warmongerer? Look at yourselves. I came bringing peace, and you respond with war. Is this whole society nothing but a warmongering race by default?" asked Admiral Kraken.

The Ishori all fell silent as they thought over Admiral Kraken's carefully chosen and heartfelt words for several moments. Then, one of them began the chat again, and it began to sieze hold of the crowd. Right then and there, Kraken's hope for a peaceful resolution of this situation, this entire planetery situation, dissolved. Sighing, Kraken and his diplomats quickly retreated behind the line of stormtroopers, which quickly jammed their comlink transmissions, and then opened fire with their rifles on the crowd, their blasters set on stun, knocking them out. Some of them managed to get off blaster shots at the stormtroopers, getting one in the head, an instant kill, with a lucky shot, and scorching the chest plate armour on some of the other troopers.

"Get these ones back to the spaceport, and take them up to my flagship, and lock them in their individual cells. Then put a call into the Corellian Protectorate, and arrange for a Lictor class Dungeon Ship to drop by and pick them up. Have it take them to Lupercus's labs, and see if they can pick their brains apart to see what is wrong with them. Ishori should not be uprising like this, even if we did invade, and smashed their fleet. I want to see if drugs, or anything is in their systems before I make my next move." ordered Admiral Kraken.

Soon, several Chariot LAVs arrived, and after disarming and cuffing the unconscious prisoners, loaded them up, and carried them off to the spaceport. Kraken and his entourage then reached the waiting hoverlimo, and proceeded towards the Imperial HQ.

The Chariots reached the spaceport, and offloaded the cuffed prisoners into waiting shuttles with several companies worth of stormtroopers that were being transferred. All of the prisoners were restunned to ensure that they would not wakeup for some time to come. The shuttles then lifted off to the Star Destroyer Decimator, which had recently arrived to relieve the Tormentor for other duties. Some of the riots had died down, testimony to the Imperial's quick efforts to arrest and interrogate the ringleaders. Still, it would take quite some time to get to the bottom of this, and arrest or kill the real people that were behind this. But as of right now, they had a lead to pursue. The latest ringleader arrested seemed to have quite a bit of information stored in him. They were about to interrogate him to see what he might reveal.

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

The entourage including Vice Admiral Kraken finally reached the Imperial HQ without any further incidents. The various officials broke up, and headed for their various workplaces. The Imperial commander of the world came to meet Park Kraken, and they had a short discussion informing Kraken of the latest developments, and the base commander of what reinforcements Kraken brought to help relieve the Commander's stormtroopers, exhausted by weeks of heavy casualties, and constant riots. The ringleader of one of these latest riots was strapped to a chair, with a tough looking Imperial Interrogater nearby with a steel rod with a pionted end, and red hot from having been kept in the furnace. The Interrogater asked a question, who his superiors were, who had ordered him to incite the crowd. The Ishori insisted that he knew nothing, so the Interrogater took the rod, and stabbed it into the Ishori's arm, creating a steam cloud of blood and dissolving flesh, and eliciting a horrendous scream of pain and agony from the Ishori. The Interrogater repeated the question, and again the Ishori, this time screaming his words, insisted that he knew nothing of who or what ordered him to incite the crowd. This time the other arm was poked, inciting yet another blood curling scream. This time, the Ishori muttered a few words to the Interrogater, who moved to the dark transparent window where the Admiral and the Commander were waiting.

"He said that he recieved orders on a datapad from a courier of the Isht Interplanetery Mail Service." said the Interrogater.

"Very good." observed the Commander, "Continue with the torture, poking both of his legs, and his crotch before you let him go. In the meantime I will investigate this lead. Record anything else he may reveal in the process of the torturing."

"So, where is this II Mail Service based at?" asked Admiral Kraken.

"It's a little operation based at the Spaceport. We know this man's address, secured from the earlier interrogation. We've sent a team to search his quarters. In the meantime we'll conduct an information raid on this mail service, and see where the package they delievered to him will have come from." said the Commander.

"Okay, let's get this raid underway, and see what if finds us." said the Admiral.

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

Several hours later, they had their information.

"According to the commandoes, and decipherers, this is the planet that they came from." said the Commander to the Admiral.

"Very well then. I shall assemble the First Squadron of the Grand Fleet, and personally takeover this planet. Let's see how much more we learn in the process. In the meantime, until we find their leaders, we shall just have to take a more stern approach to dealing with the riots. In order to cut the flow of weapons, I am ordering a blockade of Isht to be undertaken immediatly by the Third and Fouth Squadrons of the Grand Fleet. Also, Dark Trooper regiments have been order to be deployed to the city streets. If this does not work to quell the riots, then I authorize, with a one hour warning in advance, the targeting and destroying of the smaller cities by planetery bombardement. Finally, if they still rebel, then just lay waste to the middle and smaller sized cities without any warning at all. Mark my words, we will get to the bottom of these riots, and stop them dead in their tracks." ordered Admiral Kraken. With that the Commander and the Admiral broke up their meeting, and headed off to carry out the various orders.

To: Brutus Nogoth
CC: Hilter Afdol
From: Operative 7IH Station K.
Subject: Evacuation

Brutus, our sources on Ishori have suggested the Empire has broken the rebel leadership and is planning on moving to our cell. As such, we will begin evacuation of the handling cell on Bothuwai, and move to the secondary location. Although it is unlikely the Empire will infring upon Bothan Soveringty, the oppurtunity does exsist due to the nature of the Imperial governor of Isht. [See attached datafile]. As a result of the following move, expect major operatiosn to be diminished for the perodi of 7-10 days, while we reorganize our outpost.

Will send another courier when we have finished prepping our new home. We will continue the fight against opression.


Brutus read the datapad and the contained memo. It was unfortunate that the GLF outpost on Bothuwai had been discovered, but such was the cost of fighting an insurgency with a popular support base and indigeious leaders. If the Empire moved on the Bothans, and accussed them of harboring terrorists, the Bothans would of course deny it. They didn't know a GLF outpost had been set up on their homworld to coordinate the rebellion on Isht.

Such ignorance might cause a full scale war.... a war the Bothans would be ill equpied to handle due to the recent removal of Amaer Kre'Fey from the Counsilorship. A bothan reform movement, a counter point to the agressive new age leadership of Kre'Fey had staged a "political coup" and with elections and bothan backstabbign taken contol of the government. Kre'y had been too preoccupied with external matters to see the deadly knives pointed at him. Figurativly of course. The out-going leader was no doubt biddig his time.

Of course, if the Empire invaded, he would have to wait for quite some time.

Brutus knew he might be soon subjected another species to Imperial opression. The thought was troubling.

All the more reason to continue the fight.

"Sir, intelligence reports several new findings, all very interesting indeed." reported the communicaitons officer of the Star Destroyer Tormentor.

"Well, let's hear them." ordered Vice Admiral Kraken, resting in his comfortable admiral's chair after a big lunch.

"First off, the embargo is so far succeeding, with several freighters having been impounded after being caught smuggling weapons into Isht. Right now their captian's are being questioned, but it seems that they were transferred the weapons to their ships via rendezvous with other ships in remote systems. We have sent probe ships to those systems, but we expect to find nothing." reported the Communications officer.

"That doesn't suprise me. For a time, that's how the Rebels managed to evade Isard's warships during the Thyferra afair of so long ago." remarked Admiral Kraken.

"Yes sir. Also, new reports from Isht. It appears that the Rebellions are quieting down somewhat, although sporadic riots are still occuring throughout the larger cities. It seems we've either disrupted their leaders, or our threats are finally getting through to them." said the communications officer.

"Hopefully both. Let me know if the riots start up again, I have a plan for dealing with them and the entire population of Isht if need be." said Admiral Kraken.

"Very well sir." said the communications officer, gulping as he realised what Admiral Kraken may be talking about.

"And another thing, also from Isht, and coinciding with information from Gorulag, a possible lead leading to the location of some of these terroist cells. They indicate a world which is either a very popular rendezvous point, or may be the location of one of their supply depots, or training worlds." said the communications officer.

"Interesting", responded Admiral Kraken as he rose out of his chair, "Have the 1st Squadron of the Grand Fleet rendezvous with us at this target world. Smaller ships are to initiate blockade while larger ships begin a invasion of the world. Let's move out." ordered Admiral Kraken.

With that, a shuttle deployed from the flagship of the 2nd Squadron of the Grand Fleet, and jumped into hyperspace, bound for the massive flagship of the 1st Squadron.

"Let's get the fleet formed up for battle." ordered Admiral Kraken board the shuttle as it exited hyperspace and headed for his flagship, the giant Messiah class vessel Tormentor. His giant flagship hung against space silenty, blocking out many stars, and looking pale and glistening. A beautiful ship, the most beautiful one he had ever seen, thought Kraken.

Then, before he knew it, they were inside the docking bay, and Kraken rushed off towards the bridge. On the way there he stopped off by his quaters, and changed outfits, now wearing a white uniform reminiscent of Grand Admirals and Warlords. With that finished, he made his way to the bridge. Waiting for him there were his two other Commodores, Carson, and Huey. He looked at both of them, every so breifly, to convey to them the importance of this mission to him.

With that done, it was time to move on to the planning of the operation. They were launching assaults on two different worlds here. It was decided that the 2nd and 3rd Squadrons would make the assaults, with the 1st Squadron providing backup for the operation. The worlds were not well known, nor should they have been. Their terrains consist of rocky wastes, either left over from heavy industrial pollution, or more likely, wars. Both planets had been deemed uninhabitable. But the terroists and criminals had been backtracked through to there, so even if it was just a dead end, it was still the job of the Empire to sieze these planets in the name of retribution.

The Messiah turned about, and entered hyperspace a short time later, bound for the rendezvous with the 1st Squadron.

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

In the meantime, back on the world of Isht, the rebellions had stated up once again in earnest. It seemed that the main cell had indeed gone without being captured, and was now sufficently settled down again to start the riots up once again. Well, it was time for the Ishori, and the terroists to be taught what folly it truly meant to oppose the Empire. After looking over a map, Commodore Braxus selected a city, the city of Fallamir, with a population of seventy five thousand. He ordered the third Imperial army into the air to start evacuating the city in advance of the demonstration he was to deliver to the Ishori people.

As the troops rode into the town, and began to force out it's residents, the Imperial Reign class Destroyer Furious moved into bombardement position above, followed suit by supplementing Victory class Destroyers, and Illustrious class cruisers, leaving the gunships to blockade the planet.

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

In the interrogation rooms of the cruiser Infackable, orbiting above the planet of Gorulag, the prisoner had revealed every last piece of interrogation after a brutal twenty seven hour interrogation session. He had revealed many names, many places, and many ships. In the end, it was decided to let Imperial Intelligence handle the matter.

"Let's get a team onto Skip seven in Smuggler's run, that may be our best lead." said the General.

"What about Falleen?" asked the Major.

"Falleen has been dead and gone for quite some time, me thinks. Still, we can't afford to overlook anything at all. Let's dispatch a few scout ships to see what information we can dig up from there." said the General.

"Yes sir." replied the Major, as he moved off to carry out his orders.

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

The message requesting an intelligence team sent to Smuggler's Run, and few scout ships dispatched to Falleen came over Admiral Kraken's comm, followed with a message explaining why, and what else they learned from the interrogation of this man. The interrogation had gone successfully, and the man was now healing, albiet for being sent back to Hansville to face charges of treason, and somewhere around five thousand counts of attempted murder, first degree. Speaking of Hansville, the city has been fully repaired, and they laid to rest the twenty six killed in the terroist attack.

The flagship had just come out of hyperspace, and was forming up with the rest of the 1st Squadron. Out ahead of the squadron, the 2nd and 3rd Squadrons had already formed up, and only were awaiting for word before they began their massive assaults. As a final order, Kraken ordered three Intrepid Gunships, and two skipray blastboats from the home fleet to investigate the world of Falleen, and ordered the Imperial Star Destroyer Decimator to proceed to Nar Shadda, and hijack a suitable freighter for their purposes.

OOC:
3 Intrepid Gunships
2 Skipray Blastboats
in bound for the world of Falleen.

Aboard the Allegiance Star Destroyer Victorious, over the target planet designated Alpha one...

Commodore Carson watched as his fleet deployed for battle and occupation against the enemy world that they had come to claim as their own. The enemy fleet fled for the reaches of hyperspace, and Commodore Carson had no intentions of letting them escape. He designated a special task force consisting of the Illustrious cruisers, and half of their complement of Intrepid Gunships to chase after and destroy the enemy fleet. The old Kruk Battlewagon was their first victim, being the largest and slowest of the enemy ships. Turbolaser fire whittled down it's shields, just in time for a massed torpedo salvo to arrive and blow it to pieces. Sporadic return fire from the Battlewagon just before it died a vainglorious death slightly weakened the shields on the gunships.

Next up came the gunships, and picket ships. The captians of the Illustrious cruisers decided to try and capture some of the enemy ships, and see what secrets they may reveal. Heavy ion cannon bolts descended upon two of the enemy vessles, one a picket vessel, the other a CEC Gunship, reducing both to powerless drifting hulks. Four shuttles were dispatched from each of the cruisers to deal with these captures. Turbolaser fire and more missiles finished off most of the remaining pirate ships, with three surviving to make it into hyperspace.

With the capital ship battle done, and with the starfighter engagement all but done with, the Imperial fleet now moved to the second part of it's operation. It was decided, the world being polluted and wasted as it is, to bombard the cities into dust, then send down occupation troops to finish anything off, and rebuilt the cities in a more defensible position. Taking up station, the Allegiance Star Destroyer, and Victory Star Destroyer in the taskforce unleashed their turbolaser cannons, shattering the enemy cities, and rapidly reducing them to rubble.

Then a large amount of pods emerged from the Allegiance Star Destroyer, ferrying many ground troops to the surface below, along with all of the equipment that they will need to survive on the planet below.

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

Aboard the Allegiance Star Destroyer Formidable, in orbit over target world Alpha 2....

The battling here was much more intense, for a larger enemy force was found to be hiding here. This force consisted of four Kruk Battlewagons, and two Kaloth Battlecruisers, all six ships bristling with turbolaser, and laser cannons. And four stolen Imperial escort carriers from long ago added a much larger fighter complement to the one already on the ground. Instead of splitting his forces, the Imperial command, Commodore Huey, decided to stand his forces off, and decimate the enemy Battleships with long range missile strikes, with decimated his fleet to three Kruk Battelwagons before they pulled into line within turbolaser range, and opened up with their weapons. The Imperial armada continued their advance, and opened up with all of their formidable turbolaser weapons, destroying the three remaining Battlewagons in four short salvos. None the less, the pirates knew they were doomed, and so had concentrated their firepower on the smaller ships, destroying five Intrepid Gunships total before they were silenced.

The shuttles, and pods were then released by the Allegiance Star Destroyer for the descent to the planet below. The Empire's Destroyers of the Allegiance class sacraficed starfighter squadrons in order to carry a much larger ground complement of troops, a reason that the Star Destroyer was chosen as the flagship for the World Devastator operation against Mon Calamari of so long ago when many larger ships could easily have taken it's place. Pods containing AT-ATs, and MT-ATs descended to the surface, along with other pods containig hover tanks. The pods hit the surface, and with the shuttles formed a ring around the enemy base. Automated concealed turrets came to life and opened fire on the Imperial forces, taking out a few shuttles, and some troops and hover tanks before they were destroyed by the rapidly advancing MT-ATs. Imperial shock commandoes equipped with extra atmospheric survival equipment stormed the pod shelters, and quickly killed all resistance. In the end, 110 pirates were taken prisoner, some wounded. These were shuttled up to the flagship, and were given any medical attention they needed before being transferred to the Bellicose, from whence the Victory Star Destroyer would break formation with the fleet along with a minimal escort, and proceed back to Coruscant so that Isard can work on them and extract any and all information needed.

With this accomplished, the planet was declared secure, and the Imperials went to work building an outpost out the remains of the original base.

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

Meanwhile, on the surface of Isht

The evacuations had been completed for the city that was to be used as an example against the people of the Ishori race that defying Imperial law would evitably spell certain doom, their doom. By this time, the Reign Star Destroyer, Victory Star Destroyer, and Illustrious cruisers involved in this operation had gathered, and awaited only for the order to open fire before they bombarded the city into ruin.

At this time, the local Imperial commander, Commodre Braxus, signaled that now was the time for Imperial communications to block out every holo net channel except for number 13, which would be showing the devastation of the city from above. The channels except for one went static across the screen. Then, the bombardement began.

Starting from the outside of the city and working their way in, the Imperial ships blasted the city, destroying the smaller residental, and industrial districts. Secondary explosions in the Industrial district were of worth notice as well. Then larger apartment buildings began to collapse, melting and exploding as multipule turbolaser blasts raged upon them. Then it was time for the downtown, and the commercial district, to be devastated. In five minutes it was all over. The city had been utterly destroyed. The evacuated citizens were allowed to return to their ruined homes, and salvage what they could.

Soon afterwards, the Isht Pumbling companies recorded a record number of toilet flushes, testimony to how scary, and frightening the Imperial's brutal example was.

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

In addition to this, the Imperial Task Force that had been dispatched to Falleen had been called off, for it was felt that nothing would be found there after all, considering what they had found on the other two planets.

OOC: Task Force called off before it reaches Falleen.

The Imperial Battleship Tormentor glided through space, aboard was Admiral Park Kraken, awaiting from from his other two squadrons involved in this operation of word of whether or not the operation was a success.

First to report in was the 2nd Squadron, under Commodore Carson, attacking the target world Alpha 1. When the report came in, it was recieved on the holonet. The Imperial commodore was kneeling, and he looked up, and made his report that an enemy fleet had been found in orbit above the world, and was quickly driven off by his own fleet, if not utterly destroyed, in return for neglible losses. A ground action followed shortly there afterwards, in which the ground compound was destroyed.

Imperial shuttles, and crews in enviro suits were now in the process of rebuilding the base complete with Imperial workings and defenses, making it much stronger and more defensible than it was before. In addition to the newer, stronger compounds installed, emplacements for future installations of turbolasers were made, and hangars for starfighter squadrons were constructed, as well as a large dome with a good sized hangar for a nice, modern spaceport. The system would not only serve as an outpost, but also as a stopping off point for Imperial warships and fleets making forays into local space, and for Imperial traffic in need of assistance. A squadron of two cruisers, and five gunships will be permanently assigned here, along with three squadrons of TIE Starfighters, mostly likely of the Advanced type.

With that report finishes Admiral Kraken allowed himself one sigh of relief, for one part of the operation had been completed successfully. He ordered a glass of Corellian Brandy, dried, and sat back in his chair, mulling over his next moves that he had discussed with his war advisors when the report from Squadron three came in. Commodore Huey was the one to give his report. He reported that a larger enemy fleet had been sighted above this world and engaged, and mostly wiped out, with very few ships escaping. His fleet had suffered casualties, but only in the form of gunships, and starfighters. Likewise, Huey had commenced a ground assault and destroyed the compound, and again beginning the process of rebuilding the base to suit Imperial needs.

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

Meanwhile, in a planetery system not far from the two worlds, a gathering of ships was taking place....

The survivors from the two battles had been ordered that such an event was ever to happen, that the ships were to send out an automated code signal, and were to await within the systems for a certain amount of time. For, although their links to the terroists were known, their choice of hideouts were not the usual ones. Some of the planets of the Elrood Sector, seeing the Pirate ships as mighty combat vessels, had supplied the pirates with food and ammunition, as well as refitting their ships, and building their bases for them. The pirates thought this to be a form of tribute, and so accepted, but in reality, this was just a precaution by the planets in order to gain an outer defense ring against invaders, who this time happen to be the Imperials.

It was decided by this loose coalition of worlds to launch two strikes. One strike would focus upon breaking up the Imperial blockade, and disrupting the Imperial's efforts at rebuilding the efforts, and the other strike, consisting of more heavy warships, would launch a lightning raid at the heart of the Mid-Rim Protectorate, the world of Vladet, a very bold move indeed. The raids would be conducted by two Falleen commanders, very capable commanders that had once served in the Diversity Alliance, and were men to be feared and reckoned with.

The Battlefleet was assembled over the period of three days. Incorporating most of the remaining pirate fleet, the fast attack elements to attack the Imperial blockade also included a few ships left over from the Diversity Alliance, a few Kaloth Battlecruisers, mostly, plus the Kruk Battlewagons, and some Strike cruisers as well, and finally picket ships of many sizes and variety, the fleet coming to a total of eighty warships, twenty capital sized. There were also many starfighters within the fleet, well over a hundred despite the recent losses suffered at Almar, and the other two planets. The fleets finished forming up, and prepared for the jump into hyperspace. Their jump point was destinted to be the second planet, the ones the Imperials had named Alpha 2, namely because the forces that had been previously stationed there had been weakened the most. This is where the bigger hit and fade attack force would focuse upon.

With the fleets assembled, and preparing to depart, it was now only a matter of time before the Imperials were handed an embarrasing defeat, and the Mid-Rim Protectorate would be destroyed, and dissolved by the Imperial superiors after Admiral Kraken was defeated in battle.....

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In the meantime, Admrial Kraken was preparing his ambush. Imperial probe droids had been dispatched to the system where the pirates were rendezvouing, and had discovered the new fleets without being detected. Knowing that a counter attack was immiment, Admiral Kraken had dispatched Squadron 1 to a point where it would drag the opposing fleet out of hyperspace. From there the fleet was positioned to where it would rapidly reduce the enemy squadron to several debris fields worth of junk. Elements of Squadrons 2 and 3 had been called in for this purpose, and were now lying in wait near Squadron one, waiting to be called in for the flanking manuever that was about to take place. With this in place, Admiral Kraken ordered that the Gravity wells be raised, and would now lie in wait....

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Aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Bellicose, flagship of the Mid-Rim Protectorate Home Defense Fleet....

Admiral Hyde Parker finished his cup of tea, as he had every afternoon previously since being promoted to his post aboard the Imperial Battleship, and to the head of the fleet that now protected the worlds of Vladet, and Rachuk. The Imperial warship was but one of six mighty destroyers in the fleet, which included several other large capital vessels, and some cloaking cruisers. Right now the Bellicose was in formation with the Imperial Star Destroyers Nemesis, and Stormhawk. Closer to the planet orbited six Victory class Destroyers in loose formation, taking up various positions around the planet. Off in the distance, around the nearby orb of Rachuk, he could faintly make out the silhoulettes of the other three Imperial Star Destroyers, using view magnification. Admrial Kraken had warned him at the start of this campaign of conquest that the enemy may try to counter attack at Vladet when he attacked their worlds, particulary in the early going when they had many more warships than what they would have later on. Well, Admiral Parker was ready for any threats that would come his way from this pathetic enemy. Let them come, thought the Admiral coldly.........

Aboard the Imperial Battleship Tormentor

Vice Admiral Kraken strode the deck of his large and majestic flagship, waiting for the enemy fleet to appear. His squadron was at full combat alert, and was merely awaiting the order before they engaged the enemy fleet, when the enemy fleet appeared, that is. Park Kraken hoped that he hadn't misjudged the arrival time, or the entry vector, of the enemy hit and fade force, the one that had appeared to consist mostly of powerful vessels that were suited to hit and fade strikes, and while able to inflict rapid amounts of damage, not really suited to hanging around and getting a good beating in return. In any fleet these vessels should be held to the rear, able to pop in, inflict several rapid salvos of damage, and then withdraw to the rear lines once again in order to avoid having their limited shield and hull strenghts overwhelmed. Well, in this situation, with the flagship's gravity wells preventing any escape, it would be a very bad situation for this force. Espically since most of the ships, and all of the starfighters in the fleet carried a supply of proton torpedoes, and concussion missiles. Up ahead and below of the flag deck sat the Starfury Assault Starfighter's control room, from which the Messiah's complement of small and quick starfighters would be directed. These starfighters had one small ion cannon, and a proton torpedo launcher apiece. While that may not sound very threatening, the fact is is that the Messiah carries fifty squadrons totalling six hundred of these starfighters, meaning that one salvo on one ship could produce up to a six hundred proton torpedo strike in itself, and in addition, at three meters of length, the Starfury Assault Starfighter was extremley fast, and mauneverable, as well as hard to hit, same as her sister ship, the TIE Devil, carried exclusily by the Fire Light Frigates, and Attack class Carrier Spheres, of which none were found in this fleet, and in any case, were very rare to find in the Mid-Rim Protectorate it's self. Not that they were needed. Should any help be required in dealing with any enemy starfighters encountered, the fleet carried a large number of TIE Defenders, simply the best starfighter in the galaxy, and in the hands of aces, extremly deadly. And so they were set, and were merely awaiting for the enemy fleet to come out of hyperspace before they could unleash hell......

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Aboard the Imperial Battleship Bellicose

Admiral Parker ran his eyes over the thin sheet of flimpast that had just been passed onto him, his eyes narrowing it as he read. This was a message from the Vice Admiral, near one of the target systems, his probe droids having found two enemy fleets. One was a hit and fade fleet that it would be believed would be hitting the Imperial blockade of the two planets, of which Admiral Kraken was taking care of right now, but the other one, according to Kraken, was a good sized battlefleet, consisting of several destroyers, that would be hitting the Mid-Rim Protectorate where it would hurt the most: It's captial planet. The fleet was already on it's way, and was expected to arrive within the next few hours. He had until then to formulate a defense, and execute it. Admiral Parker smiled at this. He already had one of several different defense strategies devised within his mind, and this one would be quite risky indeed. He decided to call up a meeting of his staff officers in order to prepare the defense of Vladet. The first thing needed concerning was the safety of the shipyards and construction yards. Since the construction yards were on the ground, all that was needed was to activate the planetery shield. After it was activated, there would be almost no way other then massive planetery bombardement to bring it down, and allow the enemy to harm the construction yards. With that thought locked away in his mind, the Admiral thought next about the shipyards. They would not be protected by the planeterey shields. And there were no mines to protect them either. Admiral Parker would raise his issues with Admiral Kraken when he returned home. If he returned home. Shaking the thought out of his head, Admiral Parker moved on. He thinks that preparing the planetery ion cannon networks, and stationing a portion of his fleet between the shipyards and outer space should provide enough of a defensive measure. He would also order one wing of TIE Advanced starfighters to shoot down any enemy missiles, or starfighters that were dispatched to destroy or harm the shipyards. He would station the eight Victory Star Destroyers for this purpose there, along with their full complements of starfighters, and shuttles. He would see no reason to call up the reserve fleet. The Shroud class cloaking cruisers would be stationed at the outer perimer of the system, and would wait until the enemy fleet was engaged with the Victorys before they would sneak up behind the enemy fleet, and engage them at point blank range. Finishing the pincer movement with a double flanking attack, Admiral Parker would station his Star Destroyers, three each, outside of the system at two sides. When the time comes, the Star Destroyers will come in, disgorge their complement of starfighters, and proceed to engage and utterly destroy the enemy fleet. So that was his plan, and a brilliant one it was indeed. So with that, he moved off to the meeting with the war council to discuss his plan with them, and to suggest to them that they implement it immediatly, as it was that the enemy were mere scant hours away from the expected arrival..........

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On the planet of Isht.....

The Imperial warships, having finished their bombardement of the planet below, were now moving back into orbit. The city was destroyed, had been destroyed, and now it's wreckage was slowly cooling off. The survivors had been allowed back into the city, and were now surverying it's wreckage, trying to collect any valuables that had been left after the merciless bombardment. The message that the Imperials had sent was quite clear. After the bombardment had begun, communications across the planet, in the form of comlink communications, had gone deadly silent, as the people took in what was happening.

Let them have little doubt now. thought Commodore Braxus now. We let them get too complacement. We let them believe that we were a democracy of a goverment, that we would acceed to their demands, or at least listen to them and be afraid, afraid of the people. Our attempts to negotiate with them only brought about further violence, the populace perhaps believing that they were close to breaking our will, and us acceeding to their demands. Well, this should give them no doubts who we are after all, and now that they do know, they will either bow to us, or be destroyed. thought Braxus again as he took a sip of his wine cooler. It should be interesting to see what the outcome of this would be after everyone has gotten over their shock and all. But to let them see that we aren't entirely heartless monsters, we will rebuild their city for them, and provide them compensation for their losses. And with that last thought, Braxus let himself slip off into a little nap.....

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Aboard the Kaloth Battlecruiser Dayark.....

The hit and fade fleet had been in hyperspace for several hours now. Admiral Keytan, commander of this expedition, just hoped that the Imperials hadn't figured out what their little game plan was. They were indeed to attack the Imperial blockade, and do their best to break it up. If they were successful, they would reap great awards indeed, both from their high commanders, and probably from the grateful citizens of the Ishori as well.......

Then, with a chime from his navigator, he knew it was time. Time for he and his men to go into battle, and to defeat the Imperials, gaining vengeance, as well as power, and glory........

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Aboard the Defender class Star Destroyer Briam, en route to the world of Vladet

Admiral Farder, commander of the Star Destroyer that was the flagship for this operation, let loose a small smile as his ship, his fleet, approached their destination. Their orders were quite simple. Enter the Vladet system, and while the captial ships engaged the enemy fleet, all of their starfighters were to proceed and attack the shipyards, hopefully knocking them out in short order. If they weren't able to, then once the fleet had finished mopping up any defenders, then they would proceed to attack the shipyards as well, reducing them into molten slag. The fleet would then retreat into hyperspace. According to intelligence, most of the strength of the navy that was the Mid Rim was devoted to the offensive campaigns that the Imperial Admiral known as Kraken was laying into the Elrood Sector, and the maintaing of worlds recently conquered, as well as supressing the uprising that had occured on Isht, leaving Vladet with nothing more than an taskforce that was estimated to be that of one Imperial Star Destroyer two Quasar fire Starfighter Carriers, and several other miscellaneous ships. His own fleet consisted of six Defender class Star Destroyers, four Aegis Mark one cruisers, and fifty support vessels, mainly escort frigates, corvettes, and gunships of the Corona, Marauder, and Warrior classes. This very modern fleet had been purchased from, and mostly built by, the New Republic, before their massive collapse. Now, with this fleet, also including swarms of the deadly XJ-wings, and B-wings, Admiral Farder would land a decisive blow against the Empire, and maybe even save his own system, while he was at it........