The Grand Admiral kept his face passive after he decided that emotion would not be the best display at this point in time. Instead, he remained calm and resolute, listening to the reports with a haughty distance and deliberation.


Inside, under the pristien white uniform of his high rank, and under the layers of flesh, emotion rampaged. News of success, though initial, sent waves of joy from tip to toe. At great expense to the Empire in terms of men and materiale, the GDS had been developed. Detractors had arisen within the Department of Military Research and among those of the Navy trusted enough to know, but the final tests had passed even the most stringent of requirements. A baptism of sorts, however, was missing. Missing, that is, until Ylesia. Baron Desaria glanced left and right, seeing what he could with his eyes anc picturing the rest with his mind: fighters were all but stopped, missiles slowed enough that some of the larger laser cannon were able to track and destroy them. A morass had been born on the field and it was serving the Empire well.


The Intimdator's daggerish prow filled the viewports as the Grand Admiral looked ahead. Along gundecks both port and starboard came steady torrents of fire aimed at any and every craft that had dared challange her. Trapped as if insects pinned against a collector's wall, small frigates, gunships, and armed merchentmen proved ludicriously easy targets for well-drilled gunners. At a thousand emplacements the littany droned on: load, aim, fire.


" Admiral, we have detected several of the missiles that Intelligence reported from Kween and the other sieges. Most have been tracked onto either the flagship or the Maelstrom."


Desaria turned to glance at the reporting Lieutenant-Commander, a youthful officer of limited experience but boundless enthusiasm. " And the effect of our counterbattery fire?"


" Initial efforts proved useless, however once the missiles entered the GDS field enough fire could be brought to bear to eliminate them. All such missiles have been neutralized."


" And their source?"


" A grouping of missile-destroyers holding outside conventional weapons' range. They are formed into three two-ship echelons, the centre echelon considerably more well-protected than the rest. Intelligence Analysts believe that to be the enemy flagship."


If only I could engage him now, personally, I could have provoked the old Snowkan into a bout, ending his little resurgeance here and now. I will not waste my men's lives, nor is he likely to repeat his past mistakes. Hmm.


Reports continued to be read off from the resy of the fleet, both flanks unaffected by the GDS field responsible for the slaughter of so many transgressors. The lighter ships of the Imperial formation contained themselves to an area of operations but were using their speed and maneuverability to make substantially harder the task of a Skipray Squadron dispatched to wreak havoc. Cruisers and pickets opposite them mimicked more or less the stoic recalcitrance of the Conqueror and her consorts. All and down the line, enemy ships were destroyed at a terrible rate while Imperial losses were negligble by any stretch of the mind.


Perhaps he has not learned, after all. The heaviest ship engaged is barely classified as a heavy frigate. Either he is holding back or has won his spectacular victories thus far through speed suprise and bluster. No, there is more here than we can see.


" Captain Voltaire! Send word to condense the fleet. Maintaining one-eighth, bring both wings in towards the GDS field. When we have bloodied their nose a bit more we will drop the field and rid this system of that filth."

<center>Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats – Ralph W. Sockman</center>


<center><i>Our person of study, the cloaked figure, was one who had forgotten our quote. That is to say that he was not careful that his victories did not carry the seed of future defeats. Unfortunately for him, his initial victories had given him confidence, confidence which had become arrogance and that seemed to be causing his defeat. He HAD largely relied on his “Three S’s” in his previous battles. Speed, Surprise and Serpent Fang Missiles. Now all three of those advantages had largely been taken away from him, largely due to the GDS, the Empire’s surprise for him. He still had some options for surprise, such as the Lannik fleet just outside of the system, but for the most part his advantages had been taken away from him. Now he had to figure out what he was going to do to turn his seeming defeat into a simple setback.</i></center>


<center> - From <i>Galactic Menace or Deranged Mind: A Complete Biography of Snowkan and the Clone of Snowkan</i></center>


<b>Ylesia</b>

The cloaked man glared as he saw his Serpent Fang Missiles, volley after volley of them, be destroyed by Imperial cannons. And then glared some more as many of his smaller ships were ground to pieces under the might of the Imperial’s firepower, from turbolasers that would not normally have been able to target his ships. It didn’t help that many ships had ignored his orders to just fire on the Intimidator and had instead spread their fire out amongst many of the enemy ships. He had suspected that some mercenaries would do this, but even some of his Corruption Missile Destroyers had fired at other vessels, and they were his elite crews. He was left with just one option.

“Cease fire of the Serpent Fang Missiles. All ships pull back.”

“Sir?”

“Don’t question me, just do it!” yelled the cloaked figure, striking the captain of the vessel to the deck.

“Yes M’lord,” replied the captain as he crawled out of the cloaked figure’s reach, helped by a few kicks.

With that the evacuation order began to go out throughout the fleet.

“Jump <i>Swift Star</i> and <i>Battery</i> to either side of the Intimadator, here and here,” said the cloaked figure, pointing out where he wanted each ship. “They are to concentrate their volleys on the counter-battery emplacements that destroyed the Serpent Fang Missiles while traveling as fast as possible past the ship and out of that gravitational field.”

The captain, along with many of the bridge crew members, looked puzzled at this order, but none questioned it. They all remembered the strikes that the captain had just received and all knew that the next to question the Grand Admiral would probably be shot. A few of them noticed the cloaked figure reaching for a blaster pistol as he noticed some of their puzzled looks and they quickly turned back to their duty stations.

“No doubt you are all wondering why I am sending in two of our more powerful ships when the rest of our fleet is retreating. The answer is simple. Those two Dreadnaught Cruisers, as you all know, have been modified to have far less crew, far better engines and far better shields, and better weapons, with the 20 quad laser cannons being upgraded to 20 Turbolasers and the loss of the 10 laser cannons, squadron of fighters and warhead launched. They now pack a better punch, are faster and have better shields. As such I’m sending them in to destroy as much of the counter-battery emplacements and whatever other weapons emplacements they can, so that the Imperials will not be to destroy our Serpent Fang Missiles in the future. Right now they have their gravitation field up and no shields, we don’t know how long that will last and we have to do out best to damage them before they get their shields back up. They will continue to travel along their path, past the Intimidator and the Imperial Line, leaving the gravitational field behind the line, where the Imperials will not have as many weapons to target them. Plus the rest of the Lannik fleet, including the other 6 of our Corruption Missile Destroyers will jump in and our missiles will be able to get through and destroy the enemy!”

A cheer went up amongst the bridge crew and they saw how his plan would work. The Dreadnaughts would break the defences of the <i>Intimidator</i> and then the rest of the fleet would swarm in and break the ship. The main fleet would be like water seeping through a small hole in a dam and widening the hole as it did, weakening the dam before destroying it. The dreadnaughts would be the cause of the hole. The captain still wondered if the dreadnaughts would be powerful enough to cause that hole, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

The Skipray Blastboats, the two Nebulon-B Frigates and the Dreadnaught Cruiser all on the left flank were the easiest ships to get away from the Imperial fleet, as they weren’t in the GDS field or weren’t in it very far if they were. Also the ships that they were fighting began to move into the GDS field, to come closer to the Conqueror and condense the Imperial line. However main fleet attacking the center of the Imperial line was having a lot of difficulty getting out. While they could travel faster than the Imperial ships, they speed was still extremely slow due to the GDS. As such the ships were being picked off by the Imperial gunners, but they were still drawing farther and farther out of range of the Imperials, draining power from their guns that could fire forwards (and were there for useless when fleeing) to help boost their shields.

At this point the two modified Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers jumped in and began hammering on the shieldless hull of the Intimidator. Waves of turbolaser fire struck down at the Firestorm Anti-Fighter Emplacements which had done so much damage to the <i>Serpent Fang </i> Missiles. Unfortunately, while these emplacements were mounted on top of the actual hull of the <i>Intimidator</i>, this did not mean that they weren’t heavily armored in their own right. Snowkan had made a gamble in sending in these two ships, a gamble based around the idea that the weapon emplacements would be like a standard turbolaser emplacement on an Imperial Star Destroyer, armored, but not so armored so that a direct hit by a turbolaser wouldn’t be able to destroy it. However these weapons emplacements were standing up to many direct hits, though not as many as they would have had the Dreadnaught’s crews been better trained. Adding to the difficulty was the sheer amount of firepower radiating off of the <i>Intimidator</i> and its surrounding vessels back at the Dreadnaughts. While some ships would miss the Dreadnaught’s and hit another vessel, the shields on the ships flanking the <i>Intimidator</i> dealt with any hits and the armor of the <i>Intimidator</i> held against the shots that hit them, due to few and far in between they were. The shields on the Dreadnaughts were falling at an amazing pace, with seemingly no damage done to the <i>Intimidator’s</i> counter-batteries.

The captain’s on the Dreadnaught’s were faced with a decision, reinforce their shields with the power from their weapons that faced away from the Conqueror Star Destroyer and not be able to defend that side from any enemies, not even small pickets, or leave their shields as they were and be destroyed. They quickly decided that transferring power from their weapons was the best option, and the shields gain in some power. However their shields were still dropping.

Fortunately for the Dreadnaughts, they finally saw some affect in their strikes. First on the starboard side of the <i>Intimidator</i> and then on the port side, the two lead Firestorm Anti-Fighter Emplacements crumbled under the fire of the Dreadnaughts and went silent, the armor protecting the turrets destroyed, but the armour of the <i>Intimidator</i> still unbreached. The Dreadnaughts continued forward, moving their fire onto the next Firestorm Anti-Fighter Emplacements. However the destruction of the two emplacements seemed to just anger the Imperials, and no matter how impossible it seemed, more fire came at the Dreadnaughts, and first their shields had holes punched in them, then they collapsed entirely. At this point the Imperial fire came directly at the ships’ hulls. A turbolaser bolt would hit metal plating and buckling it and melting the edges, and right afterwards a second turbolaser bolt would hit the same spot and destroy that piece of metal. Sometimes the metal would just melt into nothingness, at others the metal pieces would be blown off the hull of the Dreadnaughts.

The captain of the <i>Iron Fist</i> turned to the cloaked figure.

“Should I order the fleet in?”

The cloaked figure looked at the view on the screen in front of him. On it the two Dreadnaughts were shown amongst the Imperial fleet. Two Dreadnaughts, dreadnaughts just like the 6 Dreadnaughts that been in the initial Imperial wave during attack against Teth, and then the other 4 Dreadnaughts which had been part of the fleet of then Colonel Desaria when he had jumped into the system following the total destruction of the Iron Fist Empire and Mon Calamari Republic fleets, a destruction which Snowkan had barely managed to survive. Dreadnaughts like the 12 Dreadnaughts that had been involved in the assault against Ralltiir, the assault that had broken the Iron Fist Empire, destroying it. Seeing those Dreadnaughts, in the middle of an Imperial fleet, brought the memories of those battles flooding back to him and he could not order his fleet in to save them. Now, they would have to save themselves and do the best job that they could. They would not receive any help from him or his fleet.

The cloaked figure just sat there and stared at the screen, watching the battle between the Dreadnaughts and the <i>Intimidator</i>. The Dreadnaughts had served some of there purpose, destroying two of the 20 counter-battery emplacements and doing slight damage to a third and fourth thus far, but their biggest contribution was that they soaked up a lot of damage and distracted the Imperial line, allowing the rest of the Iron Fist Fleet’s ships to retreat. Unfortunately for the Dreadnaughts they had not done their primary task well enough, and the cloaked figure knew that jumping in his ships to save the two Dreadnaughts would be useless and just cause him to lose the battle, something he was not willing to do for a pair of Imperial icons that had contributed to his defeats at Teth and Ralltiir. As such the fleet continued to retreat, and the captain stood there with a questioning look on his face. The cloaked man just stared at the screen, and stared some more, watching the Dreadnaughts be destroyed without a remorse of regret. The question was, what would the Imperials do now that the fleet was out of their weapons range? He had fled their trap, now what would their response be? He stared, watching and waiting for their response. Just silently staring, watching, waiting. He had acted to hastily before and that had been his downfall. Now he was more cautious. Silence. Staring. Watching. Waiting. Those were the orders for the day, and thats what he did. A cloaked figure, staring at a screen, silent as the grave, watching and waiting for his opponent to move. Silence. Staring. Watching. Waiting.



<b>Edge of the System</b>

A small convoy of 3 YT-1300 transports came out of hyperspace near the Lannik Fleet. The Lannik fleet immediately opened up fire on the convoy, destroying two of YT-1300’s and damaging the third before the third escaped back into hyperspace. This transport immediately headed for Fwillsving, the nearest Coalition planet, and a planet populated almost entirely by refugees. They knew they would be excepted at that planet, and while there they wouldn’t have to fear being caught in the middle of the war between TNO and this strange attacker. From Fwillsving the crew would re-organize, repair their ship and then find away to get to a safer section of the galaxy. Unknown to the crew, they were not the only ships that were heading to Fwillsving from the OverSector Outer area. They would soon find that they had company upon their arrival at Fwillsving…

The Intimidator sat at the center of a tempest, the eye of the storm. From it branched out tendrils of incandescence that brought destruction with beauty. Waves and waves of turbolaser fire shot off, each blast finding the end of its abbreviated life smashing apart hull plating, dissipating on shields, or fizzling out when all the gases of the propellant plasma had been expended. The cycle was short and it was lethal. And it was repeated a million times over.


Around the black-hulled super battleship sat its smaller brethren who absorbed many of the hits intended for it. Smaller ships sat out further still exchanging fire with what ships had been foolish enough to close. Trapped like insectoids in a pallthor's web, a third of the enemy's fleet was being slaughtered. Shields had long since been dropped by the larger Imperial warships, most captains content to let the damage meeted out as the cost of their fusilades fall on thick slabs of armor. Shields would be used this battle as a resort against missiles strikes. Those who watched the vessels laugh off laser strikes felt their hearts slump. The Empire had not come inept or ill-prepared this time.


" Perimeter Alert - two ships reverting to realspace seven hundred meters off the starboard bow!"


Eyes of the officers on the bridge upper level drifted to the forward quarter of the flagship. There sat two Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruisers bastardized by years of modifcations and upgrades. For a second they seemed to smile, having suceeded in getting closer than any other attempt, then they unleashed a storm of their own. Coloured red and amber, blast after blast of turbolaser energy poured into the armored carapce of the largest ship engaged. Armor plates vaproized under the strain as the pair concentrated their fire at one point rather than aiming for multiple systems as so many of their colleagues had.


Grand Admiral Desaria felt a smile tug at his still-youthful face. The audacity and courage displayed in the maneuver executed before his eyes was daring indeed and that he could respect. He hated few enemies, more often than not only doing his duty in the furtherence of the Empire's goals. Respect on the field was paramount and for the first time, he nodded in the direction of what was believed to be Snowkan's flagship.


" Captain Voltaire, concentrate all starboard batteries on the closest ship. Insidious is to concentrate on the other."


As quickly as he had issued them, the Grand Admiral ignored the repeating of his command and its transmission to the nearest Star Destroyer, a sleek-looking Reign-class only three kilometers off the flank. Moments passed, fire belching forth from a gaping wound in the Intimidator's armor. Gunners received their orders from gun captains who in turn had been directed by battery commanders in sound-proof booths. In unison, a hundred cannon volleyed and thundered, overwhelming the brave souls on the doomed ships. Inside the sphere, there was no hope of escape. They held on as best they could, defiantly returning fire until every cabin on both ships was filled with flame. Bulkheads melted and reactors shut down. Lifeless hulks drifted where warships had once done the bidding of a clone master. Continued cannonades chewed more and more out of the wreckage, preventing it from colliding.


" Brave, but it bought no time for them in the overall picture."


" Sir?" Captain Voltaire approached from nearby in the crewpit.


" Nothing, Captain. Report?"


" Those ships that can appear to be regouping and trying to slip away."


Baron Desaria turned away from the scene of battle, Ylesia's numerous barren worlds behind it. " Very good, Captain. Drop the GDs before our power transfer nodes melt down. Deploy fighters and clear the system. Take us towards Ylesia itself and begin orbital bombardment of any landed troops if necessary. Spread out our gunships and order Defender patrols in no less than squadron strength - I want this entire system combed for mines, traps, and survivors."


" Aye sir."


The battle was not over, but the issue had been decided. All that remained was for the enemy to accept.