Panacka gritted his teeth as the Quadratic shook. "Damnit, I want some firing solutions on that ship for our torpedoes. All troopers to stations, give the order for boarding actions - bring that bastard down."

As Isip and the Kris fighters kept the enemy occupied, the Claymore Battlecruiser and it's Longsword escorts angled upwards, and launched a number of huge torpedoes from oddly shaped tubes into the underbelly of their Star Destroyer target. Each cut through the particle shield with ease, and impacted on the hull - but did not explode.

Inside the imperial warship, crew staggered as the artificial gravity tried to compensate. In the chaos, a dull groan could be heard as quite suddenly each torpedo burrowed through the armour of the Star Destroyer.

As the crewmen in one particular hallway gave shocked looks to the drill-bit that pierced the wall, it opened, and spurts of laser-fire accompanied it - scattering the crew.

"On your feet! Go, go, go!" Shouted Sergant Cy, as her boarding troopers marched in full armoured gear out of one of the many boarding torpedoes even now injecting their cargo of soldiers into the ship.

Panacka grinned as the reports came in of a successful launch and contact "Let's see this commander deal with a full complement of Coalition troopers, shall we? All ships, cease firing on the lower quadrent of the star destroyer, and stick to Ion weaponry - I want this ship captured, not destroyed!"

"Nellos can you get any readings on those strange missiles?" An aging pilot asked from the cockpit of his Tie fighter.

"Negative Sir. They're too far out of range for my scanners to get a lock."

"Okay I'm gonna try and get a closer look, that one on vector oh-seven nine five seems relatively unguarded. Keep an eye on my back."

Twisting his Tie in rapid movements the commanding officer shot in the direction he had pointed out. His nimble craft sped in and out of stray lare fire, dodged wild bolts, swept aside, under, and in and out of battle debris. As he approached the torpedo like craft one of the strange enemy fighters picked up his tail.

" I've got one on me. Where the hell is my support Nellos?" The pilot screamed into his comm unit as the enemy ship veered left and right, somehow managing to stay in constant alinement with his own movements. Infront of his view a half burned out Tie corpse and two of the still unrecognized enemy fighters swept in from the left. It would take some pretty precise flying but nothing he couldn't handle. Twisting his ship completely to the right he allowed it to fall into a roll, constantly making sure his path to the debris was correct. As he closed in just barely three metres from the junk he pulled out of his spin and sped as close to the burned out ship as possible. He swept as close underneath it as he could and then swung straight up. The following craft was quick on the uptake and came very close to following the Tie straight behind it. Had it not been for the surprise the Tie pilot had left behind he would have n doubt been sucessfull in following. As the enemy flew underneath the bulk of what had once been a Tie cockpit, the proton charge that the Tie had left behind erupted. It's explosion rocked the craft, sending what litle was left of the cockpit smashing through the front of the enemies craft. The resulting explosion tore both the pilot ad his ship apart and left the Tie free to close in on it's prey.

What the...? The commander thought as he surveyed the approaching torpedo like thing.

"I've got both a visual and scanner lock on the weapon now. But I don't think it's a weapon at all. I'm picking up life sign readings. Possibly an escape pod? Wait a minute, I'm getting a reading on some kind of tool at the nazel end of the craft. It's a mining weapon of some........ALL CRAFT CONVERGE ON THE UNIDENTIFIED SHIPS!!! I REPEAT ALL CRAFT CONVERGE ON THE UNIDENTIFIED SHIPS!!! They sure ain't escape pods. They're gonna use them to breach the hull and gain access. Take out as many as you can."

The commander twisted hios ship around and begun firing laser after laser into the hull breaker. It was only a matter of seconds before the people inside opened up their mining lasers and ripped his craft in two.

* * * *

The Deforen shook tremendously as the oddly shaped ships penetrated its hull in quick successions. Everytime a new craft tore through the ships outer hull at least another ten men were sucked into the endless vacuum of space. Countless technicians, mechanics, scientists and even Seshian engineers grabbed hold of whatever they could, desperatley gasping for air as it was taken from the ship. Door like hatches begun to swing open on the crafts that had so easily broken through the reinforced shields, from them emerged soilder after soilder. All members of the enemy that the Imperials had yet to even identify.

Through sheer weight of numbers and due to the unexpected brunt of this attack the Imperial troops were driven back into mad frenzys of chaos and destruction. Bodies littered the floor to the point where the polished silver surface could no longer be seen. Men, women, Seshians and species that some of the troopers could not even fathom began to attack each other in fierce waves. The Deforen had been breached by a powerful enemy, and in their wake they had left only one gift. Countless deaths.

* * * *

On the bridge of his Star Destroyer, Cas's rage knew no bounds. Data pads flew through the air. Troopers recived orders shouten at them from bare centimetre's away. Four people had already paid with their lives for their insolence of not informing the Grand Admiral the danger of those blasted torpedo wanna be's.

"Get all interior shields up and running now. I want the birdge sealed off from the rest of the ship. All decks are to be completely isolated. No one is to be able to leave their deck," the Grand Admral bellowed his orders so loudly that five crew members physically jumped. Cas turned to regard the two lines of thirty Seshian troops. Get down to the lower decks before anyone has a chance to shut off your access. Leave nothing alive down there. Nothing!!!"

The Grand Admiral could suddenelly feel that all eyes were no longer on him. He turned in the general direction that everyone appeared to be gazing. To his mild surprise he saw the trooper he had already ordered to begin work to the bring the lower half of the ship into order was not getting on with his commands.

"Crewer I have gave you an order. Start working on it......Comply now!!" For the first time since noticing him, the Grand Admiral looked closely at the young man's eyes. They were not returning the stare as any unafraid Imperial should, but staring past him. They stared to a point on the wall so precise it would need to be scaled a million times over just to come close to what the crewers eyes saw. They looked further than that. They looked through the twisted metal and space debris, focusing tightly on points in space that the living would never be able to comprehend. The man's body suddenelly slumped forwards. In the upper right of the back half of his body a small knife wound spread eager blood like ruby red droplets in a waterfall. The Seshian behind where the trooper had been sat wore a smile of great pleasure. From behind Cas a long and harsh sound of cackling begun. Cas slowly turned to see Captain Kerld approaching him. A mad look in his eyes.

Deak sat in the chair for a long time. He wondered how this battle would turn out. All of a sudden at least ten troopers ran across the door in a big hurry. Deak stepped to the door and looked outside of it, no troops...good. He hurried down the street until he turned to an alley. A squad of rag-tag Sakathians were there. Deak didn't bat an eye but he ran thought them. Now he was begining to worry about the troops. The alley was not empty for long, the Sakathinas charged at a fire-team of troops they only managed to kill one befor all of the Sakathians were dead. The troops began to fire at Deak. He pulled out his two blasters and shot all of the troops. Just before he killed the last one his guns jammed. The stormtrooper seemed to be out of charge so he came at deak with a small sword. Deak just laughed and took out his Mandalorian vibroblade an cleaved the trooper in two.

"This also seems to be broken."said Deak

"Well after this I got to get this fixed."

The vibrobalde had a big nick in it but Deak had no time for it. The situation seemed to get even more complicated. The troopers seemed to take over the city. Deak came out of the alley to analize the battle. More and more troopers came in and more and more Sakath died. That's it! I have had enough! Deak ran across a market place. What he needed right now was his jetpack. Deak quickly searched the market for a sniper rife. He finally found one and set it up. Only two minutes passed and a squad of troops had come by. The sergant had looked oddly familiar. He picked off a couple of troops befor the stormtroopers had know what he was doing. Deak grabbed his E-11 and started attacking the troops. Many of them fired blindly into the market. Deak mangaged to jump behind a cart befor a blaster hit him. Deak managed to kill the remaining troops. He relaxed for a moment before he heard a person yelling. He turned around and there was a stromtrooper with a red pualdron.

"Well you managed to kill my squad, you managed to outdo me and you managed to live, but not for longer." said the captain

Deak drew his vibroblade and so did the captain. Deak ran at the captain with the sword over Deak's head. Both of the swords met and sparked. Deak dislonged the balde and twiled around to cut at the captains side. The captain blocked it and the captain tried to hit Deaks other side. No luck. Both of them went on attacking and blocking until Deak did a leg sweep and while the captain was down Deak lunged the blade into the captain. Deak took off the helmet. There he was the captain he had been sent to elimenate.

"Well you were a tough one." Deak just laughed an sat there.

He searched the pockets and other places on the armor to find a personal item. He had found a locket. When Deak had opened it it had a picture of a woman and the captain. This will do. Deak thought. Now all Deak Sokar had to do was to get to his ship the Bounty. This perticular hit was 1,000,000 credits. He didn't know who would want him dead so bad.

"All Boarding Torpedoes have uploaded their compliments, sir!" Shouted an eager lieutenant on the bridge of the Quadratic. "We're getting reports of close-quarter fighting - looks like there's some sort of mutiny going on, sir!"

"A mutiny?" murmured Panacka "That complicates things. Order our men to try and identify which 'side' is mutineering, and toggle them as friendlies - for now. As for us, I want full space superiority - get in their face, already! Focus our batteries on the enemy fighters to make sure nothing escapes, and have the fighters regroup near our hangars for safe-keeping."

Panacka knew, though, that the space battle was already won. The Ties were outnumbered and outgunned. Even now, as the battlegroup advanced and the Kris fighters regrouped, it was obvious the Coalition had the edge. As for the enemy star destroyer, the chaos internally meant that it was effectively dead in space - even the guns were beginning to fall silent, and it certainly wasn't responding to their attacks any more. It was only a matter of waiting for the boarding crew to do their job.

On board, though, there was still a lot more fighting. Sergant Cy shouted orders to her squad as they advanced up the path to the bridge. "You got the orders from command, don't fire on the... alien things... so long as they don't fire on us. Besides that, though, fire on anything that moves!"

Squads like hers were scattered all throughout the ship, each targetting a different vital system - power, thrusters, weapon control - but Cy and her squad had a slightly more difficult target, the commander of this whole flying deathtrap.

The squad found the corridor they moved up mostly abandoned, however - evacauted. Blocking their way to the turbolift up the bridge, though, was something more.

"Internal shielding and blast doors..." murmured Cy "Well, we know how to take care of this! Corporal!"

"Yes mam!"

"Tear down this wall!"

"Yes mam!"

The corporal set demolition charges along the nearby wall, as the rest of the squad ducked for cover. As he too leapt behind a nearby wall, the charges ignited, tearing through the corridor and leaving the entire area in disarray - and the door in tatters. Internal armour was always much less then the plating on the outside of a cruiser.

"Squad, prepare to assault the bridge!" Cy checked her rifle was loaded - this was where things would get... interesting.

"What's going on?!" Cas shouted to Kerld as the Seshian gradually advanced forwards.

"For too long we have lived in your sssshadow Captain, for too long we have lived in fear of your men, your attackssssss and your pain. We will no longer sssssufer the brunt of your attacksssss. No more sssshall we be forced to committ to your horrendousssss actssssss and heindousssss plansssss. We sssshall have vengance for our world and vengance for the deathssssss your hand hassss caused. Now!"

All around the bridge the Seshian troopers pulled their weapons up infront of them and begun firing at the Imperial troops around the bridge. Cas's eyes were locked on Kerld. The Seshian leader jumped half the bridge in a mad rush to get Cas, from seemingly no where a vibroblade appeared in his hand. Three troopers immediatley surrounded Cas, blasters aimed at the crazed Captain who was already slaughtering Imperial after Imperial. Slowly making his way towards his former leader. Cas barged past the troopers protecting him and leant into a console by his chair.

"Activate Seshian implant B, authorisation Cas, Delta, Kessel, A7795GIB"

"Voiceprint recognized, now injecting ditine 2."

All around the ship the Seshian's fell to the floor, spasming in fits of pain. Each one of them's nervous system had suddenelly gone out of balance. The effect would last up to five hours. On the bridge the Imperial troops rushed back to their stations, each one looking horrorfied at the data scrolling down it.

"Admiral, we're taking consistent pounding from the enemmy ships!" One shouted.

"Sir, outer defense of the bridge has just fallen!" Screamed another.

The Grand Admiral took a few moments to take in this startlinginformation. This was all impossible. His hopes and dreams of conquering the unknown regions shattered around his feet.

"Seal off the turbolift up here. I want it shut down," he turned to face the helms, "then prepare the ship to eneter hyperspace, destination, the Seshian homeworld. If those blasted ships want to follow us then they'll be in for a nice surprise."

"Yes sir!" The helmsman replied.

Cas smiled to himself. There was no way his hsip would be captured. Nor would the enemy forces aboard it survive.

* * * *

Twisting in the laser lit space, the Deforen lurched forwards before jumping into hyperspace. The remaining Tie's had recived their orders just seconds before it left. Loyal to their Admiral they rammed the enemy ships and the planet. The few troops still left below caused as much chaos as they could before ther lives winked out.

Panacka let loose a violent barrage of cursing as the Star Destroyer became a streak of light "We weren't fast enough! We were so close, a couple more minutes and our men would have disabled their hyperdrive! Damn it!"

He immeadietly returned to his command chair, calmed himself, and began giving concise orders again. "I want a comm message to the planetary population sent, tell them the Coalition is in pursuit of their attackers. In the mean-time, kill off the last of their fighters, then drop shields and recall our Kris fighters so we can make the jump to light-speed. Did they make any effort to mask their destination?"

"None, sir." said the scanner-officer confidently "They left a very clear 'trail' to follow, we have their coordinates."

"Good. Have all crew take this chance to attend to any damage, wounded, or other problems - in fact, make sure we tractor-beam any survivors or crippled fighters before we continue our pursuit."

"What about the men already on-board the enemy starship, sir?" said the Tac-Ops officer anxiously. "They're out of communications range."

"They can handle themselves, don't worry."

Once again nervous tension semed to consistently work it's way around the bridge of Cas's Star Destroyer. They were only a few minutes from exiting hyperspace. Though Cas knew his end was near he was determined to go out in the way he'd fashioned for himself. Already on the bridges vid-consoles he had seen his enemy reaching the turboshaft to the bridge. Some other groups had taken to the long stairwells. They had been most unfortunate however as to run into heavy resistance in the form of thirty well trained Stormtroopers.

"Pull out of hyperspace on my mark!" Cas all but shouted to the helmsman in the crew pit. "Three, Two, Mark!"

The Star Destroyer lurched forward as the half ruined world of the Seshians flicked onto the viewscreen. The green lasers that famed Destroyers for their destructive capabilities began to shoot out of its weapon placements. Each bolt shot into the planets surface. Destruction, death, mayhem, chaos. It all rained down on the innocent people. With every flash lives winked out of existence.

"Set us on a course to Verhsan City! We shall full out ram them! Every man aboard shall then prepare to fight to the death! In the name of the Emperor we shall have vengance against those who wrecked our plans! Today we serve the ultimate cause, today we fight till our last breath and prove our worth!"

Every worker on the bridge removed their blasters and aimed at the doors. Though the fighting may never reach the bridge in time there was certainly no harm in being prepared.

The Quadratic blasted through hyperspace, keeping in tight pursuit to it's quary and tearing through the fabric of reality to once again appear behind the Imperial vessel.

Panacka stood gobsmacked at what unfolded before his eyes - what sat right before his eyes. As soon as possible, though, he snapped back into action. "All power to the engines! Evacuate the front and upper decks and brace for potential collision! We're going to cut them off, goddamn it!"

The Quadratic was fast, easily twice as fast as it's opponant, but it might not have been enough were it not for a Coalition assault squad finally reaching the main thruster compartment onboard the enemy ship.

Standing knee-deep in burnt corpses, former Imperials who had not been partial to surrender, sargent Kakar chomped on the end of a cigarra as his squad-mates ran for cover. He grinned as they ran past, and said "What's the matter, never seen a pack of detonators go off in a ship's thrusters? It's quite a sight, trust me!"

At that moment, they blew, and the thruster shrieked and became a twisted melted mass of metal. In space, the effect was as simple as one light going out in the back of the Star destroyer, but for sergant Kakar, it was indeed quite a sight indeed.

Closer to the bridge, Cy cursed and leant out of the way of another barrage of lasers being spat down from below by fanatical defenders. She didn't have time for this.

"Give me that thing." she barked to a trooper, who promptly handed over the unit's one piece of heavy weaponry, a proper rocket launcher. "Now hold here." she said, and - somewhat awkwardly - the soldier held her firmly by the belt as she suddenly leant out into the shaft and launched a rocket straight into the floor the defenders were standing on.

On the bridge's main floor, just outside the doors of the bridge itself, defenders backed away as rubble and smoke filled the corridor. All was silent, except for the slightest hint of sound that resembled a cord being rolled up. Quite suprisingly, a line of Coalition troopers swung in on grapnels, crashing bodily into the defenders and causing confusion. More of the elite troopers followed in their wake as Cy beat a hapless sniper's head in and gathered her forces.

"Right" she spat "Time to get serious here. Prep for door breach."

Outside, Panacka sent a signal to all boarders about the impending intercept and possible collision. With the sudden gain in speed, it looked like the Quadratic just might cut off the Star Destroyer in time - but it would be close, oh so close.

"Are they being serious?" Cas could hardly belive his eyes as the enemy ship attempted to gain speed and approach at a flanking angle. Surely they weren't actually going to try and block his path. What was it with these damned alien lovers? No doubt aliens themselves. At least that thought made sense. In the glory days of the Empire aliens were kept at a low level, never given the undeserving posts they seemed to hold on the sparseley populated planets of the Unknown Regions. We'll see about that my friend, Cas thought to himself as images of the blasted ship that had plagued his plans for the last twenty seven hours showed it closing in.

"Full stop!" he shouted to his bridge commanders, or rather what was left of them. Half of them were already running towards the main bridge doors where a row of data screens showed mass amounts of humans in non Imperial uniforms preparing to bloor the doors out of their very sockets. When did that happen?!?

Forgetting completely of appearances and being calm in battle Cas ran forwards to one of the ships controll pannels and began pushing and pulling on every lever and button he could reach. Slowly but surely the Deforen began to slink away from the projected course as the engines put into a groaning halt. Blinking lights revealed a mass shortage in the left enginering room and data scribbles warned of a power surpass resulting in the engine completely failing. Well at least we're slowing down.

On the bridge's vid console the enemies capital ship attempted to break it's own speed and come still beside the Star Destroyer. The ship shot just past the Deforen where it turned leaving both ion cannons and turbolasers pouring into Cas's reinforced shields.

Pushing a lever further forwards than the maximum output suggested should be allowed Cas watched as his powerful ship began once again to move sluggishly forwards. Though the target had changed, the ships final mission was exactly the same. Ram and destroy. The only difference was that rather than drive straight into the planet, the Deforen would now plough into the enemy ship and force the remainders to be a bombardment on the planet of their own. Cas smirked to himself and then turned to face the bridge doors, pulling his blas-tech pistol from the hidden compartment in his Captains chair. Time to fight. Death would follow shortly afterwards.

* * * *

Rolling around the ground in consistent pain, Captain Kerld's eyes shot open.

Panacka realized just how insane an enemy he was dealing with "They're actually going to ram us - shit, reinforce shields! Evacuate ALL decks immeadietly on the impact zone. I want all of you to brace for impact and try and keep us centered so he'll hit where we want him to hit. Engineering - have all repair crews standing bye, we'll need them to keep from falling out of orbit!"

Panacka could only watch and grit his teeth as the enemy ship grew gargantuan in his sights. No amount of turbo-laser fire or ion blasts would slow them down now, and through gritted teeth he added "Prepare the escape pods - just in case."

On the ship, the fight was only getting more intense. Realizing the danger they were in, all Coalition assault teams - especially those in the nose of the ship - began charging through the ship to the bridge. Those few who were close enough to make it there in time to join the growing team outside the bridge doors ducked into cover as Cy gestured for everyone to get down. Pushing a plunger and closing her eyes, permacrete charges went off all along the frame of the blast-door and filled the area with sparks, smoke, and rubble.

Immeadietly, two men near the door threw flash-bang grenades, and as the sonic noise came crashing out more then two dozen Coalition troopers went storming in, through a cloud of smoke a spraying fire in a short and brutal exchange before the all-out melee began.

Drawing her sword and pistol, Cy lunged through the dispersing clouds and sunk her blade up to the hilt through a stormtrooper's chest-plate. All around, soldiers fought tooth and nail in front of a window showcasing a terrifying view of the Quadratic as it grew larger and closer. She lifted her sword from her enemy's chest, pointed it at the enemy commander who stood at the far wall, and said nothing as the most vital battle of the day began.