Note: This takes place during/after the Tapestries thread.

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SSF(Seren Special Forces) - Penitence

Merendez sighed as she stared at the many displays that hovered above her command chair. She had only just left the medical asteriod after visiting Angela, one of the other admirals who had been seriously wounded back on Trandoshans months before.

Before, Angela's wounds were considered mortal, it was thought that she would die but after a month the girl had pulled through and was doing better - though her post as an admiral wasn't possible now due to her lack of legs and her inability so speak or see.

The ship that Merendez was aboard was a private cruiser specially made for her, it wasn't on any of the ship listings for her organization but one: The security updates so that her ship wouldn't be fired upon when entering restricted areas.

Her ship was fast and menuverable, like all Serendivus ships, the bridge was embedded into the ship itself. The ship, however, sported the only prototype of the Light Cloaking Drive.

"ETA?" Merendez said as she watched the screens. Various sensor data's and other information scrolled across them, some of the data was being singled out by the ships onboard AI for later viewing.

Her navigational officer; a young man barely in his thirties, looked up from his station, he bore a beard that covered the bottom part of his face. "Five minute's ma'am," he said before turning back toward his station.

Her bridge officers were all chatter bugs; some talked about where they were headed, while others seemed more concerned with why Merendez was incharge. Merendez was the head of the organizations trade and construction departments, she wasn't a combat admiral, but she did have experience - plus her bridge crew made up for any lack she had.

Outside of her ship, tailing along in hyper space, were two Shadow corvette's and various other ships, including four Long Rangers Mk 2s and several other combat vessels.

"So, tell us again what our mission is ma'am?" Her XO asked, handing her a datapad.

Merendez looked at the pad and scrolled through its information. "Lumier is busy taking care of the ships and research that we'll be giving the Confederate's as a show of friendship, so I was asked to head her mission. We are tasked with taking over the Asteriod Belt, which command has dubbed 'Gaia' out here on the Outer Rim. It's not on any of the charts, meaning it's uncharted, but one of our accompanying Shadow's found it when it detected an unknown ship headed in this direction some weeks ago," Merendez said.

"I see, but why a small fleet?" The XO asked.

"We are just the vanguard for the bigger fleet. Our task to assess any pirates in the belt and to elimanent outside defenses, in the event the advanced fleet doesn't arrive then we make due with what we have," Merendez said and handed him back the pad. "According to the Shadow, the asteriod belt is littered with lush rocks that'll keep our industry going for year's to come. It's a massive belt, which is why I was surprised, at first, that it wasn't picked up," she added.

"But..."

"It seem's the belt has a natural 'sensor' dampening affect, it could either be due to it being out of reach of a star, or could be because the belt is located within a nebula," the admiral smiled. "Which mean's we'll have to be on our guard,"

Her XO nodded and left. As she watched him cross the bridge and had the pad to another officer. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen next, her fleet was small, but she did have some heavy hitting ships. Her own ship was capable of remaining cloaked while firing, and that meant the ship would not 'decloak' briefly when it fired thanks to the new Lighter prototype. The Penitence had been built around the drive and had taken several months to complete, during that time the prototype had been modified, and lesser version of itself had been made availible, but much of it's features were retained in the main drive so that no outside parties would be able to duplicate their success.

Within moments, Penitence and her fleet appeared in space several thousand kilometers from the asteriod belt; the fleet was bathed in a stealth field generated by the Shadow corvettes. Coupled with the fact that they were in deep space and thus there wasn't much light, the color's of Merendez's combat fleet blended well with the surroundings.

"Ma'am, Paladin is picking up some traffic." Communications said, the officer pressed her hand against the headset and listened. "Two-three ships, they seem to be freighters, unknown markings," she added.

"Have Paladin take a closer look," Merendez ordered.

Moments passed as the Paladin, one of the two Shadow corvette's in the fleet, moved slowly under stealth power toward the slow moving freighter. As the ship got closer, it began to run scans of the vessel, the freighter, an old Action V, was unarmed and had no weapons that could be seen.

"Pay dirt," the woman at the communications station said with a grin. "Weapons ma'am, along with slaves and other stuff... uh oh..." she said when she looked up.

The other freighter suddenly came about and instead of turning to flee, several side ports opened up to reveal two turbolaser batteries modified to fit onto the freighter. Instantly the Paladin ignited it's main engines and speed off, just narrowly missing a barrage from the freighters.

"Have they sent a transmission?" Merendez asked as she got up from her command chair and made her way to the communications station, the officer there shook her head though and said. "Negative, Paladin is jamming their transmissions,"

Merendez nodded and had her officer send orders to her four Rangers. In space the four bulky ships came about, their barrels were aliegned with the two freighters. With firing coordinate's from the Paladin, they targeted the freighters engines with disabling shots.

In order to mask muzzel flash from the barrels, the remaining combat ships positioned themselves so that the flash wouldn't be seen by anyone watching from the asteriod belt, provided anyone could even see a flash from that distance.

Fire erupted from one of the four Rangers, the shell spiraled down the barrles and shot out like a bullet on it's intended course. The shell them erupted into a ball of superheated plasma, with the central part of it guiding it just slight as the freighter made an attempt to dodge the shot.

Plasma splashed across the engine section of the freighter, melting the baffels and rendering the ship dead in the water. With a quick question to her sensors officer, Merendez gave the order to destroy the attacking freighter, but to disable the one that had slaves and weapons onboard.

The last three Rangers opened up with their own non-plasma based shots that rained down upon the freighter. It's hull crumpled under the fousalage of fire before disappearing from space, the remaining freighter then had it's engines and communication's dish targeted and destroyed, but in order to hide the fact that these two would be missing, the Paladin, instead reassigned itself to decoy duty and made itself appear like two freighters.

Space became silent then as Merendez's fleet slowly made it's way toward the asteriod belt. "Pirates eh?" Merendez said when she what one of her officers onboard the marine transport said. "That confirms it, send a message drone to the advanced fleet and inform them of our progress. We are on the clock now gentlemen, we have four hours before the advance fleet arrives, let's do as much damage to their defenses as possible." Merendez said, her crew nodding and agreeing with her.

"Now, what move will the pirates make next..." she said, folding her arms and staring at the monitors.

Merendez grumped. It had been almost a day now since they had arrived, sitting just outside the nebula covered asteroid belt. "So they haven't made a move?" she asks her comm. officer.

The woman shakes her head, but doesn't turn toward her. "No, they've been strangely quiet," she said.

"What about the probe we sent into the belt, anything?" she says, turning toward her sensor officer.

"Other than the brief large mass it detected before lossing contact? I'm afraid there isn't much information," the girl sighed and sat back against her chair. "Either they have a strong jamming field, or the probe was destroyed." she added.

Merendez thought of both options already; she couldn't comprehend these pirates having a strong jamming field as that would generate a signature they'd no doubt detect. And a large mass would've shown up on their sensors already, "can we plot a safe course to probes last known location?"

"We could, but I'd feel safer if we knew more," Said the sensors officer, "why not send one of the shadows into there, their sensors are far more powerful than our own," she suggested.

Merendez nodded. "We can do that, Comm. tell them to make a brief pass inside the nebula, chart it for us and see if they can find anything interesting," she said. Her comm. officer nodded and relayed the message. Second's later Merendez watched as one of her Shadow's ignited it's engines and disappeared into the asteriod belt covered nebula.

"Now to wait," she said and strolled off the bridge. Her officers looking at her before going back to their tasks.

In her quarters, Merendez wondered what she would find. "It's not natural to find an asteriod belt covered by a nebula, but then again, the universe is still a vast place," she said and turned toward her desk's monitor. She entered her pass code and brought up the details of her mission, then accessed a file that spoke of activity in the area.

"Still, why would there be pirates here, plus the massive size of this nebula makes me wonder just how big the asteriod belt is..." she said, muzzing at various possibilities. "I hope the advanced fleet get's here soon, I'd feel much safer having more heavily armed ships with us than just the one's I have now," she added.

With a heavy she started typing up her daily report, it was already close to the end of day, with only an hour left before it would be tomorrow. With that in mind she decided to send the report when it was finished, peggy backed on a communications probe that would make several small hyperspace jumps before arriving at one of their outposts, from there the report would be filed and sent to Lavality, with a copy also sent the HQ.

As she wrote, her mind still kept going back to what would cause a mass big enough for the probes small AI processor to warrent an alert. "Inconcievable," she said as she thought of one of the reasons why the AI would give out an alert, with that she pushed the thought to the back of her mind and just kept writing.

Paladin

The Shadow class known as the Paladin was more than able to shifty move through the asteriod belt; it's engines were attuned to such action so it was right at home. On board the captain was sitting down just watching space, the captain preferred to see space through a viewport and not some monitor.

"A red gasish nebula," he said as he watched the static charge's dance across his ships hull. "Anything yet?"

"Nega---- wait.. sensors picking up an asteriod base dead ahead, seem's to be abandoned though, not picking up any lifesigns.." the man at sensors said, his voice bewildered at what he is seeing.

The captain was equally as confused. "Fine, send that information to the admiral... we'll wait near that base for her to arrive.. though that's odd, if the base is abandoned then where were those freighers headed?" he asked himself.

Merendez paced in her quarters, over a day had now passed since her fleet had started searching the asteriod belt, and only seven hours since they had boarded the abandoned asteriod base.

Her marines had reported that the base had only recently been abandoned. "Seem's whoever was there left in a hurry," a marine sergeant said as he debriefed Merendez on their boarding operation. "We did find some charts that were apperently left behind, scattered amongst the floor of what we assume to be a command center," he added.

"So, any evidence that it was pirates?" she asked, collasping her hands together. The marine looked down at his datapad before handing it to her, scrolling through the data a smile creased her face. "So, a pirate faction that only recently established itself here," she said.

"Very much so, though we couldn't find anything else on them," the sergeant said. His hands were to his side and his face was dirty from all the dust and dirt that was strewn about the asteriod base. "Want us to keep looking?" he asked.

"Yes," Merendez said and turned in her chair. The sergeant nodded and left her quarters. With a sigh she stared out into red space, or rather, the nebula that lay just behind the window. "What are they hiding," she asked herself and got up, getting into something casual she walked out and to the bridge where most of her officers were somewhat laid back having almost 'nothing' to do except keep tracking of communications and the ships systems.

"Sensors report," Merendez said as she walked over to her command chair.

"Nothing ma'am, it's dead quiet out there," her sensors officer said. "One of our patrols found some freighters but they lost them, they've been trying for the past few hours to find them but have had no luck," added the officer as she scanned the space around them.

"Bring the squadron back home and send another flight out. In the mean time let's do our own bit of searching, bring engines to seventy five percent, disable locks on the Lighter Drive for later usage," she ordered. "Is the Phase core components still offline?" she asked.

"Yes Ma'am, we haven't brought them up just yet," her weapons officer said.

"Remind me again what would be needed to bring those components online," Merendez asked, her hands collasped in her lap and eyes closed.

The officer looked back down at his console before saying. "Shields and weapons would need to be taken offline, life support cut to half and all crew removed from the outer sections of the ship. Our speed would remain unaffected," he said. "Plus, all crew would need to report to their phase stations, anyone caught 'outside' those stations might run into 'problems' if we pass through an asteriod or some other solid object,"

"I see," Merendez said and sighed. "In short, we should only use it under exthreme circomstances," she said. Her weapons officer just nodding in agreement. "Very well then, let's get moving. Navigation, find us a way out of his nebula so we can better scan space," she ordered.

The ships engines came to life as she rocketed away from the asteriod belt; occastionally dodging asteriods and other small objects that got in the way. "Anything?" she asked but got the same reply from her sensors officer. "Nothing, still quiet."

As the ship approuched the edge of the nebula, however, the bridge crew began to notice something odd. "Ma'am, I'm not reading space beyond, or at least, not space as we know it. Sensors are being up a gravity well, planet based," sensors said.

"A 'planet'? here? Impossible," Merendez said as the tip of her ship pierced through the edge of the nebula, soon her whole ship was floating near a green world. "Well I'll be damned, an asteriod belt surrounding a planet, with a nebula equally surrounding both.. how the hell is this possible?" she asked.

"Not sure ma'am, but if this information is correct. I'm detecting a station in low orbit and several ships, they don't seem to have noticed us yet but there are several freighters and apperently a patrol headed this way," sensors said as the officer relayed the information to weapons control.

"Weapons, bring Lighter Drive to full power, cloak us," Merendez ordered.

Weapons nodded and the officer began to go through the routine checks. "Bringing Shields offline, tranluscent controls brought online. Turning primary engines offline, bringing stealth engines online," he said.

On the monitor in front of the weapons officer; he watched as a red eletrical field enveloped the ship; cloaking it in the process. On the right monitor he kept his eye on the cloaking fields integrity. "Seventy percent," he said as he watched the number climb every second. "Eighty, Ninty, we are at a hundred percent cloak integrity, weapons fire will not decloak us but if we fall below fifty percent it will," he reminded both the captain and himself.

"That's alright, something tells me we won't be doing much firing right now. How's our sensor resolution?" Merendez asked.

"We are within stealth resolution, if what sensors said is true, they won't be able to detect us," said weapons with a smirk. "In fact, I can probably save us some power by maginally reducing our integrity,"

"No, I want full integrity just in case," Merendez said.

"Yes Ma'am," said weapons.

Outside; the Penitence became something of a ghost. It's outline was nearly invisble to the redish nebula. As the ships stealth engines came online, however, it became completely invisible as it passed by the planet. "That nebula seem's to make us only 'partially' visible when passing near it," the weapons officer said with a grumble. "Thank god we aren't fighting near nebula's often," he added.

"Emissions check?" Merendez asked.

"Our engines are giving out so little emissions that it'll look as if we aren't even 'using' them," the officer said. "Well, provided we hadn't been cloaked of course," he added and then turned to his other monitor. "Sensors, check aft," he said.

"Aft.... aye I see them," the officer said. "Look's like an old model tie interceptor, they apperently haven't noticed us though," she said as she pegged them on the main viewscreen. The flight of six interceptors flew by them on a parralell course toward the low orbiting station.

"Whew... seem's the drive works," weapons said. "Now pay up," she said and grinned toward the communications officer.

"Damn..." communications aid. "I'll pay ya when we get back to base," she said, this time grinning. The weapons officer sighed and shook her head, knowing full well she wouldn't get her credits.

"Pipe down people and pay attention," Merendez said, giving both the weapons and communication's officer an evil eye.

"Captains Log," Merendez started as she sat in her chair and stared out the window. She had a pad in one hand and was typing out her log, "day two of being in this asteriod belt. We've found evidence of a group of pirates operating here, sensors have located a station in low orbit around the planet. I'm awaiting reinforcements before we assault," she said.

"We know that there is most likely a moderate force operating here, so I've requested assault ships to take part in the battle," Merendez sighed and glanced down at her pad, erasing some of what she wrote and rewriting it. She attached a progress report and also a crew report and then closed the log.

Getting up from her chair, she walked over to the clossest and quickly dawned her captains uniform. Once done she left her quarters and headed to the bridge, as she walked she felt a tingling sensation dance across her skin as the ships cloaking device came back online and ghosted the ship.

"I'm telling you, those heat sinks are going to need a major overhaul when we get back to drydock!" a crewmen said to another, but the other just shook his head. "Nah man you're wrong, those sinks can take up to two weeks of built up heat!"

"Nah man, you're wrong, they-" the other said before noticing Merendez. He turned toward her and snapped a crisp salute, which Merendez joined in as she walked by.

After she had made it to the elevator she could hear the two crewmen bickering. With a heavy sigh she turned into the elevator and rode it down to the bridge, the massive circuler room was bathed in a darkish red hue, she could tell that most of her bridge officers hadn't any rest since they had arrived. "Status?" she said as she took a seat.

"Ten more pirate ships have arrived in system, advanced fleet is awaiting just outside the nebula under stealth mode. Shadow corvette's have taken residence just outside the pirate station and a couple more are pinpointing targets for our Long Rangers," the sensor officer said as she pegged several enemy ships on the sensor screen in front of her.

Merendez nodded. "Communications status?"

"Green," communications said.

"Fleet Status?"

"All here ma'am, sixty five ships, including a couple destroyers. However, destroyers will not be able to navigate the asteriod belt without blowing something up, so the fleet commander and holding them back and will be sending in the frigates and cruisers instead," comm. said. As Merendez turned toward him, she could tell he hadn't gotten any rest. His collar was soaked in sweet and he shifted uneasily in his chair.

"Very good, status on phase drive?" She asked.

"running on minimal, it'll take twenty minute's to bring it fully online. Once online, al--" the weapons officer said before Merendez gave him a cutting motion, telling him that she already knew the procedure. "Sorry ma'am, we can use the phase cloak in about thirty or so minutes," he said.

"Alright, helm, drop us behind an asteriod and then decloak us. Bring Phase cloak online, have all crew's report to their appropriate stations," Merendez ordered. Her officers nodded as the bridge was suddenly bathed in a bluish hue, alarms quietly blurred in sections of the ship as the crew raced to their phase cloak compartments.

The ship coasted behind a large asteriod belt; it's engines baffles turned dark as the engines went online. "Phase cloak coming online - estimated time until fully cloaked -" the weapons officer turned toward another screen. "-five minutes!" he shouted.

"Alright," Merendez clasped her hands and looked at the mission cloak.

Outside Nebula, SSF - Rendogen

Floating lazily in space was the SSF Rendogen, a destroyer class command ship bristling with weapon turrets. Strikefighters flew patrol paths around the might ship and it's support craft.

Hanging above the destroyer were ten Long Rangers MK 2, their hyperdrive rings jettisoned from their stations and floating in space some distance behind. As shuttles moved in to recover the rings, loading craft brought catrieges to the mobile MAC guns.

"Eight minutes," an officer said aboard the fire control center of the Rendogen. His officers had all syncronized the MAC guns to fire at once. On the targeting sensors, several ships in orbit around the planet were targeted. While they couldn't physically see the ships, thanks to the Shadow's they didn't need to.

"MAC compacitors are fully charged," another crewmen said from somewhere near the officer.

"Accuracy and trajectory errors fixed, we have two shadows in the nebula providing accurate fire control. They report a five percent chance of one of our rounds striking an asteriod," another crewmen, this one female, said.

The officer in charge gave them a nod as he watched the mission cloak.

Penitence

"Ten seconds," the weapons officer said as he watched the phase cloak online time. When it went green he made a ship wide announcement and activated the phase cloak.

Outside in space, the Penitence became an outline against the asteriod as disappeared from space. However, it wasn't completely invisible. The ship was merely made into an outline, in short, it could still be seen with the naked eye.

"Bring compartment shielding online, make sure 'no one' are wondering the corridors," Merendez said. After a minute the officer gave her a thumbs up, just as she was about to give the order her sensors officer looked up from his station.

"Two - three enemy fighters inbound," he reported as he watched the sensors screen.

"Helm, move us into the asteroid," Merendez ordered. The helmsmen nodded and brought the ships stealth drives online.

The ship slowly moved 'into' the asteriod. It's outline disappearing as the entire ship was bathed in the asteriod. The bridge crew were on-edge, while the technology was successful in non-combat situations, this was the first time the phase cloak was used in a combat enviroment.

"Enemy ships passing," the sensor officer said. Micro-camera's deployed by the phase cloak's AI watched as the three fighters wisped by their location and back toward the planet.

The crew gave a sigh of relief as the helmsman backed them out from behind the asteriod, he looked down at the integrity indicator. "90%" he warned and looked at Merendez. "Every five seconds we stay phased inside a large mass we'll lose at least a percent of our integrity," he said.

"Noted," Merendez said as she watched the fighters as they disappeared back into the nebula. "Time?"

"Two minutes before mission start," weapons said.

"How long can we stayed safely phased?" asked Merendez as she turned toward her weapons officer.

"Safely? Five minutes max, if we go over that we'll be pushing it," weapons said.

"Meaning once the battle starts we'll have three minutes of availible phase cloak left, we'll use it to get by their battle lines and behind them. Make sure to shunt availible power to forward shields and prepare straffer cannons," she said, her officers nodded.

With that she clasped her hands and watched the mission clock.

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

The SSF-Constitution shuddered when its MAC gun opened up; hurling a slug through space at supersonic speeds. Along with several others slugs they punched into the nebula that shrouded the asteroid belt and planet that was located at the core.

Asteroids splintered as the concussive force of the slugs rippled through space; pieces slamming into other asteroids and causing them to also rip apart.

On the edge of the nebula near the planet, the SSF - Rendogen held steady as one, then four MAC runs flew past the ship and slammed into the bridge sections of four pirate destroyers. The destroyer listed hard to port before their running lights died out.

Behind the destroyers their escorts began to move toward the nebula, but were then cut down by more MAC rounds, but this time from behind. Piercing deep into their engine cores, their reactors chain reacted and causing several of the cruisers to blossom in a brilliant pyrotechnic display. Corvettes shuddered and were torn apart by the Mac rounds that either hit them, or flew close.

Aboard the Rendogen, Merendez nodded in amazement. "I guess the Shadow's are living up to their name-sake and their roles," she said as she glanced down at the sensor scans being transmitted to her ship, then being transmitted to the mobile MAC platforms. Originally only six had arrived in system, but now there were fifteen, having arrived just minutes before the first opening salvo.

When the raining of fire was done, half the pirate fleet lay in ruin, either completely destroyed, or their ships disabled. "Several carriers, a splattering of destroyers and corvette's remain," one of her officers said.

"Our fleet is hiding out in the nebula waiting for orders," another officer said.

Merendez nodded, clasping her hands over her chest. She let out a slow sigh then closed her eyes. "Drive status?" she asked.

"Two minutes left before crew exposure," her weapons officer said, looking at the time clock that was on his displays.

Behind the ship, several objects, well over a hundred, shimmered against the nebula's harsh gases. "Open a channel to the fleet," she said. Communications nodded and opened a secure channel.

"This is Admiral Merendez to all ships, you know the plan. Disable enemy vessels for salvage and capture," she said, her hands still clasped and her eyes still closed. She waited a full ten seconds before she slowly opened her eyes, "move out!" she shouted as her ship shot forward.

Turbo laser fire suddenly clouded the space between the Rendogen as it flew toward the enemy flight; the lasers completely passing through the phased field of the ship.

"Phase field is stable, but we are quickly losing integrity," weapons said as he watched the time clock going down by point five seconds with each turbo laser fire that went through the phased field. "One minute fifty five seconds," he said.

The frigate class ship flew through the pirate lines, the pirate’s apparently forgetting that their fire was going 'through' the ship and thus causing them to hit their own ships.

"Make ready to disengage the phase cloak, bring weapons to bear on target vessel," Merendez said.

"Targeting scanners have found a command ship, apparently corvette class," sensors officer said as she transferred the targeting data to the weapons officer, who in turn sent it down to the fire control center.

Despite the battle raging outside, and the occasional shudder from the ships own engines, everyone was calm. "Prepare to disengage phased cloak in...." Merendez said as she raised her hand.

Suddenly her ship decelerated as it flew behind the corvette. "Now!"

The transparency of her ship suddenly vanished; replaced by a frigate that was painted matte-black with white dots across its hull. Gun ports opened up and turbo laser batteries came to bare on the target, both erupted with angry fire as the corvette began to make its turn.

Shields flared at the corvette attempted to make a run for it; shields went from a dull blue light to a hot orange color before popping, the hull being pock marked by laser fire.

Suddenly the ship shuddered as its reactor core took a direct hit from the Rendogens two main projectile turrets which had opened a hole in the side of the ship, exposing not only the core, but also the engineering section to open space.

Fire erupted as the corvette belched; then ignited into a fabulous blossum of orange and white. As quickly as the Rendogen had targeted the ship, it's turrets went about targetting another ship. Space was suddenly swarmed with Serendivus Reten fighter craft, targetting indivisual ship systems.

"That's one ship we couldn't afford to keep in one piece," one of Merendez's bridge officers said. Checking scanners he pegged several life pods that had managed to launch.

As quickly are the fighters came, soon frigates and corvettes also attached to the assault force appeared and began exchanging fire with the remaining pirates.

Fire erupted from the Rendogens port side as it's shields flared from sustained fire. "Stabilize! Reroute power to shield grid!" Merendez shouted as her navigational officer moved the ship out of the line of fire and toward the safety of the fleet.

The bridge was bathed in a red hue as klaxons blared. "Status?" Merendez shouted over the alarms.

"Port engine is down, cloaking drive is offline. We have fires reported on decks two and three, life support on deck three, section four is down and artificial gravity is down on deck five," her communications officer said. "We have casualties, four dead, two MIA."

Merendez grumbled. "That's what I get for having a ship made with the new prototype, but lacking in armor and shields," she sighed and turned toward the battle display. "Oh well, at least the battle is going in our favor."

Her ship hung lazily in space near a repair cruiser that had been put on standby. In front the cruiser were several corvettes along with a frigate that was smaller than the norm, this frigate bristled with turbo laser turrets that were aimed in every which direction. Arms extended from the cruiser and two tractor beams engaged to bring the damaged Rendogen close to it.

On her bridge, all Merendez could think about was that this was just the first phased. "We still have to check the planet for pirate bases, and then eradicate them so they won't become a threat to the trading traffic in this area," she said.

Day +5

Five days had passed since the initial assault on the pirates holdings in this system, now the Seren's had set up a blockade around the planet in question. While they didn't have to many ships, what they lacked in numbers they made up for in prevision firepower and stealth, most ships were either cloaked or had themselves attached to asteroids, utilizing their cloaking drives to actually mimic the asteroid.

Several pirate convoys had been successfully captured this way, their crews interrogated, and the ships placed on hold to be used in the final assault - which was only a few hours away.

On the bridge of the SSF-Penitence, Merendez's eyes cautiously watched the clock that was present on the lower right of her tactical display. Each minute that passed brought them one step closer to their assault beginning.

Down in the barracks, marines were getting themselves ready for what was to be a long and groeling battle. Support vehicles, including the Seren's idea of a Command Vehicle, were loaded onto the captured pirate transports which would be used to get by the pirate's small, yet formidable, anti-air defenses. Once on the ground the marines would assault and take out the central power stations that powered the defenses, which would allow Merendez and her fleet to bring their ships into the atmosphere and commit to a low strike orbital insertion and bombardment of key structures.

"Though not everything will go as planned," Merendez had told her officers during the briefing. "There's bound to be a hitch, a snag, somewhere along the line. So keep your men cool and make sure to adapt to any changes,"

Now that she thought about it; she wondered if she should've told them more about the plan. How this planet was so strategically located and isolated, that it would also prove to be the new home for their headquarters. The asteroid belt that surrounded the planet, the nebula that also accompanied the belt, and the lack of light from the nearest sun, meant that the planet and it's asteroid belt company would remain hidden for many years to come. Even if discovered, it would take an opposing force many days, perhaps weeks, to discover a way through the belt - and unlike the pirates, the Seren's wouldn't just let an opposing force into their territory unmatched.

"The minelayers are done ma'am," her tactical officer said as he turned in his chair. "They report eighty percent of the belt has been mined, leaving only a small gap for support ships to go through," the officer added before going back to his work.

Even though they hadn't won the ground battle; they still had to protect their ships in orbit in the event of TNO incursion. A sudden whine from the ships alarm system told her that it was time; she looked over at her communications officer and nodded.

"Commence Operation: Trojan," the officer spoke over the encrypted comm-line. On the view screen, various pirate transports appeared from the carriers and cruiser that hung in orbit, each one emitted a false ID that had, so far, convinced the pirates on the ground that their fleet was still in orbit.

That, and during the past few days, the pirate transports that 'had' been going to surface were piloted and crewed by Seren operatives which had done their job in accessing and transmitting vital information that allowed the operation to commence.

As she watched the transports; Merendez couldn't help but wonder just how many would die in the first hour alone.

Captured Pirate Transport 'Ulize'

The transport bounced as it descended through the atmosphere of the planet; licks of fire danced across the transports hull and high orbital winds kept on threatening to throw the transport off its course.

In the copilot, pilot Zarus fought the winds and kept his ship on course. "Stupid bucket of shitty ass bolts," he cursed as he fought for every ounce of maneuverability, his copilot and navigator glanced in his direction for a few seconds before going back to their own stations.

"Hull temperature reaching high levels," the co-pilot said as he tapped in a few commands. "We should be out of his hell hole in a few seconds," he moaned and let out a sigh of relief when the cockpit windows changed from an orange glow to a soft blue, mimicking the planets upper atmosphere.

"Well, intel boys were right.." a marine sergeant said from behind the pilots seat. "Looks like this planet is constantly covered in clouds, wonder if that's natural or because of something the pirates are doing..." he mused over his thoughts before turning to his marines. "Get ready marines, we insert in five!" he shouted.

The transport danced across the sky; through the mountains and down into a canyon. The walls began to close in on the transport before a section of the wall downwind suddenly disappeared, revealing a hanger bay inside. "Well, the pirates seem to have access to some of our holographic technology..." the sergeant mumbled and looked at the sensor readings. The transport eased carefully into the nearly empty bay, the only sign of life being a man who directed them to a landing spot nearest the cargo doors.

As the engines settled down and soon went off; the pilot and copilot disembarked and met up with the one who directed them. Some small talk was done and the man promptly left the bay to retrieve some unloading equipment, that was the cue for the marines to hide out in the packing crates. Each crate had a different destination, but they were technically headed for the same places - the defense grids power source.

Cranes and forklifts rumbled into the bay and began to unload the heavy crates; while each one had a squad only three marines, they were still packed with fake reactor coils to help keep up the façade. Once the cargo unloader’s left the bay with their cargo full of marines, the pilot and his co-pilot entered the transport and let out a collective sigh of relief.

"The next phase of the mission should start in a matter of hours," the pilot said as ran a systems check.

"The pirates located their power stations basically in one location, but separated each one so that you could only get to them via a magrail... but that becomes a mote point when you have marines in each section," the copilot smiled. Taking one last glanced out the cockpit window he wished the marines luck.

Day +9, 0500

Marine Sergeant Monerty held his breath as he felt their crate suddenly hit the ground; he knew the two hour drive on a magrail had been rough on his two fellow marines, one of which was in dire needs of a bathroom thanks to something he had ate. "Ferget it marine, there is no bathroom break during this mission - unless yer willing to take a piss on these fake coils here but if that’s the case do it when I ain't looking ok?" he said.

He didn't know if the marine had actually done anything; only that the marine now seemed a lot more comfortable so either he had gone or had found a way to really ignore the urge - either way when the transport dropped their crate it was wakeup call which caused them to bring their weapons up.

They heard several men outside the crate; some of which seemed older, while one voice was almost child-like. When the sergeant peeked through the hole, he cursed mentally at how someone could bring their child here. However, he had his orders and while he hated it, they couldn't let themselves be discovered. He raised four fingers, then made a motion with his hand that told them to switch to stun rounds for that part of the missions - his fellow marines didn't question his orders and made the proper adjustments.

When the side of the crate was opened; six muffled coughs could only barely be heard from within the crate, outside laid six unconscious bodies. The sergeant grumbled as he walked over to the young child who he had sparred from a lethal round. "One of the few times I actually violate the orders given to me, but I can't stand killing children.."

"Serge, Merendez did say no unnecessary killing and I bet she would agree on this action," one of his young marine said.

The sergeant merely nodded and took his team through a series of double doors and down several hallways, all the while eliminating threats as they went along. They had reverted back to normal rounds, only switching to stun rounds when they encountered non-combatants.

When they got to the reactor room they were amazed to find the place almost devoid of life; with only two technicians looking over the power levels. The marines switched back to stunners and quickly removed the unconscious forms of the technicians.

"Pretty simple design," the specialist of the group said as he ran through the controls real quick. Then smiled when he noticed a sudden drop in three of the other reactors that were in the same complex as the one he now stood before.

The marine looked over the controls one last time before reducing the defense grids power. He didn't need someone to tell him the results, for the alarm that suddenly sounded through the complex for several seconds told him instantly - that and the audio cue also gave it away.

"~WARNING: DEFENSE GRID IS OFFLINE!~" blared over the speakers.

With a smile, the sergeant turned around and clicked his radio four times.

Orbit

Merendez had been watching and listening in on the tactical line when she got the report she was waiting for.

"Reactor complex is offline ma'am," communications said. "Their defense grid is powered down; our operatives are reporting that at least eighty percent of the grid actually offline, the remainder is located on the other side of the planet,"

"Very good, inform the fleet to commence the third phase of our operations," Merendez said and lowered her head slightly. "This plan is going by to easily...." he murmured.

As her ship, along with her escort of cruisers and destroyers, descended the atmosphere - her cause for worry was founded when her ship suddenly listed hard to starboard, decompression alarms blared on the bridge. "Report!" she shouted.

"Deck ten breached, we're venting atmosphere!" her communications officer shouted, competing against the bridge various warning alarms.

"Stabalize!" Merendez shouted and was rewarded when the ship stopped falling and corrected itself. "What the hell hit us?!" she demanded.

"Running sensor check now, according to the data scanners, something decloaked off our starboard and then exploded. My guess is a low atmospheric mine that was equipped with a cloaking device," her tactical officer said and glanced at another screen. "Three of our ships were hit as well, but they suffer as serious damage, their shields mostly took the brunt," he added.

"Sneaky bastards.... wonder why our operatives didn't report those.." she scowled.

"Probably didn't know about those," tactical said.

Her ship stil listed to starboard though, having lost one of its engines in the explosion. "Ma'am, while we can still fire, the ship is slowly descending even though I've inputted a stand order for the other drives.. I recommend we head back into orbit and assess the damage further," her tactical officer recommended.

"Very well," Merendez growled as her helmsmen brought the ship back into high orbit, once their her engineers began to check the ship over. Meanwhile she listened as her ships began the next phase.

SSF-Ronald

"Fire!" The captain shouted. Four super heated rounds of metal spewed forth from his frigates MAC guns, hurled through the air, and smashed into the walls that had just been protecting the pirates hide out. The walls exploded both in and outward, spewing forth molten metal and anyone who had been beyond it.

Marine drop ships waited behind the frigate, waiting for the cue to enter. Even though a hole had been blasted, it was still too hot for the humans on board the transports to enter - that and the frigate had once again fired.

The four new rounds punched deep into the base and bisected a ship that had been moored in a hidden bay; the results were plain to see as fire erupted through the holes made by the titanium MAC rounds.

As the fire died down and the white hot walls began to cool, the drop ships were given permission to begin with part of the operation. They quickly entered the hole and disembarked their marine passengers, once done the drop ships moved away, despite them being armed; the frigates own short range weaponry was more than enough to repel any attacks on the landing zone.

"Now, we wait..." the captain of the frigate said. "I wonder how many days it'll take before we have this planet?"

"Well, if our operatives are correct sir - perhaps two days, since the pirates had decided to locate themselves in a central spot..." his XO said. The captain merely nodded.

Day +11

Merendez stared over the large expanse of ocean that covered only ten percent of the planet that they now called 'Junius'

It had just been a few hours since her forces had successfully liberated the planet from it's pirates occupiers. She now wondered how to get things going, the reactor complex was intact and the local civilian population had already joined them after their families were freed.

"To enslave that many people, the pirates must have some very good backing," Merendez told herself and thought about it. As she did a shadow crossed over her, causing her to look up, she saw her flagship hovering lazingly in the atmosphere.

From the ground she could make out some of the battle damage, including a five foot hole on her starboard where the mine had blasted the ship open. She could see small flickers of light from inside the hole, her workers were working to seal up some of the exposed compartments that had malfunctioning doors.

The distant rumble caught Merendez's attention as she turned and spotted two Sparrow fighters moving off into the atmosphere, she could barely make out the Sparrow's carriers in orbit.

With a final glance she turned and strolled back over to her awaiting shuttle; two marines standing on either side of the loading ramp. She passed them and they followed her into the shuttle, it's engines whined and soon they were headed back to the ship.

She glanced outside the window of the shuttle and saw several of her construction ships are they headed to several of the planets slave towns, or rather, freed slave towns. The ships were ferrying food and medical supplies and everything else needed to make the towns into a thrieving community, that coupled with her recent orders to get their headquarters here, would open up jobs for those people and lead to better lives.

"That's one pirate controlled planet cleansed," Merendez said as she closed her laptop and glanced toward her marines. "Several more to go," with that she leaned back in her chair and fell asleep.