Merendez made a gesture as she approuched her shuttle. Both of her bodyguards ran over to the ramp and stood guard. "Please place that in the back." she said and turned to Rob. "I can't thank you enough for the gift, but I know I'll try and find a way. Once onboard I'm send you a message to have your captain follow me." she said and boarded her shuttle.

The Rob Stellar android made a smile and nodded slowly towards Merendez. "No thanks is really necessary I assure you. I'm only glad that we could strike up a deal together that has benefit for both of us. I shall have my Captain follow you as soon as your directions are sent. Have a safe trip Grand Admiral."

Rob stood and watched as Merendez boarded her shuttle once the two carriers emerged from the craft without the painting in hand.

Merendez walked into the cockpit. "Ok lets get going." she said and the pilot nodded and slowly brought the shuttle out of the hanger. "How long?"

"Four minutes ma'am." The pilot said and guided the shuttle toward there ship. Merendez sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"You ok?" One of her guards asked.

Merendez nodded. "I'll be fine, just glad to find someone who had a reasonable price tag for the defense system."

"You sure it's ok though?" Another guard asked. "I mean we just meet them, you are risking a lot in giving them that type of access."

"True, but it's also true that we don't have experience with ground based weapon systems. Our experience revolves around covert operations and other more 'unique' areas." she said and closed her eyes.

Rob entered the bridge just in time to see the shuttle slowly accelerate away from the Cruiser. As it closed on its carrier ship, Rob instructed the Captain that he will be following their new friends to a base of theirs. With that done, the Cruiser prepared for hyperspace.

On board the carrier Merendez was getting nervous about something. "This place is far to quiet." she said as she walked onto the bridge.

"Captain on-" The second in command was about to say before the captain cut him off. "Stow it! Scan the area!" she ordered.

her crew looked at each other. "DO IT!" Merendez ordered and her crew jumped to the taste.

"Scaning Sector 1..... clear.."
"Scaning Sector 2..... clear.."
"Scaning Sector 3..... claer.."
"Scaning sector 4.......... hold on... got something." The sensors officer said. "I'm picking up... something..." she stared at the blip on the screen as it was very faint.

"What could it be?" Merendez wondered before something slammed into their shields; red lights bathed the bridge as emergency alerms suddenly sounded. "Activate Point Defense!" Merendez ordered as her ship listed hard to port from the torpedo hit.

On the starboard side flak turrets suddenly came online and shot down more missiles. "I'm picking up what appears to be four pirate bombers, they are just outside our turbo laser range, we can't engage them or destroy them!" The sensor officer shouted over the many blazing alarms. "Four torpedo's inbound!" she yelled again.

"Flak turrets have them." Merendez said before another group of bombers appeared above and to the right. "We have a second group of pirate bombrs; shit, they are in the flaks blind spot!" The gunnery officer yelled. "Errrrr.... I should NOT have called away our escorts... damn it..." she snarled.

The alarms called out just as Rob set foot on the Cruiser's bridge.

"Sir! Four bomber class ships just appeared from hyperspace! We have torpedoes inbound. Trajectory calculation puts them all on a course to the other vessel." Called out the sensor operators as he leaning in closer.

The android moved forward and watched as torpedoes start to closed in on the other ship and suddenly get picked off by bursts of flak. "Captain, that vessel must be protected at all costs. Understood?"

"Completely sir!" Replied the man in charge and started to call out orders.

The Stellar Class ship lurched forwards as the massive engines ignited once more and pushed it towards the much smaller vessel that floated up ahead. They had detected the other group of bombers early and as those new torpedoes raced towards their target, they were intercepted by precise fire from the larger Cruiser's laser cannon. The repeater lasers spun up quickly and almost a solid line of laser fire stretched out towards the small torps as that flew though space. People looking on could see the stream of bolt move slowly and suddenly stop when a large explosion blossomed out, indicating a direct hit.

Two squadrons of Hellhound fighters tore out of the large hanger bay almost as soon as the large ship started moving. Being pilotless droids, the fighters didn't time to get prepared for combat. They were always kept at the ready and could fight on their own as they awaited for pilots on board the mothership to get to their piloting stations. This was happening at that very moment. As they fighters formed up and flew towards the bombers, actually pilots were running into the control rooms on the Stellar Class Star Cruiser and getting linked to the fighters through a mind control interphase. By the time the fighters reached weapons range one in three where being controlled by living pilots from inside the Stellar ship.

"Merendez, this is Rob Stellar. We have your back. You may proceed with the jump. We shall follow you momentarily." Rob said through the comm as a single torpedo impacted the vessel's shields and he watched them change into a hue of blue before returning to invisible once more.

Merendez slapped the captain on the shoulder and took her seat. "Get to it captain!" She shouted and the captain nodded and turned to his navigaor. "Prepare to jump!" he called out.

"No can do! We have an interdictor in the field! it's dead ahead." The navigator shouted.

The captain looked at his gunnery officer who turned back in her chair. "Loading torpedo tubes one through ten, torpedo's armed and ready to fire. ETA is one minute."

"Sir, more pirate bombers in front; looks like they don't want us to take out their precious interdictor." The sensor officer said. She changed the tactical view to show where the bombers where. "Hmm... they are at a completely different location."

"If we had been going back to HQ, they'd be right on us." The navigator called out. Alerms continued to blaze as more torpedo's impacted the shields; the shields turned a shade of orange, then changed to a shade of blue. "Captain, our shields are taking a punch!" The gunnery officer called out. "Request more power to the flak arrays!"

"Reroute power from artificial control to the flak turrets." The captain ordered. A few seconds passed and the incoming torps where being intercepted at a higher rate than before, "that's done it." the gunnery officer said

Outside the small ship flew through space and toward the interdictor, it was a game of chicken; would the interdictor continue toward them, or would it move away. In this case the ship continue toward them, it's engines ablaze. "ETA ten seconds!" The navigator called.

"Prepare for broadside!" The captain yelled. "Disarming Torpedo tubes one through ten, arming tubes twenty one to thirty." The gunnery officer shouted and gave him a thumbs up.

The ship continued toward the interdictor before it suddenly engaged it's starboard thruster packs, the ship slid to the right. "FIRE!" the captain shouted as the ten torpedo tubes suddenly belched ten torpedos from hell; the torpedo's flew through space for just a few seconds before slamming against the interdictors shields; the shields flared for a split second before they failed. Another round of torpedo's slammed into the hull of pirate interdictor, shattering the gravity generators and causing the ship to buckle.

The Serendivus ship's primary engines glowed to life and the sped away just as the interdictor blossumed; debris flying in various directions. "Jump now!" The captain shouted as his ship jumped.

The Rob android stood on the bridge with the Captain and watched as the fighter squadrons from his ship closed on the various bomber formations. Both of these groups, hostile and friendly, meshed together and started the dance of combat. The bombers never stood a chance, however. The Hellhound fighters were much faster and much more maneuverable, plus the people piloting them were highly trained aviators.

One by one the enemy formations winked out from exists as the last of their torpedoes were intercepted by the Star Cruiser's extensive network of defensive laser cannons. This was not even really a fight, thought the Captain as he watched the displays. He didn't understand why a force this small would try to take on a ship the size of a Star Destroyer. There had to be more because even though most pirates were stupid, they were not this ignorant or ready to die.

"Sir, the grav well is down!" Called one of the operators as she watched the warheads from the other friendly vessel impact the other cruiser.

"Prepare for jump. Recall all fighters."

"Sir? We can take them." Said the young XO, who was filled with excitement at going up against odds this good.

"We can, but they have more comming. They would not take us on with that little firepower. This was just a way to hold us here long enough."

They stood during the long moments as the fighter squadrons started to redock. The Interdictor was hanging back, but not leaving, which told the Captain he had been right after all. Just as the last group of fighters entered the cavernous hanger bay of the Star Cruiser, alarms went off once more. On the screen new contacts appeared out of hyperspace in the form of a Victory Class Star Destroyer and various gunships. The Star Cruiser could probably take them on and win, but the Serendivus ship had already left.

"Perhaps some other time." The Captain whispered mostly himself, but the thought was directed at the newly arrived enemy ships.

With that final thought, the large Cruiser slipped into hyperspace.

Merendez settled into her seat, letting out a sigh of relief in the process. "That was close." she said and stared at the various displays.

The captain looked at her and then at his crew. "What's our ETA?"

"We don't have one, one of those torpedo's damaged the hyper-drive, it's showing signs of overloading. We'll have to stop at one of our trading outposts first before contiueing on." Said the Navigation officer as she listened in on the concerns from engineering. "It also seems that engineering had a fire; we have one fatality."

"Damn it.." The captain slammed his fist on his chair and turned toward communications. "Inform the Steller Enterprise vessel that we'll be making a slit detour." he said to communications who nodded.

Meanwhile the captain sighed and got up from his chair and walked toward the displays. "How baddly damaged is the hyper-drive?"

"Not to bad, we could very well repair it once we come out; but I prefer to have the techs do it." The navigation officer said with a hint of concern in her voice. "Besides, I don't really trust those idiots in engineering anyway the last time I asked them to fix something they ended up burning up both engines." she said and glared the wall.

Merendez shook her head and got up and walked around and toward the door. "I'll be in my quarters." she said and walked off the bridge. She had her way into the elevator that lead to the officer's quarters, there she went into her quarters and sat down on her bed. She ran her hand through her hair and looked at the wall. "I never announced I was on board this ship today." she said and rubbed her chin. "Someone is leaking information and I don't like that." The idea that one of her crew was a traitor made her angry, but also a bit nervous. "Whoever it was must be apart of the bridge staff and odd's are the pirates already know we are headed to a trading post for repairs." she said and got up and walked toward a communications screen.

Since it was her vessel she knew everything about it, including how to bypass the security systems and send a coded message that wouldn't be picekd up by communications. It was a brief message, simply stating that once they got to the trading outpost that they should keep their eye's open and there weapons hot.

With that done she resigned herself to her bed; it would be two hours before they arrived so she decided to try and get some rest.

Merendez wasn't sure how much time had passed only that she was woken up from the ship coming out of hyper-space. She stretched her arms and walked over to the dresser that had her flight suit on it.

After getting dressed she made her way to the bridge. "Status?" Merendez asked upon walking onto the bridge. The captain turned his head toward her and then back to the front. "We'll be docking in a few minutes." he said

"Good, status on the Steller ship?" She asked. "They'll be arriving any moment now." The captain said