Corise cocked his head as the Major continued his briefing. It's a long ways away from Confederation space, at least for the most part. Which means several things, none of which are too good for us...except that they won't be expecting any Confederation presence...but they might suspect the Coalition of interfering. This lends a few advantages to the plan. The Rear-Admiral observed the briefing intently, noting Awdin's interest in the Sith and Jedi sites. The temples mean little; at least from a military aspect. Especially since the Sith and Jedi have existed for millenia, there are more than a few of those sites around. Heck, we have a former Sith fortress and Jedi academy at Almas. No, these things mean little unless there are force-users involved. Unlikely, but possible...

“First of all thank you for the briefing on the situation, but could you possibly go into detail a little more about what we will be doing there. Things like what species we’ll be working with, the current situation, what resources we’ll have, and how we’ll get in. Also who is the officer attempting to take Krant.”

The Rear-Admiral waved a hand aside at the questions, turning to face Adwin.

"The current situation and background would be appropiate to ask. In covert operations, like this one, it is pretty standard to never know more than you need to. It's a security precaution, and a good one at that. Major, if you could explicate what you would have of Adwin and myself."

Vaseli watched on as the heavy turbolaser batteries that dotted the starboard side of his magnificent vessel slowly rotated into position. Within seconds of comming to a rest, these same emplacements let loose a barrage of heavy fire towards an enemy still unseen visually. Other batteries of the same caliber responded in the same matter from other ships in formation, lancing out at targets they were never built to fight again.

While these weapons were never used against fighters and bombers up close, Vaseli saw no reason why they couldn't be employed at fighters still far away. The weapons fire would distract and unnerve the pilots of those fighters, making them constantly wiery of incoming death.

The heavy turbolaser fire did not do much damage, destroying only a few fighter craft, they had the intended effect. As Line Captain Zokolev turned towards his holo display he was pleased to note that the once spread out formation of fighters and bombers and quickly becoming tighter and tighter. The heavy turbolaser fire had been targeted at the edges of the formation and in attempt to avoid this the enemy group had slowly drifted closer and closer together, creating a tight pack.

So it happened, that when the fighters and bombers reached the Imperial formations turbolaser and ion cannon ranges, they were too tightly together for many evasive maneuvers. As the hundreds of turbolaser and ion cannons let loose, they targeted all along the very center of this formation. Not all hit their marks, of course, but there were so many craft in such a small space that inevitably some did parish. Others were hit with ion cannon bolts and stopped in their tracks, floating in this direction or that.

They had kept on coming, however, and Vaseli had to give them credit for that. No sooner had they passed through this hail of fire, though, they were greeted with exploding warheads that had been launched. This spread of heavy ordinance had been triggered by command and detonated as the fighters and bomber passed through them. Large holes opened up in the Krantian formation and to escape the slaughter the pilots spread out further and further, in turn making coordinated attacks almost impossible.

As they closed into attack range, what remained for the fighters and bombers, were meet by heavy laser fire from the gunships and frigates stationed throughout Vaseli's formation. One after the other the enemy craft vanished from the sensor screens. Most ships simply targeted this vessel or that and launched their ordinance, there was no cohesion and these attacks were fruitness. The incoming missiles and torpedoes were either destroyed with anti missile batteries, or impacted shields which were at full strength.

Only group out of the whole formation had held fast even after loosing over one third of this strength. This group of fighers and b-wing bombers attacked a Druid Class frigate on the starboard edge of the Imperial formation. Vaseli watched at the Krantian ships merged with the Druid Class in long seconds, before finally coming out the other side.

"Sir! The Gallant is reporting starboard shield failure and some hull damage from the attack. They are sealing off damaged areas as we speak."

Vaseli nodded, he knew his crews were well trained. When he accessed the sensor data, he found a whole different story, however. The Gallant had in fact taken more damage than its captain wanted to admit. Data showed a large portion of the starboard bow missing completely. That attacking craft had gotten lucky and some of their ordinance had detonated one of the starboard warhead storage areas, causing a massive explosion. It was only by the hand of luck that the resulting blast did not set off the other nearby storage sites.

As he once again focused on the battle, he could see his orders were getting carried out. Once the fighters and bombers had emerged from the starboard side they were hammered with laser fire from the ships on the port. With their backs to the Imperial formation, many pilots died without even seeing their attacker.

"Launch the fighters." Vaseli order softly and calmly as he looked out from the viewport.

TIE fighters from all ships dropped from their racks and took off into the fight. They now had easy targets and greatly out numbered the enemy. It would be a massacre for the Krant defense forces.

He had no time to think about these things, however, time was coming once again to impliment his plan and ordered his vessels to once again increase speed. They would go head long into the Krant defense formation.

What seemed like hours was actually minutes, as the too fleets closed on one another. The Glory's shields shimmer as heavy turbolasers from the Republic Star Destroyer found their mark. They were threatening, but there were too few of them to pierce the heavy shielding of the Astrus Class. These forward shields had been reinforced and would hold out for now.

As the two fleet closed, Vaseli wondered about the other command officer. Who he was. What he was thinking at the moment. Could he possible hope to win? Vaseli did not want to needlessly end the lives of these people. He understood inside that they were fighting for their homes and their planet. He respected them and hoped that after his plan was over they could stand down adn save themselves.

These thoughts came to an end as the ships came into turbolaser range. The whole ship vibrated both from incoming and outgoing fire. Heavy weapons pulsed and shot bolts of death into the distance. The enemy was not going to give up and Vaseli knew what he had to do.

"STLs target that Republic class. I want fire concentracted on the foward shield projectors." Vaseli ordered.

He also made the weapon's officer coordinate with the 2 Eternal Class Star Destroyers at his disposible. This would be the first time in this battle that the STLs would be used and they had to count. Vaseli looked up and could see the large Krant Star Destroyer as it hung in space, in the middle of the enemy formation. It was their flagship, their sign of power, and their hope. With it gone, perhaps they would loose the will the carry on the fight.

When the order to fire was given, Vaseli could almost reach out and touch the other ship, they were so close. The massive STL batteries fired, one barrel at the time into the Republic Class. It took two of their massive bolts to buckle and weaken the forward shields. The third pierced through this protective layer and impacted the hull near the area of one of the foward shield projectors.

Being an older vessel, the Imperial Navy had encountered the Republic class ships in battle and had much technical knowledge of them. Technical knowledge that allowed them to know exactly were shield projectors were located. Without these projectors a ship could not establish a defense shield and would be easy prey.

This all happened as the STL blasts impacted around the foward areas of the Republic. They burned through the heavy armor and destroyed everythign in their path, most importantly the shield projectors. With them missing the whole sections of the forward shield collapsed.

Within seconds of this accomplishment over two hundred warheads fired from the Eternal class destroyers. These weapons quickly closed the short distance and slammed into the Republic class ship. Some never made it through, but most did and the whole foward area of the Destroyer errupted into flames. When the fire cleared Vaseli could see that the whole forward sections of the massive ship was missing. It was replaced by raw, blackened and melted superstructure.

With its foward shields completely taken away, the ship was an easy target. It detonated from the inside out under the combined punishment of the Imperial fleet. What had been a great ship was now five large chucks of durasteel floating through space. As some fires still raged in these sections, Vaseli's formation picked up speed and pushed its way through the surprised Krant defense force.

They had almost emerge out of the other side when an explosion bloomed out on the starboard side. The same Druid Class Vessel that had taken hits early had been attacked from one of the Bothan Assault Cruisers. It had been broken in half when its shields failed under heavy bombardment. The Gallant was the first Imperial ship to be destoryed in this conflict and Vaseli deeply hoped it would be the last.

It was another few long moments before the whole fleet had broken through the Krant Defense Line and came out the other side.

"Excecute Phase Three." Vaseli order immediately and watched the displays before him as the whole formation slowly turned back towards the enemy.

As the two formation came around to face each other once again, only from opposite positions, it quickly became appearent that the Imperial formation had thinned out. Nine ships had infact detached and were racing towards the orbiting asteroid of Hanoon.

These ships, lead by two Curiassier class Cruisers closed on the rotating terraformed asteroid. It was the whole forcus of this plan. Hanoon had been terriformed many years ago and was now rich with live, being home to thousands of people.

While these ships started to take up positions over the two largest cities, the remaining ships of Vaseli's fleet held their stations and would try to hold the Krant ships off. Once in position the Curiassiers started to target whatever military installations existed on the asteroid. Only smaller emplacements such as laser cannons and turbolasers (not planetary turbolasers) presented themselves and were quickly bombered from space as a show of force.

Krant was not a rich planet, meaning that it could not spend lots of money shielding and defending a place like Hanoon. Without shields or heavy weapons it was defenseless against a large attack force. All this made it was a very attractive target, one that could be used as a bargining chip.
While both sides continued to exchange fire, Vaseli lifted up his comlink and spoke into it.

"This is Line Captain Vaseli Zokolev of The New Order Navy. I have vessels over the two largests cities on Hanoon, ready to fire on my command. I am sure that you have no wish to see thousands of your people die needlessly. To the leadership of Krant, order your forces to stand down and accept the rule of The New Order. You have no hope of defeating us in battle and you have already lost your command officer. I do not wish for more to die needless, but do not force my hand. You have ten minutes to respond before I give the order to ellimate your cities one by one." Vaseli set the commlink back down and truely hopping the leadership would see his way clearly.

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Briefing Room 1-Beta[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Pegasus Star Destroyer Audacieuse[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Kashan Planetary Orbit[/font]

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Clearing his throat a little, the major continued, perhaps just a little shaken as he did so. "To answer the easiest of those questions first... The Imperial commander for this situation is yet unknown, but we believe that he has connections with their Special Forces branch in some way. The situation we face is simple: the Empire is trying to take the planet, and we've been asked to turn it into a quagmire for them. Nothing more than that; the officer who assigned me to this mission said nothing of getting Krant into the Coalition...[/font]

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]"...which I found strange, truth be told." He was pretty sure the others found it strange, too, and he could bet that they were pondering ways of getting Coalition agents in control of the planet anyway. He most certainly was.[/font]

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]"Ground forces will be deployed via stealth shuttle to the planet's surface. We've been allotted, at most, one platoon of experienced individuals from the various parts of the Coalition to train the locals in guerrilla and unconventional warfare tactics. None of these soldiers will be carrying anything on them that links them to the Coalition; the Empire can suspect all it wants, but hopefully they'll never fnd any proof.[/font]

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]"Finally, the locals. There are two humanoid groups on Krant that are of major focus. One of them is the typical human; the other is the Krantian native, which is often seen as an alien species in some circles." Lance let out a sigh, seemingly at the end of his momentary blurb of talking. There were things he liked to get detailed about, and there were things he hated and liked to keep unmentioned. Tactics, he liked; people...not so much. At least, he thought to himself, history sides with us on this one... For once, though, I wish a Jedi could drop in.[/font]

Admiralty Naval Yard, Kashan

Hollers and the clatter of metal on metal thundered around one of the hangar bays of the groundside Admiralty Naval Yard. Rows of starfighters of various makes within the Confederation service dominated not only the floor, but the several overhanging racks mounted on the ceiling as well. Mechanics, flight crews, and other personnel clambered over their craft; making repairs or doing pre-flight inspections. Among the everyday hustle of the yard, a single figure wearing shock trooper armor bearing the emblem of the 22nd Audacian Regiment strode towards a more recessed room from the main facility. Several Paladin IIs flanked the door to the entrance, tirelessly guarding the room’s contents. A man dressed in oil-stained fatigues and coveralls casually leaned against a nearby wall, watching the soldier: live troopers rarely were present within the bay, especially alone. Hans Trutzig stepped up to the door and pulled out his rank cylinder.

“Can I help you, sir?” questioned the Chief Mechanic, abruptly walking up to the Audacian.

Trutzig briefly grimaced. “I need to have the craft within that room serviced-”

“I don’t give a frak about those things!”

Trutzig looked at the Kashan officer with a hint of amusement. Same old, same old. Why we constantly go through this inside joke, I will never know. Well, at least I’ll never why he goes through his end of it. Trutzig continued the routine as normal.

“Because KDI didn’t make them?”

The other man grinned. “You got that right. Not bad though, for though, for the Coalition.”

Trutzig ruefully shook his head, signaling the end of their levity. “I want at least a squadron of the stealth intruders ready in three hours.”

The mechanic wrinkled his nose and leaned against the duracrete wall. “Any reason why?”

“I am not at liberty to explain,” stated the general, producing a datapad from his pack, “These are the orders from the Rear-Admiral for their service.”

Snatching the datapad, the mechanic looked over the orders, mumbling as he searched the documents links.

“Fine, fine. They’ll be ready in time. I’ll make sure my boys get right to it.”

“Thank you Chief,” bowed Trutzig.

The chief nodded and walked over to the hangar to gather up the mechanics.

Awdin listened to the major explaining things further and answering his questions adding a few more useful tid bits of information. It had been a little bit much to hope that they would know the commander of the invasion but it never hurt to hope, especially when it might make things considerably easy. But also he wasn’t sure if the fact that he was a special forces possibly would have positive or negative effects on the outcome on the mission, although he thought it more likely to have negative effects.

Something that didn’t make sense was why wasn’t the coalition attempting to get Krant into the coalition especially when it was expending the resources to make sure it didn’t fall into imperial hands, even if it did pose problems for the Azguards. He also understood the need for very few men and no possible connections to the Coalition, the last thing it needed was TNO knocking on it’s doorstep in retaliation for Sabotage or whatever they would call it. He nodded slightly

“Any idea of what kind of resources we will have at our disposal besides troops, like weapons, money, locals already with us etc. Also would it be possible to suggest a few men for the task force?” While he waited for a reply he looked down at his holo pad screen and pulled up a screen on the Kantian natives. There were the normal humans as mentioned, nothing special about them. But more importantly and interestingly were the Krant natives who were mostly humanoid except for the fact that they could talk supersonically which would present some serious benefits for communicating secretly or just communicating at all. Now he could only hope there was a translator for it or some way for them to understand it.

While all this was going on a small message drew his attention away from his thoughts, he could only imagine who was contacting him at this point, especially while in a conference. Looking at the message sender he was surprised to see the name of his distant cousin Casus, he hadn’t seen the boy in ages at least since he had run away from home. He without thinking raised his hand to his head and thought of his hysterical mother calling him many years back insisting he had had something to do with it. He quickly drew himself back to the present and immediate situation, raising his head and opening the message quickly while the major readied the answer to his question.

Quietly hoping the major was too focused to notice he read and sent his reply and then wired a note to an officer that would hopefully get Casus what he wanted and hopefully off of Awdin’s back for now especially with the mission. He shut down his pad and returned his attention to the major.

It had taken the Krantian Government body exactly nine minutes and fifty five seconds to accept Captain Zokolev's threat. They had agreed on all elements of it, but it was not like they had any chose in the matter. Under his orders, all Krantian ships were ordered to stand down and their crews were made to completely disembark after docking them in the middle of space away from the planet.

As he watched the last of the shuttles descend down to the planet with the enemy crews, Vaseli relaxed, sitting back into his command chair. He was very glad the his bluff had worked, for he was not insane enough to simple slaughter innocent civilians to achieve this goal. The plan had worked, however, and he had saved countless lives on both sides because of it.

With his mission complete, it was now time, in his mind, to try and bring Krant into The New Order as peacefully as possible. As a gesture of goodwill for their cooperation, Vaseli moved his ships over Hanoon away from the terraformed asteroid. The final gesture would be meeting with the government and making them see that joining the TNO would be in their best benefit.

He was hopeful that the mission would go well and no more blood would be spilled, but something deep inside him told him it would not yet be so. Many of the civilians would resent his presence, he knew this from past experiences.

[font=Microsoft Sans Serif](OOC: I admit that this post is a long time in coming, and I apologize for the delay. Was bogged down with plenty of things, especially in RL. That said...here we go again.)[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif][/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Briefing Room 1-Beta
Pegasus Star Destroyer Audacieuse[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Kashan Planetary Orbit[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif][/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]Lance was apparently designed by whatever deities existed just so that he could be met with plenty of siutations that involved sighing in vexation. The most recent one, however, was simply not one for which a sigh alone was sufficient release of his sudden displeasure. He made sure not to say anything about the situation, but he had most definitely seen the line-captain clattering away quietly at a datapad in the middle of a classified briefing. Such actions, whether they took record of anything from the classified session or not, would be frowned upon by a member of the intelligence bureau; if any of them were here, the kid would be in for a nightmare...[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif][/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]...one that probably wouldn't stop at just his career.[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif][/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]"I've already listed the locals that we'll have with us; namely, anyone that we can find. Funding is a bit riskier, since this is an undercover operation and the funding would have a hard time getting cleared for something that isn't on the records." Then again, he thought to himself in a brief pause, the Acquisition Department doesn't even do sanctioned operations with any haste. "As for recommending people for this operation...go right ahead, and good luck. You're gonna need it."[/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif][/font]
[font=Microsoft Sans Serif]With a shake of his head, Lance turned to face Rear-Admiral Lucerne. "Admiral, sir, is there anything you feel I've missed?" I really hope there isn't...we've got a world to mess with.[/font]

The shuttle descended lazily through the night clouds and banked slightly to adjust course. A squadron of escort fighters turned with it and slowly spread out again. While Krant had all but surrendered, they did not want to take any chances of come fighter getting through and perhaps killing their commanding officer.

Line Captain Vaseli Zokolev sat inside the shuttle and looked out the window. As the craft slowly passed through the maze of clouds, he finally saw the city of lights appear below them. The capital of Krant was lit up, but Vaseli was assured that very few Krantians were out this late in the night. It was his plan to talk with the government face to face without any of the media pressure around the meeting.

To his luck, the landed in the private government hanger with no media to be seen and only the Premier waiting to see him. As his guards descended to secure the landing pad area, Vaseli adjusted his dress uniform. He then slowly moved down the ramp, looking around the landing pad to study each of the faces that greeted him. All the men looked weary, but not defeated, which was good. He wanted them to be proud and to have hope.

"Premier Olingin, I am Line Captain Vaseli Zokolev, it is nice to finally to meet you." Vaseli stated as he walked towards the Premier and paused right before him.

"Captain, we have set up a conference room for you, just like you asked."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The conference room was actually empty when the Premier and Vaseli entered it. A long table stood in the center and around it the walls were covered in displayed. The Premier explained that the other Governmental Representatives would join them by video feed. Vaseli smiled to himself at this, knowing that all of them were probably afraid of getting killed together.

As all the screens came up, Vaseli looked around, studying each man and woman on the display.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of Krant, I want to thank you for meeting me this late in the night. If you don't already know, I'm Line Captain Vaseli Zokolev of the New Order Military. I have come to you to offer you a chance of joining the New Order. With this offer you receive all the benefits of being in The New Order, while still having the freedom to govern yourselves. As long as you abide by TNO laws, of course, and do not support of harbor any enemies of the Order. It is a very good offer, I do suggest you take it before I receive orders to place troops on the ground. That is something I have no wish to do."

He was interrupted by one of the Representatives, a woman. "Captain you already attacked us, why should we trust you? You are trying to take this planet by force and impose your will on us."

Vaseli shook his head slowly and look around, directly at her. "Ma'am, either you have no been informed or fail to note that it was your forces that attacked mine first. It was only after this that they returned fire and called in my fleet for assistance. You should already realize that I could have destroyed your whole fleet and killed everyone on those ships, but I did not. I allowed your people to surrender and leave.

"I believe you have two choices, only one of which would benefit the planet of Krant. You can take the offer, govern yourselves and have access to the vast network of trade within the New Order. This will bring about countless jobs for your citizens and much more income through trade than you currently have. You will also receive the full military backing of the TNO Military.

"Or...you can say no and put up some resistance. This will cause us to deploy troops and take the planet by force. You will loose countless lives and have your planet ravaged by war. I would not want that for my people when they could have easily lived in relative freedom with greater security and a wealthier planet. It is your decision, however."

Everyone was quiet for a while before someone finally spoke out. "We have to discuss this Captain."

"Of course, I shall give you 48 hours to come up with a decision. Please make it the right one." With that he turned and walked out from the room, leaving all the faces a little stunned and shocked.

"After discussing the matter, the council, with a seven to two majority vote, has decided to accept your offer and join the great New Order. May we all exist in peace and prosperity for many years to come."

Vaseli smiled inside as he listened to the Premier talk. He was glad that everything had worked out as per his plans. No unnecessary lives had been lost and a beautiful world had been spared the horror and destruction of all out war. All in all it had been a very worth while mission.

"You have made the right choice for your planet, Premier. Your citizens should all thank you for what you and the council had accomplished. I wish to welcome you into the New Order. As a sign of goodwill and friendship, I am releasing some of my crew to take leave on your planet for the next three days. You will arrange all accommodation of course?" Vaseli replied.

"Oh, yes, of course. Everything will be done to make them comfortable and help them enjoy their leave."

What the Premier was not saying, was that there had been reports of groups coming together and forming terror organizations that might strike out against the Imperials or the Government of Krant. Vaseli had landed handfuls of intelligence agents on Krant over the past days and while most of the population was alright with the New Order, a minority was not. For now Captain Zokolev had decided to let the Krantians handle it, however, he was hoping that the Premier would have the guts to tell him.

Vaseli nodded slowly at the holoprojection of the man. "And what about security? I want my men and women protected. While on planet, their lives are in your hands."

"I understand completely. You have nothing to worry about Captain Zokolev. Security will be increased to keep your people safe."

With that Vaseli ended their conversation and turned towards his XO. "Alright, I believe we are done here. Job well done everyone. You should all be proud. I expecting nothing less." He paused and smiled slowly. "Why don't we start sending some of the crew down for R and R XO? I think they can have some time off."

He stood up and stretched on the bridge, looking around all the men and women at their work stations. Vaseli was truly proud of the way they acted. All were professional and did everything they were supposed to.

"Commander Helrad, please inform Colonel Vos that our mission is accomplished."

OOC:
With his agreement, I'm taking over from Vaseli (alias Rob Stellar, for those who don't know) in writing the Imperial/Sith part of this takeover. Hopefully, we'll get this thread completed in the near future. Note: the thread is 'old', so this is set several months in the past.

IC:
Rodia, Some time previously: Immediately after the Sith takeover.

Ithron, Sith Apprentice and loyal servant to Vance Jas of the Sith Order on Xa Fel stood silently in the shadow on the landing craft that he had arrived in.

Vance had told him to wait there and wait was exactly what he intended to do. He watched the other Sith go their separate ways - some in other craft, some were staying on Rodia and others were heading back to Xa Fel. Ithron nodded to Mira as she walked up and into the vessel. He could sense her suspicion - she was wondering what he was stood there for.

"Ithron." The voice was that of Vance.

"Master" Ithron knelt before the cloaked figure of the Sith Master.

"Rise. I notice that your part in this.... event.... was relatively minor. You stayed out of the way until the end, before putting in an appearance. You role was useful, but some might call this cowardice." The older Sith's eyes narrowed at this last word. "What exactly would you say, my Apprentice?"

"I..."

"Quite so." Ithron's reply was cut off before it was even spoken. "Ithon. Soon, you will travel to the planet of Krant. An Imperial fleet will be taking control of the strategically important planet in the near future. Krant, as you are probably not aware, was a minor planet in the old Sith Empire. There are two known Sith Temple sites and a similar Jedi establishment from many years later.

"I have arranged for you to join this fleet, which will be commanded by one Vaseli Zokolev. You will ensure that the temple sites are secured against the... turmoils of the planet."

The Sith Master turned and gazed into the middle distance, seemingly deep in thought.

"I have forseen resistance. Expect it. And Ithron: If you behave as passively as you did on Rodia, you will be destroyed."

"My Lord." Ithron had nothing else to say. His mission was clear.

"Finally, this mission is of the utmost secrecy. Speak of it to noone. I need not tell you the consequences of disobeying me - or of failing me."

Present Moment, near the Imperial fleet around Krant

The small Sith vessel seemed to slice through space as it rapidly closed the distance to the Imperial flagship. The ship, named the Razor, was one of the largest based at Xa Fel. The Imperials did not permit the Sith to maintain a fleet, so the Razor was nothing but a sleep transport craft without even defensive weaponary. Two small escort vessels flanked the ship whose hold contained several hundred Sith acolytes - Ithron's brothers in arms on this mission. Men devoted to the Dark Side; men whose minds had been broken to its service long ago. They would perform the menial tasks involved in securing the temple sites.

"Open a communications channel to the flagship." Ithron spoke to the Bridge commander who was himself merely a senior acolyte. When this was done, he spoke to the screen on which Zokolev had just appeared.

"Captain Vaseli Zokolev, my name is Ithron. I represent Master Vance Jas of the Sith Order."

The Captain's face faded to an odd expression as he stood from his command chair and spread his arms in gesture of welcome.

"I was told you would turn up now - whoever wrote my orders was expecting you."

Ithron remained silent and the man cleared his throat.

"Ithron, welcome to Krant. My part of this little outing is now complete and my orders are to hand over to you. I will be leaving you the Astrus-Class Star Destroyer Glory, commanded by Captain Tolen Jard, with several smaller support vessels.

"You will have to excuse me not welcoming you personally, but my orders require me to leave immediately. My Fleet Intelligence Officer is aboard the Glory, and will brief you on anything you need to know. Also, be advised that crewmen from my ship are enjoying planetary leave.

"Good luck, friend. Gloria Imperium."

Ithron nodded to the figure on the screen. "And to you, Line Captain."

The communications link went dead for a brief moment, before coming to life with an incoming transmission.

"It's the Glory, my Lord."

"Patch them through."

"Ithron of the Sith Order, this is Captain Tolen Jard of the Glory."

Jard had appeared on the screen and Ithron could see that he was a tall, heavily built man, seemingly in this late fourties. He sported a thick brown beard, though the hair on the top of his head was significantly thinner. A scar ran down the right side of his face.

Ithron could see that he was a grizzled old warrior - a man who had fought many wars for the Empire and whose loyalty to the Imperial cause was beyond question. However, from his speech, the Sith could tell that the Captain wasn't much of a politial yes-man - he knew how to stay alive in battle, and lead men effectively. He wasn't stupid.

"Proceed with your report, Captain." Ithron could see from his sensor readouts that Vaseli's vessels were in the process of leaving now. Soon, they would be gone.

"I'm.... er.... I'm required to tell you, Ithron, that the resources of my vessel are at your disposal. My orders are to serve your purposes to the best of my ability. However.... er...." The tall, heavily built Captain ground to a halt with an embarrassed expression.

Ithron smiled, knowing what was coming.

"Continue, Captain."

"Well... the Imperial General Staff would have me remind you that you do not, in fact, have the authority to issue orders to me, or my personnel. Er..."

Clearly, the man was wisely wary of telling a Sith what he may and may not do.

"Captain, I've heard this before. The General Staff wouldn't want us Sith getting ideas above our station, would they?" Ithron smiled, but it was a gesture devoid of humour. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of... arrangement. Perhaps we can come aboard and commence operations immediately?"

"Of course." The Captain smiled, but his smile was born of genuine relief flooding his face. He nodded to a subordinate off-screen. "Sith Vessel Razor, the Glory's hanger bay doors are open and we're ready to receive you."

"Thank you, Captain. Razor, out."