Reaching For More

Another day, another mission. More attacks, more deaths. One captain, one planet.


The time was drawing near to satisfy the Black Dragon Empire’s hunger for new strongholds, thus bringing this setting to the planet of Embaril: A fertile rich, planet filled with rolling plains and large, glamorous lakes. The inhabitants mostly consist of humanoid beings, relatively peaceful and secure. It had been targeted by the empire as its next point of interest, with Captain Gien Belasarius Schi leading the task force. Just coming back from his previous campaign on Liinade III, he was informed he would be dispatched for the planet immediately. It sparked a feeling within him. He was never really one to show feelings of hate or anger towards his superiors, and kept them withheld inside, during such times. But in this type of situation, not much could distinguish a serial murderer, out for more blood, compared to Gien Schi, with an apatite for recognition.

Chamber abroad the Tion Dragonclaw, Embassador

Indeed it had been a time to straighten out final flaws that may occur, in his tactics. The falleen captain sat, editing what he had began a week before. The fleet had been approved by a council of Black Dragon representatives, and had been constructed only a few days back. Since the Liinade III incident, Gien’s mind has been driven to a point of no return. He knew he made his dedication to the Black Dragon Empire, and wouldn’t take it back for anything. Yet again, he was forced to prove himself before them.

“These deathgliders...should prove very useful, 130 MGLT, state of the art weapons package, 85 DPF, yes, I will be looking forward to viewing these in action.” He continued to review over ship details of the notorious BDE deathglider.

His hand slid to a comlink, and called for officer Hasley. The officer entered into the chamber and approached the captain in a timely manner. The officer was of human race, and dark brown hair. His uniform was that of a commando leader’s.

“Please, Sergeant Hasley, take a seat. I have much to discuss.”

The officer settled into a seat, just opposite of Gien.

Passing data pads across the desk, the captain began to read off a checklist of some sort, that for the sergeant to answer. “Lets get right to it, shall we? First off, how’s the data upload from Dravione coming along. I expect to commence this mission as soon as possible. The last thing I want now is a failed attempt on my hands.”

“Currently, we are at 85% with a complete data upload, and we should be able to leave after the last of our kessel gunships arrive from Rudrig. Also, Admiral Vaako, has requested a full report on all actions of this fleet, including the date and time we arrive in the Embaril vicinity.”

“Admiral Vaako...confirmed...though, I do not see why I must be hesitantly watched over like a creature on a leash. I deserve eminent responsibility of our fleet, Dragon’s Advocate....”

Gien’s mind began to wonder about, off track, on what Xizor could have done in a situation. Falleen still arose as a planet of interest, but knew it couldn’t be tampered with.

He rose up out of his seat and stepped over to a window, overlooking the fleet. Kessels, cutters, and shoto’s alike had been formed into groups for the strike.

“I have too, come to the decision about your role in this attack, Hasley. Find the starpilot, Eric Reign, and have him promoted to squad leader. Assign him to the deathglider squadron, beta. You will be put in charge of the deathglider
assault of the planet’s defenses. Eric will be put in charge of our Dragonclaw defenses with his squadron.”

He bowed in gratitude. With a cunning grin, he watched Gien check off a series of notes on his datapad.

“I wont disappoint you, sir. Is there anything else?”

“No, that will be it, sergeant. Your free to go. Deliver my orders, we will be leaving soon.”

Hanger of Dragonclaw, Embassador

Deathgliders and pilots alike, littered the hanger of the Embassador. As ships had their last inspections before the mission, the pilots had gathered around each other, and performed acts of entertainment to loosen themselves up. In the center of the circle stood a solitary soldier, performing acrobatic and mischievous stunts, in amusement to everyone else.

“Here comes Hasley guys.”

Coming down a corridor into the hanger, was the captains bulldog of a officer, Hasley. The officers, upon site of seeing Hasley, calmed the commotion down a bit, and turned their attention towards him. They stood hesitantly, to hear what had to be said.

“Its good to see some soldiers show a little respect for once.”

The pilots looked at each other and some started to tap their feet.
“Will Eric...Reign step forward and come with me.”

Hasley’s eyes wandered about the men, in search of this pilot. Straight out of the front row, strode Eric Reign, a young, rookie pilot who happened to take part in Gien’s first raid on Liinade III. Some officers laughed under their breathes, thinking the rookie pilot had gotten in trouble with the empire.

“Im Eric.”

Hasley scanned the soldier, briefly, and nodded.

“Come with me.”

The two preceded to area L2 of the hanger, where the first squadron of deathgliders laid. Hasley stepped out infront of the honorable pilot, and grinned. He could not believe that such a young person could exceed to being in high regards with the captain. Never the less, he had to deliver Gien’s orders.

“You have been chosen to lead deathglider squadron, Beta, and you are hear by promoted to squad leader...what the captain sees in you is beyond me. Just don’t disappoint us.”

Eric was more surprised than Hasley, by far, and remembered back to his stunts during the Liinade III takeover. If he gets out of this alive, he would make a note to himself about his promotion.

“Well...thank you...I really wont let you down. Must have-“

“-I will be going now, but be wary of your position in this navy. You succeed, and everyone’s happy. You fail, and well...lets just say, you wouldn’t want to know the outcome. Got that?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Dismissed.”

Bridge of the Embassador

“Data upload complete, captain. Awaiting orders.”

Time had come for Embaril strike. All ships had reported in within the past hour, and the data uploaded had recently finished. All but remained was the jump to lightspeed. It would be the first gunshot at the dawn of a battle, the point of no return.

Gien braced himself down into his seat, and lifted his arm out towards the front of the ship.

“Prepare for jump to lightspeed.”

Officers located on all points of the bridge began to switch open their comlinks to all neighboring, ally ships, to prepare for the jump. When all ships were standing by, Gien would give the word.

“Prepare for jump in 5....4....3...2....1...jump.”

Hour of Strike

With the booming sound of the ships rearing out of hyperspace, within the orbit of Embaril, the ships readied for their attack. The Tion star destroyers led the fleet towards the atmosphere of the planet, until they came to a hault.

“Ok, lets start this, now, shall we.”

“Radars indicate no enemy capitol ships or starfighters nearing our vicinity.”

“We’ll see just how long that lasts. Ok, boys, lets dispatch 5 squadrons of Deathgliders, including Beta, one squadron of A Wings, and two squadrons of tie advanced. Keep our ships circling the planet, though, lets not make the same mistake we did last time, otherwise it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

The officer went over the intercom to announce the deployment of the ships. Not too soon after, the capitol ships were under the protective eye of the fighters. Gien’s dragonclaw roared in response to the circulation of the planet, shortly followed by other capitol ships and gunships.

“Ok, send the Shoto’s to upper atmosphere level and begin the bombardment phase; officer report.”

“Orders carried out, sir. Starfighters fully deployed, with remaining fighters ready for attack within atmosphere. Shall we deploy?”

“No, not yet...we’ll keep the rest in reserve. Meanwhile, have our transports break off formation and enter atmosphere, where they will rendevous at coordinates 5.324.43N 4.243.54S. By the time our dragonclaw strike cruisers enter that atmosphere, I want those planetary defenses wiped out.”

By this time, every officer in that room were working frantically, to intercept and send out all orders.

“Commence bombardment with star destroyers, dragonclaws, and Tie Advances. Let us clean sweep this planet.”

Gien Belasarius Schi had gained the respect he wanted dearly, but had an apatite for more, and wanted to make a name of himself further expand throughout the cluster. With his second takeover, and his new promotion, the captain was by far, the renowned falleen throughout the empire. There was but one thing missing, a direct conversation with his head superiors, a chance to see who he had been answering to, the past few weeks. It would all be answered, in result of this strike, the Embaril strike, Gien’s strike.

City of Umbra

As the sun began to set, on a Embarilian’s busy city of Umbra, workers from the security stations located just outside the city’s walls were making their way home. Two soldiers, dressed in dark green, cameo jeans, and light military jackets, started their long walk to Umbra. The jungle reaching over and around them, was dense and filled with wide varieties of animals; some deadly, most incapable of scratching someone. The path before them was beaten, and could easily be seen, despite the darkness they were forced to walk in.

“Meeting that girl tonight, Ace. She finally accepted to a second date.”

His partner looked over to him, giving a brief smirk.

“...good for you....”

“Ah, come on. Cheer up a bit. She might have a friend for you...hehe.”, giving a slight nudge.

Ace could have really cared less. It wasn’t women that left him in such a state. It was the thought of knowing he could do much more in life, but the world he lived in, never would allow it. Embaril was a planet that had recently caught up with the technology of modern planets, and only now came out of a survival mode. Not many jobs were available to the inhabitants, and you would be lucky to obtain a job that you didn’t hate. The days would pass, without one where Ace had not thought of it.

The walking distance between them and the city lessened to one mile at that point. The city illuminated the darkness in the background.

“I bet by the end of the night, we’ll both be happy men: Me with my girl, and you with...yours!”

“...One of these days ,Jarred, life will be so much better for us....”

Jarred only took it as a joke and chuckled briefly, like pompous toad croaking.

“Hah, bet your right too. “Tonight” our lives will be changed!”

The silence of the forest was broken with sounds soaring through the air.

“Since when did we have that many patrol ships?”

Lifting his arm, and pointing to the air space above the city, the two looked in awe and wonder of the number of crafts flying over head. Then, something didn’t seem right. The swarm of ships resembled that of locus; grouped together in unimaginable amounts.

“Those arn’t our ships, Jarred. Their laying siege to our city!”

Black Dragon Death gliders bombarded the city with laser and missiles alike. The two were alerted as a large booming noise echoed throughout the forest. The outpost was no longer, but a fiery burning wreckage. Bright yellow streaks of energy rained down from the sky, setting the cities and jungles ablaze.

“Looks like we’re back on duty. Lets go!”

Cockpit of Eric Reign’s Deathglider

The notorious pilot, Eric Reign, had just been reassigned to participate in the strike within Embaril’s atmosphere. His squad consisted of a few close friends of his, and the rest were complete idiots in his opinion. They soared in with a pack of gun ships, and began the assault, starting with the planetary defenses. Approximately 10 major Embaril outposts have been eliminated, and 3 bases have been occupied since the deployment of the troops. All ships had to stay relatively high off the surface ground, if they expected to not touch the fires that continued to burn since the start. Eric, though, was not that kind of pilot.

“Break wedge formation. Take those turrets out.”, he ordered.

Like a dog to a whistle, the pilots took to the orders. The barrels of the turrets shuffled in and out of the base, blasting the invading gun ships above. Eric held trigger steady as the deathgliders unleashed a barrage of laser fire. Long rows of explosions erupted from the ground as he swooped his star fighter lower for a torpedo attack. The two toperdo launchers, located just underneath the ship’s body, were set and armed.

The accuracy of the pilot was something most rookie pilots could never attain in their first few weeks of actual combat. Each target of the torpedos were decimated like flies to a newspaper.

To Eric’s surprise, their was less resistance during this strike, than last. There weren’t nearly as many star fighters to deal with, and only a handful of enemy ground units. Kessels were already surfacing near Embaril’s top military base. With over 100 deathgliders, and over 40,000 troopers, not to mention dropships and capitol ships, the black dragon empire had it going easy, for the time being at least. Could they be holding back?

<B>Aboard the Tion Star Destroyer <I>Erebus</i> above Embaril...</B>

Inside the refresher station of her stateroom, Captain Ryn Adaala enjoyed the much-needed shower scouring her naked body with a steady blast of hot water.

Billowing steam filled her private bathroom as the invigorating spray pelted her flesh, at long last washing away the day's residue of sweat from her command aboard the bridge of the Tion Star Destroyer. The recycled water collected at the bottom of the pure white marble stall, circling the drain before disappearing into the basins of the <I>Erebus</I>.

Sadly, the scorching shower could not wash away the maglignant fears troubling her mind. It had been several hours since the last transmission from the Falleen commander and the DragonClaw he captained had not been receiving any of their hails. Could it be that Embaril was attempting to jam their signals? And what about her fleet's position above the planet at the moment? Should she remain in position or move in to join the takeover? If no word was received, she would be forced to take command of this planet's entire takeover and achieve the objective best as possible.

<I>It would bring me more recognition, but I don't look forward to leading this if I had to...</i> she thought passionately. The soothing water rinsed the soap and shampoo from her dark hair and porcelain skin, but Adaala knew that she could not hide in the shower forever. There were too many vital situations occuring on the surface, and time was running short. <I>If our forces on the surface hail Commander Schi and he is unable to answer,</I> she brooded, <I>then I must take action as second in command and lead this takeover without delay.</i>

Adaala shuddered at the thought of this operation falling apart. A desperate ploy came to mind, one that she ordinarily would have rejected as too extreme but which now struck her as the only option remaining to her. <I>I have to risk it,</I> she decided. <I>There's no other choice... I must lead.</i>

Resigned to her mission, she wondered where the choices in her young life had taken her...

From a large family, Ryn Adaala had been the youngest. And she had been the only daughter her parents conceived. Growing up on Rudrig, she had alternately been the baby and the pet, always under the watchful eyes of her four brothers. She had followed them around on their childhood adventures, eventually growing strong enough to keep up with their running and climbing and building makeshift camps. Their tricks and pranks had made her tougher than most, because Adaala felt she had to take their teasing with a stiff upper lip. There had been no such thing as tears when she was little. Her brothers didn't cry, so she didn't either.

Her father had toiled diligently for a small company manufacturing starship components. Not as prestigious as those companies located above Corellia or Coruscant in the Imperial Empire, but it had been good work. And he had been a hard worker. Her mother kept the house and bandaged up the children when they had their cuts and scrapes. It had been a simple but good life. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

Even though she had already entered in her twenties at the time, Adaala remembered when the Black Dragon Empire started to make their presence known to those who worked on Rudrig. And she recalled how her father would come home at night, exhausted and worried, wondering just when the ships he helped construct were going to be under the crosshairs of Tion rebels or terrorists. Many times he and her mother had talked late into the night about it, and Adaala remembered sneaking out of bed to listen in on them once in a while. There had always been tears and accusations when they spoke on the matter. But most of all, there had been fear. Even she had sensed that her parents were frightened. Tensions grew in their modest home. And then there was the day her father didn't come home.

Her mother received word that an explosion had happened in the manufacturing facility near the shipyards, and by the time BDE enforcers had arrived to investigate, it had been too late. The investigation declared it was the work of Tion rebels who carried out the act to discourage the BDE's workers from shipbuilding. Everything changed for Adaala at that point. Without her father to hold the family together, it frayed at the edges and eventually collapsed. Her mother never really recovered from the loss of her husband and became more of a shadow than ever. She catered to her sons and moved about like a ghost, as though she had lost her substance and ceased to exist. It was at this point that Adaala swore an oath: she would never let herself become like that, no matter the cost.

Her two oldest brothers quit their technical studies and joined the <I>Arm of the Dragon</I>, the military academy on Raxus. Adaala saw how it aged them maturely, so she buried her nose deeper into her studies, determined to take that path when recruitment came next season. And when she did join, she became more withdrawn from people and spent hours and hours studying military tactics and strategies, finding it easier to deal rather than being of the social caliber. Her youngest brother joined the ranks of the Deathglider Talons, determined to be the best pilot and soar through the stars, as resolute as Adaala was to leave their small home behind. A few months after joining, he died by the hands of pirate forces in the Vergesso Asteriod Belt, shot down by one of their Howlrunners.

That was the year Ryn Adaala graduated with high honors and chose to pursue a path to captain a battleship of her own. In her eyes, this career combined her two greatest desires: it let her continue to study and develop tactical strategies and wargames, and it got her off her homeworld. The second aspect of her career choice came as second nature: vengeance. She wanted to avenge those who had taken the lives of those dearest to her-- her father and her youngest brother. Rebels, pirates, mercenaries, and those responsible would pay dearly for what she and her family suffered in the past. It gave her a drive that made her excell among her fellow students, finishing second in her class. Her high ranking caught the attention of several prominent officers of the Imperium, along with garnering a stellar recommendation from her trainer, and she was awarded a position to command a DragonClaw. After several victories under her command, she was soon promoted to Captain and given a Tion Star Destroyer to call her own.

Which now led her here...

Reluctantly, she turned off the shower and let the last of the hot water trickle down her body. Stepping out of the stall into the luxury-sized bathchamber, she toweled herself quickly, then pulled on a dark blue silken bathrobe.

Steam clouded the queen-sized vanity mirror above the sink. She strode decisively up to the sink and wiped her hand across the foggy mirror, revealing a pair of alien eyes peering behind her.

"Captain Adaala," a deep, gravelly, catlike voice mewed into the air, touching the back of her neck.

She paused for a moment or two and quickly spun to Rux, the Noghri who was offered by Toax to join as her servant and now, bodyguard. She cursed both herself and the short, wiry creature standing less than half a meter away. "Damnit, Rux!" she snarled. "Haven't I told you to ping me before you enter my quarters?"

For a moment Rux just looked up at her, and Adaala felt a drop of sweat trickle down her back. With his large dark eyes, protruding jaw, and glistening needle teeth, Rux was even more of a nightmare in this closed compartment than he was in the large open space of the <I>Erebus</i>'s corridor, guarding the entrance to her private quarters. His loyalty to her was unquestioned, so he felt no need to advise her since he would do no such harm.

"Forgive me, my mistress," Rux said at last. He stretched his thin arm almost casually toward her, and Adaala caught the glimpse of a datapad in the Noghri's hand. "The subcommander on your bridge ordered me to give this to you. The Falleen has not been heard from. As well, the Governor to rule Embaril is here."

"Very well, Rux," she finally replied, taking the device from his hand. "I will inform my crew that I will take command of this mission when I report on the bridge. Return to your post."

"As you wish, my mistress."

"And ping me the next time you enter..."

Captain Adaala leaned back in her command chair overlooking the <I>Erebus</i>'s command bridge. In the center of the crowded room, a tactical holodisplay flashed three-dimensional maps of the ongoing battles, the view changing every ten seconds or so as the display rotated through the various hot spots scattered around Embaril's continents. The Noghri, Rux, was hidden in the shadows behind her being vigilant as usual.

Around the room, a dozen combat controllers sat at individual consoles, relaying orders and situational data to the field commanders. The room buzzed with many voices talking at once, yet it was also strangely calm as each controller focused intently on their own console.

A few tactical officers walked the room, observing and stopping to intervene with some detail. Occasionally a runner would come through to hand a document or a cup of stimcaf to one of the controllers.

From Adaala's seat, she could look down on the controllers and their consoles, as well as on a ring of holodisplays that surrounded her position. She seemed quiet, but nothing escaped her attention.

There was one overarching pattern: The red icons representing Embaril's resistance forces were all on the retreat, falling rapidly back to beachhead areas where Gallofree transports waited to spirit them away, or to the spaceport in the capital city of Umbra, still nominally under their control.

To a casual observer, the victory for Captain Adaala's forces seemed decisive and overwhelming. But the brunette Captain fully appreciated how fragile the situation was. As Embaril's rebel forces fell back nearly as fast as the BDE's forces could follow, they collapsed their own supply lines in front of them, even as hers were stretched even thinner.

The rebels seemed on the verge of withdrawing from the planet, but Adaala had studied martial arts in the past to know how an attacker's own energy could be turned against her. The greater it was, the more it could be used to the attacker's disadvantage. Her troops-- her death commandos-- were pushing hard to keep up with the retreat.

The door to the command bridge slid open with a hiss, and a Falleen woman with streaks of gray in her shoulder-length black hair entered the room. She wore a trim black suit with pale red piping; loose sleeves framed her carefully manicured green hands-- the typical fashion in the Black Dragon Empire. Her perfume was musky and, to Adaala's taste, rather unpleasant. Apparently the scent was quite popular among both woman and men of Falleen, but she had heard some of her troops jokingly refer to the scent as "Dagobah swamp flowers."

Her makeup was immaculate, but she looked tired. Like many people, she apparently had trouble sleeping under stress, a problem Adaala had never shared. Ostensibly, she had no business in the command bridge. This was a military matter, not a civilian one. Another military commander might have asked her to leave, especially at such a critical juncture, but Adaala's political sense would not allow it. Embaril would not always be at war, and Xara Grogan was the new planetary governor, after all.

Adaala repressed a sigh. She remained her major stumbling block to bringing Embaril under her influence-- a possibility that had seemed remote when she first arrived. To Adaala's distress, she discovered that Gien Schi, the Falleen military commander, had taken this mission on Embaril to establish a new home for his species when threats were established by the Galactic Empire and thus, handpicked a Falleen governor to oversee the planet when finally established under the BDE's realm.

While Gien Schi was in no position to refuse Adaala's aid, he was a fierce loyalist, and justifiably suspicious of the Captain's motives. Their professional relationship had been chilly, and Adaala knew that her presence on Embaril would be welcomed only so long as her forces were militarily necessary.

Then there had been an astounding reversal. The official reports said that Gien Schi had been wounded in early fighting. The commander had been evacuated from the planet, and simultaneously the commander's forces had begun pulling back, abandoning their position to the rebel force. Adaala suspected there was more to Schi's withdrawal than that. Perhaps the Falleen had been recalled, or had simply cracked under the strain.

Though she was too pragmatic to put much stock in such things, Adaala could not help but think of it as divine intervention-- a sign that her campaign was meant to succeed over Schi's. She would repel Embaril's resistance, and bring many new worlds under the Imperium's banner, ultimately to pledge them to the renewed glory of the Black Dragon Empire, from which her family had drawn power and prestige. The former government of Embaril, though a noble house, was rapidly proving itself a failed one, and Adaala wanted to be ready when its remains were divided.

With Gien Schi out of the picture, a new range of possibilities had opened, and Adaala was quick to position herself in response, establishing relations with the remaining local powers on the surface. The new Governor, on the other hand, had no real authority over the military, which was Adaala's immediate concern, and yet she was too politically valuable to ignore. Should her forces be successful in this theater, Adaala would later have need of the resources, manufacturing capabilities, credits, and public support of the Falleen that were within her sphere of influence.

A narrow aisle separated the raised platform, on which she sat, from the rest of the command bridge. She walked purposefully over to stand in front of her. She glanced down at her and smiled what she knew, from hours of practice in front of a mirror, was a reassuring smile. "Things are going well, Xara. With the Dragon's blessing, we may have Umbra firmly back in our control by this afternoon."

She flinched slightly when the BDE superior officer used her first name. She evidently did not enjoy her familiarity, but was in no position to object. It was the sort of subtle display of power and authority that Adaala enjoyed.

"I would prefer to be in the capital myself, instead of remaining here in your battleship."

"The spaceport is speeding their retreat. If I took it, the forces in the area would be cut off. They'd have to try to retake it and make a fighting retreat to another staging area, or the resistance would have to redeploy forces to support them."

"Still, shouldn't you then be able to crush them?"

"In theory, if everything went perfectly, I could wipe out a good part of their forces and put a dent in their aggressive rebellion across this part of space."

"This seems like a good thing."

"This entire operation could turn in the course of a few hours if I did such thing. The retreating forces would double back to hold Umbra, thus prolonging our objective." She looked into her reptilian eyes. "You <I>do</i> wish this planet to be taken, don't you?"

Her eyes widened as she grasped the situation. "Of course I do. I'm sorry, Captain Adaala, for questioning your judgment. Of course I'm grateful that you've come to our aid, now that the Galactic Empire has threatened our homeworld of Falleen. With Gien Schi injured-- perhaps even dead-- and our own forces stretched out thin, your arrival was little short of a miracle-- one I'm not inclined to question. I'm just tired, and concerned about my people and my planet."

<I>And about settling down in a cushy office as well, I'll wager...</I> Captain Adaala smiled slightly and turned her attention back to the holodisplays.

The Falleen stood there for a moment. Then, realizing that Adaala was quite through talking, she walked over to the railing where she could observe the firefights from the viewport.

Subcommander Roun, senior officer of the watch, looked up from his console. "Captain Adaala, you asked to be informed when the final retreat from the rebellion is confirmed. They've just left Umbra's spaceports in their Gallofree transport cruisers a few moments ago."

She nodded and stood. "Very good, Subcommander. I'll be going down to inspect our victory. You have the watch for the moment. I'll have my comlink on in case you need to consult me."

As Adaala stepped down from her platform, she passed near Roun's console and leaned close to his ear. "Make sure the Governor stays out of trouble while I'm gone. When it is confirmed the planet is taken, have her escorted to the surface to take her rightful place as the new ruler of Embaril for the Black Dragon Empire. She can then offer the Falleen sanctuary, should they fall to the Galactic Empire."

"Yes, Captain."

The Captain of the <I>Erebus</I> and her bodyguard slipped into the turbolift and watched the blast doors slide closed in front of her. Her stomach fluttered slightly as the lift abruptly dropped toward the deck of the hangar bay far below...