Star Nova, Flight Tower

The Flight Officer had been clearing marine shuttles for so long he barely heard a Trandoshan female's voice over the incoming communications line. He gestured to another officer who flipped through the various flight monitors, and soon found where the transmission was coming from.

"Alert Medical that we have a fighter coming in requesting a medical team!" The flight officer shouted. They all watched one of the monitors as the fighter drifted on and off the flight line, coming toward the bay.

"Bring up the crash net," The flight officer ordered.

On the deck mechanics and marine's scrambled to get to cover, knowing full well that there might be a crash, medical personnel huddled behind a crash barrier, waitiing for the fighter to land.

In the tower several of the officers responsible for guiding pilots watched; they tried to bark orders but got no response, either the pilot had blacked out or wasn't able to hear them.

They all watched as the fighter suddenly disappeared below the bay doors; everyone tensed and waited, suddenly the fighter sped upward and into the bay, then slammed onto the flight deck, ripping the landing gear off and sending the fighter sliding down the bay, sparks flew in various directions as the fighter kept on down the bay until it was stopped by the crash net.

Everyone waited, but saw no movement, the medical team then moved out from behind crash barrier and over to the fighter. One of them pulled a lever that blew the cockpit canopy clear off and behind, landing with a loud metallic 'clang'

The medic's noticed that the pilot had blacked out; they removed the pilot and placed them on the stretcher before taking them to medical.

In the tower, the flight officer let out a sigh of relief. "That fighter looks damaged, but it is servicable," someone said. The rest of the officers nodded and went back to work, "In form Lavality that Asri had arrived, but she is being taken to medical." The flight officer said, another nodded to relay the message.

Headquarters, Station

Much of the fighting had died down in the bay; Monik and his security detail had rushed the conning tower and disposed of the marines that had been trying to seal off the bay.

Elsewhere the fighting had also died down; much of Miknaks forces had been isolated from the weapon stores, and others had given up after marine's from the Star Nova landed.

Outside the base, a Crescent Reten fighter had been spotted leaving the base, but was quickly destroyed by the Star Nova, if anyone had been paying attention though they'd had noticed that this particuler fighter had 'appeared' in space shortly before it was destroyed.

"I see..." Lavality said as she listened in on the damage reports. "Looks like it'll be weeks, perhaps months before this place will return to normal." She said with a sigh and placed the headset down on the panel.

A knock came to the door of the gunships communications room, Lavality blinked and opened it to find Monik standing there. "How are things progressing?"

"Most of the fighting has subsided, we've got pockets of resistance though in certain areas, but all vitals have been secured. One of our marine patrols found the bodies of six generals in the conference." Monik said.

Lavality sighed. "My.. what a pity... and here I was hoping to take them out for dinner.." she smirked. Monik chuckled, "Uh huh... dinner with poison in their food I bet."

She smiled before turning her attention to the communications gear that just lit up. She pressed her ear to the headset and listened, "seems Asri has made it..." she said and continued to listen, hearing that she was taken to medical. "The Star Nova's medical facility's are great, but not as great as the ones here. Is a path to medical clear?"

"Medical was isolated from combat, in fact, most of the medics didn't even know what was going on until my security detail arrived and set up a defense perimeter, we've already checked the medics, all of them are clean and loyal." Monik said, Lavality nodded and relayed an order to the Star Nova to have Asri transferred to the medical facility on the station.

Several minute's later a shuttle arrived carrying the unconcious Asri, marines took up positions in and around the medics to make sure no one tried anything. When she arrived in the station medical office, the doctors went to work. "Let me know when she wakes up," Lavality said before leaving the room.

The doctors looked at each other, "you'd think we would want to stay here."

"She's got a lot to worry about; we still have pockets of resistance scattered throughout the base." Monik said as he gestured for four of his men to stay alert.

The doctors were puzzled at why Asri was unconscious: beyond the shoulder injury there were no other obvious signs of trauma. However once they started checking her vitals they realized she was going into anaphylactic shock. They quickly put her on a respirator and medication to increase her blood pressure, including an IV. Only once she was stabilized did they start to remove the armor on her torso.

Once the torso piece was removed they found the cause of the anaphylactic shock. The area around the shoulder wound was swollen and inflamed with an obvious allergic reaction. After a quick search of the wound itself they found the slug that was the cause. “Have this tested for contaminates like poisons, etc.” The head doctor said, handing the slug to a technician.

They then set about cleaning the wound out. The wound itself was shallow, the armor she was wearing taking most of the impact, but they did an x-ray anyway and found that her shoulder blade was cracked. They dressed the wound and while they worked on immobilizing the shoulder they noticed the swelling around the wound was already going down, thanks to the cleaning having removed much if not all the allergen. After that they moved her to a proper hospital bed, with her torso propped up so that as little weight was on the wound and the cracked shoulder blade as possible. They also removed the rest of her armor so that she wouldn’t get any sores from the laying in it, as it appeared she would be unconscious for a while.

“Here are the results of the test sir.” The technician said, handing head doctor a datapad.

The doctor looked at it for a moment. “This is a compound commonly used in making certain types of body armor.” He said, glancing at the suit of armor they had removed from their patient. “She’s not going to be happy she was practically carrying her own death on her person.” He looked at the head nurse. “Keep an eye on her vitals. She’s stable now, but there’s a risk of a relapse if we are not careful. I need to report to Lavality and let her know how she’s faring.”

Lavality was on deck fourteen when word came to her that the doctor was looking for her. She was looking at how much damage was done to the deck, ignoring the 'obvious' damage done by Asri.

When she walked into the briefing room, a grin went across the face. The room smelled of copper, behind her two privates covered their mouths. "Whats the smell..." one commented.

"Blood, and a lot of it. Brief through your mouth," she said as she walked into the room and inspected the corpses. No tags.... guess Asri removed them... she said to herself as she stood back up.

After looking over the other bodies she left the briefing room and made her way down the hallway and to the secondary elevator, the one she rode up on, the doors then parted to reveal the doctor. "Ma'am!" the doctor said and handed her a report.

She looked over the report; her eyes switching from surprise and worry. "How is she doing?"

"she's stable right now, but it could've been much worse." He said and she nodded. "Keep monitoring her, when shes able to get up and walk around let me know..."

The doctor looked past her; he noticed the destroyed storage door. "Any here that needs medical attention?"

"Nope..." Lavality just said and walked into the elevator, the doctor joined her a few seconds later. She punched the bottom that would take her two decks up, the doctor punched the bottom for the medical deck.

In her quarters, Lavality decided to take a hot shower, she knew her 'rebellion' was a success and that she had managed to take her organization back. While she took a shower she flipped a switch on her communitor, she listened to the incoming reports of similar rebellions taking place on several of her bases and even two stations.

She even got word that the security detail aboard the colony stations had arrested several Miknak Supporters; and promptly disposed of them.

Now she waited and hoped that Asri would be ok; but something turned in her gut she couldn't help but feel that something terrible had just happened.

The home was a fairly humble one, but more lavish then a normal commoners. Asri, one of three siblings in the home, was busy scrubbing the floor: a task her sister Kosi was ‘supposed’ to do, but of course opted to sneak out again. She knew that if the floor wasn’t cleaned by the time their father got home there would be hell to pay and Asri would no doubt bare the brunt of it, since Kosi was the ‘favored’ daughter. How Besk could see that irresponsible female as better then her was beyond logic and Besk was a frightenly intelligent Trandoshan. Probably has to do with her way of tricking and blackmailing others to do the work for her…. Asri thought bitterly as she wringed the scrubber in the bucket of soup and water. Father will realize the truth…soon enough….

The then green scaled female knew that there was no way Kosi could be fertile, not with the number of men she had slept with, sans protection by her own admission, and never getting pregnant. Since Besk was one of those traditional minded Trandoshans that felt the only good female was a fertile one, he would surely disown her at best, kill her at worse, once he found out. Then Asri would be the favored one and she relished the thought of rubbing that into her snobbish sister’s face.

The sound of the door opening made her heart jump. Besk can’t be home now! She wasn’t done yet! Getting the floor done before he came home was one thing, but getting caught doing her sister’s job was entirely another! A quick glance up though gave her cause to relax: it was only her brother Dresik, whom shared their father’s coloration but was as kind hearted as their mother: Asri never could get what their mother saw in Besk.

“I see Kosi snuck off again.” She heard her bother say.

“Aye. One of these days I’m just not going to do her work for her….” Asri grumbled as she rose to stretch out her worn out limbs. “One of these days….”

“You never should have started.” Dresik pointed out.

“I know…but I was young and naïve then.” Asri said with a sigh. “Before I realized just how much of a spoiled rotten brat she had become.”

“She was…is…a master manipulator for sure.” Dresik said as he walked across the floor toward the table, being careful to only step on the spots that were still dirty: Kosi would have walked straight across and stuck her tongue out at her in the process. Dresik was so much nicer to her then anyone else in the family besides their mother, whom they rarely see anymore since they were nearing adulthood. Asri hoped she would find a lifemate much like him one day.

“I take it father got called off again, since you are a bit early to be back from ‘training’.” She said.

“Yeah…” Dresik said with a sigh. “He got a call with a job offer he couldn’t resist, so he’ll likely be gone for a few days at least.”

“Thank the goddess…maybe I’ll be able to get Kosi to finish the floor herself…HA! Who am I kidding…she’d rather die then do housework.”

“Would certainly make it difficult on her when she finally gets married off.” Dresik mused as he rose from his seat and walked over to one kitchen drawers. Asri watched as he removed a false bottom from one of them and removed a type of wind instrument: she murred with pleasure.

“I love it when you play.” She said, a smile on her face.

“I know…I wish I could play more often…” Dresik said sorrowfully as he checked the instrument over for any signs of damage.

“Just a few more months’ brother…and you’ll be old enough to rightfully move out and live on your own. Then you can play as much as you want.” They both knew that if Besk discovered Dresik had plans to become a musician he would be furious and both feared what he would do. For his own safety, Dresik only practiced when he knew Besk would be away for a while.

Asri took a break from floor scrubbing and joined her brother at the table. She listened as he played, forgetting her frustrations and letting her brother’s skilled notes lull her into a daydream…

The hydroponics bay was peaceful, quiet, devoid of any life other than that of plants and herself. She stared at a specific plant that swayed in the wind being generated by a near by fan.

It had been roughly a day since Asri had undertaken the mission, and succeeded. The six generals were dead, and the organization's assets had been brought together, already numerious rogue ships had rejoined, their captains realizing the mistake they had made.

The station was already undergoing repairs; during the revolt, or riots as some call it, numerious areas of the station had been damaged, luckily nothing to severe.

She was about to leave the bay when a message came to her that a status request was made on Asri; apperently someone on Trandosha wanted to know how she was doing, she didn't need to be told 'who' was making the request though.

"I'll take it in my quarters..." she said and made her way to her command quarters, on her ship she had three different quarters. Her private, her command, and her public quarters, each one had various uses.

In her quarters she read the message and let out a sigh. "I guess I have no choice.... I don't want to tell him... but he isn't easy to lie to." She said and started typing up a response.

Good Day, Lord Trazu.

I wish I was sending a more pleasant report, but sadly that isn't the case. While Asri was very successful, it came with a cost. She developed an infection, an allergic reaction to the armor she was wearing. In the words of our doctor 'she was carrying her own death on her person' she's ok now though, as she is healing and getting better.

Once Asri's condition improves I'll make plans to head back to Trandosha, but until then the best I can assure you is that shes ok.

There's... something else I must inform you about, not about Asri, but something else... I will tell you, Sha'tor Rissonik and Counculor Naosha when I arrive.. hell.. perhaps everyone on the clan grounds should hear but I'll leave that up to the Sha'tor when I inform him.

Either way, once Asri's condition gets better, or perhaps she wakes up, I'll be on my way. Take care

-Grand Admiral Lavality Serendivus

With that she ended the message and sent it on to the station in orbit over Trandosha. "What will Trazu do.. when I inform him that the Empire has taken Naboo... that the government surrendered... damn.. what about Silonik...." She suddenly remembered hearing that back when she was at the academy, that name had come to mind.

"God... I hope they made it off the planet..." Lavality said.

Continued from Dark">http://therebelfaction.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11070">Dark Rising: What’s yours is mine

It had been an uneventful trip so far, for which Rane was grateful as he feared he may be pursued by TNO, though he doubted they would waste resources chasing a small ship like his. Both younglings with him were awake by now, wrestling with each other on the floor. Rane chuckled as he watched them, a sad smile on his face: eventually he knew he would have to tell them the truth about this trip.

The wrestling match ended when Mortor had to go use the little boy’s room, so while he waited Silonik decided to look out the cockpit window. For this he had to sit on Rane’s lap, which he didn’t mind. “Where are we going Rane?” Silonik asked. “You never said.”

“We are going to see your father.” Rane replied honestly, but perhaps that was too much for he youth looked suspicious: the little one was more perspective then he thought!

“Why? Did he call for me?” The four year old asked.

Rane sighed heavily, realizing he might as well tell the truth. “No little, he didn’t call for you. I’m taking you to him because I know of no one else to take you to right now.”

This obviously confused the young one. “Why do you need to take me to him?” He asked.

“Because Naboo is no longer safe for you, or Mortor.” Rane explained. “Some very bad people arrived recently, with no doubt the intent of exterminating any Jedi they find.”

Silonik’s eyes widened with fear. “What about the others…the other kids? Are they going on ‘trips’ too?”

“I pray they are, though I fear it may have been too late. I can only hope they are able to hide until the initial invasion is over. May the Force be with them….”

Silonik’s young eyes looked sad, but not accusing. “Why didn’t you take them too?” He asked.

“I wish I could have…but there is barely enough room and resources on this ship for the three of us. Otherwise I would have taken them all….”

A sharp jolt suddenly shook the ship, nearly sending Silonik to the floor. The cockpit suddenly lit up with an array of warning lights. “What happened?” Silonik cried as they suddenly found themselves out of hyperspace and in the middle of an asteroid field.

“The hyperdrive failed…” Rane said as he checked the panels. “Looks like we lost the engines too and in the middle of an asteroid field….of all the places….”

Silonik watched the giant rocks floating by. “I don’t like those things….” He said with a whimper.

“I don’t either…I still have thrusters, but with the speed those things are moving I wouldn’t be able to move us out of the way in time.” Rane studied the radar screen and eyes widened in surprise: there was ship activity here! “We may have a chance yet…” He said as he flipped on the comm. Please let those ships not be pirates! He thought as he put out a distress call.

Captain Notem, commander of the defense forces flagship 'Eritense' stood watching the sensor screens.

"Nothing?" He asked, his sensor officer shook his head. "Things are clear."

"Great lets-" He said before the bridge was bathed in red warning lights. The onboard AI suddenly came alive with a warning, ~Warning! Unknown ship detected!~

Notem looked at his sensor officer, who in turn went back to active and deep active scanning, sure enough a ship appeared. "It's a shuttle craft, unknown design, but I can't determine whether it is friend or foe.." the officer said.

"Doesn't matter, red and blue squadrons, have them inspect that ship." Notem said, he watched another viewer as two squads left the small carriers flight bays, the squad was a mixture of almost every known fighter to date, minus the latest.

The squad leaders dodged asteriods as they went; while keeping their weapons on low just in case.

"Alrighty people, stay sharp." One of the two squad leaders said as they flew around an asteriod and spotted the shuttle, it was moving in a way that told them that it wasn't here by choice.

The fighters flew over, under, and around the shuttle, before turning around and coming to a stop.

Back on his carrier, Notem watched and nodded. "A shuttle craft.. any idea where it originated?"

"Nope.. they appeared to suddenly.. our triangulation probes couldn't determine where they had left," his sensor officer said with a sigh. "Very well, open a channel to the shuttle craft."

"Channel open," Said communications.

Notem cleared his throat before speaking. "This is Captain Notem, of the Serendivus Defense Carrier 'Eritense', state your name and business."

Now for the wait...

***

Lavality had just sat down when she sensed something in the force; it was a jolt that told her that someone else with the force as their ally was near by.

On the stations command bridge is where she discovered that one of the stations patrol fleets found a drifting shuttle. She watched the image provided by a camera drone, the shuttle was now surrounded by fighters from the Eritense.

"I'm not sensing any ill intentions from that shuttle... but...." Lavality said to herself and folded her arms.

It was a tense wait as they watched a group of fighters, a hodgepodge of different types fly all around them. Rane was starting to fear these were pirates when they finally came to a stop, but surrounding their small ship and hailed them. Serendivus…where had he heard that name before?

“This is Rane Kraski.” He replied. “Of the Lone Ranger. I have two other’s on board, both children. We were in route to Trandosha when our engines and hyperdrive failed.” Rane was about to reveal that they were Jedi Learners on the run from the Empire and the Sith Order that was currently taking over Naboo. Though the name of the group was familiar, he wasn’t sure from where yet, so he wasn’t going to take a chance. “We mean no harm and we simply need repairs done to our ship so we can be on our way.”

Notem growled. "A likely ploy..." he said and was about to give the order to his fighters to fire when the Grand Admiral intervened on another communications channel.

~Lone Ranger, this is Grand Admiral Lavality Serendivus, please stand by while a supply ship is launched to tractor your ship to our base.~

Notem growled. "How can see trust the words of that pilot.. for all 'she' knows they may have explosives on board!" He said.

~Thats true, they might. But I don't sense any malice from them, Captain Notem Warten~

He felt his gut twist, he hadn't realized that, while he had closed the communications line to the ship, he had accidently lef the fleet line open. "My... apologize's ma'am..." he said relunctantly.

In the distance a ship suddenly appeared going at high speed; it racked the side of the carrier at such a way that the carrier shuddered and listed to port. "DAMN PILOT JOCKEYS!" Notem shouted as his helmsman wristled control over the ship.

When the small medium sized fight vessel arrived it locked on two tractor beams and slowly began to pull the ship toward the base. The fighters that were around it followed in formation, some using reverse thrusters so they where facing the opposide directions they where going.

As the group passed the carrier; the carrier then took up an escort position behind the Lone Ranger, allowing the fighters that had been using reverse thrust to suddenly spin around and fly straight.

Lavality watched from another viewscreen as the tractor ship passed the first line of defense, a ring of platforms comprised of missile, laser and straff cannons. At first the gunner stared at the Lone Ranger but then repositioned themselves to face forward and scan the area.

The small fighter continued through the winding trial that lead to HQ. As they neared base the bath got narrower and narrower, finally the fighter had to disengage tractor control and use it's magnetic clamps to get the transport through. "Remind me to talk to the admiral about widening this path..." The pilot of the tractor ship said as he looked up at the asteriods that were fairly close to him.

After a hair raising flight they came out and into view of the station. As the ship continued through two Crescent Reten fighters approuched them, after a brief stop the flight continued.

"This is supply officer Cres, to flight control. Request permission to land." Cres said as he piloted the ship around the station, his fighter escort began to fly away one by one, the last fighter gave him a thumbs up through the cockpit before flying off.

~Supply Officer Cres, Land in Docking Bay 65.~

"Bay 65?..... that's the admirals personel bay..." Cres said. "Roger flight control"

He flew the ship toward the bottom of the station; that area was dark and had almost completely covered the bay he was tasked with landing in. Finally several green 'orbs' appeared in space in front of the bay, signifying that he was cleared.

With a smooth turn he guided his ship into the bay and down the long tube; he kept going further into the station until finally he came upon a large door.

A hissing sound shread around him as the door behind closed and the small bay he was in pressured with oxygen, then the door in front of him parted and he continued into the bay 64. He looked through the bottom viewer and saw the grand admiral standing with her arms folded.

The flight was nearly over; he snapped his wrist to the right and brough the craft around, then descended toward the deck below. When the transport was on the deck he disengaged the magnetic clamps and flew up and toward another tunnel, this one would take him 'back' to the bay he was flown out of. With a salute to the grand admiral, he disappeared into the tunnel.

Lavality smiled. I can sense them better now... she said and waited for them to come out.

Rane breathed a sigh of relief: they weren’t going to be blown to bits after all. Silonik, instead of looking relieved, looked ecstatic. “Lavality! I know her!” The youth said excitedly. “She trained at the Academy with us for a while!” This relieved Rane even more. If what Silonik said was true, of which he had no doubt, they were among friends indeed. It was then Mortor finally came out of the bathroom, looking like he kind of fell in when they were jolted out of hyperspace.

“Mortor! We are going to see Lavality! Remember her!?” Silonik asked him excitedly.

“Not…really….” Mortor admitted, looking like he was more worried about his now wet and soiled clothing.

Rane could only chuckle and waited as a supply ship arrived and started towing them to the base. What worried him a little was that the fighters remained around them and later the carrier itself joined the escort. What was making them so nervous? Of course….Silonik may know Lavality, but does Lavality know Silonik is aboard? He realized.

Another reason came clear to them when they got close to the base. A few bays were a buzz of activity, but looked far from being in working order. Apparently the base had recently been under attack: no wonder they were defensive!

As they were guided into their final approach, Rane spotted a small figure watching the proceedings that had a look of authority about her: funny, she seemed a bit young to be in charge of anything. “That’s her!” Silonik said excitedly. “That’s Lavality!”

The moment they were on solid ground, Silonik rushed to the hatch and opened it: the little guy couldn’t get out fast enough! He bolted down the ramp and dashed toward the girl, jumping into her arms.

Thankfully Mortor was much more reserved about it (though that was probably due to his soiled clothing) and allowed Rane to simply lead him out and onto the deck. “It seems you two know each other.” Rane said with a faint smile as he approached. “Silonik calm down…you don’t want to smother the poor girl do you?”