Kessel System.......

The fleet emerged from hyperspace well within the Kessel System. Consisting of two Shoto class Battlecruisers and one Warlord class Dropship, as well as four Kessel class pickets, and an assortment of older vessels, being confiscated by Dameun officers in orbit above Kessel, former Spice smuggling vessels, now being used as transports. The fleet formed up into a rough column, and proceeded on an outbound trajectory, headed torwards the third planet in the Kessel system, a frozen barren wasteland of a world called Karedda. The planet was currently on a declining course torwards the black holes of the Maw Cluster, and this fleet was on a mission to establish a mining colony on the planet, so that it may provide the Dameun empire with the materiels needed to maintain it while it still exists within their borders. There was expected to be some kind of a colony or hideout or stopping point for smugglers, for there always was on a planet so close to the world of Kessel. The Dameuns made it a point to strangle as much smuggled spice as possible, in order to keep good their stiff taxes on spice, and the hefty profit they made off of selling it to independent groups. The fleet surged forwards, the two Shotos and four Kessel pickets accelerating ahead of the main group. The Farfalen Admiral in charge of the fleet noticed some activity occuring near some formerly active volcanoes in the northwestern hemisphere of the planet. The four Kessel class pickets and one of the two Shoto class cruisers were dispatched to investigate this activity. A flurry of rockets streaked from the mountians in their general direction. The ships activated their shields, but well shy of the taskforce, the missiles detonated, setting of minituare solar flares designed to blind the sensors of the vessels. Seeing this convinced the Farfalen Admiral of the situation at hand. Curtly and subtly, he reached into his uniform's pocket and withdrew a comlink linked to the ship's hypercomm. He spoke several quite words, then replaced the comlink within his pocket, and turned to the navigator.

Several minutes later, the sensors had been restored, and had revealed that the flares were a decoy for a large force of ships to begin withdrawing from the system. The lead unit was an old dreadnought of the Palpatine era, and there were also six corvettes, and ten large cargo freighters. All the makings of a spice smuggling organization that had made substantial profit from it's dealings of spice stolen from the Farfalen warehouses, and of which Admiral Harker had no intention of letting them get away with. As the ships began their run up to lightspeed, two white streaks shot past them, reverting from hyperspace themselves, to stop well in front of their trajectories. The Immobilizer-418 cruisers immediatly activated their gravity well projectors, stopping the enemy ships from getting into hyperspace. The ships had jumped directly from Kessel, and were here to hold the enemy fleet at bay. Realizing the predicament they were in, the enemy cargo freighters scattered while the enemy capital ships formed into a line of battle, heading directly for the interdictors. At that moment Harker looked at his navigator, to whom he had given orders some minutes ago, and nodded. The stars in front of the flagship breifly reached long lines, and then reverted to their original form. The Shoto class cruiser had executed a microjump, and allowing to be pulled out by the interdictor's gravity wells, was now right on top of the enemy dreadnought. The enemy force was caught by suprise, and their formation dissolved as the corvettes broke off to flee. The dreadnought opened fire on the Shoto, but it's beam cannons were no match for the shields of the battlecruiser. It responded by firing it's heavy turbolaser cannons and wyvern cannons point blank into the weakest point of the dreadnought, shattering the shields located there, and burrowing their way into the ship's hull. With a groan, the ship's ancient reactor died, leaving the dreadnought drifting, powerless. But the Shoto was not done yet. Next her torpedo octects came off of the hull, and fired at the corvettes. Five octects each targeted a corvette, totalling forty proton torpedoes for each ship. No corvette could sustain such damage, even if they did managed to shot down some of the torpedoes, which in fact they did. But in the end it did not save them.

In five minutes of combat the scum had been defeated, their flagship having been disabled and being boarded now, their covettes being utterly obliterated, and of their large cargo freighters, six of them attempted to slip past the two interdictors, and were destroyed by them, while the other four surrendered under the guns of the Kessel class pickets, which had finally arrived at the battle scene themselves. The enemy flagship was being boarded, and it's troops were for the most part dead, having suffocated when the turbolaser bolts had penetrated the hull of the ship. Apparently she was too old, and her ventilation and hull doors were not up to standard specs in terms of coping with sudden air loss. The large cargo freighters were more fortunate, and would serve the Imperium well as additional transports. After the Dameums got all the information out of the organization as they could out of the dreadnought's computers, the ship would be towed to a scrapping and smelting facility. In the meantime, the other Shoto class cruiser had secured that there were no other ships or concealed weapons at the base of the enemies operations, although self-destruct charges were evidentley detonating, tearing the base apart. The cruiser began an ion cannon bombardement in order to disable any other bombs that may have been set, and apparently was able to save about half of the base. The warlord class dropships were then sent down to disgorge their loads of zero-gee Dameum troops. While this was happened, the Admiral was to report to General Grevious the progress of the invasion and securing of the planet, as well when construction would fully begin on the mining facilites and spaceport on the planet's surface. Smiling tightly to himself on a well executed operation, the Admiral headed back into the ships communications chambers, and closed the door behind him.

Communications chamber aboard the Shoto Cruiser Kirishima

"Communications, set up a hololink from my station to that of General Grevious in the Tion Cluster." said Admiral Harker.

"Sir, we are unable to reach General Grevious at this current time. Reports from his staff indicate he is away on some mission." reported his communications officer.

"Hmm, it probably has something to do with the recent incidents with the Galatic Coalition, and our border regions. Very well then, prepare a holo-recording." said the Admiral.

"Recording is ready whenever you are Admiral." said the officer.

"General Grevious, this is Admiral Harker of the Farfalen Expeditionary Force reporting. We have secured the planet of Karedda in the Kessel system. We have encountered another smuggling operation on the surface of the planet and have eliminated it, with their dreadnought and four cargo ships being captured, and another fourteen ships being eliminated. We are currently sending inquisitors to follow up the leads gained from their databanks, in order to root out this smuggling activity. We estimate that three billion units of currency will be saved yearly by eliminating this group's activities. As for the mining operation on the planet it's self, the transports are now proceeding with the landing. I will send an update when they have firmly established themselves on the surface of the planet. As for casualites sustained in the engagement, I am proud to report than none were sustained. Admiral Harker out." reported the Admiral.

"End transmission, encode, and send off right away." said the Admiral as he stood from his kneeling position.

"Yes sir, the report is on it's way." said the communications officer.

Admiral Harker strode out of the communications chamber and headed for the hangar bay of the ship. He stopped off at a communications console, and keyed in the frequencey for the hangar boss. He told him to prepare his private shuttle, and that he would be arriving shortly. Along the way to the hangar bay he stopped off at the pilot's quarters and selected two Dameun fliers that were devotley doing nothing at all at the moment, and told them to accompany him. Moments later he was in the shuttle as it departed from the hangar bay of the Shoto cruiser and headed down torwards the planet below, with two Tion Deathgliders providing escort for his personal shuttle.....

Approaching Karedda's surface from orbit

The landing dropship Two-Eleven fired it's repulsorlifts as it settled onto the rocky surface of the planet. With a gentle bump the freighter was on the surface of the planet. Two airlocks hissed open on the ship's side, their complements of air escaping into the almost non-existant atmosphere. Stepping out of the airlocks were four men, two to each chamber, all wearing enviro-spacesuits, and each carrying a good amount of equipment, including a hover equipment sled from one of the airlocks. The men moved out over the terrain, and when they reached a distance of about fifty meters from the ship, they stopped, and turned on the sensors on their sled. The sensors would probe the ground beneath their feet, and tell them where a good source of minerals to mine where. Behind them, the ramp to the main cargo bay of the bulk freighter opened to the ground, and out came rolling two large tracked construction droids, half of the height of normal such droids. One of them used it's cutting lasers to start flattening out an area of ground fifty meters behind the freighter, slicing apart jagged rock formations, and using roller pins to help flatten out the remaining rock. This area the droid would use to construct base camp for the mining operation. The other droid moved to follow the team, staying at a distance of twenty five meters to avoid setting off their sensors. Soon the team found a nice source of ore, and the droid moved in to mine it as they moved on. A laser cutting drill ate into the ground, digging in as the droid sent a signal back to the frieghter, which then sent another signal to another freighter in orbit. At that signal, the freighter began it's descent into the atmosphere. In it's cargo holds were portable smelter and processing units that would be used to turn the mined ore into durasteel that would be used in the construction of base camp.

Inside the former base of the smugglers

Black Dragon Empire dropships landed inside the hangars of the former enemy base, disgorging shock teams of Dameun troops to secure the base and recover any vital information. The possibility that something could have been left behind on accident could not be discounted. Corridors were searched, rooms scanned, booby-traps triggered, loss of life was moderate. Then one team, number A13, reached a heavy durasteel door that led into what was believed to be the control room beyond. The Dameun soldiers began to place charges on the door when it suddenly opened. Out into the corridor rolled four ancient relics of machinerey, a fair amount of rust showing on some of their parts. They stopped as the Dameun troops opened fire with their blaster rifles, for no effect; these droids had powerful shields. Then the droids deployed, revealing themselves as Droidekas. The Dameun troops had never before seen such droids, but they knew a threat when they saw one. All ten of the members of the team immediatley dove behind cover as the four droids opened fire. One of the team member's choice of cover, an old wooden palate, proved to be a wrong choice as the palate was splintered by rapid blaster fire, the trooper being riddled to death with blaster bolts. Three of the troops threw sonic grenades into the corridor besides the droids, and all of the troops then covered their ears as blasts rippled through the corridor. One of the droids, having one grenade land to either side of it, collasped, and exploded. Then a second team, summoned by a distress call by the first team, reached the corridor. This team consisted of four perfect soliders mark 1, or PSM1s for short. The soldiers immediatly opened fire with their very powerful blaster cannons, punching through two of the droid's sheields that had been weakened by the sonic grenades and explosive demise of the first droid. These other two were quickly demolished, leaving just one to open fire upon them. The remaining nine troops of company A13 joined in with three remaining PSM1s on raining fire down upon this droid, destroying it within fifteen seconds, although another trooper was killed in the process. The remaining troops and PSM1s, reinforced by twenty troops from two other companies, proceeded into the chamber, and what lay beyond.......

On the surface of Karedda, one standard week after the invasion....

The new mining colony was coming along better than expected. As it turns out, there is actually quite a rich source of metals here, and that fact is now being taken advantage of by the Kessel Mining Corporation. The KMC had now established four good sized colonies on the planet, each one contaning 250 citizens, and metal here was now being strip mined at a rate of about five hundred units per a day. There was now a site where two manufacturing plants were being constructed, to where finished metal would be the only thing shipped offplanet. Also under construction was a permanent spaceport and docking facility for the planet's defenses, and as a small fleetbase if necessary. Right now though stationed at the planet was a fleet of six Shoto class battlecruisers, their six permanent docks still under construction, the battlecruisers having to remain in orbit in the meantime until the docks are finished. Also being stationed here will be a full wing of deathgliders, although only two of them will be in permanent residence, the base being used as a fighter training facilites for new squadrons being trained up to novice standards within the Empire. Also zero-G troops and infiltration units will use the base in the future for infiltrations into enemy moon bases.

Right now six bulk cruisers were in orbit, each six hundred meters long, docked to a commerical lines space station siezed from the orbit of Kessel when the planet was first captured by Farfalen forces oh so long ago. Ore haulers were coming up from the surface to the station, where their loads were offloaded, and transferred into modules, which were then loaded onto the bulk cruisers. The cruisers would depart then from the station to the manufacturing plants on the planet of Kessel, the backbone of their manufacturing corporations.

Meanwhile, on the Shoto class cruiser Kirishima, Admiral Vincent Harker was well pleased with the overall results of the operation. The Black Dameum Dragons had once again made their empire more secure, eliminating another group of pirates and smugglers, and had siezed yet another piece of real estate property within their rightfully claimed borders, as well as establishing yet another much needed resource depot for their ever expanding empire. However, they needed much more, but his job here was done. Operations would now be turned over to his subordinate, Kesla, in order to further explore the planet, and to establish the mining planet in full in it's current role capacity, as well as the needed work to get the military base located there up and running. Taking one last look at the dull gray world, he departed the bridge of his once loved battlecruiser, and headed down to the shuttle bay, were a ship was standing by to return him to Hargeeva. His next command was awaiting him there.

On the planet of Karedda....

The training facility for Dameun zero-g troops was nearing completion. The facility could host a battlation worth of troops at anyone time. They were three hundred quarters, dual bunks for two hundred of them for the enlisted men, and the remaining one hundred rooms with single bunks for the officers. This base would also serve as a starfighter facility if necessary, and right now half a wing of Deathgliders were gaining valuable combat experience on the moon's surface. One such practice was occuring over at a mountian range right now that according to the mineral exploiter explorer droids were largely devoid of useful metals to be mined. There were three squadrons engaged in the exercise, one of the best attack wings in the Empire. Since there were not many recent wars or skirmishes, they needed to keep in practice, and so these training excercies were meant to do just that. Currently Squadron Alpha was preparing to engage a series of ground targets. These were juggernaught assault vehicles and Ultra Light Assault Vehicles, armed with a array of missile launchers, and laser cannons. The squadron commander, Capitan Kappler, lead the squadron in to the fight in delta formation.

"Alp four, five and six, target and eliminate portside ultralight. Alp seven, eight and nine, do the same thing to the starboarside ultralight. Remaining Alphas, form up on me for the run on the juggers. Two to each one, target and eliminate immediatly, then evade enemy return fire as necessary. Deploy and attack." ordered Alpha Leader.

Three deathgliders broke off from the primary group, and attacked the portside ultralight. It fired it's light and heavy laser cannons at the incoming deathgliders, which responded by firing their own laser cannons at the vehicles. Hits were seen by both sides before the deathgliders broke off. Alpha five had taken laser damage on that run that had scored his right wing, disabling the laser cannon on it. The ultra-light had taken several hits and exploded, raining shrapnel on the moon below and out into space. Another three deathgliders broke off from the main group, and attacked the starboard side, and again with similar results, except this time Alpha nine took damage to his engines that caused him to lose half of his maximum speed. With the two ultras gone, the remaining Alpha units were free to focus on the juggernaught assault vehicles. Alpha leader himself dove on the nearest one, joined by Alpha two. The juggernaughts fired their concussion missiles. All Alphas except for a new pilot, Alpha eleven, fired their laser cannons in short bursts in order to destroy the missiles targeting them and their wingmans, in which they were successful, all but one of the missiles being destroyed in flight. The remaining missile went after Alpha eleven, who had made a mistake in pulling up. The missile caught up to his fleeing craft and exploded, taking him with it. Alpha leader shook his head, and then they proceeded to destroy the juggernaught assault vehicle.

Fucking Log in/Log out piece of shit.

On the planet's surface...

A special ceremony was to be held this evening, put on by the Commodore, to celebrate all that has happened with the planet since it's conquest began so long ago. For some reason progress has been halted by one special event or another, but finally the proper ceremony to annouce the planet's occupation by the Dameun Dragons would commence. One main reason that a ceremony had not even been considered in the first place was the lack of the planet's populace, this being considered a cold dead planet, no real place to gladly announce a planet's capitulation. But in fact the planet had been inhabitited by the smuggler organization that had made their home here, and since their ousting, a miner's city had been constructed in the mountian range as an entertainment district for the people involved in the mining efforts, and living space for some of them, along with their families, associates, and other visitors. When the planet's population had reached five million people a week ago thanks to a new batch of civilians arriving on planet, it was decided to go ahead and commence with the ceremony of celebration. And since it would be such a grand event, a good portion of the Farfalen fleet was present at the ceremony, mostly battlecruisers and a Zen-class Command Ship. Tion Deathgliders were everywhere, escorting shuttles and pleasure yachts, putting on airshows for the populace and captians of the ships, or just patrolling for any signs of danger. Onboard the Shoto class cruiser Kirishima, the Commodore Harker was preparing for the ceremony, with the assistance of his handy dandy droid-aide, Quicksilver.

"Hmmm, first thing that would be the most important, is what suit should I wear to the ceremony Q? I have many selections to choose from, although the main three I was considering was the classical Dameun Jet Black with Blood Red stripes down the center, but also a couple of Imperialistic suits, one blood red, and another plain white, like their Grand Admirals sometimes wear." said the Commodore.

"Sir, I believe you should go inline with protocol and wear your Dameun Commodore's Suit." said the droid.

"Very well then Q, I will do just that. Besides, a black suit with blood red stripes would give off a perfect effect with the background of space. With that I will wear my white gloves, but no hat. I will let them see my black hair. I will shave my moustache, and beard, but leave my sideburns down to my lower ear. And finally, I will round it off with my leather black boots." said the Commodore.

"Very good sir. When will you being getting dressed?" asked the droid.

"How about right now?" asked the Commodore.

"Very good sir, I will prepare your bath." said the droid as he wandered off, leaving the Commodore to reflect on his speech notes while preparing for the bath.