"It's still on our tail sir." The Tran at the comm said.

Tiosk nodded in acknowledgement. "Good."

The Bloodfang was on the far side of the gas giant the moon Tissuss belong to, with a Trandoshan destroyer giving chase. They could have easily blown the pursuing ship to pieces, but Tiosk felt that would have been a waste. Instead he sought to keep this one and any other Trandoshan ships in the area busy to give the Wookiee ship, which he heard had been badly damaged, time to escape.

It was an easy enough task to do, for Bloodfang was one of the more advanced ships in the Trandoshan fleet and could easily out pace most of the fleet if Tiosk really wanted to. But Tiosk knew that in order to keep the ships busy he needed to keep them interested and for a Trandoshan all that was needed was to stay just out of their firing range. Trandoshans were a stubborn lot and refused to give up unless they had no other choice: Tiosk intended to use that against them.

The chase continued around the gas giant and their sensors picked up another ship just ahead.

"Sir! Another destroyer just ahead. Looks like it's about to do a planetary bombardment on the moon Tissuss!"

Why would they bombard an uninhabited moon? Tiosk thought. Unless...

"What is the status of our main gun?" He asked.

"It will take a minute before it's ready to fire sir. But once we fire it we will be without power to the hyperdrive for an hour..."

"I know full well the limitations of using are main weapon." Tiosk said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Prepare to fire it upon that Destroyer over Tissuss."

"But sir...if we stop the one on our rear will be in range to fire."

"Then we don't stop." Tiosk said. "Proceed."

"Yes sir..."

What a surprise it must have been for the crew on that ship, thinking they were about to achieve a moment great glory by destorying the helpless Triton on the surface, only to suddenly find themselves face to face with their ancestors as the Bloodfang's main gun tore through the hull of their ship, causing it implode immedately, killing those that didn't die in the initial blow. The Bloodfang didn't stop as instructed, continuing on right past the now destroyed Destroyer, which was being pulled into the atmosphere by the moons gravity.

"Scans show that the Triton is on the moons surface. Trajectory readings indicate that the debris from the destroyed ship should crash well away from it." The comm officer said.

"Good. Hate to think we saved them from one from a death...only to cause another to literally rain down ontop of them." Tiosk said.

"Sir! We are picking up another ship in the area!"

"What!?" Tiosk snapped around.

"It's not one of 'ours'." The Tran said, which brough a small measure of relief to the captain. "But it's an Interdictor-class Cruiser"

Crap...even if we didn't use the main gun we wouldn't have been able to jump to hyperspace anyway. Tiosk thought, knowing about that kind of ships capabilities. "What is that ship's status?"

"It has a weapons lock on us...but it's not looking like it's about to fire...yet."

"Probably unsure of our intentions." Tiosk reasoned. "Do not power up weapons or confront it in any way. Just pretend it's not there...with full shields up of course."

"Yes Captain."

The captain stared at the screen and watched as the Trandoshan destroyer had been blown away, when another ship flew right by it heading in a path away from them

"Its a trandoshan ship... but it fired on its own race", The captain said in a curious tone

"Scan complete sir", the sensor's officer said, he moved his chair over to another screen and typed in some commands, "Unknown type sir, can't get a reading on it at all.. its hull fooled our sensors"

"Interesting, must have some type of sensor absorbing hull", she said and licked her lower lip, "Are they in any position to attack?"

"No sir. In fact, if I was to guess, there trying to move away from us"

"Typical, very few things can stand up against this ship", she said. "Any more ships coming?", she said

"Yes sir, that ship sent out a beacon before it was destroyed... there's a fleet approuching and its neither trandoshan nor wookiee", the sensor office moved over to another station, "Uhh sir... we have pirates"

She stared at the screen, "Ship types?", she asked

"Counting.. 6 Intercepter Class Escort Carriers and 7 YV-666 frieghters.. and... oh crap..", The sensor's office said pulling away from the screen

The captain stared at him, "Talk to me...", she said

"Sir! We have an additional Interdictor class cruiser appearing!", he yelled

"There pirates.. shoulda known that was coming", she said, "Fire off a message to the fleet!", she yelled

"Yes sir!", The com officer replied

"ALL HANDS THIS IS THE CAPTAIN, RED ALART ARM ALL WEAPONS, FIGHTERS TO YOU'RE STATIONS", the captain yelled over the loud speaker," Time?"

"5 minutes sir before they reach us, the Carriers are making a Bee-Line for the disabled Triton, sir.. even if we break off the engagement with the Interdictor we won't make it to the Triton in time", The sensor's office said

"Crap", The captain said and moved over to her chair, "Then lets just hope that one Trandoshan ship knows of a way to piss those Carriers off"

***

Lumier and Merendez had been working on the imperial base's orbital defense gun's, which hadn't been disabled just shut down

"Should we try to activiate it?", Merendez said

Lumier was listening to the com's, "Power it up! Things are about to turn ugly up in orbit", she yelled

Merendez didn't say a word, she pushed the controls upward and the systems began coming online, slowly. "I'm surprised this base has power"

"Yea I know, the reactors must still be charged up", Lumier said. She looked at the sensors screen but it didn't com online, "Looks like we'll have to relie on the Triton's sensor package to aim the guns", she said

"Weapons coming online, ion cannon one is online, two, three and four are... slowly coming online", Merendez said

"FOUR?!?!?", Lumier said in disbelief, "Why have four ion cannons in one base?, most base's had only one, sometimes two, but never FOUR!", she yelled

"Don't yell at me.. there must be a reason", Lumier said.. her question was answered when a screen appeared and showed a cargo bay, body's littered the floor, all skeletons. Tritanium bar's had been chewed away and the door leading toward a shaft had also been chewed away, "Looks like my question was answered.. what ever the imperials did here they wanted to make sure it was kept a secret"

"The triton is targeting the first Carrier for us", Merendez said

Lumier nodded and took her attention away from the screen. As she looked away something brushed the camera and the screen went dark. "Prepare to fire", she said

"The Ion cannon is used to disable enemie ships.. but these particuler cannon's are modified to destroy ships, not disable", she said

"We'll take them apart and figure it out AFTER we defend ourselfs now prepare to fire!", She yelled

"Yes ma'am", Merendez said

Tiosk could only stare blankly at the comm officer when he got the word.

"You're @#%$ kidding me right?" He asked.

"No sir, you can look at the scans yourself to confirm." The officer said.

He shook his head, one hand rubbing at the base of his head ridges. He couldn't be sure if the pirates were acting on their own, having gotten word of the downed destroyer and coming to get easy pickings, or if the Council actually hired them. Considering the type and number of ships...he felt it was more likely to be the latter.

Forteen ships of considerable power: this must be some bad ass pirate group... Tiosk thought. "What's the status of that first Interdictor cruiser?"

"Looks like it's getting ready to engage the pirates Interdictor. The six Intercepters are heading for the moon, ignoring it. Status on the frieghters is unknown."

"Plus we still have that destroyer on our tail." Tiosk grumbled, rubbing his ridges again. "What's the status of our main gun?"

"It's ready to fire sir. But any further shots will drain the power from our main drives until the hyperdrive is back up."

Tiosk nodded, figuring as much. "We'll have to be sneaky then." He said, getting an idea as he came down to take a look at the ships positions. "See those two Intercepters at the end of the row here? Fly us right between them."

The navigotor blanched at that. "Sir...there's barely enough clearance for this ship."

"Be enough for us...but not for that destroyer on our tail." Tiosk said, grinning wickedly.

If the Captains of the other ships were paying attention they would have thought the Bloodfang was being Captained by a madman. The ship passed between the two Intercepters easily, no doubt making members of the crew on those two ships do a double take. The Trandoshan Destroyer, thinking it could fit too, tried to follow.

Unfortunately, the standard Trandoshan Destroyer was a bit larger in girth then the Bloodfang and one of its trailing edges ended up ramming into one of the Interceptors near it's engines. The force of the impact caused it to 'bounce' off that Interceptor and into the one next to it, causing massive damage to both. The icing on the cake was when one of the first Interceptor's main engines went critical, causing a chain reaction along that ship.

"Excellent." Tiosk said, pleased with the result. "Now lets kick this girl into high gear and see about the remaining four."

"Sir! Incoming Ion Cannon fire!"

"From where!?"

"The surface!"

Tiosk and the rest of the bridge crew could only watch as four ion shots flew by them, barely missing them, and into one of the undamaged Interceptors. Instead of disabiling it, these shots seemed to cause a massage electrical overload and the ship exploded.

"Ok...those are no ordinary Ion cannons." Tiosk muttered. "Keep us going at full speed...I don't want to end up at the recieving end of one of those.
"Take us between another two of those Interceptors...and pepper them with cannon fire while we are passing through."

After that...we can expect some retailuation...." He thought.

The captain of the Interdictor watched the screen with amusement, "Who would've though a captain would try a tactic like that", she said. "Remind to ask that captain if he wants to join the fleet, we could use people like them", she said

"Sir! Enemy Interdictor is targeting one of our grav pods", The sensor officer yelled

"Hard to starboard, prepare to fire all weapons!", she yelled

The interdictor moved to starboard, showing its under carrage all turrets in that area fired in unison

"Launch Gold squadron and order him to pepper that interdictor with torpedo's", She yelled

The sensor officer watched the displays, A squadron appeared on the screen marking "Gold"

The torpedo bombers, or the K-wings, flew through space away from the enemy, they then turned and flew toward it on a relative heading that could suggest they where going to fly right past it... but if anyone had been looking closely they would've noticed that the squad was "Strafing" through space

"Sir, there on course", the com officer said while listening to the chatter coming from the ships

"INC Ion Blasts!", The sensor officer said. The captain stared at the screen as two more intercepters took hits in there reactors and blossumed

The captain nodded, "4 down.. only a couple more to g-", she said

"Sir! Enemy is launching fighters! There on course for the planet", the sensor officer yelled

"Target them with our cannons", the captain yelled... "FIRE!"

The four turbolaser batterys opened fire, the blasts flew across space. 3 of the batterys laser fire successfully destroyed several fighters, but the 4th one found a different target... The bloodfang, the laser blast splashed across the hull

The sensor officer winced, "Oops", she said

"Whats with the 'oops' officer?", The captain said

"Uhhh, I hope that tran ship doesn't take that as an act of aggression", the officer said trying to act calmly

The captain sighed, "For you're sake anyway", she said

The enemy interdictor suddenly changed course and began heading toward the planet. The frighters took up postion's on all sides, effectily shielding it from there fire

"Its out of our range now.. sir we can't catch up to it", The sensor officer said in disbelief

"We can't.. but gold squadron can", she said

***

Merendez and Lumier continued to target ship after ship, the cooling coils on the ion cannons where beginning to overload

"One more shot is all we have", she said

"According to the Triton, we have a big ship heading toward the planet. They've provided some firing cords for us", Lumier said, "Inputing them now"

Merendez changed the postion of the guns just a tad and aimed them at the incoming enemy interdictor, "ready when you are", she said

"Fire!"

***

Squad Leader Vilon was piloting one of the torpedo bombers when he and his squad got up close and personnel with the enemy interdictor, apperently they hadn't been spotted.

"All ships, arm you're torpedos", he said

"Incoming from the planet surface", another wingmen yelled

"FIRE AND FLEE!", the squad leader yelled

6 Torpedo bombers launched there torpedo's, space was filled with more than 60 torpedo's from different directions. The K-wings flew backward away from the enemy and out into space

"Torpedo's with inpact at the same time those ion cannons will", the squad leader said

"Three laser batteries and one ion cannon are offline on the port side Captain." The comm officer reported. "Crews are already on the way to get them back online. Should we retalulate?"

Tiosk shook his head. "I feel it was an honest mistake. In the heat of battle mistakes will happen."

"Sir the two Intercepters we did a drive by on before seem to want to have a 'word' with us."

"Really? Well lets not disappoint them."

The Bloodfang charged toward the last two Interceptors, opening fire with all of it's laser batteries. The Interceptors were close together too close to fly between them this time, but Tiosk had an idea. He had the ship fly right at them with no hint of slowing down or changing it's course. The interceptors natually veared away, not wanting to get rammed again.

This was exactly what Tiosk wanted them to do. Not only did the Bloodfang get another strafing run along both Interceptors flanks, but as a parting shot the ship openned up with it's missle silos, sending two concusion missles each into the rears of the Interceptors.

Concussion missles and engines don't mix: you get the rest.

The Bloodfang turned about just in time to see the enemy Interdictor go up, taking out by a combination of the moons ion cannons and the fighter squads proton torpedos.

"Damage report!" Tiosk commanded.

"Frontal shields at 1%. Several laser batteries offline, two ion cannons offline. Loss of communations on port level 5 and 3 and starboard level 2. So far from reports only one serious and a dozen or so injuries to personnel"

"Not bad...for what we pulled today." Tiosk said, smiling. "What's the status on those freighters?"

"Looks like had enough: They are turning tail."

"Considering all their big guns are gone I would to!" Tiosk laughed.

A sudden loud exclemenation cut Tiosk's merth short and the Captain looked over at the sensor officer. "What is it?"

"Multiple incoming signitures sir...and you are not going to like it..."

Tiosk went over to the sensor officers station to look for himself.

If Trandoshan scales were capable of changing color...he would be white right now...

"Sir! Incoming hyperspace signitures", the sensor officer said

The captain looked at the displays, and smiled

Space around the moon suddenly twisted and folded as more than 18 ships of various classes appeared, both imperial and rebel along with an unaligned craft that no one would be able to reconize

"Looks like the flagship sent half the fleet", The captain said with a satisfieing smile

"There targeting the fraighters, com line is open"

~This is the Fleet Saren Divoday's to pirate freighters, stand down at once or we will open fire~

Naturaly the freighters stopped and gave up, two of the carriers in the fleet launched there shuttles to capture the freighters

The captain looked away from the screen, it only took a couple minutes and the freighters where under there control, the freighters where docked with several of the carriers and the carrier hypered out. Before the rest of the fleet left a message was beamed over to the Captain

"They want to know if we'll be staying?", The captain said, "Tell them we'll catch up in a bit"

"Sir! The Aegis-class Star Cruiser "Lovinas" and "Hitokan" are targeting the trandoshan ship, orders?", The sensor officer said

"Order them not to fire", she said. And walked off the bridge

***

Lumier and Merendez sighed and a sigh of relief, the battle was over according to the Triton's sensors, another fleet appeared but had quickly left after capturing the freighters

"Well, lets get going back t-", Lumier said before hearing a noise, she grabbed her rifle and looked around..

Merendez was looking through the camera's and noticed that several had been knocked out, "These camera's where online just a few minutes ago.. something knocked them out", she said

"Great, whats next?", she said before the wall behind her suddenly exploded. She flew head over heel and slid across teh floor. Merendez grabed her arm and they made a bee-line for the door and out

"What the hell was that thing?!", Lumier yelled

"No idea, but it wants us for lunch", Merendez said

“All known enemy ships have either been destroyed or surrendered Sir.”

Tiosk didn’t like the term ‘known’ in that sentence. “What about those new arrivals, what are they doing.”

“Looks like they are ignoring us for the most part sir…wait…Sir two of the Aegis class ships are targeting us!”

Tiosk’s grip on the rail tightened: his ship wasn’t in ‘bad’ shape, but getting into a tangle with those two ships would no doubt quickly damage her further. “Only attack if they do.” He warned, preferring to avoid another fight if he could.

There was a long moment of tension as the two Aegis ships hovered within firing range, all their weapons trained on the Bloodfang. Then, with a great sigh of relief from Tiosk and his crew, the two Aegis Class ships turned away and entered hyperspace to join the rest of their fleet.

“Looks like the Captain of that Interdictor put in a good word for us.” Tiosk muttered to himself. “Alright, looks like we got a reprieve!” He said to the bridge crew. “Lets see about getting this girl back to 100%!”

“Aye Sha’tor!”

***

Lumier and Merendez ran through the outpost compound, the creature close behind them, it’s long tail smashing deep dents into the walls as it went. They really only caught glimpses of it when they looked back to take a pot shot at it: a metallic arm here, long snapping reptilian jaws there. Piecing the glimpses together it seemed to be a large green scaled reptiod that had one arm replaced by a cybernetic one. Shooting at it only seemed to piss it off even more, it’s roars becoming louder and angrier.

When they finally made it out of the building, they saw a couple of the Trandoshan warriors that were out on patrol. They called out to them for assistance, but when the warriors saw the thing...they fled.

“And Silliss was ragging to me about how our marines were cowards!” Lumier grumbled as she fired off another shot at the thing.

“We’ll just have to offer some ketchup to go with his foot.” Merendez said, hopping into the truck. Lumier jumped into the bed of the truck and fired off a stream of shots, delaying the creature enough for Merendez to start up the truck and speed off, nearly causing Lumier to fall out.

“And you complain about my driving!?” Lumier shouted.

The thing didn’t seem to tire and chased them all the way back to the Triton where the marines on guard opened fire. Again, any Trandoshans in the area quickly disappeared, not offering any assistance in the least. Lumier did managed to catch the look of pure fear in their eyes. Overwhelmed by blaster fire, the creature finally turned and fled.

“You know…I think there is something else going on here.” Merendez said. “A couple of Trandoshans fleeing from the thing is odd enough…but all of them?”

When they tried to talk to any of them…all they got was one word: K’Satizitus

***

“Is the sun up yet?” Naosha’s voice was heard through the door.

“No, but we have a mystery to solve involving your people.” Merendez replied. “We’re hoping you can shed some light on it.”

The door opened and Naosha’s head poked out. “What sort of mystery?” She asked.

“We were attacked by a large monstrosity at the outpost and any Trandoshan that saw it fled from it faster then a cat from water.” Lumier explained. “After we drove it off we tried to talk to them, but they would only say one thing: K’Satizitus.”

Naosha’s eyes went very wide, the fear evident on her face. It didn’t last long, for she shook her head as logic took hold. She slipped out of the room completely and closed the door behind her.

“Rissonik or even Silliss would be a better choice to explain…” She said. “But I’ll do my best.

“K’Satizitus means ‘blood beast’ in our tongue.” She explained. “Many generations ago such a beast terrorized our people, slaughtering dozens while our warriors couldn’t even touch the thing. It moved so fast that many were cut down before they even knew it was there. Finally a warrior was able to corner it in it’s cave and slay it. That warrior soon founded the K’Satikur Clan.
“Even though it is dead, the fear of it remains ingrained into my people’s minds to this day: some say it knew of the Force…thus why it was able to move so quickly and kill so many.”

“So that thing was a K’Satizitus?” Lumier asked.

Naosha shook her head. “Can’t be, you wouldn’t have been able to drive it off it was. Besides there is only one K’Satizitus.”

“Wait a minute…you just said the Clan’s founder killed the thing, yet you seem to suggest it’s still around.”

“Because it is, just not physically.” Naosha said. “It’s a spirit now, processing one male descendant of the founder each generation. The one it currently processes is my only son…and the father of my grandchildren, Trazu. We…haven’t heard from him since just after the little ones hatched.
“Tell me…what color were that creatures eyes?”

“We really didn’t get to look at it that hard…” Lumier said with a shrug. “But I think it’s eyes were red.”

Naosha breathed a sigh of relief. “Then I know for sure that thing wasn’t Trazu twisted by that evil things powers. My son…has lilac eyes.”

“Who ever…what ever it is…we need to get rid of it permanently before it manages to rip holes through our men and ship.” Lumier said. “We’ll need your warriors to help do that.”

“You’ll have better luck getting them to help if you have Silliss talk to them.” Naosha said, spreading her hands. “I may be a Councilor, but I have little influence over them directly: the only reason they would listen to me at all is because I am their Sha’tor’s mate. With Rissonik being unavailable, the most trusted and loyal K’Satikur warrior serves as his voice…and that would be Silliss.”

“And he’s in sick bay…wonderful.”

Naosha smiled. “You can’t keep a K’Satikur down: I bet you he is already wandering about and driving the medics crazy trying to keep him in bed.”

The captain walked to the hanger bay, she looked around and saw several Tie Fighters and X-Wings ready to departure

"I see you got my message?", she said to her flight officer

"Yes Ma'am, when you said you need an escort to the moons surface I made sure to get the best pilots out", The flight officer said

"Good good, and the shuttle?", The captain asked

"Ready when you are, along with several elite marines", she said

"Good, lets get underway", The captain walked over to a com station and keyed the communications officer, "Order the cargo transport to follow my shuttle, upon getting to the moon below I want my escorts to perform a standard close air support patrol", she said

~Yes Ma'am~

The captain smiled and walked the Shuttle Tyderien, the doors closed and the shuttle lifted into the air and sped out of the hanger, its 6 Tie Fighter and 4 X-wing escort took up postions near and around the shuttle

"Ma'am, ETA is 6 minutes", the pilot said

"Take you're time", The captain said and survived the satallite images that her ship had taken. One particuler image intreged her

***

Tzhali had been in the medbay, the doctor was done fashioning his new arm. "All done sir, just got to put it in place", the medical officer said

Tzhali said nothing, probably because he was asleep

"You really shouldn't talk to you're unconcious patients", Lumier said while leaning up against the door frame

The Med offical chuckled. "Sorry Ma'am", he said

"Thats ok, where can I find silliss?", she asked.

The med officer just pointed at the door, "You can find him in there, along with 8 nurse's who are TRYING to help him"

"8?", Lumier said

"I keep telling you..." Silliss growled as he fended off one of the nurses. "I don't need stitches!"

"Mr. Silliss...if we don't close up those deeper wounds you risk them gettin septic..." One of the nurses protested.

"Oy...you've obviously never dealt with patients that were Trandoshan before." He rolled his eyes. "My people rarely need medical attention unless we are on our damn death bed or too old to regenerate. I just needed a nap...I got my nap...and I don't. Need. You're. Help! Besides stitches make scars look so unsitely..."

"First it was your clothes...now you're griping about how your scars will look!?" Lumier said as she entered the room.

Silliss snorted. "Scars are a badge of pride with my people. If a warrior has them stitched up others will think he's a wuss."

Lumier sighed and muttered something about 'silly Trandoshan pride' under her breath. "Look we need your assistance."

"If it will get me away from these pesky nurses I'm all for it."

"Merendez and I had a run in with a monstrousity earilier, not those mutts but something a lot bigger and meaner. It chased us all the way back to the ship but all your warriors fled from the thing rather then help us drive it off. Apparently they think it's some creature from your peoples history...called the K'Satizitus. Naosha just told us that it wasn't possible for it to be the K'Satizitus."

"Which is correct, for the K'Satizitus is currently 'sharing space' with her son, Trazu." Silliss remarked. "Let me guess...you need me to convince my warriors that it's not the K'Satizitus so they will help you get rid of it?" Lumier nodded. "Should be easy enough..."

It took a bit of convincing, but the nurses let him leave sick bay. However when he met up with this warriors, he realized it may take a bit more convincing then he thought it would, for they were throughly spooked. He quickly had to go from reassuring to threatening and shaming them before the finally got the message.

"I'm going to need another nap now..." Silliss groaned when he finished.

***

Once again Besk found himself in Hyossk's chambers, but this time he wasn't the one getting chewed out. This time it was an unfortunate low ranking human naval officer being glared at by the not-to-happy Hyossk.

"You sent...what? Forteen ships, one of them an Interdector, to do the task I hired you pirates to do...yet you lost to only TWO ships!?" Hyossk hissed.

"One of them was another Interdector sir..." The human explained, shaking slightly. "Plus the crew of the Triton seems to have gotten their hands on some unusually powerful planetside Ion Cannons on that moon. They were cutting through our ships like butter!"

"You are not here to give me excuses...you are here to inform me of progess! Which you failed to do misrably!" Hyossk reached out and grabbed the human by the shirt, pulling him off the ground so he could look right into his face. "I am going to give you and your 'pirates' a second chance." He said softly, yet threateningly. "If you fail again...I'll have my fleet hunt down every singe one of you and hang your heads on the Council walls!"

The human nodded, his face pale and after Hyossk dropped him, he quickly hightailed it out of there before the Trandoshan might change his mind.

"Just why are you entrusting 'mammals' for this task Councilor?" Besk asked as he watched Hyossk settle down into his favorate chair. "Hunting down the traitorous Naosha really should have remained a purely Doshian affair."

"I know..." Hyossk said, sounding unusually despressed. "But with the loyalities of our people in question, I can not be sure I can trust all members of our fleet. The Bloodfang saw to that. So I made a deal with that pirate groups leader: they retrieve the Triton and all of it's crew, including Naosha and her supporters, for us...and they can have everything in that outpost."

"Surely you don't mean to just...give away something that valuble to a rag tag group of punks."

"Of course not! Once we have what we want...we send in our own forces to take the outpost for ourselves, wipe out those pirates in the process."

"And our fleets...no matter who their loyalities lay with, should have no problem with that..." Besk said with a grin, catching on.

"Yes...but I have a task for you in all this."

"What is that?"

"I have a sneaky suspision that the Bloodfang is in that area. I need someone to discretely confirm that..."

Besk was afraid he was going to say that...


***

Hunters Way came out of hyperspace near the location where the Triton had been in a major battle over Trandosha. Varcanna knew she should really be looking for the rogue Trandoshan Destroyer Bloodfang, as her uncle bade her to do, but after finding out that her mother Naosha had gone with the captain of the Triton, along with the rest of her grandchildren and a small force of supporters, she felt compiled to check up on her.

The first thing she saw made a knot form in her stomach: the area was littered with debris. She could see the remains of a few ships, some she recognized as Trandoshan make, but others there weren’t enough left of to identify. Varcanna did a scan of the area, hoping to find clues to the Triton’s…and her mother’s…fate. She found two ion trails heading away from the battlefield, heading toward Trandosha: no doubt those belonged to Trandoshan ships. This did not bode well on her, for her people rarely left the battlefield before all their enemies were destroyed.

But wait…there was a third trail. A heavy plasma trail leaving the battlefield and away from Trandosha.

That has to be the Triton. Varcanna thought, hoping she was right as she turned her ship about and started following the trail.

She knew from the amount of plasma she was detecting the ship had a major leak, likely due to the battle. She just hoped her mother made out alright in the end…

Back on the Interdictor

"Sir", the sensor officer said to his 2nd in command

"Go ahead", The 2nd in command said walking up to sensor officer

"I'm picking up multiple hyperspace signatures coming from", she said then moved over to another station, "Hyperspace sig’s coming from either side of the Moon. Looks like two different fleets of ships"

"Can you ID them?", said the 2nd in command

"No sir", said the sensors officer, "I won’t be able to answer that question until they come out of hyperspace"

"Very well", he said and walked over to the command chair, he looked at it for a second, "ETA?"

"Another minute before they arrive", the officer said. She moved over to another station where several other crew members where piecing some data together. "Unknowns will enter this space in… 5 --- 4 --- 3 --- 2 --- 1 "

Space bent and twisted, then folded. On one side of the moon a fleet of wookiee ships appeared, mixed ships of Republic Destroyers and small cruisers and frigates.

On the other side another pirate fleet hype red in, this fleet however was bigger, and more heavily armed than the previous fleet that the Interdictor had gone up against

"Ummm sir, premission to cuss", the sensor officer said

The 2nd in command stared at the screen, "Allow me to join you"

"HOLY @#%$!", both of them yelled in unison

Each fleet comprised of about 19 to 23 ships, both fleets turned toward the lone Interdictor

"Uhhh sir, there targeting us", the sensor officer said

"Com’s fire off a message to fleet command, tell them we need immediate assitence! If they ask why tell them where taking on TWO fleets each fleet comprising about 19 - 23 ships", the 2nd in command said

"Yes Sir", the com officer said

"Can you also get a message off to the captain", he asked

"No sir, there in the atmosphere and the outpost is somehow jamming communications aimed at the moon", the com officer said

"Very well", the 2nd in command said, "I hope she makes it down there safe and sound"

***

The Lambda shuttle descended through the atmosphere of the moon, the shuttle turned slight to port to avoid a piece of debris that had come from one of the pirates carriers that had been blown to pieces when it attempted to make a run for the Triton

"Ma’am where approaching the Triton, doesn’t look like they’ve spotted us ", the pilot said
"Good, order our escorts to break off and patrol", she said and walked towards the back of the shuttle. She dawned her robe and checked the images, a faint smile appeared on her face. The marines with her recognized the smile, and promply took a couple steps back

~Ma’am, the Triton’s sensor package has picked us up, the turrets are tracking~

"Alright, order our escorts not to fire", she said over the internal com line

~Already done~

***

The Triton’s sensor officer kept a close eye on the incoming Lambda shuttle, she watched as the shuttle turned toward a clearing near the ship, she sent a message to Lumier and Lumier responded by sending several of her marines to the shuttles landing location.

Lumier had decided to go along, even though they had more pressing matters to attend to. She glared at Silliss, "You minus well come along", she said. "Who knows, that creature might show up"

Silliss nodded and gestured for his warriors to follow him.

They walked off the ship and toward the shuttles landing location.

The shuttle made a hard turn to port and then its landing struts came out and extended toward the ground below

***

Lambda shuttle ‘9387-A’ floated above the ground for a couple sections before it finally landed, the engines shut down. For a second nothing happened, which worried Lumier

Lumiers marines walked around the shuttle looking for anything that could be considered ‘suspious’ … they found nothing

The ramp on the shuttle became active and descended toward the ground below, when it came to a stop. A women wearing a strange robe walked down the ramp, she looked about and at all the marines, then took the hood off

Lumier stared at the girl, "Not possible, how can you still be alive?", she said

The girl looked at Lumier, "Its hard to explain", she said. "But I’m willing to explain it… once you get rid of you’re little problem", she said with a grin

Lumier glanced to her left, then walked away. Her marines stared at her then back at the strange girl, "Umm Ma’am, what are we to do with her?", she said

"Take her to the guest quarters, we’ll discuss more later", Lumier said

The marines nodded

The girl looked at Lumier, then turned to look at her marines. They where clad in black so no one saw them since the inside of the shuttle was pitch dark

***

The 2nd in command stared at the screen. It was filled with multiple sensor contacts, both fleets had them targeted and all they could do was reverse course and flee.

"Enemy fighters will be all over us in less than a minute", the sensor officer said

"All we have on board are bombers", the 2nd in command said. "Has fleet command replied to our message"

"Negative sir, its possible they received the message but are not risking a reply", the com officer said

"Sir, several squads of fighters have broken off and are heading toward the Trandoshan ship", the sensor officer said

"Fire a couple shots in front of the fighters to gain there attention", the 2nd in command said

The gunnery officer nodded and sent the proper orders

The ships turbo laser batterys fired and succeeded in destroying 4 fighters and causing the rest to take interest in the Interdictor

"Nice job", the 2nd in command said while looking at the sensor display

"Sir, I’m picking up another hyper space sig… ETA is 5 minutes", the sensor officer

"5 minutes eh?", he said and licked his lips, "We’ve got to hold off each fleet for 5 minutes.. This’ll be interesting"

"Provided to stay in pursuit of us, If they turn toward the moon then the Triton will have more problems than they can count", the sensor officer said while moving to another station, she pulled up the planetary maps and outlines the area of the ion cannons, they where to far away to effectively *hack* the cannons control… but perhaps they could get one of there fighters to do to the work for them, all they needed to do was send a message

"Com, when the opportunity arrise’s send a message to one of our fighters, inform them that we need someone to turn those ion cannons on the new threat", she said

"We’ve got bigger problems", the com officer said, "Check you’re sensors"

The sensor stared at the screen, what had once been only 45-48 ships total, was now nearly triple that amount to include fighters and shuttles, all heading toward the moon. "I certainly hope they get here", the sensor officer said