The day began like so many others do. The daily briefing was always the first order of business, first a briefing with the night staff, then with Ferguson Mumphs director of the Coalition Intelligence Bureau and finally with the Cabinet and Prime Minister Regard. Following his briefing of the Cabinet any pressing business was dealt with after which Marth would return to his office and the day’s work would truly begin.

The briefings were fairly standard. The usual topics were discussed, the Black Dragon Empire and the New Order were the primary topics of discussion as usual, though today they also discussed the reaction of certain member of the Caprician government to Regard’s address. This latest bit of news appeared to shock some of the ministers out of their early morning stupor.

“Do you believe there is a significant threat to our security from the commonwealth?”

Marth turned to face the speaker, the Finance Minister, while framing the answer in his head.

“Hardly. The Caprician Commonwealth is a fraction of our size and while they may talk tough they can’t significantly hurt us. However, it would definitely be in our best interest to try to dispel these mutterings by the commonwealth. We cannot afford to have any more enemies. And if the Capricians choose to oppose us so could Vinda Corporation whom the Capricians have a long history with, and that could seriously affect our economy, which is already fairly tremulous.”

Regard looked around the room and after satisfying himself that there were no other questions or comments stood up and began to speak.

“Our next order of business concerns the Onyxian Commonwealth.”

Marth immediately perked up at this. The Onyxian Commonwealth was made up for the most part from the remnants of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty, which he was a founding member of, before the creation of the New Galactic Coalition.

“This latest aggression by the Black Dragon Empire is of concern to us. The Onyxian Commonwealth is our most outlying areas and we feel that it needs to be strengthened in preparation for a possible attack by the Dragons. To fulfill that requirement it is my decision that we must relocate a number of former Sovereignty officials to the Commonwealth to strengthen it in preparation for a war. Minister Meer, I would like you to lead this mission. You are to function as the link between me and Consul Logan. During your absence Director Mumphs will deliver the daily briefing to us.”

Marth nodded slowly his face, trained by years of practice showed no emotion though inwardly his mind was traveling at lightspeed thinking over his latest assignment.

“What will the task force comprise of?”

Minister of War Jan Dodona fielded this question. “The task force will consist of five ships plus support craft. The Dauntless-Command Cruiser Pride will be the task force flagship, Ice Queen and Chimaera, are both newly built Dominator Cruisers, Leopard and Pride of the Rim are both Stryker Carriers. Commodore Tomas, the commander of the Pride will act as the military commander, though he will answer to you. He was a former Sovereignty Naval Officer and distinguished himself in the capture of Af’El”

Marth nodded. “Yes, I met him a few times. In that case it is my pleasure to accept this command. If you’ll excuse me I have some packing to do.”

<center>*****</center>

“Attention on deck!”

Over 1,000 members of the Praetorian Guard, the armed forces of the Onyxian Commonwealth snapped to attention, seconds before the shuttle carrying Marth Meer settled to a rest on the docking bay floor. With a hiss of smoke the ramp on the shuttle descended and Marth Meer strode down the ramp flanked on either side by his bodyguards, members of the original Praetorian Guard of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty. At the bottom he was met by a man approaching middle-age and wearing the uniform of a Praetorian Commodore. Beside him was a short stocky women with long dark hair wearing the uniform of a Praetorian Captain.

Marth reached the end of the ramp and the Commodore saluted.

“Vice-President, I’m Commodore Tomas. It’s an honour to have you aboard the Pride. This is her Captain, Alriss Tanbian.”

“Thank you Commodore and I’m not the Vice-President anymore. I’m just the Solicitor-General of the Coalition and special envoy to the Onyxian Commonwealth.”

“You’ll always be the Vice-President of the Sovereignty. You and President Griff had a magnificent dream.”

“Stop right know. It was mostly Griff’s dream not mine all I did was stay loyal to him. And it’s a moot point anyways since Griff has become a dangerous rogue along with Kovel.”

Xander Griff had been the President of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty up until the attempted coup of the Galactic Coalition. Following the Coalition’s merge with the Sovereignty Marth had accepted a position on the Council of Representatives. Regard had become Prime Minister and Griff had chosen to retire. Griff had been less than pleased by being disposed by a representative of a government which the Sovereignty had not only saved but allowed to merge with the Sovereignty so as to provide stability for the Coalition government. It was ironic how the assimilators always tended to be assimilated, with Regard and Jan Dodona both of the Coalition now possessing two of the most important positions in the Coalition. Since then Xander Griff had been spotted running the remnants of Black Hand, the organization which Meer had helped create and shape. Though this was a far different Black Hand than the original one. The new Black Hand was a criminal rogue element that engaged in piracy and other practices that were less than savory especially for the New Coalition that wanted to maintain a squeaky clean image. Jorai Kovel Meer’s successor at Black Hand had gone rogue along with Griff. Marth could only speculate as to what Griff and Kovel were planning. Griff certainly had no love for the Empire against which he had fought for years. Yet at the same time he had no love for the Coalition which had removed him from power. The only person that Xander Griff would be working for would be himself.

“Very well,” Tomas replied to Meer’s outburst though his tone showed that he wasn’t about to change his opinions. “Your luggage is already in your quarters, you’re living in the quarters reserved for fleet Commanding Officer. I can summon a trooper to direct you to your quarters. We’ve been moving into position to make the jump to hyperspace and we’re going to jump in 15 minutes.”

“Alright. Summon that trooper to take me to my quarters. I’ll have a quick shower and change and then we’ll reconvene in the Briefing Room in half an hour.”

“Admiral on deck!”

The young Ensign standing next to the door was certainly good at his job; he yelled loud enough that Tomas wouldn’t have been surprised if every man and woman on the ship had heard him. Reflexively Tomas returned the salute while quickly running his glance over the ensign. He was obviously fresh out of the academy, his uniform spotless, his boots shined and his face smoother than any shaving device known to man could make it.

<i>”I’m commanding children!” Tomas thought, “These boys don’t have any place in the military, let alone on a major combatant.”</i>

On the other hand the <i> Pride </i> was the most heavily defended ship and thus less likely to be destroyed. With a few battles under his belt this fresh-faced Ensign will become a true officer and a leader of his men.

“How do you think Meer is going to react to the state of the Guard?” the question pulled Tomas out of his daydream and he turned to face Captain Tanbian.

“I don’t know Arliss. The Guard certainly isn’t the same as the old Praetorian Guard that Meer will remember, but it’s not worse off than the rest of the coalition’s forces. The question is though, is that good enough? Not being worse off isn’t an automatic sign of being any good.”

“Did you see Meer’s bodyguards? They were definitely members of the Sovereignty Praetorian Guard, probably even Black Hand trained.”

“Well he was the Black Hand director for a number of years. He was the one who really established Black Hand and got it going. Then Kovel had to come in and screw it up, and pull in Griff with him.”

“Maybe he can bring some of that back to the Praetorian Guard. Most of our troops aren’t battle trained, same with a lot of our junior officers. We’re building more and more ships and we don’t have the veterans to crew them all properly and train new crews.”

“Well I guess we’re going to have to make more veterans than? The <i>Pride</i> is the best ship in the Guard. The reason we’re being sent back to the Commonwealth with Meer is to prepare the Commonwealth for war. And that includes training the Guard.”

Tanbian just nodded her agreement at her superior’s last comment. She looked down to check her chrono and then turned to the watch officer.

“Commander call all the division heads to the briefing room. Order our escorting vessels to do the same and to prepare for a holo-conference in ten minutes.”

The Commander saluted. “Yes ma’am!”

The Captain turned to the Commodore. “Shall we go now so we’re already there when Vice-President Meer shows up?”

Tomas nodded and gestured ahead of him. “Lead on.”

Marth Meer strode into the Briefing Room to find everybody else already assembled and prepared. His respect for Commodore Tomas and his ship rose a few more notches. This was the type of proactive thinking that the Commonwealth and the Coalition would need if they were to survive.

The seat at the head of the table was empty with Tomas sitting on the opposite end. Tomas and the rest of his officers rose and saluted as Meer entered. Marth acknowledged the gestures and then gestured for everybody to be seated.

"Please be seated." he said.

They all sat and looked expectantly at Marth.

"As you all know I have been sent by the Coalition on the orders of Prime Minister Regard to help bolster the defenses and the fighting spirit of the Onyxian Commonwealth. To aid in the success of these goals this task force has been assigned to me. I think that the first order of business upon our arrival should be to visit with the other units of the Praetorian Guard and then once we have located what the weaknesses of our forces are, we must commence a very strict training regime for all forces to bring them all up to the standard that our forces once enjoyed. I have been empowered by Consul Logan to take any actions that I deem necessary as long as they aren't extremely drastic. I need you men and women to provide me with insight into the state of specific units within the Guard. Also, if any of you have any junior officers you can spare I need to get an aide or two. We have 5 days before we arrive in Onyx so you don't need to provide me with this information immediately, though I'd prefer if I received it in the next two days." Marth stopped and looked up at all the officers. "You men and women lead some of the finest units in the fleet, else you wouldn't have been assigned to this mission. My job is to bring the rest of the fleet up to the sterling standard that your units have set."

With a nod Marth signaled to Tomas that he was done. Tomas rose and began to give out orders.

"Fleet intelligence will provide Minister Meer with the data on the other units in the guard. In the meantime all training will be increased. Every man and woman in this taskforce will go through at least one drill a day whether they be battle drills, damage drills, navigation drills or any other drills that you can think of. Good performance will be rewarded. Poor performance will be punished with a repeat of the drill. When we arrive at Onyx we will be a sharpened sword ready to show the rest of the Praetorian Guard what a real fleet unit fights like. Dismissed."

All the officers rose, and begin to file out of the door, some of them congregating in small groups while others walked with purpose, apparently emboldened by their Commodore's orders. Marth just stood there and watched them file out. They seemed like a fairly competent staff especially for the standards of the new Guard. They would do Marth and Commodore Tomas proud.

"Sir, the files you requested are here."

Marth looked up from the report he was studying. It was another intelligence report concerning the Black Dragon Empire. Even though he was on special assignment for the Cabinet his job as Solicitor-General, the civilian minister in charge of the running of the Coalition's Intelligence apparatus, went on. The report in front of him concerned the training of the Black Dragon Fleet. Apparently they were rather out of practice, having been fairly inactive recently with the government focusing on the rebuilding of their economy. That was fine from Marth's point of view. The less prepared they are when the inevitable conflict came, the happier he would be.

Marth sighed as he thought of the file on his desk. It had probably involved information obtained by dozens of sources, some legal, some illegal. The report had doubtless been compiled by some bright-eyed young analyst who had foolishly assumed that somebody important would actually read it. Rather some secretary had summarized the report, then Marth's secretary who he had left back on Azguard created an Executive Summary for him. Normally it would've been his job to deliver a summary of this summary of a summary to the cabinet but since Marth was away that duty fell to the director of the CIB.

"Sir?."

Marth frowned as he turned to face his temporary aide on loan from Commodore Tomas. He had let his mind wander again. He had to focus, he had a job to do and he had to do it. Sitting there thinking about mundane matters wouldn't help him.

"Thank you Senara. If you could give them to me I'll review them, while you relay my thanks to the officers who provided them."

"Very good sir."

His aide stepped forward and placed the data cards on his desk and then she returned to her office adjoining Marth's.

Lieutenant Senara Devin was a young Quarren from Mon Calamari. She had joined the Coalition shortly before the beginning of the last war against the Empire. She had spent the war in the academy and avoided any fighting. Like her classmates she graduated into a military that was lacking in qualified troops and had promoted quickly. Deadly disease and bloody wars were the surest path to a quick promotion and Senara had arrived on the heels of the second. She was young and smart but in-experienced.

<i>"But that's why you're here. To provide experience."</i> Marth reminded himself.

"Your mind's wandering again you have work to do."

"Did you say something sir?"

Marth started as he heard Senara's voice. He hadn't even realized he was talking out loud until he heard her voice. He looked up at his aide and smiled.

"It's nothing, just talking to myself."

"Yes sir."

Once again Senara returned to her work but this time Marth did to.

<center> *****</center>

Another meeting was taking place in the briefing room and once again Marth was the one who was speaking.

"I think that we need to focus our original efforts on a few units, those with the most experience and best commanders. These units can then train other units. On the fleet side I have selected Gamma Group of First Fleet. They're a mixed flotilla, comprising a Heavy, Light and two Support Squadrons. They are commanded by Vice-Admiral Emala. She distinguished herself as a Squadron Commander during the war against the Empire. They're a good group and should do very good, needing only a bit of practice to bring them up to par. After that they can train new units with us. In the meantime the rest of the fleet will be training but the opponents the other units face won't be very tough. At least not until we face them. On the ground side things aren't so bad since the Sovereignty Praetorian Guard members that Griff lent the commonwealth have done fairly well. The 5th Legion and the 1st Legion are the two best units. They will train up to standard and then the 5th Legion will accompany Gamma Group as they continue their training expedition while the 1st Legion accompanies us. Are there any questions?" Marth looked up and saw that all the faces he saw were nodding in agreement with him. "During the past few days I've watched you men and women become formidable fighting machines, certainly the best in the Coalition and possibly one of the best in the galaxy. I know that you men and women will impress me and the rest of the Praetorian Guard when they finally see your skills in action."

The stars were flashed by as the <i>Pride</i> surged through hyperspace. If Marth concentrated enough he could ignore his surroundings, and make it feel like he was floating through hyperspace, free, by himself with no material attachments or support. But such thoughts were silly, obviously he could only exist in hyperspace onboard a ship.

“There’s a certain beauty to hyperspace don’t you think Mr. Meer?”

Marth turned away from his view and smiled at Senara Devin. She stood facing him with her mouth tentacles slowly clenching and unclenching nervously. Marth smiled and nodded an acknowledgement.

“Yes, there is Lieutenant. I guess it’s because it seems so infinite. Like it could go on forever, but of course it doesn’t. You have to come out of hyperspace eventually. Just as we are bound to sooner or later. Where are we headed by the way?”

“The Codian System sir. It’s right on the edge of Commonwealth space. The only inhabited area is a moon orbiting a gas giant, Codia.”

Marth smiled and nodded, “Tomas will try to evade Admiral Emala there. I wonder if she’ll succeed this time?”

The task force that had been accompanying Marth had arrived at Onyx one week ago. Immediately they had begun joint training exercises with Gamma Group of First Fleet. Marth’s task force had won every time but the victory’s had been coming by a steadily decreasing margin. Gamma Group had nearly won the last exercise with Emala setting up a beautiful ambush. Luckily for Marth’s task force, one of the starfighter squadrons aboard the <i>Pride</i> had stumbled upon it early and managed to alert the rest of the fleet. Had those starfighters arrived even a minute later the exercise would’ve been a disaster for the <i>Pride</i>. Now they were engaged in a tracking drill with Gamma Group trying to find and defeat the <i>Pride</i>. Suddenly a shudder ran through the ship and the lines of hyperspace began to distort as the <i>Pride</i> emerged from hyperspace. But it wasn’t the friendly glow of a star or a gas giant that was filling the observation lounge of the <i>Pride</i>. Rather it was a white ship with four large bumps, almost like hives. And surrounding that ship was nearly a dozen capital ships. Marth smiled as he reached over and activated the intercom.

“It appears that this one is a loss Commodore.”

For the <i>Pride</i> had just been pulled out of hyperspace by an interdictor cruiser. And not just any interdictor cruiser, it was <i>Watchdog</i> one of the two interdictor cruisers assigned to Gamma Group.

A crackle came from the intercom and then Commodore Tomas’ voice resonated through the observation deck. “Yes it does Mr. Meer. What should I do?”

“Transmit, my congratulations. Then form up and return to Onyx. I’m sure the men and women in Gamma Group have a bit of a celebration planned. I would hate to interfere with their fun.”

“Yes sir.”

The view in the viewport changed as the <i>Pride</i> swung around and began to form up with the ships waiting for it. Suddenly the intercom crackled to life again.

“Sir, we’re receiving a low-powered message coming from the Codian System. It appears pirates have attacked them. The requesting any and all able vessels to come to their assistance.”

Marth stood up instantly and began to walk towards the door of the deck heading to the bridge.

“Order all escorts to change their weapons systems over to active. And then make all haste for the Codian System. We’re going to help them.”

“Very good sir.”

Pirates had been a problem on the outskirts of the Onyxian Commonwealth for years. The Commonwealth bordered the Unknown Regions and that untamed area of space had been a haven for pirates for years. They had never actually struck the Commonwealth, knowing it to be suicide to provoke the Commonwealth’s navy. And the navy had never bothered to try to hunt them down outside of Commonwealth space knowing that it would take massive amounts of resources to look for them in the Unknown Regions. But know they had a chance to actually strike at the pirates and catch them before they could run away to hide in their holes again.

Marth strode on the bridge and found Commodore Tomas in a quick huddled conversation with Captain Tanbian. Marth was surprised to see a hologram of another Commodore standing at attention. Tomas stopped his discussion when he saw Marth enter the bridge. He snapped a salute and then seeing Marth glance inquiringly at the hologram he began his report.

“Sir, this is Commodore Gourlie. He commands the <i>Watchdog</i> and the rest of the task force that Admiral Emala sent to ambush us. We’ve decided that with your permission he would plan and command our attack on the pirates. Think of it as another training exercise. Except I have a feeling he will be even more successful against the pirates than he was against us.”

Marth nodded and turned to face the hologram.

“Do you feel confident with this mission Commodore?”

Gourlie nodded and bowed his head.

“Yes sir. I believe that me and my tactical staff will surprise you and Commodore Tomas. Victory sir, will be ours.”

Marth nodded, “Very well. I’ll be watching with great interest.”

Gourlie snapped a salute and then his hologram disappeared to be replaced by a swirling image of the insignia of the Praetorian Guard.

“One minute to reversion!”

The call from the navigator was relayed throughout the ship. Marth and the rest of the bridge took up positions where they would be braced for any sudden jolts. Sixty seconds later the stars began to distort again bringing the <i>Pride</i> and the rest of the accompanying ships into the Codian system.

In an hour it was all over, the only signs that a battle had taken place were the glowing shards of metal that filled the battlezone and were beginning to be sucked slowly into the crushing atmosphere of Codia. Commodore Gourlie had planned and executed a beautiful plan.

The pirates had refitted a pair of Carrack Cruisers and they were using them to pound any centers of resistance. Their smaller ships were clustered around the Cruisers waiting for them to finish off any resistance. Gourlie had ordered one of his Victory Star Destroyers to come out of hyperspace from the core ward side of the system. The pirates immediately began to withdraw, away from the birds of prey. In a seeming stroke of luck the Star Destroyer had come out of hyperspace far enough away from the planet that they would be able to retreat without exchanging any fire with the Star Destroyer. Just as they were about to jump to hyperspace, the <i>Watchdog</i> and another Victory Star Destroyer had jumped into the system in a precision hyperspace jump that would not have been successful even a few days before. But thanks to the training Gamma Group had received they were beginning fight like an elite force. The newly arrived force made short work of the pirates, destroying them. The only friendly loss was caused when a fighter was hit by an ion cannon onboard one of the cruisers. Luckily, the pilot was able to eject along with his astromech droid before his fighter collided with his assailant. All in all it was an extremely successful engagement for Gamma Group. Following the destruction of the pirates Gourlie called in the rest of his force and the <i>Pride</i>> and they began to orbit around the Codian Moon.

Marth had spent the whole engagement on the bridge along with Commodore Tomas watching the battle on the bridge display monitor. He and Commodore Tomas had been quite impressed by the way Gamma Group had fought.

Marth turned to the Commodore with a smile on his face, “So do you think they’re good enough to graduate from our little course Commodore?”

“I think so sir. They’re not up to the level of the <i>Pride</i> yet, but they certainly are much improved and one of the best fleet units in the Commonwealth. I think we should release them on the rest of the fleet and see what happens. Our computer models predict a 50% increase in fleet efficiency in the next month and I wouldn’t be surprised if that figure is a bit conservative.”

Before Marth could respond an Lieutenant-Commander appeared before them and saluted.

"Sirs, there's a message from the planet. They're asking that we co-ordinate our search and rescue efforts with them."

Tomas responded without even considering his responce. "Order Tactical Command, to submit themselves to the authority of the ground commander."

"Yes sir, and they're requesting a civilian envoy for discussions with their planetary president."

Marth smiled as he responded, "I believe you can inform the Planetary Governor that luckily we have a very high-ranking civilian minister onboard and that he'd be delighted to discuss any matters that the Governor would wish to discuss."

The shuttle shuddered ever so slightly as it entered the atmosphere of the moon. As the shuttle slowed and began to descend the pilot's voice came over the comm.

"We're approaching the capital, Verastus know sir."

Marth didn't bother acknowledging the comment because he was too busy studying the information on the datapad in front of him.

The Codian Moon had originally been settled by a group of humans around 50 years before the beginning of the Clone Wars. The leader of these settlers was a woman named Darleen Verastus and the capital of the planet was named in her honour. The moon was home to giant plains covered by a rare form of plant life known as wood-moss. The settlers had opened huge ranches where Reeks were raised. Reeks which were native to the planet of Ylesia, were used in Gladiator combat throughout the galaxy during the Clone Wars. The inhabitants of the moon made a good living and they began to expand with more and more inhabitants coming to live there. Following the fall of the Emperor and the rise of The New Republic the practice of Reek battling fell out of favour and the settlers began to ranch nerfs. Their business expanded and became very successfull with the wood-moss allowing the Nerfs to reach maturity quicker thus costing less. The practice began to expand and the Codian Moon became very successful. At the time of the population was around 1 Billion people. Despite their wealth they had no real military and thus they were easy pickings for the pirates.

<i>"That's why the Sovereignty was formed in the first place. To protect those people on the outer-rim who couldn't protect themselves and were too far removed from the centers of power to be protected properly and the coalition will continue that mission,"</i> Marth thought.

The shuttle settled down slowly as Marth rose from his chair, his two bodyguards and always-there prescence behind him. As the ramp lowered slowly and Marth began to walk down the ramp he thought of the dozens of similar missions that he had undertaken in the past, some successful some slightly less than successful.

At the bottom of the steps there was one harried looking man wearing robes of state. Flanking him were a women and an Ithorian both also wearing robes of state though theres were slightly less opulent than those of their leader. As Marth reached the bottom of the ramp their leader stepped forward with his hand extended.

"Minister Meer, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Governor Verache, this is Senator Cohen," gesturing to the women. "And Senator Ishti."

"Thank you Governor. May I inquire as to how much damages were caused?"

"Not too much thankfully. Your fleet arrived right in the nick of time. The pirates mostly knocked out communication systems and other infrastructure, but they should be easy to repair."

"My fleet has a full complement of engineers Governor. If you would like I can have a battallion down here in a few hours."

"Thank you Minister that is very kind. Please do call your ships and give your engineers thanks in advance."

Marth motioned to one of his bodyguards and the bodyguard immediately returned to the shuttle to send a message off to the <i>Pride</i>.

"But I didn't request that you meet me just to express my thanks Minister. The senate would like to petition the Onyxian Commonwealth for membership."

Marth arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"You've already had time to meet with all the senators and have a vote?"

The female Senator, Cohen, who had kept quite throughout the discussion answered Marth's question.

"No we have not but Governor Versache, Senator Ishti and myself represent the three political parties in the Senate. We all agree that this is the best course of action and in light of today's events I am sure that all of the other senators will agree with us. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the vote was unanimous."

"Very well. I'll have my office send the necessary documents. It will take a few days for us to complete all the necessary paperwork so in the meantime you can call a vote in the senate to formalize everything. But as from right know you may consider yourselves officially a part of the Onyxian Commonwealth and by extension the New Coalition and as such under their protection."

<center>****</center>

Five days later it was over. All the appropriate documents had been signed, stamped and sealed a number of times over. Immediately the Senate elected two Senators to represent the Moon in the House of Representatives. Senator Ishti and Senator Cohen were chosen. Governor Versache chose to keep his post as Governor. Within days of being admitted into the Commonwealth the recruiting offices were already full of young men and women signing up to join the military. Apparently a life of farming and ranching didn't appeal to a number of the young men and women on the moon. These men and women would be put through the academy and become loyal members of the Praetorian Guard. They would join the newly revitalised force that was racing towards greater heights and its appointment with destiny.

What the appointment is I don't know. It just sounded good.

The end.

OOC:The previous post was written by marth(me) unfortunately I did not sign out of Jan(my brothers) accound and know I can't edit it and what not.