Captian Reinhard Voss Carnarvon looked out the viewport of his flagship into the magnificent space that surronded the planet of Corellia. The planet was surronded by a great deal of shipyards, space stations, and traffic in general. The largest vessel occupying the lens was a mega-freighter, identified as the Pride of Deconia, a gargantuan vessel five thousand meters in length, carrying enough food to feed the citizens of Coruscant for three days. Other vessels, including pickets, cruisers, and starfighters, and other smaller freighters, were above or descending below to the planet.

The carrack cruiser Formidable occupied the berth of Golan station number three, and it was on this ship that the captain stood. He was the commander of a small taskforce that would be heading out on a reconissance mission in force. Other vessels in the task force included an older lancer class frigate and a number of Skipray blastboats. A number of neutral merchant ships had been raided recently near an Imperial hyperlane, and they were to head out on a errand to eliminate this new nest of activity before it firmly rooted it's self to the area. With all the newer and better vessels being assigned to more important missions, it was left to these older vessels to carry out this chore. Although to be reasonable, the carrack had just gone through an upgrade that converted it to mark five status.

Rounding out the taskforce were four TIE Interceptors, assigned to the wing roots below the carrack cruiser, and two Sentinel shuttles, occupying the limited hangar bay of the lancer, with a commando unit being station on board the lancer. Being beckonded by an aide that the briefing was to begin momentarily, the captian took one last look out the viewport before turning his back to it and striding out of the bridge. He made his way back to the conference room.

Stopping before the doors, he sighed, then straightened up to fine military preciseness, before proceeding through the doors. Inside the room was captain Lian Pall of the lancer frigate Lance of Light, along with the commander of the miltiary unit stationed aboard the frigate, the flight leader of the flight of Interceptors, and the major of the blastboat assault wing. Reinhard stepped straight up to the table and activated the holoprojector, which showed an image of a starfield, and a trading route was marked in red.

"Gentleman, the starfield and trade route you see before you is one that heads between the planets of Bilbringi and Coruscant. The route has been safe for a matter of years now, but recently has come into a bit of trouble. Raiders have been prying the route, and feeding off of merchant ships in the area. In the past two weeks, three attacks have been made. Two were on neutral merchant ships, traders, and the third was on a contracted merchant that was hauling refined metals from Duro to Bilbringi. Because of this theft, construction of an Imperial Thorne class dreadnought, the Reminiscent, has been delayed by a month. Any questions so far?" asked the captain.

"Yes sir. Has these raiders been identified, from types of ships or markings?" asked the captain of the lancer frigate.

"There were no markings on the raiders, so this may be a form of privateer warfare that we have on our hands, but the types were identified as one Nebulon-B frigate and two Corellian gunships. As far as we can tell, the raiders have not employed or cannot employ starfighters in their raids. Long range or short range types." replied the captain.

"So therefore, we have two mission objectives. The first is to sieze these criminals and stop their illegal activities. The second is to track them and locate their base, and also sieze it. Torwards this end, the Formidable and Lance of Light will jump directly to the trade route and being patrolling it for the raiders. The blastboats will be used as escorts for several tempting targets for the raiders which are actually decoy vessels." ordered the captain.

With that the briefing was over, and the commanders of the various units departed the room and headed back to their ships. Half an hour later, the cruisers and blastboats de-docked from the Golan station and headed on an outbound vector away from Corellia. Soon they were in hyperspace and headed for a point between the planets of Coruscant and Bilbringi.

Fast-Forward, several days later

The carrack cruiser Formidable has been plying the trade routes between Bilbringi and Coruscant for quite some time now, but there still has been no contact between the Imperial warships and the priate group. The task force commander is beginning to grow suspicious, and so has assembled a meeting of the top captains of the taskforce via holonet to discuss their options;

"Captain, if I heard right what you are saying, you think we have a traitor in our midst?" captain Pall requested clarification for.

"Not necessarily within our midst no," replied Carnarvon, "but it is possible that the pirates have an information among the captains that ply these trade routes that would alert them to the presence of our warships, or perhaps in the ministry of trade, which by Imperial regulation, has been informed about our presence and mission here."

"Interesting," spoke up another commander, "So what do you suggest our next course of action to be?"

"Well, I suggest that we reduce our strength here. The rest of our taskforce will have false mission orders to withdraw to conduct other missions throughout the galaxy as need be, but in fact we will be nearby the trade route. We will send out a pair of picket ships to stop and inspect cargo vessels. Hopefully the pirates will swallow the bait of an easy victory and come out to fight." suggested captain Carvarvon.

"Good idea, but might I make an addition to your idea?," intruded a fourth commander, "Instead of stationing picket ships, how about we mock up one of our existing warships to have the apperance of a merchant vessel. With certain modifications, one our gunships could be made to look like a bulk freighter, and if we send such a pair of modified gunships out, they would have a better chance of engaging the pirates and surviving until the rest of our force arrives."

"Excellent idea. Ok then, here is the new game plan. I will put out a request for a pair of gunships to be modified and then attached to our force. They will make several trips up and down the trade spine until the pirates come out to attack them. We will add some juicy bait, inform the trade ministry that these ships are hauling valuable merchandise intended for the rich society or something of the sort. When the gunships are ambushed, we rush in, defeat the enemy fleet, and interrogate the prisoners." announced captain Carnarvon.

With the support of the other captains, the plan was immediatley put into motion. The Imperial fleet went ahead and withdrew a short distance from the travel lanes. Now all they had to do was to wait for their bait to arrive. Then they could reel in the pirates.

Melina glanced in the mirror in front of her, and carefully placed her right, and then her left earrings onto her ears. Then, opening a solid silver lockbox, she picked up the sparkling diamond necklace, given to her for their tenth wedding anniversary. Having slipped the necklace into place, she stepped back and looked herself over in the mirror. Standing in a six foot three inches height, she was tall for a typical female human, but there was nothing in her looks to suggest that she was ugly because of it. Smiling in satisfaction, she departed the dressing room and headed out into the hallway on the second floor of their mansion.

* * *

Park, having finished dressing up, stepped out of the bathroom on the first floor, and headed torwards the foot of the stairway to check on his wife. He was dressed in a fine tuxedo, mostly black, with the white tabard and golden cufflinks clipped onto his sleeves. His shoes were polished a fine glossy black, and his pants were finely hemmed. His orange hair was braided backwards along his head. Standing at all of five foot ten, he was shorter than his wife, not that he cared.

As he came to the foot of the stairway, he saw her then, descending down the steps, and his heart leapt into his throat at her stunning beauty. She was wearing his favorite red dress, the one with shoulder straps that clung to her fine milky and smooth skin, with the gloves and high heels, accented with the necklace and her earrings, and her flowly brunette hair. Kraken also had the urge right then and there to sweep her off her feet and carry her up to their bedroom. Probably not a good idea, however. Ever since he had taken the job of governer, he had exercised less and eaten more, and he probably wouldn't be able to carry her up the stairs.

Smiling as he took her hand, he lead her through the hallway and to the front door. There, they met their two kids, both boys, John Kraken, eight years of age, and Paul Kraken, five years of age. Also there was their daughter, six months old, and their sitter, Pauline, one of Melina's lifelong friends. Kissing their children in turn, and telling them to behave, Melina and Park departed out the front door and headed to their hoverlimo. Moments later they were on their way to the local stage festival, a charity event.

* * *

"Alpha Romeo, this is Beta Foxtroxt, the parents are away, repeat, the parents are away." reported the scout.

"Excellent. All teams, this is Alpha Romeo, the guardians are away and the little ones are ripe for the picking. All teams, prepare to move in."

The two black clad commandoes made their way from the nearby building to the front gates of the mansion. One of them brought out a small portable computer and began hacking into the guard's security systems, while the other one stood guard. Moments later, the hacker cursed and turned to face his comrade.

"Colonel, I can bypass the security systems, but it'll take half an hour at least." reported the hacker.

"Forget it then. Just disable the security system. We have a timetable to keep."

"Aye sir".

Moments later the gate rolled open as the alarms and other electronic security measures were disabled. Alarms began to blare as a monitoring station noted the unscheduled downtime of the security measures. The two commandoes rushed the front gate, sweeping the grounds but finding no apparent opposition. The two men reached the door, and rigged charges to blow it off it's hinges. One explosion later, the door was cleared. The two commandoes immediatley rushed in, then came back out, their bodies riddled with plasteel ball bearing holes as the physical backup systems, in this case, a claymore, kicked in.

Three more commandoes came in through the backway, and one of them met a similar end as the first two. The remaining three men the six man squad, the sixth man being on the roof, carefully made their way in. Two security guards were disposed of as they ran around the corner to see what the commotion was about. A quick sweep of the ground floor produced no one else, and none of the escape routes looked to have been used. That only left the second floor. Commando number six was reporting no one coming out on the balconies, so they were probably hunkered down somewhere. Carefully making their way up the stairs, the commandoes headed up to search the second floor.

* * *

Colonel Gerard ran out of the ready room at the local Imperial barracks, fully dressed down in his commando city combat armour, the other eleven members of his stormtrooper unit already aboard the airspeeder and awaiting only for him. He called over the comlink and told the pilot to go ahead and power up the repulsorlifts, then rounded the corner and headed into the hangar. He looked into the controller station to tell the hangar boss that they were heading out, but no one was there. Suspicious, Gerard headed over and found the boss lying on the ground, his throat slit. He called hurriedly to his men to debark the airspeeder, but it was too late. A massive explosion enveloped the rear half of the speeder, throwing a few men off the front end and killing the rest.

Two other explosions enveloped the other two speeders that were part of the regular response unit. With the three airspeeders eliminated, there were no functional speeders remaining, the others having been deployed to the festival to guard the grounds there. Grimacing, Gerard ran to his remaining men that had picked themselves off their feet, and motioned torwards the city. He ran with his seven remaining healthy men, and vowed to hija...no, borrow the first civilian airspeeder that came across their path.

* * *

Park and Melina were at the festival when a commander with the local security force came to their private booth, the official having run the distance from the nearby security post. He stopped momentarily to catch his breath, and then told the Krakens the bad news.

"Sir, an alarm has just gone out. The security system at your mansion is down, and the guards there are not responding to their comlinks. A response unit trying to leave the local garrison was sabatouged. We think someone is after your children." reported the official.

"Mien gott." replied Park. "Oh no. Park, we have to go, right now." Melina said in an increasingly hysterical voice.

"We have a speeder standing by for you." replied the commander.

"Let's go." said Park. And off they went, to the rescue.

* * *

"Are they unharmed?" asked commando four.

"Yeah, their just covered with blood and shocked frozen." replied commando five in an amused voice. "Time to meet the real world, you spoiled brats. With that, commando five sprayed a knockout gas that put the two boys to sleep. Leaving the body of their nanny behind, the two commandes headed out the way they came.

"Romeo lead, this is Beta, we have inbound reinforcements on your position." reported the saboteur leader of the other team.

"I thought you were supposed to take care of them." replied Romeo lead harshley.

"Yeah well, they found other means of heading your way." commented Beta.

"Well, go ahead and withdraw. Romeo six, cover us from the roof. Five, let's go." replied Romeo lead.

With that, the two commandoes departed the mansion, heading back to their dustoff point.

* * *

The Krakens arrived at their mansion just as what remained of the response team eliminated the last commando, on the rooftop. Park leapt off the airspeeder, his pistol in his right hand, his wife standing by his left. With the stormtroopers and commando of the response team in tow, they headed into the mansion, where they encountered first the two mangled corposes of the commandoes that were killed in the front, then the two dead security guards, then the dead commando in the rear. With no one else on the first floor, they headed up to the second floor. The Krakens knew Pauline had a favorite hiding place, and went to check it out.

Melina was the first to enter the room, as anxious as she was to recover her children. She let out a earsplitting screech, then fainted. Preparing himself, Park stepped into the room, and looked at the dead body of Pauline, the top part of her head missing from a blaster bolt. Their children were nowhere to be seen. Then, a crying sound pulled up Park's head. He glanced back out the door. Commando Gerard was faster, and soon had a crying infant in his hand. Coming to, Melina rushed to him and snatched their daughter out of his grasp. He hung his head and went up to the roof to check on the dead commando. Melina then feel on the floor and broke into tears. Park knelt down to comfort her. One of the stormtroopers came into the room and requested orders.

Park looked back at the man, and with tears beginning to run down his eyes as well, said, "Get me Wesley Vos."

Vladet, one day later

Dressed up in his military uniform, Park Kraken strode into the military command center. Normally military assets would not be devoted to finding kidnapped children, but these aren't just anybodies children, and this just isn't any kidnapping. The fact that highly skilled and trained commandoes, and that there was many of them to accomplish what they did, puts a certain military spin on the crime, and means that there must be something going on. Park looked over to his aide for military affairs, and concerning his mood, there was no doubt as to what he was about to ask.

"Sorry sir, but we could only get Major Vos on holocomm. Apparently he is tied up in a very important operation right now." reported the aide, then when Kraken looked slightly confused, the aide added in a whisper, "Metalorn." The understanding in Kraken's eyes meant that he remembered now. Even with the tradegy in hand, strange that he should forget the operation, espically since his own forces were heavily comitted to the battle. They were still waiting for an update from Commodore Brand on the matter. "Anyways, here he is on holocomm." said the aide, putting the message up on the holotable.

The image shimmered into existance, displaying the features of the Special forces commander.

"Governer Kraken, I am told that my presence is urgently needed. Perhaps you can inform me what the trouble is?" asked the special forces commander.

"Yes commander. My children were kidnapped, and it was done very professionally. I need your help in retrieving them." Kraken responded.

"First, let me say sorry, sorry for your loss and for my not being able to be there in preson. However I do know someone that I trust absolutley that should be able to help you. He is on Coruscant now, and has two detachments that should be able to help you sufficently, no matter who it is that kidnapped your children." said Major Vos.

"Yes, thank you very much commander. That will be all." replied Park, relief evident in his eyes.

* * *

Coruscant traffic control station, several hours later

The special forces commandoes broke down the door and entered into the office, pointing their weapons at the sole occupant within. The man was responsible for overseeing traffic departing from and transiting within the space in between Coruscant and Bilbringi. Through bugs planted in the officies, it was learned that this one was the traitor that was leaking information to the space pirates that were stealing ships along this territory. In behind the commandoes came Captain Carnarvon, commander of the task force dedicated to stopping the pirates.

"Traffic supervizor Dwi Terron, you are under arrest for treason against the Empire. Under the charges you face, you will most certainly be put to death after we have interrogated you for what you know. However, we may go easy, and give you a lighter sentence, if you cooperate with us right now." said the captain in a strict voice.

"Ok, ok, I will tell you this," said the man in a panicky voice, "Turn me loose unharmed in a certain place, and the children will be let loose."

"What children, what are you talking about?" demanded the captain.

"The governer's children. I am certain he wants them back." replied Terron in a now confident voice. The captain made a quick inquiry, which was answered in a hurry. After he learned what Terron was talking about, he nodded to the commandoes.

"Take him away, straight to Imperial Intelligence HQ. After we're through with him, he'll wish he was never born." said the captain in a cool voice. With that the commandoes and the captain left the station, their traitor in tow.

Imperial Intelligence, Coruscant

"Major, we have a briefing about what the prisoner has revealed to us. According to what we could gather from in between his screams and yells, the kids have been kidnapped as ransom for the release of this person and for clemency of the pirate group that has been raiding up and down this trade route. They did make one mistake. This person has been to their main hideout, and knows where the children would be held at. A strike team is being assembled for their rescue right now." reported the intelligence officer.

"Excellent," replied the major in a crisp voice, "and is there anymore?"

"Yes sir. Apparently his role in these affairs were as we suspected, although instead of recieving payment directly up front, he would recieve ten percent of the total booty raided when they reached the point that they needed clemency and to retire." replied the officer.

* * *

Pirate base proper, Subaria

The commandes exited the shuttle with the two boys in tow. They went straight to the main chamber to report on the results of their mission. Entering the chamber, the two commandoes tossed the two little boys on the ground and pivoted to face the single occupant of a captain's chair, snapping to attention and with a salute.

"Reporting in as ordered sir." said the commando known as Alpha.

"I see you have the two boys. A job well done Major. What of our casaulties?" asked the pirate chief.

"We lost ten commandoes in the raid, five in the mansion, five elsewhere." responded Alpha in a hard voice.

"Hmmm. Any idea on enemy casualties?" pondered the pirate chief.

"Breaking news sources before we left the planet said that altogether some fifty people had died in the raid, and that forty of them were stormtroopers. A five to one kill ratio." said Alpha.

"Not good, but not bad either. Your men are to be commended for their tough work in the mission. Let's go and prepare the ransom letter. We must arrange both a meeting time and place." said the pirate chief.

Alpha nodded, then said, "Yes sir. But if I may ask, do you really think the Empire will kowtow to our demands, even with the governer's children being held?"

"Quite frankly, no I don't. But this does buy us time, for the upper ups to prepare to leave, re-organize, and start anew. You and the remaining high ranking officials shall accompany me as my personal entourage. The rest I'm afriad will have to be sacraficed to whet the Empire's whim." said the pirate chief.

"Sir." replied Alpha with a crisp salute. With that, the three men exited the chamber, the two boys, who were now beginning to stir, being taken away to their cells.

* * *

Vladet

"Admiral, task group Beta has just entered the system. I am reading two Reign class destroyers, along with four heavy cruisers, eight frigates, and sixteen support vessels. They have been assigned to holding pattern one one nine, upper orbit." reported the communications officer.

"Very well. That means that there are only a few task groups left to arrive before we are at optimal strength. Any change from the governer's disposition?" asked the admiral.

"No sir, nothing new. The last transmission is clear. We are to proceed as planned, but with a deviation to our planned training area. And no idea where the new practicing range is located at." reported communications.

"Hmmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with events transpiring on the surface?" wondered the Admiral out loud.

"Possibly. Depending on what intelligence is gathered, and what we find out, someone is going to be very sorry." said communications. An incoming call from the newly arrived task group ended their conversation.

* * *

Military headquarters, Grand Isle

"So, how do we proceed?" asked the general.

"Humf. First of all, we will agree to a meeting to let go of our prisoner. I want the fifth army to deploy a battalion to cover this. No screwups, I want a clear message sent that the empire does not negotiate with scum. Second of all, the battlefleet is about ready. As soon as we hear back from the commandoes and their mission, we will launch. Third of all, I want this assault to be quick, efficent, and deadly." said Governer Kraken with a dead face but a slight smile as the notion of revenge came into focus.

"Aye sir. But what if they want to do an old fashioned prisoner exchange instead? I could see such a thing taking place, and it would give the pirates time to hightail it out of there. I don't think they are stupid enough to think that the Empire will honor their tragedy of a deal." replied General Barrum.

"Then in that case, we will just hope for the best. If my children are murdered, the enemy will pay a very steep price. Death is the only thing they will crave, and the only thing they will not have. Now, let's move on." said Kraken. With a gulp, the General nodded.

* * *

Articus class carrier Treiste, en route to Subaria

"Ok commandoes, check your equipment, how is everything?" asked the commander.

"Locked and loaded. Ready to kick some ass." was their automatic reply.

"Good, reversion is in five hours. We will be stationed just outside their system. We will go in on the new nighthawk class stealth shuttles. This is a get in, grab, and get the hell out type of mission. All enemies are targets of opportunity only. Everyone understand?" asked the commander. Again it was with the chorus of ayes.

"Then let's hit the shuttles, suite up, and prepare for when the shit hits the fan." rallied the commando commander.

Everyone left in a scramble, eager for their mission ahead.

Subaria, Pirate's stronghold

The sentry, a slackjaw and not entirely burly looking fellow, was chewing on some tobaccy as be prodded along at his post. With a pitang he spat it out, and started reaching into his pocket for some more. So preoccupied with his daily task, he didn't notice the large dark form sneaking up behind him until his neck had been snapped like a twig. Commander Racen Selere quietly dragged the body out of obvious sight, and then gave the all clear to his commando companions. Currently, they were approaching the hangars that housed about an estimated three squadrons of starfighters and two big shuttles. Their task was simple. Infiltrate, kill, destroy, create havoc and confusion. Theirs was the task of a diversion.

Selere held up two fingers, and the two snipers in the squad took that as their hint to detach and set up in preparation for the fun to begin. Then the special forces commander looked back to one of his commandoes. The man, named Lieutenant Stangan, had loaded the dead body of the guard into a speeder that was packed with B-4 charges, remote controlled. Selere sought out his other men, looking for the confirmation that they were ready. They nodded. The commander held up a hand, then let it drop. The speeder accelerated past them, and headed torwards the first hangar. The doors to it were open, revealing the fronts of at least two Z-95 headhunters, ancient starfighters, but still capable of inflicting pain and death. The speeder accelerated, and to a few shouts of suprise from some mantinence techs, entered the hangar.

Out of the corner of his eye, Selere noticed one of his commandoes finger a trigger. Moments later the hangar simply exploded, a fireball racing back out the entrance, the walls and roof exanding outwards, and then collapsing in on themselves as a fireball soared skywards. Alarms immediatley began going off as other maintenance people, rescue and response teams, and the base security became alive and headed to investigate what had happened to the hangar. Three large airspeeders reached the front of the hangar. Out of them debarked soldiers, dressed in ragged battle uniforms and sporting a wide variety of blaster rifles. They started to move out to secure the area around the hangar, their commanders issueing orders over the comlink while the men went about their buisness.

The commanders, obvious by the way they were speaking into their comlinks and ordering their men around, were the first ones to die, the snipers eliminating them with lethal efficency. A E-web heavy repeating blaster opened up on the troops, firing from a concealed position just below the commanders location. Many of the soldiers took cover behind the parked airspeeders. A trio of Merr-Sonn rockets came out of the woods near the base and impacted the speeders, blowing them apart and spreading the solides everywhere. More alarms began to go off, and the mantinence and rescue personnel scattered. Commander Selere smiled. So far, so good.

* * *

Prison cells, Subaria

"Hey, what is that I hear?" asked one of the guards. He was looking to the east, where there was a barred window. That would be in the direction of the local airbase, where the diversion was now commencing. The guard and his companion, their curiosity piqued, went to the window to check out the action. So fixated on the bright lights, sounds, and explosions interrupting their daily boring routine, they never noticed the two commandoes that had slipped in the doorway sneaking up behind them until it was too late. With both of the guards dead on the ground, Commander Nayng, the leader of Red squad, took the keys from the dead guard and opened up the cell. Inside were the two children, roughed up but otherwise unhurt.

Leading them out of the prison and into the open, the boys were greeted by a friendly sight. A nighthawk shuttle was situated in the landing platform, the smoking remains of a shuttle pushed off to the side. Dead bodies lay everywhere, mostly pilots but a few commandoes. The boys were hurried into the shuttle, which lifted off and headed to the rendezvous point. In the meantime, code Omega was sent to Grey team, which was still assaulting the landing strip.

* * *

Gray team

"Ok, that's the signal boys, fall back. Set the mortars on delayed timers and let's withdraw." ordered Commander Selere. He looked over at the dead body of Lieutenant Stangan, lying on the dirt, his head blown away with a lucky blast. The commando manning the E-web was dead, hit by a barrage of shells from some hovertanks that they hadn't been briefed on as staying in this area. The remaining commandoes made it back to the rendezvous point, loaded up their shuttle, and lifted off, bound for space.

* * *

Bridge of the Superior, lurking in Subaria's outer-system

"Sir," the communications officer called up, "Mission from Red team. Rescue and extraction successful. They are enroute to the medical frigate Imperial light now sir."

Governer Kraken heaved a sigh of relief, then refocused on the task at hand. His children were back safe and sound. Now, it was time for retribution.

"All forces, commence assault."

Subaria, three standard months after the planetery invasion and occupation

The governer had just left this morning, having finished up detailing administrative duties and assigning forces for the long term occupation and development of this planet. He was heading home now, to meet up with his family before taking a much needed and deserved vacation to a private retreat, an ocean world with islands that had fine sandy beaches, warm temperatures, and much fun, a world known only to top ranking Imperial officials, and used as a place to rest, relax, and brainstorm planning sessions. In his absence, an Imperial commander, line-captain Garret Harusia, would take over command of the garrison present on the planet. He would be assigned an expanded Imperial mechanized division of some five hundred vehicles and twenty thousand troops. In addition, a half wing of Imperial starfighters, or thirty six, would be stationed on planet, and a small space station would maintain the spaceborne defense fleet, consisting of one light cruiser of the carrack class, and four corvettes of the Dasher class.

The planet would be developed as an agriculture planet, with a small mining operation on the side. The food that it produces will be used to help feed the ever expanding Imperial army and navy. In addition to the garrison and spaceborne navy, in time as the planet is developed, a shield generator and some planet based weaponry will be installed. Subaria, although as of now merely the latest of planets subjugated forcefely by the galatic empire, will someday become a much valued and well respected member world.

* * *

Bridge of the Superior

Park Kraken relaxed in the captain's chair on the bridge of the mighty Imperial battleship as it exited hyperspace, and decanted within the star system of Vladet, the capital of the Mid-Rim Protectorate. In some sense his mission had been very mainline. Another week having gone past, and yet another planet having been conquered. But that was three months ago, and now he needed to get back to his duties as governer, and so on home he went. But the personnel in his office would not be seeing him quite yet. Rather, with a stack of paperwork a mile high in his hand, he would take his family away for a much needed R&R. Kraken smiled. It was good to be home.