Sentinel-class Shuttle Trojan's Valour

"Ma'am," reported the pilot, "we're being given a flight path to the Grand Admiral's ship."

She frowned. "You felt the need to report this why, soldier?"

"Because," delineated the man, "our flight path ends in deep space. There's nothing there. At least according to our sensors."

Valeska's eyes narrowed. If I were on the Trojan right now, I'd be ordering a very intensive scan using Stellar's Spectrographic sensors or have our Shadowcasters take a look at it with their advanced avianiocs equipment. The Abhean woman reclined in her chair. It just doesn't make any sense. Why would their flight path take us to nowhere...unless...they either have a very fast ship, or some sort of stealth ship. That would make sense. Rumour has it that Serendivus has some sort of advanced stealth technology. The dark-haired woman stared at the pilot nonchalantly.

"Keep to the path. I think I know what might be happening."

"That's reassuring ma'am."

She snorted. "Stick to the course, I'll worry about what happens to us."

"I'm seeing some sort of faint lights up ahead."

"That's probably their signalling or identification technique for their stealth ship. How big do you think it is?"

"Hard to say Ma'am from this distance," reported the pilot, "but it's probably bigger than the Trojan. And Captain, something else is approaching us. I think it's some sort of starship."

"Honour guard?"

"Don't think so. Looks like some kind of utility or maintenance thing I think."

Valeska smiled. "It would appear that Serendivus is going to be full of surprises."

Hanger bay 93

"This is flight tower 93 to incoming shuttle, docking drone is on route to lead you into the bay. Please do not deviate from the course, once inside the bay please land on pad four," the flight officer said as she watched the shuttle.

The bay was a bustle of activity as various flight crews cleared away fighters and other ships that were docked. In another part of the bay fighter craft launched to replace those that were landing.

As the drone closed on the shuttle the onboard AI sent a message back to the tower informing them that they may open the bay doors for the shuttle to land. Along the edge of pad four was a series of guards and an older man charged with escorting the female confederate officer to Lavality's briefing room.

Trojan's Valour broke through the MagCon field with its respective pop. Folding up its wings upwards towards the ceiling, the tri-winged craft floated over to Landing Pad Four. Valeska's shuttle slowly lowered itself to rest on the hangar's floor. The characteristic ramp lowered and hit the ground with a dull thump. Several seconds later, Valeska and several other black-clad Confederation officers exited. The Trojan's captain crisply strode over to the aging man and his accompanying guards. She stretched out her arm for a handshake.

"Captain Valeska of the Contegorian Confederation Ship Trojan," announced the Abhean woman, "I believe I am here to meet with Grand Admiral Lavality..."

The commander in charge of the squad of marines bowed to Valeska. "Welcome aboard Ma'am, my name is Commander Flitchings, I've been asked to escort you to the admirals briefing room," he said and lead her out of the noisy hanger bay to a lift, the lift took them up to the deck where Lavality was waiting.

A knock soon came to the briefing room door; a second later the marine commander pushed open the double doors. Lavality stood near to the briefing table, her XO by her side. "Welcome aboard Captain, I hope your trip was pleasant," she said to Valeska and awaited a response.

"It was," replied the Abhean woman, approaching the briefing table, "for the most part. I imagine a woman of your experience and position understands how hyperjumps can be disorienting at times. But it was quite worth it. I must say, I have never quite seen a ship like yours. It's very impressive. We have stealth technology in the Confederation, but nothing quite this scale."

The former gunnery instructor pulled out a chair near the briefing table and sat down, facing the young Grand Admiral.

"You'll have to forgive me, ma'am. But the Rear-Admiral believes that time is of the essence right now. He thinkts that every minute, the hope of successfully finding our countrymen goes down. In hours, the chances of finding them, or discovering their fate, will vanish like the morning mists. If you will, could you have me taken to the captured destroyer soon?"

Lavality collasped her hands together and rested her elbows on the table. "I can do that, but not at this very moment as my men are clearing away debris from our assault," she said and glanced toward the glass window that kept the air in the room from the vacuum of space.

She would've preferred the admiral himself, but she had to settle for the Captain. With a slight smile she pushed her chair back and got up, "Well, those marines should be finished by the time I get there.. else they'll be cleaning things they'd rather leave alone," she said and guided the Abhean woman out of the briefing room and back to the hanger bay.

The bay floor wasn't as active as it was when the captain had arrived; with only a few roving groups of mechanics and the marines currently guarding her shuttle.

"We'll take one of our shuttles there, I'm afraid due to the security reasons, your shuttle won't be able to approuch the destroyer," Lavality said as the ramp to the Lambda class shuttle lowered. It was easy to notice the differences, instead of the tam and dak laser cannons that were normally fitted on the ship, they had been replaced by the Seren's own fusion based cannons.

The shuttle itself was the same color as the ship, and as the two boarded along with Lavality's marine escort, the ramp closed and cool air vented into the passenger compartment.

"Ma'am? Destination," the pilot asked as he took a seat.

"Destroyer, land in bay two," Lavality ordered as she stood next to the pilot. The shuttle hovered over to a magnetic launch ramp. "Buckle up everyone," Lavality ordered, she noticed the captain had taken a seat just behind the pilot. Lavality herself was seated in the co-pilots seat and checking the systems to make sure everything was in order.

A sudden hum could be heard as the shuttle latched onto the launch ramp. "Departure in five.." the pilot said, and five seconds later everyone was pushed back into their seats as the shuttle was jetisoned out of the battleship and into open space. The pilot brought the wings down and flew toward the destroyer.

"We don't have stuff like that," Valeska said as she unbuckled her seat belt. "We usually only use those in combat situations, but the mechanics get a bit ansy when they aren't being used for long periods of time," Lavality said as she checked through the sensor list to make sure no unknowns were in the area. "Ok, head to the destroyer," she said to the pilot, whom nodded.

The shuttle lurched to the left and toward the destroyer. Around the destroyer were a series of frigate's and transports, some of the frigates began moving away from the destroyer, and then entering hyperspace.

"Hmm...." Lavality said as she brought up the ship roster. Several second's later she noticed two frigate's hyper into the system, she then nodded. "A bit late..." she grumbled to herself and made a mentle note to talk to the captains in charge of the frigates whom had just entered the system.

As the shuttle moved toward the destroyer a flight of Retens came by and scanned it before moving off. "You know, you'd think that since you're onboard they'd know this shuttle is safe..." The pilot grumbled.

"It's procedure, we can't take that chance... who knows.. someone might try to infiltrate that ship looking like either myself or some other officer," Lavality said.

Door's parted the shuttle entered the destroyer's hanger bay. The bay was quite different from that of the battleship, as marine's tended to their duties and medics helped the wounded. Lavality seemed startled by what was happening and, once the ramp was down, was quick to disembark and address the commander, behind her Valeska also left the shuttle, but stayed a sizable distanec from the admiral.

"What happened?" she demanded. The commander turned toward her and saluted, before making his report. "I'm sorry ma'am, just happened. We found a group of pirates holded up in one of the cargo bays, however the crates in that bay were full of explosives, we didn't know that until the pirates set them off..." he said.

"I see... how many dead?" Lavality said, her arms folded over her chest. "Thankfully, none, except those of the pirates.. it'll take days to scrub off the walls though," he said to her.

Lavality just nodded. "Where are you keeping the rescued slave's and prisoners?" shea sked him.

"Cargo bay's one and three, the slave's are being treated however by a medical team so it's best to wait at least an hour," the commander cautioned her. "Very well commander," she said and gestured for her guards to follow her. "Let's head on to bay three, see if any of your men are amugsted those taken. If they are I can secure a room aside for you to talk to them, she said to Valeska while following the marine.

Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche, Kashyyk System

"Sir, we've recieved the hypercomm transmissions from Soroya."

"Encrypted?" questioned the younger Lucerne.

"Naturally, sir," replied the Communication's officer.

"Excellent," noted the Confederate Rear-Admiral, "decipher it and have it transmitted by secure lines to all personnel with a security clearance of six and above. I want everyone to read up on it during their spare time."

"Sir?"

Corise paused. "There are many things you need to know in war. Yourself, your enemy, and...your allies. The more we know about them, the easier it will be to work with them, and to predict their responses. Undoubtedly, they probably have some basic files on us from the Coalition...but we've changed some since then."

"Aye sir."

Lucerne glanced at the Flight Director of the battleship. "Any word from our reconnaissance flights?"

"Yes sir," reported the officer, "but nothing of importance...well...at least not to the search for our own or the criminals. Most of what we have so far is updated astrographic info...not useful for the short-term..."

"But useful in the long run," finished Lucerne, "shorter and more accurate routes. Traffic and comm patterns. Well, we'll just have to let the Deathsabers continue on their work. Notify me immediately if anything more...short-term pops up."

The man nodded and turned back to his console. Corise deliberately paced over to the multi-layered, ceraglass viewport, his sapphire eyes wandering across the celestial vista. They stopped on a distant, but noticeable ball of mottled greens and blues.

"Any word from Captain Valeska?"

"Sir no sir."

He nodded. "Very well. We'll just have to patient until she reports in..."

Lavality watched the Valeska, she saw the woman as being proficent. She had already pointed out over thirty amongst the prisoners that the pirates had on their ship as being confederate. With those chosen, Lavality had them seperated from the group and given priority on medical treatment.

But, what was even more astonishing, and what also made Lavality quite nervous, was that she was also able to point out some of the technology. While it hadn't yet been incorporated into the ship, the fact it was there made Lavality realize that this hunt was just getting started.

"If you don't mind, admiral," Valeska said as she watched the prisoners being filed out. "I must make a report to my commanding officer," she said.

"I don't mind, go ahead and use my office," Lavality said and escorted Valeska to her office. "Your line is secure, take as much time as you desire, but there are other place's that I think you'll find of interest, also, if you have some sort of a 'tow' ship amongst your fleet you might want them to join us just in case," Lavality said.

Valeska just nodded and entered Lavality's office. When the doors closed the young admiral sighed, "you don't show much emotion around those you don't know, huh ma'am?" a marine asked, curious as to how Lavality was keeping such a professional look.

She smiled. "In my line of work, you have to be... one wrong word... one wrong gesture... one wrong emotion could lead to a full blown conflict," she said and pushed herself off the door that she hadn't realized that she was leaning up against a second ago.

The marines looked at each other and shrugged. "Conflict seem's fine to me ma'am, we've been rather bored just cleaning our blasters here," one said, a second later they both started laughing but then cleared their throats when she saw the admiral glaring at them.

"This is no laughing matter you idiots, just be glad that good is sound proof... or else your actions alone right here, right now, could've started a war we would NOT be able to win," Lavality said and turned away from them.

One of the marines had asked her another question, but this time Lavality just ignored him and waited.

"...a little over two dozen, sir."

Corise bit his lip. "That is good to know, Captain. If it is possible, see if you can arrange for our citizens to be picked up by several of our shuttles. They'll be transferred here to the Revanche for debriefing and medical treatment if they need it."

The dark-haired woman nodded. "There's more though Rear-Admiral. There seems to be some Confederation technology onboard."

The younger Lucerne arched an eyebrow. "Explain."

"It's nothing exactly new of ours," hesitated Valeska,"but there is some Abhean built components used on our older ships. Equipment that was supposedly scrapped when we upgraded them. It's fairly benign, targetting computers, several point-defence systems."

The Kashan man nodded. The equipment corresponds with the Confederation citizens, so both are supportive of each other's identity. This could be circular reason, but hunches and facts about both makes this unlikely. But here lies the better question: what were civilians doing with older military equipment that should have been scrapped? And what were they doing with it this far out in space? Selling it on the black market? His blue eyes hardened. That would make them criminals. Smugglers. War profiteers. Nothing desirable to us. A stain on our mark. And if these people are just that, they will be interrogated to round up their conspirators and sent off to quick, fair trial. Corise silently nodded. And if their crime warrants it (treason certainly does), we will be able to use the new C.R. facilities. This could be interesting.

"Captain, I believe it would be best if those 'citizens' are kept under guard for the duration of their stay with Serendivus and the Revanche at all times. Please inform Admiral Lavality that we could be dealing with potential criminals. As always, any significant updates would be appreciated," stated the Rear-Admiral, beginning to bow, "Captain."

"Admiral," bowed the woman.

The holo-link cut into static as the connection ended. Corise swiveled on his command chair to face the bulk of the bridge. Crewmen quietly worked at their stations. Satisfied that none of them seemed to have anything urgent for him, the officer tapped a button on chair. The holo-projector flared to life with a rather lengthy text document. He sighed. Typical.

"How was it?" Lavality asked the captain but only got a short and simple answer. "How do reports usually go?" she said. Lavality just nodded and gestured for her to follow; she lead the captain down the hallway and back into the elevator and rode it down to the hanger bay.

"We'll be taking a frigate to the drydocks located above Trissan," Lavality said as the doors slid apart and she stepped onto the bay. The two of them crossed the bay and into an awaiting shuttle craft. "We'll take my shuttle, until authorization can be given, no ConFed craft can approuch Trissian since it's technically still under Trandoshan authority, despite us being allowed to place a base and orbital drydock," she said as the ramp raised and closed shut.

The pilot was given the go ahead and the shuttle lifted off the deck and turned toward the force field. It passed harmlessly through and into space; soon the shuttle jumped into hyperspace only to appear a brief time later in close proximity to the drydock. A flight of Reten fighters flew up to the shuttle as the pilot transmitted the clearance codes, the fighters then broke off and continue their patrol.

"Enough security?" Lavality heard the captain say. "We only have this level of security because of the amount of capital based ships currently moored here," Lavality replied and gestured toward one of the open docking bay doors. The pilot nodded and brought the shuttle into the bay.

The bay was basically devoid of any life, for that matter, there was hardly anything else in the bay except a landing beacon and a man standing near the door smoking a ciggerate. When he saw the shuttle he threw the cig onto the ground and stomped it out.

As the shuttle came to a complete stop and the ramp lowered; the man walked up the ramp and addressed Lavality. "Admiral, I didn't think you'd be here so soon," the man said, he didn't Salute her. He wore dark blue fatigues and a black cap that was turned around; he had a blaster strapped to his front and a pistol to his side.

"Problems?" Lavality asked when she noticed what he had. "Yep, you missed the action. An hour ago a couple pirates managed to sneak past station security and tried to steal some of the unknown ships we had moored, bastards almost succeeded if it wasn't for the twin turbolaser batteries that decided to say hello," he grinned.

Lavality somehow knew what happened next. "So, one destroyed ship?"

"Nah, just a bridge that's mostly ruined. The ship itself is salvagable so it shouldn't poss a problem," the man said. Lavality just shook her head, "just take us to the mooring dock ok?" she said.

A few minutes later Lavality and Captain Valeska found themselves in a dark and stuffy bay, gravity was disabled which was how the bay was able to fit so many ships. "Turne the lights on," Lavality shouted as she menevuered up to a gantry crane and gripped it.

Suddenly the bay lite up to reveal several frigate and corvette class vessels, Valeska scrutinized the ships for some time before coming to the conclusion that three of the corvettes and four of the frigates were in fact Confed. "Two are older models, but the others are recent," she said in a low tone so Lavality wouldn't hear.

A few ships down Lavality could see a hole in the side of a frigate's bridge. The hole was only a few feet in diameter, inside she saw the remains of a few consoles. Dried blood caked the walls, "I take it one of the intruders didn't survive?" she asked the dockworker, he hadn't realized she had seen him and thus was slightly startled when she asked her question.

"Yep, we removed the body, or what was left of it rather," the worker said and glanced over at the turbolaser turret that sat idly by. The turret scanned the room at a slow pace, whenever Lavality made a sudden movement, however, the turret would briefly stop as if the onboard motion system was determining wheather her actions were safe or threatening.

"Some of these ships are ours," Valeska finally said as she floated over to where Lavality and the dockworker were. "I'll have some of my tow ships comeby, I don't know where you want me to tow them to so please ask your commanding officer," she asked.

Valeska nodded, "any terminal I ca use?" she asked.

The dockworker looked around. "The only encrypted terminal is aboard one of our docked prowlers," he said and gestured to a corvette that was docked above the rest of the ships. Lavality gently floated up to the ship and keyed her passcode into the lock. The airlock door shifted and opened, then the door leading into the corvette itself also opened. She drifted inside, followed closely by Valeska.

She made her way to the bridge and, once inside, brought the ship online but kept it's artifical gravity system offline. She brought the communications online and pinged the communications dish on the drydock, when the green light was given she turned to Valeska. "Your clear," she said and floated off the bridge.