"...frigates."

"Frigates?" questioned the Rear-Admiral, "we aren't missing any frigates. You are well aware of the tight security on Confederation warships, and the tracking measures installed in all of them in case they do become...misplaced."

"They're Star Galleons, registered to a Lant Mining Corporation under our flag."

"So they're civilian," stated the younger Lucerne.

"Yes."

"I see. In which case, they should be returned to their original owners shortly."

"Already on it," replied Valeska, "I've asked for some of our ships to tow them back."

Lucerne leaned back, "We don't have any support ships available to tow them all they way through. They'll have to be manned with temporary crews to get back to Confederation space.'

"Ah, sir, that's going to be sort of hard for one of them."

"Oh?" questioned the Kashan man.

"One ship had their bridge destroyed," reported the dark-haired woman.

The Rear-Admiral nodded. "Very well, I'll dispatch the Defender to tow her back. Although that means we'll be short a star destroyer, which is unfortunate for the upcoming mission."

"Sir?" questioned the former instructor.

Corise flashed a rare smile, "A turbolaser attack registers rather easily on our DERs. So we scrambled a pair of Deathsabers to track them down, and now we have a location of their base. I'm preparing our forces to make the strike to eliminate them, permanently. I suggest you inform the Grand Admiral. We'll be moving out shortly, within the hour, so if she wishes to participate with us, tell her to contact me shortly."

"Very good sir."

The blonde-haired man nodded. The terminal's screen blinked out as the communication's officer onboard the Revanche cut the communication's link. Valeska shrugged.

"I guess I'd better inform Lavality."

Lavality nodded. "I see," she said after listening to what Valeska had to tell her. She mulled over the idea of calling in one of her fleets away from sector patrol; instead she decided to use own fleet.

With another nod she headed toward the airlock and out into the bay. "Valeska has informed me that most of their ships will be leaving drydock with a small crew, one will be towed," she shouted to the dockworker who was free floating in the air. He gave her a curt nod and floated over to the bays control room.

Lavality turned back to the airlock and went back inside the corvette. She pinged the communications sat again and smiled when she got a green light, placing the headset over her head. She radioed the Revache.

"This is Grand Admiral Lavality wishing to speak to Rear Admiral Lucrene please," Lavality said in a soft voice. As he awaited a repsonse she allowed herself to float up to the ceiling, placing her hand against the metal she remembered the day she had been aboard this particuler corvette.

It was shortly before the organization had gotten involved in the Seperatist Movement, in fact, it was before she had been given her own command. The corvette was the closest she had gotten to a ship at the time, and the closest her father felt she could get to combat.

I've seen a lot of combat since those days, a lot of deaths, blood spilt, she sighed and glanced at the navigation computer. She had witnessed ships torn in half by enemy weapons, people frozen to death in space when their bodies were ejected from a ship venting atmosphere.

To most people a girl her age should've been in school learning the finer points of advanced mathematic's. However, no matter how she looked at it, her intelligence wasn't her own but merely implanted into her mind by a sick scientist.

Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche, Kasshyk System

The Mon Calamari styled warship drifted lazily across the celestial starscape. Around the flagship floated the Interdictor Mk II Constellation and the Nebula Star Destroyers Trojan, Defender, and Visionary. It was a sizeable force, more than enough to overrun some planets in the outer rim. And it was all being staged to strike a single pirate base. To some, it appeared as an inefficient deployment of forces that would result in an overkill.

But to Confederate High Command, it was pure caution: they were operating in a relatively unknown area of space against a scarcely known foe. As such, Confederation forces onboard were being quickly marshalled to their combat stations in ordered discipline. On the bridge of the battleship, Confederate staff officers finished updating the final assault based on intelligence from the recon flights. A voice rang out from the crew pit.

"Sir, we're recieving a transmission from Serendivius, something analogous to our High Command I believe, it's Grand Admiral Lavality."

The blonde man nodded. "Patch her through to my console."

Lavality free floated in the air; enjoying the wightlessness that the lack of gravity afforded her. As she listened she was presented with green flashing light on the dashboard indicating she had been connected with another person, how she loved their communications technology, but in reality she was only using half of it.

"Am I speaking to Rear Admiral Lucrene?" she asked, making sure the person she was speaking to was the right person and not some low ranking officer. As she floated there she wondered which pirate gruop Lucrene would be going after: the deadly Iensis, or the ruthless Manogeten, either one had proven to be a major thorn in her side.

Corise stared the holo of the alien. She's floating? They don't use standard gravity technology? Interesting. I suppose it takes up less power, and if you do lose power or the artificial gravity systems, you'll be use to it. He shook the thought away and genially smiled.

"This is Reard-Admiral Lucerne. Grand Admiral Lavality, I presume? Pleased to meet you. We are preparing for our assault on the pirate base. Based on the markings our recon flights spotted on several of their starfighters, we believe we are going up against the Iensis. I'll send a data transfer on what we have on them thus far. Just a second...there. You should have it. It would appear to be a rear-echoleon asteriod base used for repairs and supply. The belt affords it good concealability and some natural defences, as I'm sure you'll understand, so we will need to be fairly coordinated about this. I myself plan on utilizing a starfighter assault while my ships of line blow a path through the belt to take the base. Does this sound prudent to you, Grand Admiral?"

Lavality nodded and spun around so her feet were just a few inches from the deck plate. "I'll have my ships and fighter cover yours and use my command ship to blow apart their weapns platforms from a distance," she said. Lavality wondered if the Rear Admiral was aware of her ships long range capability.

As Lavality looked over the data she suddenly realized something. Wait a minute... where have I seen this base before? she wondered as she stared at the holographic image of the asteriod base. "My fleet with randevous with yours in.... ten minutes," she said. "Anything else I should know?"

The Rear-Admiral shook his head. "Nothing that isn't covered in the data I've transmitted to you. Ten minutes will work out nicely. I will for my navigator to transmit our astrogation route to you soon. If it's possible, I would like to synchronize the jump of our two fleets such that they arrive simultenously within the system, that way, we'll be able to immediately back each other up and not have to deal with possible collisions when our fleets emerge from hyperspace. Yes? Excellent. See you then. Lucerne out."

The holo-projector cut out, darkening the complexion of the Kashan man. Corise squinted out of the viewports, eying two wedge starships directly ahead of him; the Trojan and Constellation. Thousands of men and women are aboard those ships. And I'm putting them at the risk of death in order to eliminate a pirate base in foreign territory. His lip twitched. Which begs the question: when do we risk the livilihood of our people for the betterment of the galaxy? When is the limit? Is there a limit? Lucerne shook the thoughts away, beckoning the officer of the watch over.

"We'll be leaving in less than ten minutes Lieutenant, please inform the appropiate departments about departure time. That is all. Thank you."

Less than ten minutes later, the Confederation warships and their Serendivius allies jumped into the realm of hyperspace. Warships surged through the swirling corridors, bathed in celestial light. The starships shot into realspace, leaving the bright corridors for the star studded expanse of realspace. Directly in front of the amassed allied forces lay a ponderous, dusk coloured asteriod belt. The Flight Controller turned to Lucerne, who nodded back.

"You may begin the assault, Commander," stated the Rear-Admiral gravely.

Lavality watched from the bridge of her command ship, the Cynax, she had informed her crew about their mission and had rallied most of her main fleet at the coordinates the Rear Admiral had sent her.

Now her fleet was posed to attack a pirate base, one of two of the pirate factions within Kashyyyk space that had been causing her many problems. As she glanced out the window she caught a glimpse of one of her heavy assault cruiser as it moved lazily passed her, taking up a defensive position in the event enemy capital ships appeared.

"Deploy fighters," she ordered. The numerious hanger bay doors located across the starboard and bottom sections of the ship slid apart, bombers and their interceptor and heavy fighter escorts came buzzing out on a course for the asteriod belt.

"Give me a firing solution for our straffer cannons, I want to vaporize as many asteriods in one shot as possible," Lavality ordered. Her crew quickly went to work, on the console to the right of her command chair she saw ther power charge for the three straffer cannons that she planned on using.

Suddenly sensors pinged a contact, then two, then several dozens. "Enemy fighters sir, I count forty.. along with a couple bomber wings and apperently some corvettes," the sensors officer said. "Send the data to the Revanche, power up our flak turret and inform our fighters to engage enemy fighter squadrons. The sooner we elimanate their starfighter cover the faster it'll be to take out their base," Lavality said. Her communications officer nodded and relayed both the sensor data and the orders to the various fighter squadrons.

Lavality, however, was worried. Somethings not right.... even now I can tell this is 'to' easy... the Iensis are suppose to be one of the most powerful factions in this area of space... so why are they only sending fighters at all, she thought and continued to rub her chin. "Communications, inform our fighters to use due caution... I have a feeling something going to happen soon," Lavality said.

Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche

Confederation starfighters streamed across the battleship, forming a shadowy spear to drive through the belt and pierce through the pirate's heart. The massive guns of the battleship began to ring out in a devastating prelude to the starfighter attack. Turbolaser pulses pulverized asteriods in a bright emerald glow. Gravitational disruptors concentrated their efforts on the distant base, playing havoc with depot's artificial gravity and internal structural support. Fifty railguns pounded shells at the asteroids, occasionally even passing through the asteroid wall to hit the Iensis base, much to Lucerne's displeasure. The Rear-Admiral bellowed over the din of the crew pit.

"Redirect Railgun fire to short-range targets only," demanded the Kashan man.

A voice struggled over the noise to acknowledge, "Aye sir."

"Constellation's gravity generators are now online and focused on the enemy base."

"Sir," shouted out a voice, "the Serendivius command ship is informing us that they've spotted several corvettes, roughly four squadrons of starfighters, and a wing of bombers."

The younger Lucerne nodded. Reconnaissance flights off the Trojan and the Revanche's own sensor suite had already told him as much, but it further validated the information's veracity. Fireballs began to flare up in the distance as the Confederate and piratical fighters clashed in a vicious dogfight. He glanced at his console's tactical input. The Iensis took it worse than we did...no surprise...it's a little hard to kill what you can't see. Let's see, their starbombers appear to be Subpro Starhammers...good for groundwork and maybe even space stations, but too slow for typical space combat. They won't be a problem. An assortment of headhunters, cloakshapes, and T-wings shouldn't be much grief either. The corvettes could be nasty; Corellian gunships generally are. He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.

"Communications, issue the following orders to the fleet: disable and capture enemy capital ships and base if at all possible. I want prisoners, not depressurized bodies."

"Aye sir."

The Confederate officer leaned back in his command chair. Many junior officers, and especially unenlisted men, within the Confederation Navy tended to prefer destroying enemy vessels in flashy explosions rather than simply subduing and capturing an enemy. It certainly was easier to do so, but capturing an enemy was significantly better. Enemy warships gave two things when they captured rather than destroyed: hardware and information. And if he was forced to go on a campaign against the Iensis, he'd prefer to have as much information on the Iensis as feasilby possible.

Shadowy figures moved against the darkness of space and moving toward the asteriod base. As it neared a pair of pirate frigates begun to make their way through the asteriod field.

Suddenly several ballistics shots rang out from the void of space and connected with two of the pirate frigates, punching clean holes through and through and causing the two frigates to blossum in an amazing display of pyrotechnics.

As the shadowy ships continued their onslaught against the pirate frigates, Serendivus fighters continued their own battle against the pirate starfighters. Seren Bombers flew through the battle field and launched torpedos and missiles at asteriods an attempt to clear a path for their fellow comrades.

The bombers slowly peeled off along with their interceptor escort.

Cynax Battleship

"Prepare to fire," Lavality said as she brought her ceremonial sword up and pointed it toward the asteriods. "All MAC Guns... FIRE!"

Several thumps resounded through the ships as the Cynax's twenty four MAC guns to life; spewing silvery hot lead into the asteriod field. Roids shattered as the ships exploded just before hitting the field, replacing over a hundred smaller mines that detonated the moment they got close to the asteriods. Fire blossum along the field as more roids were obliterated by the Cynas's opening shot, the mines that didn't have a target later self destructed.

"Rearm," Lavality ordered as she looked at the holographic map. "Eighteen roids destroyed.... out of over a hundred or so that are still in our way..." she said and folded her arms over her chest.