The vessels flew through the emptiness of space in a typical convoy formation. A single Dragonclaw lead the way, point defense for any who would wish the envoy harm. This was not an issuie while in Imperium space, but entering disident territory, it might become as such. A wing of Death gliders screeched up the single lined formation, making passes over each ship in succesion.

Following up the line were a pack of transport ships, but unusually mounted, as any of the glider pilots could have mentioned. Large glowing porticullus lined each side of these vessels, Daemun Hypergates by appearance, but attached to the outsides of transport vessels was questionable. One final vessel made up this strange assortment of a convoy, a single Arbiter, holding up the back of the formation, following in line.

They had made no secret of their prescence in the system, used to secret stealth devices, nor had they even used to Arbiters own method of travel. The long unused Daemun hyperdrive had seen its use this time, where as sublight drives had been the only neccesity among civilian shipping once the arbiter planetary network had been established, opening portals to every third world in the Imperium, coelescing Imperium space into a fine network of transportation wormholes by which traffic could be controlled.

No, they had not used this, they wanted to be easily detectable by the dissident forces who called this planet home. The speech had been made, and the Truth would be told for all to hear it, no matter the cost. Easing into the inner edge of the system, the transport ships began thinning out amongst the cometary cloud that made up the outter edge of the system, tracing tractor beams over all collectable matter and draging it into the glowing hypergates.

Under gravametric drive, the Dragonclaw and its Deathglider escort slowly pushed their way into the system, directed on a course that shot just in front of Mon Calamaris path, intended to later slingshot the gravity well of the planet and place them in orbit, a power saving maneuver. They moved slowly and awaited the systems response, making no hostile movements, but to slowly move forwards on the planet itself.

Temporary Mysteri Matrix 234212-A
///Analyzing component atoms///
///Disecting needed nucleai///
///Reorganizing matter///


///Prepare for communications download///
///Current data up to date///
///Interface with GMP probe///
///Current data up to date///

///System scan in progress///
///Ships detected...
///Lifeforms detected...
///Scan proceeding...

///Prepare for incoming communications///

"Sir." sait a lieutenant cutting a sharp salute to Isip, the temporary commander of the Mon Calamari spearhead. As Ruuvan, the actual commander, was not quite yet back from planning strategy with Panacka, it had been Isip's job to marshall forces and prepare the region for war. Hardly a difficult job - in the middle of many wars in recent history, Mon Calamari was well-practiced in defending itself. Isip looked up, with a look of curiosity.

"Sir, we're recieving strange communications signals - and it appears we've sighted an enemy detatchment moving slowly towards the planet."

Isip straightened up, and with practiced calm said "Put all units on alert. Launch our fighters, then raise our shields. Power up weapons, load rockets, prepare planetary weapons. Evacuate the civilian population in orbit per standard protocol, and arm all station-bound weaponry. I want the shipyards locked down and all defences they possess activated."

He left the table he'd been working at and approached the command chair of the Dominator he was aboard. "Prepare our first volley, and pick targets. They haven't sent us a comm yet?"

"No, sir. Many of the ships are unidentified and unknown - one near the back especially. There are strange mouths on some of the bulkier ships near the middle, whatever they are they sucked up matter around them on the way in."

Isip judged this for a moment, and said "I have been briefed on an enemy bio-weapon, but our intelligence is limited, to say the least. The environment of Mon calamari could easily be compromised if they're carrying a biological agent..."

He kept thinking, wondering if he should give the order to attack or to stay his hand.

"They appear to be opening some kind of communications, sir."

Against his better judgement, Isip sighed. "Hold your fire. All gunners are to pick and lock their targets - especially the mysterious new enemy ships. Advance to block their route, and hail them. Tell them if they don't immediately stand down and guarentee this is no military endeavour, we will destroy them. Utterly. And... raise the planetary shield."

He sat back into his chair, and got comfortable as the crew around him rapped out precise orders. The knight sighed, wishing to charge and strike down his enemies, but there was something off. This couldn't be an enemy offensive, could it? A force so small? If he was wrong, however...

In a few seconds, he would open fire. They had that long to convince him not to.

///Communications Channel Open///
///Data packet recieved///
///Data packet transfered///
///Data transfer established///

A voice spoke, but it in itself sounded like many speaking as one. It addressed nothing in particular, seeking no one with its communique, as if speeking to the space around itself without any decleration or acknowledgement of any others prescence.

"People's of the Mon Calamari system, your continued inhabitance of Imperium space has been endured for long enough."

A brief pause in the communications sub-system cuased the message to become stalled. Internal diagnostic systems went into operation, checking words in each language of life-form known to inhabit the system in order to resend the message on various frequencies to establish verified contact.

"By Decleration of The Imperium, and by the Power of its Taj, Mon Calamari will be indoctrinated into the Imperium Proper. Its citizens will from hencefurther be regarded as Citizens of The Imperium, with all privlidges regarded therein."

Another pause and more time for said message to sink in as the procedures of translation began once more, resending the message to all those that would listen.

"This system will be Recompiled and reformed to Imperium living standards and code. Construction is already begining on a DragoNest platform for increased trade and transport to the area, as well as a permanent lines of communication."

Indeed, as every minute piece of matter was tractored into the porticullus of each transport ship, a mass of cloudlike material was ejected from the otherside. Each cloudlike mass formed up on themselves, becoming larger and larger as time progressed.

"An Arbiter travel platform has been placed at systems edge to incorporate this world into the Fast transit Network of the Imperium. Further communications will be preformed in person on the planets surface, prepare for Ambassadors to be transported to the surface at this time."

The communications ended just as quickly as they were opened. The Dragonclaw continued its drift planetwards, loosely surrounded by its flight of fighter escort. The transports made quick work of the cometary bodies as they expelled more and more cloud material.


Aboard the Dragonclaw Imperion

He sat quietly, robes of white fell from his gaunt frame. He wasn't there, not yet, he did not reside anywhere but in the Intelligence web of the Imperium. The husk had been designed for mission such as these, and was shipped out before him for later versions of himself to inhabit before reporting back to him.

Extending a piece of his Mysteri, he focused it into the Husk there, breaking it off from himself, he left this sector of the Web, waiting on his other diplomatic responsabilities elsewhere. He would retain the knowledge this husk absorbed when it reported back and rejoined his original Mysteri.

The form of the man slowly sat up, opening its eyes for the first time, a smirk slowly rose from its lips as it turned to look at the port and watched as the stars passed by.

Isip thought deeply before he spoke again, the bridge crew waiting in slience for his order. "I do believe, that in a time of war, an armed enemy force declaring the annexation of your world to be military action. As such, the appropriate response is resistance. Lieutenant?"

The ship's lieutenant-captain quickly stepped up "Yes, sir?"

"Lieutenant, now this is critical. I'm going to step down for a moment, giving you command of the ship. As you are a citizen of Mon Calamari of the highest rank on this ship, it is in your hands wether to reject or accept this move on the part of the Imperium, and what action to take."

With that, Isip stepped down from his command chair. "The ship is yours."

The lieutenant was clearly worried, and looked to the faces of his fellow crew. None seemed sure on what to do next. Finally, the lieutenant sighed, and took up the comm.

"Imperium forces... this is lieutenant Tantalus of the Mon Calamari Fleet. You have no authority to force us to submit to your rule, and we won't accept any annexation or loss of our democratic rights and identity. In a time of war, and after the blatantly aggresive actions over Teth, this is unacceptable. Leave immediately, and we promise to stop firing."

With that, he put down the comm and nodded "Prepare to engage - fire the first volley, Ions only, then reload and give them everything we've got! If they haven't turned around by then, we'll wipe them out." The leiutenant turned to Isip, waiting for his reaction.

Isip laughed, and smiled. "Just the answer I wanted to hear. You heard the man, open fire!"

The Coalition armada advanced towards the Black Dragons eagerly - the first concentrated volley sending every Ion discharging weapon they had. Some of the faster Sword line of ships (Claymores, Longswords, Kris) quickly overtook the pack, bearing down on the Black Dragons. The effect was like the release of an hourglass, eagerly charging down from their places in the organization.

"Remain staggered." said Isip "We don't need any crashes."

The Coalition fleet spread out a little, prepared to envelope the Black Dragons if they didn't leave right now.

As the Armadas first volley was fired, both flights of Deathgliders made passes before their host vessel, taking the impact of the ions full force. Normally such an act would merely sent these craft trailing harmlessly into space, powerless. This was not the case in this instance, as their flight path had been so interceding upon each formation that the blows of the cannons cuased many of the fighters to ram one another, bathing the front of Imperion in a crimson light of explosions.

///Damage Registered///
///Transmitting Data///
///Engine Shut-down Registered///


The ship drifted through the remains of the fallen craft, bits of wreckage bouncing off its hull as it continued forwards on its path. The last remains of the Gliders flight spun back around the ship, pressing closely to its frame and matching speed with it. On the systems edge the transports continued unabaited, almost automated in their task.

Onboard Imperion, the man simply known as Ambassador shook, the body trembling as its baser materials broke apart. The assemblers within him broke down in a wash of ions, not borne from the hostile fire, but pre-designed to happen in their own timing. Looking out the viewport once more, he smiled one last time before the muscles of his jawline gave out.

///Releasing pre-recorded message bursts///
///Initiating Destructive protocols///
//Recording and retransmitting events///

The scene played out like one out of historical Imperial holovids. As the ship continued on its course, various messages of different crew officers of the ship were broadcast across the system.

"Hold your fire! We come in peace!"

A few moments after this message was released, prepacked explosives detonated across the hull of the ship. Its drifting course was blasted off as the jettison of materials pushed it haphazzardly into the fighter escort that guarded it. The resulting explosions continued to shake the vessel, its hull ripped open in places as a white billow plume shot forth where the ship was open to deep space.

"Please...We ...(Garbled) Peace... don't do this!"

The ship spun on its axis for the merest of moments. Silent and dead in the dead of space, the GC ships closing in on it as instructed, one final message burst from the hulk before it detonated from multiple explosions across its outter hull, cumunlating in dozens of major explosions in its inner systems.

"Taj help us..."


Systems Edge
Arbiter T-76

The final transmissions of Imperion recieved, the T-76's mission was completed. Beaming the compiled data it had recieved directly at the planet, a scene was portrayed of devestation, regardless of other galactic events, upon a small Ambassadorial Convoy. The holovid images were doctored from the start, intentionaly portraying a hostile attack on an Imperium ship, in real time. The only difference from the real act was an insert of the Ambassadors death aboard the vessel, taken from internal cameras, pleeding for the lives of those aboard the vessel before its eventual destruction.

Slowly pulling out from the edge of the system, the T-76 made its way back into Imperium space, leaving the transports behind to finish their duty. Whatever that may be.

The fleet stopped, puzzled.

Isip shook his head "Of all the underhanded shit. They're pulling a heat-tug on us. No ship blows up to Ion weapons, but by blowing up one of their own it looks like we're here to massacare them all. All right, well, damage done. Screw it, we'll just bring down the transports."

With that, the Coalition ships advanced towards the transports. The speedy Longswords were first to come into range, closing the distance to firing range with surprising speed for their enemy. With one last confirming nod from Isip, the order went through and the Projectors fired with a flash of light.

With the transports destabalized and the gates collapsed, the Coalition once again asserted full control of the system. Isip sighed. "Keep everything on lockdown for another hour or so, just to be sure. We'll stay on alert - it looks like Ruuvan's even on his way insystem. Great... Might as well tell him now.



Ruuvan listened to the situation as his shuttle made the quick dash back to the fleet. He rolled his eyes, and said "Low blow - at least this should dispell any doubts in our men. Such a blatantly obvious trick in front of the whole fleet? There'll be no doubts we face the honourless." He rubbed his chin "However... there is a way we can neutralize this. Take this down, and send it to our Minister of Ethics. He'll hate it, but I know he'll agree. Oh, and send him a full report and holos with it, just so he knows we're telling the truth.

"Now take this down..."

Thirty-Six Hours Later
Systems Edge
Arbiter T-76

It spun in the midst of space, having used the brief bursts of its engines as a push out here to the edge. Not designed for deep space flight by itself, it had traveled as far as it would of its own power. Its mission had been done, the transmission had been seen by those nearby systems close enough to have recieved the message so soon. It was a calculated psychological manuever, not against those that lived on that little Oceanic world, but those that would see the message themselves.

A dark mist swirled about the space around the dart shaped vessel, almost hiding it from view. Space itself seemed to twist and swirl about it as the cloud expanded quickly. The T-76 begun to spin slowly and the vortex formed in the midst of the cloud, gently pulling it back into the midst of the scene around it. With a sudden explosion of light a rift opened in the midst of the darkness. As if from the dead, the Arbiter spun around and flew back through it, arching in its path to cut around incoming traffic.

From the mouth of the rift darted yet another Arbiter, spining around to face back towards the portal, holding still in its place before it, holding the tear in space open for those that exited after it. Almost as menacingingly, the dire screech of a familar craft riped through the silence of space itself. Wave after wave of Tion Deathgliders poured through the rift, flying past the Arbiter with such speed and closeness as to be amazed at the sight of no wreckage. All in all, fifty-four wings of gliders hung in formation a kilometer away from the growing cloud of midst, holding their position facing the Mon Cal system.

Speeding through at their own pace, Two groups of similar, but different appearing vessels made their way over the rift. Twenty Kessel pickets made their way to form a post line behind that of the fighters, and another twenty Cutter Gunships made their way to reinforce this line, multi-turrent mounts twisting this way and that with mechanical anticipation. The Arbiter moved ever so slightly as if pushed by some unseen force, lowering itself down and away from the portals entrance.

The rarely seen frame of an Immobilizer 450 pushed through the growing rift, its sides pushing out to accomadate the size of the ships making their way through it. Its hull bumped with ready grav wells, prepared and ready for vengance. Moving up behind the line of smaller vessels, it also slid down in line with the Arbiter as the tips of two larger craft made their way through the rifts edge. DragonClaws, replacements for their dead brother, whos wreckabge still litered the inner edge of the system. These Strike Cruisers took a triangle formation with the Immobilizer behind the gathering rows.

The rift seemed to collapse in on itself for the briefest of moments before the true strength of this fleet pushed its way through. Expanding in multiples around the ships coming through, the rift wavered as they passed. Four Tion's themselves, Star Destroyers of the Imperium pushed out the very edges of the rift, surrounding the mamoth command cruiser of old. Never having seen combat service, The Dread made its way in the middle of the formation.

The rift wavered for the merest moments more as they passed; between them, almost unseen shot forth four small projectiles by comparison of ships they overshot, Phage missles, the dread of The Imperium peace accord; before collapsing shut behind them. The Arbiter drifted silently away from the formation, powered down once again, like its brethren.


Bridge of The Blizzard
Dread-Class Command Cruiser

The Commander looked out the front viewport, his hard cold stare peering out at the formation before him. The fleet gathered before him had been impromptu, volunteering captains from planetary defense fleets across the sector has petitioned for this assignment, all those that had seen the broadcast had begged to come here. This was a mission of vengance, of pay back.

Revenge.

Turning to the crew, he raised a hand to the communications array, a subconscious movement to activate his MindDrive Implant. In mere seconds he was connected to the fleet via the Intelligence Web adjunct of the ship. As he thought, his voice was being projected across the gathered masses of ships formed on the edge of the system.

"My Brothers and My Sisters, gathered here in the name of our fallen comrades, we have witnessed this day an attrocity against our most Holy. We all surely remember what we have seen, and shall never forget the acts of cowardace preformed here. A mission of peace, open handedly offering salvation into the arms of the Taj...." he stoped a moment, slightly chocked up on his own words, "...Murdered in cold blood. This shall not pass. Arm all weapons, raise shield, begin thrust into system at maximum relative speeds." And with a side thought, projected across the comm, he thought to himself, "And the Taj cast evil out from Heaven, declaring on that day Heaven to be clean, and should evil ever return, that it be eliminated in all its forms..."

Upon Ruuvan's arrival, the Knight had ordered that the Coalition armada be divided, and a part advanced towards the direction of their enemy. He had read of Black Dragon tactics and knew the measure of their skill, and knew that they relied too greatly on their technology and bore too highly on their granted abilities.

It would not take long for him to devise a grand trap, making use of the time afforded to the defender, and also in guessing the psychology of the attacker. “The Black Dragons are proud, and impatient. That is why their society does everything instantly - they travel instantly, speak instantly, and move instantly. They will not wait long to launch an attack, and shall rely on their technology to triumph over us. This we can stop, if we act quickly.”

In the intervening time between the destruction of enemy transports, the scouts of the Mon Calamari fleet had been scattered about while the fleet cleared wreckage and resupplied. The Stealth Intruders were as invisible eyes connected together by the sight of the Sinew deployed with the fleet.

It had been one of those eyes of the Coalition that had spotted the Arbiter - for it had flown directly in line and away with the transports that the Coalition had hunted. The Intruder had shadowed its' target for some time - firstly by itself, then later followed by a good portion of the armada, which wished to see what the enemy's plans were. This force stayed back, letting the invisible Stealth Intruder be their eyes, so that the enemy had no inkling of the pursuit.

The pursuit was hours long, and boredom grew in the ranks. Thrice, Isip recommended that they fall upon the Arbiter and tear it to pieces, or capture it for their own use. Finally, the Intruder reported that the Arbiter had vanished in a portal, and could not be pursued.

For a moment, there was discussion about what was to be done. Isip, being warlike, suggested that they should pursue the plans of Captain Panacka post-haste, and depart for their target. He railed at the hours lost. Ruuvan, however, was of a more tactical mind, and knew that once roused the Dragon was quick to act. He instead called that the site be monitored, and the portion of fast vessels he had brought in pursuit to watch over the site, while the larger vessels remain around Mon Calamari for safety, and to maintain their combat readiness.

This turned out to be the correct decision, for it was not long before the portal reopened, in the same place, and another enemy vessel rose from it, to stabilize the portal. Isip demanded that they instantly open fire, but Ruuvan stayed his hand - the first move was feeble propaganda, the second would be genuine violence, and he wished a chance to catch a larger prey in the trap. Instead, he ordered that the Stealth Intruder keep its’ position close to the Arbiter, and await their orders. It was a grand gamble indeed.

The Coalition’s rapid forces instead circled far around the enemy, plotting a course with the aide of information from the Intruder to split up and be on either side of where they were deploying. Isip first called for the death of the arbiter, to halt the enemy force, but Ruuvan told him no, they would wait for a greater target. As the Deathgliders poured forth, Isip almost pleaded that they be allowed to begin the attack, but Ruuvan still told him no. Enemy vessels poured from the rift, and Isip came to fury, demanding that they take action, but his fellow Knight was calm and controlled.

Finally, with a great ominousness, there came the tip of something grand. A vast enemy warship began poking through the rift, and this Ruuvan knew would be their command ship.

Finally, with a shout of “Now!” did the Coalition fleet spring their trap. The Stealth Intruder was no mighty warrior, but against a foe a mere seven meters long there was no chance of failure. Missiles and laserfire tore into the tiny ship, and for good measure the stealth Intruder smacked it off its’ axis in its’ panicked escape. The Arbiter’s machinery broke, and destabilized the sensitive rift.

To play with the laws of existence as if they are your toys carries increasing risk - should your combustion engine fail, you may be stranded. Should your plane fail, you will crash. Should your space-vessel fail, you will freeze, or suffocate, or burn up on reentry - or all three. Apparently, however, should your portal be destabalized you'll be just fine.

"Well... shit." said Ruuvan "And I thought that was going to look so cool, too. Oh well."

Ships descended from both sides, the rapid Swords launching volleys of deadly Projector fire that turned the startled enemy fleet into a crossfire of massive boulder-like ammunition - ships were struck from different directions and crushed, or torn in two.

Upon the bridge of the Warlord, the Claymore Battlecruiser where Isip and Ruuvan stood, Isip shook his head. "Smooth move, fishface. I told you we should have just started shooting."

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Smarty pants. Let's just kill them and get on with it." He turned to his bridge officers, saying “We shall not hold this position long, so have the Sinew initiate jamming of enemy communications, while sending orders back to our main base at Mon Calamari - have met the enemy, prepare to engage. We'll make some passes and fall back before they can rally.”

(DELETE ME)

As he finished speaking, he watched curiously on the main viewer as a Kessel picketship listed to one side, a glowing field of debries floating out from the side of its hull. Not to remain in wonder for much longer, a pair of fightercraft passed by the display sensors of his upper hull, a configuration he had yet unseen, and certainly not in the previous war. Unloading a turrent of fire against his vessel, they peeled off and made another run on another vessel in formation leaving red and green pillows of energy in their path. The shields, also unseen in the last war, radiated these colors representing their multiple layers. An upper layer absorbed the initial energy blasts of the weapons while a secondary inner layer took in the force of their cuncussive blasts.

Connecting into the communications systems, he found them cloged with inquries of other bridge staff, attempting to follow the same course of action already determined by him. The clog was being caused by an outside source, he could feel it as he interfaced with the communications sensory subsystem, normally used to detect frequencies and wavelengths of incoming transmissions to send/recieve back on. The space in the system, and in a sphere retreating back into it was aghast with false computer transmissions and false static chatter, designed to overload area communications and otherwise stop ships from communicating with one another.

On the screen before him he saw the single drifting Kessel being left behind, as the line of Kutters and pickets slowly pushed their way forwards, following a distant formation of capital vessels retreating back into formation with the other ships raiding the Dragons formation. Across the board he detected weapons fire, the infamous H7's keeping the distance with the range of the vessels, the infamous ability of the Farfalen ships turbolaser systems to both target and destroy vessels at long range was the very reason they were being employed in this operation, he was glad to see that they were at least operating given the inability to send or recieve orders. He could only hope their commanders were intelligent enough to aim at the engines of the ships, infamously the weakest portions of a ships sheilds among vessels whos sublight engines were based on Ion propulsion.

The rest of the Tion fleet hung lifeless in space, acting on the last orders given before transmissions had been cut. Deathgliders holding the line at the front of the fleet, but the Farfalen units quickly made their way around them as they kept pace with the retreating hostile capital vessels. Closing his eyes, he felt out his way through the Intelligence Web, touching the backup command Mysteri aboard every ship in his vacinity that had them. All vessels recieving, direct all weapons batteries in forward and verticle trajectories and prepare for a single combined salvo of fire at my command, he thought to through the web to all recieving tion vessels, Immediatly after firing shut down ALL sensors systems and subsystems until further command.

Looking up at the front viewer once again, he watched as the fighters playing havoc on his fleet moved across the front of the Dread, laying a frightening cover of fire over its less than protective shielding. A Slight glow emited from its impacts, the lesser technologies incorporated into it barely withstanding the newer more able weapons of the hostile fighters. Arching up into the space before them, they made their way out in front of the fleet, moving to either attack the Farfalen units or retreat all together.

FIRE!

In a matter of seconds the space in front of the fleet was a vast array of color as weapons of various type and description rotated across their arcs to cover the entirety of trajectories prescribed by command, as the last of the cannons died down, he could make out the remains of portions of what seemed to be fighter craft sized vessels and knew them to not be deathgliders. He smirked to himself as the viewscreen went black and all his sensory data from outside the ship died.