The activation of Deceiver Shield Masker caused marked a change in the tone of the battle. The Coalition vessels suddenly watched as there was tremendous "jump" in the shield energy being detected from the Immolator. They watched as their weapon's fire slammed into the shileds of the vessel, yet their sensors showed no reduction in the power of the suddenly rejuvenated shield. Surprise and fear began to mix in the minds of the Coalition commanders.

Something was wrong.

The Immolator had finished its manuevering, and brought its full weapon compliment to bear on a nearby Haven Class cruiser. The full force of the battlecruiser's weapons punched a whole through the smaller vessel's defenses, and began pounding it's hull. A salvo of warheads exploited the weakness, and the front of the ship seemed to collapse under the pressue. The vessel fell out of formation, it's weapons firing sporadically, and small explosions still rippling through its hull. Still alive, but effectivly out of the fight.

The Immolator turned is weapons toward the next target.

Bridge of the Immolator

The Immolator's captain watched as the Haven class cruiser drifted away, and saw the remaining three cruisers seem pull back raggedly. The Deceiver seemed to have bought them temporary respite from the tremendous assualt. That woud help, but the situation was still precarious.

The Immolator had just released its emergency energy stores to coinside with its full barragem but those were no exhausted. The ship's shields had been severly depleted by the ion energy, with most sections down to under 20%. Some of the drain had bene by design, to feed the massive barrage that had smashed the Haven Light Cruiser, by not most of it. Still, the weakness of the vessel was disguised by the Deceiver, though when the Coalition broke through the shield that aura of invincibilty would wear off. How long until that occured, was a crucial component of the current battle that he did not know.

In an attempt to delay that, most of the ships non-essiental systems, (and some of its more essential systems, like powerto the hyperdrive engines) had been rerouted to sustain the failing shields. Once the Coalition vessels resumed their temporarily-halted assualt, however, it was highly likely that the shileds would fail. The captain was hoping that he could delay that result long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

He looked down at his chronometer. The battle had been raging for about 10 minutes. 1/3 of the estimated time until the rescue force led by Rellokater Orric would arrive. The ships under his command, having just recently micro-jumped from pavo Prime, were the Immolator's best hope for rescue.

A klaxxon louder and shriller than the ones already wailing manifested itself over the already chaotic bridge. The Captain was surpised to hear it, beacuse it signaled that there had been a hull breach- and the shields hadn't failed yet!

"What just happened!?"

His voice still carried firm authority on the bridge, and he was quickyl answered.

"It appears a hostile craft has latched onto the hull and forcibly made enterence, sir."

Boarders!!

The Captain didn't feel tremendously threatened. The bridge had been locked down, and the Immolator had 700 onboard ship security personnel, a majority of which were deployed in the areas aroud the bridge. The remainder of the crew would also be able to resist boarders, albiet not as effectivly as ship security, but they would help slow the enemy down.

And time, the Capatin liked to think, was on his side.

Deck 7
Ship's Brig

Rico made one final keystroke, and watched as information scrolled down the terminal's screen. Satisfied with what was said, he raised his arm, steadying his wrist with the other hand, fired several shots from his heavy blaster pistol into the base of the terminal. The screen suddenly scrambled and went black. The blaster pistol fell from Rico's hand. His body was shaking. He reached down and scopped up his weapon. Then we walked down the hall of the brig, and went to one of the cells. He opened the door, stepped inside, and shut it behind him.

He would never feel more happy about being in a prision cell in his life...

The Haven that had been crippled limped away at what speed it could manage. As the Immolator turned to face it's next foe, it found that the other three ships were coming straight at it! Unable to get a lock or set up another volley, it was instead forced to turn desperately, revealing it's pumelled backside. The Havens stuck close and hard, forcing the Immolator to keep maneauvering itself out of potential firing positions to avoid collisions and raking fire.

The Immolator was a mighty ship, but it was designed to slug it out with other mighty ships. Meant for tasks such as transport and battle with worthy foes, it needed escorts and fighters to protect it from smaller, more agile foes. In the absence of these, it was becoming slower, weak, and its' systems began to fail. Power from none-vital and even some vital systems were being siphoned off to keep the ship from defeat.

Inside the ship, however, a different story was playing out.

The team had split, with three going towards one end of the ship, and three going to the other. Using stealth and silence, team one (consisting of J-1, 2, and 3) had holed up in a supply room nearer the bridge of the ship. Team two (J-4, J-5, and J-6) slipped into the brig, a place to hide unseen and complete their objectives from.

J-1 waited in absolute silence until the shadows he saw through the door's grating were gone. He signalled to the rest of his team to wait, and moved out of the supply room. A single guard, nervously fingering his rifle, was facing the wrong way.

With stealth and secrecy, J-1 made his way to his target's back, grabbed him over the mouth to muffel any yell, and jammed a dark into his arm. In a second, the guard was unconcious. As fast as he could, J-1 dragged the guard into the the supply room before another patrol rounded the corner.

The two patrolmen paused, and looked around with caution.

"Wasn't there a man stationed here?" said one. They both felt the tension mount as a shadow appeared rounding a corner up ahead.

And they sighed in relief as one of their own came round, adjusting his hat. "Where were you?" exclaimed a guard.

The man looked guilty and said "Well, I had to use the bathroom. Come on, it's really tense out here." A guard sighed.

"Just get your rifle and go back out on patrol. The boarders could be anywhere."

"Right" said the man "Anywhere." And he started his patrol, which would take him right to the ship's power core.

Elsewhere, team two slipped cautiously into the brig. It was abandoned, as security was busy combing the halls. It may have seemed foolish to hide in such a place, but as they had decided before the mission, who would think to look for boarders in the one place you'd want them to be? Security systems would be a problem, but J-5 managed to dig a wire out of the wall, and ran a false program to trick both the cameras and the scanners. As usual, the security programming was comparatively weak on a military vessel, for it was assumed no enemies would ever be able to get at it anyways.

The team slipped into an empty cell, and once they were sure it was safe, began to converse through written messages.

"Where should we seek him first?" asked J-6.

J-4, the Cerean psychic, took some time to reply. "I do not know. There is too much life in this ship, I cannot pin-point his exact mind."

J-5 replied quickly "For some reason, any files about Rico were gone from the ship's computer - at least, what I could access from the Security System. And from the chatter I picked up, I don't think any of the Security Detail knows or even much cares about where he is."

J-4 decided for the team. "I shall remain here, and attempt to divine his location, and perhaps use my powers to turn away any guards who come to investigate. J-5 will monitor the chatter from here in an effort to locate more information. J-6, you must explore the ship, see if you can locate him in its' many nooks and crannies. Remain unseen."

It would have brought them all great surprise to know, that the man they seeked was a mere two cells down.

Bridge of the Immolator

The shriek and wail of warning whistles and bells had turned the inside of the Immolaot into a cacophanious madhouse. The situation was turning progressivly worse as the more numerous Coalition vessels pounded the Belgardi vessel. The noise was overpowering, as the multitude of alarms mixed in among the others, exponentially increasing the volume. The Captain of the Immolator had had enough.

"SHUT THOSE OFF!!"

His voice rang out much louder than he had expected. Perhaps the alarms hadn't been as loud as he thought, maybe their constant repetition had simply focused his sense of hearing on them and no other sound. Either way he felt relieved as the sound suddenly muted.

He glanced at a chronometer that was displayed at a big screen on one of the command consoles. 15 minutes had elapsed. Halfway there.
But the Immolator wasn't cooperating. The vessel was running out of power, and was being battered by the Coalition vessels constantly. Even with one Haven knocked out of the fight, the enemy still mainatained a discernable advantage- and there was little he could do about it. Victory or defeat, in this case however, was not to be determined by the ability of the Immolator to defeat it's attackers. Time was on his side.

"Cease firing."

The looks on the faces of the bridge crew showed their confusion, but they began relaying the orders. Several slumped back in their chairs, as if admiting defeat. Then the Captain sent another set of orders.

"Reroute all non-essential power to the shields. Weapons and engines as well."

All he had to do was survive for 15 more minutes. He couldn't overcome his attackers, but he could outlast them. Shield power boosted. The ships weapons banks fell silent.

The Coalition ships, expecting the Immolator to keep moving, shot right past the vessl on their next attack run. They had a sitting duck for a target now- one that wasn't even firing back.

The captain had one more order.

"Hail the attackers. Ask for identification and reasons for their actions."


Brig

Rico was tucked away in a prision cell, a safety deposit box of durasteel. The high security cell had a double armored door and could withstand even heavy explosives, and for a time, the blade of a lightsaber. The cell was very spartan, consisting of a small cot, and little else. It was very, very quiet- and amid the violence and chaos going on around him, Rico was happy to be away from everything. Somehow the thought of his isolation was very calming, and Rico reveled in it. In fact, his trembling hand had subsided, and as he lay down on the cot (which for some reason felt suprisingly comfortable) he felt more relaxed than he'd been in quite some time. So as the world around him fought, Rico's eyes closed and he fell asleep...


The Brig itself however, did not remain as peaceful as Rico. Hidden at the far hallway of the brig were another two of Rico's personal droideka. One had detected the Coalition team slip in, and registered the new arrivals as hostiles. Having hidden in indentations at the far end of the brig hallway, one of the droids rolled out from it's hiding spot and deployed its shield, so that it could project its power down the entire length of the hallway.

The other entered wheel mode and rolled down to the cell where the operative has slid into. Opening up, it deployed it's shiled, and laid down blistering fire into the small space...

The Immolator found itself still under attack. As the Havens realized that it was turtling up, they contented themselves to circle behind it and out of weapon's range, and bear the brunt of Ion fire (which passes through shields) that eventually caused the Immolator to shut down. The shield tactic, although effective against laser-fire, was ineffective towards Ion, and all that was left was vital systems and a few auxilery sections.

Inside, however, chaos was playing out. As the Destroyer droid entered the tiny cell, J-6 was just leaving. In a moment of surprise, it was a question as to the Azguard's keen survival instincts and the cold, calculating power of a machine. As the guns raised to firing position, J-6 tackled it into the hall.

The second droid opened up, but the fire bounced off of the energy shield possessed by the first, which now encompassed both the droid and its' attacker. They rolled on the ground, struggling, under the glare of deflected blaster fire.

J-4 slammed the door shut and used his laser to fuse the lock. They could blast their way out anyways, and it was all the protection they could get. J-5, however, hardly noticed the battle.

"The Ion-fry destroyed the security circuits! Granted, it's disabled most of the computer systems as well, but they've still got the auxillery system running the ship's vital systems! I've got security online, let's see what we can do with changing the perameters."

As the two figures fought on the ground, and the other droid continued pointlessly soaking them in fire, a heavy-duty suppressing-fire turret descended from the ceiling. In about a second, it charged up its' gun and let down a hail of punishing fire on the second droid. The fire was so heavy as to overwhelm the shield, and in a matter of seconds reduce it to slag.

J-6, taking advantage of the fact that Droideka were not built to fight hand -to-hand, rammed his claws right through the droid's chest and pinned it to the wall. As he was so close, it could not turn its' arms to fire on him, and finally died. For good measure, J-6 smashed it hard against the wall.

"He is near."

Elsewhere, J-1 was capitalizing on the confusion to dash through the halls. To everyone else, he was just another harrassed crewman, trying to accomplish some desperate task, but that was not so.

Running through the halls, he paused at intersections to determine where he had been before. Finally, he found himself at Rico's office, curiously unguarded.

Rico was a man concerned for his own protection. In a time like this he'd have security everywhere around him. Unless of course, he wasn't in his office.

J-1 paused for just a second to think, then ran deeper into the ship.

Hyperspace

The Bounty had not been designed for this. Granted, the ship could outrun most anything it's size both in hyperspace and sublight, but that was assuming it was actually travelling. This hardly counted as travel.

With a slight lurch the ship fell out of hyperspace once more, shields activating and sensors reaching out into the void. Nothing. Just as the previous stops had yielded.

"At this rate," the Bounty's XO muttered, "whatever happened will have ended by the time we arrive."

The ship's captain smiled thinly. Despite the man's comments, the three ships were covering a great deal of space at a remarkable pace. Spreading themselves out, each jump covered three times the distance a single ship could had done.

Little known to them, with their faster-than-average hyperdrive speeds, they were matching the Belgardi Ltd. ships in their journey, despite the constant revisions to realspace for scanning. The XMAP computer cores were processing their next jumps faster than the ships could execute them.

Unless the Belgardi ships had done a complete 180 since jumping, the Empire would find them. The question remaining was: what would happen when they did?

Rico Belgardi's chest rose and fell slowly, his breath coming in relaxed, long breaths. Curled up in his arms was his heavy blaster pistol, a last resort in case of the worst. Of course the way things were going, it was not out of the question that he would have to use his personal firearm, as all his other defensive measures, save on had failed.

His personal transport, a state of the art battle ship, lay totally disabled in open space. His personal droideka had been once again reduced to slag. His security forces had no clue where he was, and though he didn't know it, the Coalition team was within one hundred feet of him, ready to whisk him away at any moment. All that stood between him and those agents was a massive durasteel door surrounded by reinforced bulkheads.

That last fact was what allowed Rico to sleep soundly. Even high powered explosives would be hard pressed to open seriously damage the thick metal door and surrounding wall. Rico had personally shot the door's locking mechanism, ruining any hope of opening the door conventionally. Granted, getting himself out of the cell would be a challenge, but it had not been a consideration high on Rico's mind at the time.

So for the time being he slept, a prisioner on his own ship, surrounded by danger, yet suprisingly serene.

Rico shifted unconsiously from his back to his side and curled his legs up tighter up toward his stomach. His arm's crossed over his pistol, pulling it close his chest, and a smile came across his face.

At that same moment, a large Belgardi fleet dropped out of hyperspace.

J-1 had altered his mission priorities. In the chaos of the battle, he found the engine room surprisingly poorly protected - considering the Ion had fried the thrusters, there was relatively little reason to protect it. Nevertheless, he continued to move with a purpose, until he was sure he was out of sight.

Reaching under his shirt, he drew out a satchel of high-explosives. Not nearly strong enough to annihilate the entire ship, but they were Imperial weapons-grade, and although the core was out of reach, there was a power-conduit which the captain of the ship certainly wouldn't want destroyed if he wanted the ship to get out mostly in one piece. It was a complicated system, and had been given to him to complete their secondary objective should their primary mission fail.

He sweated it out in the shadows, until once again the few remaining personnel turned their attention away from the power core. With stealth and silence, he creeped through the door and back out into the ship.

Elsewhere, J-6 moved carefully through the halls, split between a need to keep moving and a need to avoid setting off any further surprises. Inside the cell, J-4 cursed.

"How will we get out?"

J-5 smiled "Don't worry, it looks like they have a ventillation system leading to each prison. Even prisoners have to breath, and these prisons are otherwise airtight. The disabling cut off the usual magnetic locks and laser networks that discourage escapers. Let's go."

So, one after the other, they slipped through the narrow vents. They would usually be impossible to open and deadly to move through, but defenses had been mostly disabled on this level. It was as they passed the last cell on the way to the exit on the end of the prison hall that they heard the snoring.

It was Rico.

J-5 slinked out of the tunnel, guesturing for J-4 to keep quiet. He drew a knife from his side-belt, poised to stab -

-It was at this time that Rico, who should bless his luckiest stars when this was over, awoke. In a panic, Rico rolled over, and the small knife became caught in his arm. He shrieked at the pain, but brought his pistol to bear and shot J-5. The shot, at that range, burned through the protective agent mesh and sent J-5's little frame flying back into the vent.

Screaming in a mix of pain and anger, Rico yanked the knife out of his arm (it was a small knife, J-5 is a Bith) and began firing madly into the vent. J-4, however, had grabbed J-5's tiny frame and slid down the rest of the tunnel. Rico suddenly turned to the sealed door, where a pair of massive dents were visible.

J-5 and J-4 fell out into the prison hallway. J-4 hoisted J-5's unconcious frame over his shoulder, and shouted to J-6 who was battering the door. "Rico's in there!"

But before he could strike again, a tiny vibrating feeling passed through each of their arms. Their mission watches had reached zero, it was time to leave before their presence was detected and their escape cut off by ships.

Out in space, the Coalition forces sprang into action.

"I want the Stealth intruder to make a forced entry into the ship's side airlock! Droids with stun-weapons are to spear-head the assault and secure the hall just as our team gets back." shouted the commander of the interdictor. His men scrambled into action, and he watched the scene play out on the monitor.

The Havans, no longer needed, made good their escape back out of radar range and towards the Coalition lines. The Stealth Intruder brought itself gently towards the disabled ship, waiting for the opportunity to launch a surprise boarding.

Bounty

The ship lurched, and immediatly alarms began to blare. None of the crew needed to be informed of what was happening: the Bounty was being yanked out of hyperspace. And in this region of space, the only thing that could do that to a ship was an atrifical gravity well, like those produced by the Empire's Interdictor class Cruisers.

The XMAP computer network insured that shields were armed even before the ship emerged from hyperspace, weapons ready and tracking. Indeed, as the sensors caught up with the ship's state of readiness, it was confirmed. An Interdictor cruiser hung off to port quarter, the power readings coming in clearly showing that it was running its gravity wells at maximum output.

What was not immediatly clear was who the ship belonged to, and why it was here, of all places.

The Belgardi fleet had emerged some distance ahead of the Imperial fleet and to the starboard. The nature of Interdictor cruisers was to create not a sphere of gravitational energy, but a cone, focused in a specific direction. Both the Imperial and Belgardi fleets had been pulled out by the 'sides' of this cone, putting them ahead of the Interdictor itself.

But there was a third set of ships now, labelled as 'Unidentified' by the computer, closing fast with the two fleets. And, last of all, a single vessel coloured the same purple (Unaligned) as the Belgardi ships ahead of them, one more vessel.

The Belgardi ship, Immolator.

Presumably the ship that the Interdictor and her friends were here for.
"Run a scan on those frigates," the Captain said, misidentifying the Haven Light Cruisers headed in their direction. Their orders had been unclear in the rush to pursue the Belgardi ships. They were to pursue and determine the cause of the apparent retreat, and authorized any action that was deemed fit. The Captain frowned. "Get me a line to the Victor and the Hector."

There was a moment before the secure connection was established, and then the Captain spoke again.

"Gentlemen. Thoughts?"

By virtue of senority, the Bounty's Captain had been given command of the mission, but in truth the other Captains had to be consulted if any major decision was to be reached. There was, after all, a reason they were all Captains and not Admirals.

"Clearly a case of pirates attacking a Belgardi ship for profit. Destroy the pirates and let Belgardi thank us for our efforts later." The first man, Captain of the Victor, said. The other man, older, newly installed Captain of the Hector, frowned at the ida.

"No. There is more here than simple pirates." Beside him a holographic image of the ships present appeared. "These are not pirate vessels. I recognize them because they played a significant role in the war."

The implications of that comment were not instantly clear, and it was the Bounty's Captain who recognized them first.

"You're saying that those are Coalition warships." He said softly.

"Yes," the other replied simply, "and they have taken great pains to appear otherwise. However, they made very foolish, very apparent, mistake.

"The Haven class Light Cruiser is a vessel in use only by the New Galactic Coalition. Too, where do you imagine a group of simple pirates would get their hands on an Interdictor? The Empire has enough trouble attaining them, never mind a pirate group.

"What's more, gentlemen, that is not a Belgardi convoy. I see only one ship, and nothing to indicate that more were here and were destroyed, or fled. Too, the size of the Belgardi fleet would suggest that this is a high priority response. Remember they left their capital virtually undefended to respond to this. Is a simple convoy assault worth that?"

All three were silent for a moment, and finally the Victor's Captain spoke again.

"So, why are they here?" He asked, rather foolishly in the other man's opinion.

"I believe that Rico Belgardi is aboard the Immolator."

Immolator
Rico's Prision Cell

The cascade of blood had formed a small pool at his feet, and the open wound continued to bleed, though it didn't appear as if the blade had struck an artery or vein. Even so, the slightest movement sent intense pain down the length of Rico's left arm, from his lower bicep to his fingers. Rico could fee his heart pounding, sending more blood through out his body, but also to the wound, and tried to slow his breathing down and relax. The attackers were gone... but for how long? His heart rate stubbornly refused to slow.

Who were they?

Though most assuredly aliens, Rico had no idea who they were working for- he couldn't even remember what species of alien had been after him. He was fairly certain- no positive- he had shot one of them before they slipped back into the tiny vent from which they had appeared. Besides his pool of blood Rico noticed the alien knife, ripped from his arm by his own hand, laying over in the corner of the cell. As he looked at the weapon, laying there, he saw the two huge indentations in the cell's door, and was reminded of the chance that the attack wasn't over.

He began fumbling with the blaster pistol, it's clip nearly out of energy, in an attempt to ready himself for another assualt. His left arm was all but useless, so he kept it pressed to his side, as he struggled to unload and reload the blaster pistol with one good arm. Though it took him much longer than he would have liked, he finally managed it.

Where are they?

The pounding had stopped- he had barely noticed it in the heat of the firefight earlier- and nothing seemed to be happening inside the vent. Realising he could do nothing and wait for what was to come, Rico sat down on the cot and leaned against the cell wall, blaster gripped tightly in his right hand.

Maybe they won't come back.

And with that thought, Rico Belgardi 's head slumped to one side, banging with a slight bump, against the ultra-thick bulkhead.


Vengeance class Super Cruiser Surreptious
Bridge

"Tactical display.. full projection please."

A holoprojector in the Surreptious's ceiling came to life and a 3-D model of the surrounding vicinity became visible from anywhere on the bridge. Large models of the expansive Belgardi fleet were displayed as green (friendlies), as was a singular vessel removed from the main body (the Immolator) which was yellow beacause it was a friendly believed to be disabled. Enemy forces, whose positions were becoming more condensed, but still remained in two distinct and seperate groups were in orange indicating that they were marked as hostiles but had not yet engaged any targets. One other significant group had also suddenly appeared on the display, outlined in a sky, pale blue, to indicate neutrals. The last group were the Imperial vessels, as their transponder codes quickly indicated.

The transponder codes of the orange vessels were less informative.

Those were revealing by not being revealing. It was obvious that someone shady (a well fund pirate organization, or those new terrorists?) was operating the vessels. As the head of Belgardi's home defense force, and senior military advisor surveyed the screen he made a quick judgement.

The enemy, whoever they were, was scrambling to leave.

"Status of the fleet?"

His forces were numerically superior, though that calculation did not figure in the significant neutral presence; but the enemy ships were moving at an almost frantic pace. A quick inventory of the enmy force showed several capital vessels including two Mon Calimari vessels that were no doubt excellent warships. They didn't need to be in such a rush.

"Captain of the Vaunted requesting orders, sir."

Taylor Orric didn't answer immediatly, his eyes watching the display of the battlefield. Smaller green dots were pouring out of the 10 Immolator Cruisers that formed the backbone of the Belgardi force: A-9 Vigilance Interceptors.

Other requests from the Immolator captains began coming in. All waiting for the Rellokater's command.

"Order the Blizzard, Inferno, and Sesmic to secure the Immolator . Deploy combat teams and tell them to evac all primary personnel. I want three of my Immolators to arc around on either side and target the Mon Cals.... but order the Centurion and it's fighters to stay with us. "

He looked up at the display and tapped out a seris of coordinates on a small datapad.

"Have him make full flank speed to the following coordinates."

The Centurion was headed for an intercept point between the quartet of Haven vessel and the Coalition heavy capitals. That would delay them long enough to put the Surreptious between the two enemy lines and block any attempt to link up. Divide and conquer. Still, there was one loose end...

"Get me a secure channel with those Imperial vessels!"

The Coalition forces realized the severity of the situation they were now in.

The captain of the Interdictor immeadietly relayed his orders over the secure comm-channel. "Drop the interdictor field! All ships are to follow the emergency jump coordinates immeadietly! The team will find their own way home. I repeat, all ships retreat!"

The emergency jump proceedure was a group of pre-set jump coordinates for each ship, sending them no where in specific so as to allow them to escape in an emergency. The Coalition force surrounding the interdictor immeadietly turned upwards, and launched to hyperspace, the captain sincerely hoping that the agents would be able to make it out undetected.

The Havens had an advantage - the Belgardi vessel was operating under the flawed notion they intended to stick around. Instead of flying into its' firing range, they turned straight up and launched their own emergency jump-coordinations.

That left the Stealth Intruder. As yet undetected, it latched to the side of the Immolator opposite of the entry point. Cutting rapidly through the side of the wall, a unit of stun-armed droids entered the ship - ten in all - and set up a perimeter in the abandoned corridor.

The entire team, throwing caution to the wind, dashed full speed from wherever they were towards the escape point. It was going to be close...