Interlude I: On the planet of Orinda, nine years after the Battle of Endor......

The lush green tropical world of Orinda, formerly a planet of the New Republic, had fallen under Imperial control half a standard year ago. The conquering fleet, including the Super Star Destroyer Reaper, had been commanded by Admiral Gilad Pelleaon. The man was a brilliant, and inspiring leader, and when the New Republic, caught off guard, had finally managed to launch a counter-attack, one of their fleet carriers had been destroyed along with many starfighters in a grueling battle. It had been a humiliating defeat for the New Republic. Also in Pelleaon's fleet was one of many Star Destroyers, an Imperial Star Destroyer Duece, the Nemesis, a ship well known to history already as having been a part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's core star destroyer fleet. The captian of that Star Destroyer, not so well known however, was a man by the name of Harrelson Kraken. The man had not an outstanding record, but a good one nonetheless, the reason that Thrawn had chosen him and his ship for his fleet.

After the defeat of Thrawn, Harrelson and his Star Destroyer had joined up with Warlord Harrsk in the Deep Core. Harrsk wasn't an espically good commander, but had welcome Harrelson and his Impstar Duece nevertheless. Warlord Harssk had a very impressive fleet under construction, consisting of several other Imperial Star Destroyers, and another, larger type of star destroyer. Then one day another promiment figure showed up. That figure was none other than Imperial Admiral Daala. Up to this point in time, despite the fact that it went against Harrelson's beliefs to attack other Imperials, the Nemesis had been serving faithfully alongside Warlord Harrsk. When Warlord Teradoc had attacked, the Nemesis had charged faithfully and bravely to the front, destroying three victory class ships, but had recieved moderate damage in return. Warlord Harrsk had opted to leave the Nemesis behind along with two other damaged destroyers while he let Daala lead a retaliation attack on Teradoc.

Harrelson had been suprised and shocked when Harrsk returned, his fleet in shambles. Only four star destroyers returned, and one of them, Harrsk's flagship, was being tractor towed due to it's being disabled. By this time the Nemesis had effected repairs, and was ready for combat once again. It accompanied Warlord Harrsk when he left for the space station for the fateful meeting with the other twelve warlords. This was the last time that Harrelson would see Harrsk alive, again. At first Harrelson was reluctant to join in with Daala, and breifly considered going Warlord himself, when he saw another figure step into the floodlights. And that figure was Vice Admiral Pelleaon, who had been Thrawn's personal protege during his campaign against the New Republic. With a rising hope, Harrelson threw in his lot with Daala.

His first and only mission with Daala was to serve under Pelleaon for the attack on Yavin Four. Harrelson's ship had deployed much of it's ground weaponry and assault vehicles, but many of it's elite TIE squadrons had been held back. His ship had been flung out of the system all of a sudden by Jedi witch sorcery. Later he had learned the full tragedy of that battle, with the destruction of the Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer, and the lost of many victory star destroyers also, along with Daala resigning her Imperial comission. Although Harrelson was now starting to lose faith and hope, now Pelleaon himself was in charge. Harrelson would throw his lot in with another famous Imperial Admiral, one last time.

Because of his war service, and his history was Thrawn, Harrelson was promoted from capitan to Rear-Admiral, and was given the command of a small taskforce built around his Star Destroyer. It included two Strike cruisers, four carrack cruisers, four lancer frigates, and two dozen picket ships, some IPV series craft, and some Adz class Patrol destroyers. His taskforce would be one of five such taskforces sent in for the occupation of Orinda. The main taskforce consisted of the new Super Star Destroyer Reaper, while the other four were all built around Imperial Star Destroyer Dueces. The planet had been taken easily, since no defending fleets were present. The occupation period had now begun. Capitan Harrelson had come down from his Star Destroyer, and had met a very beautiful woman who had befriended him.

She was a native of the world, and her name was Corsica. The two had fallen in love, and were engaged within months. Admiral Pelleaon hadn't minded the engagement, but told him to put off any weddings until after the result of the expected New Republic counter-attack was known. The counter-attack came half a month later, and it was indeed lead by an impressive fleet. The New Republic armada consisted of another Super Star Destroyer, the Lusankya, along with a few other capital ships, some Mon Calamari cruisers, some star destroyers of various types, and something identified as a fleet carrier. Pelleaon, ever the bold tatician, used Interdictor cruisers to his advantage to drop his Super Star Destroyer right over the enemy fleet carrier, and swiftly destroyed it before it could launch a single starfighter. Suddenly deprived of starfighters, the New Republic fleet had effected an immeidate retreat.

The celebration had been ongoing for days, and weeks after the battle, and during this time, Rear-Admiral Harrelson, and Corsica had tied the knot, becoming happily married. One year later, the present day, his beloved wife, Corsica Kraken, had given birth to a baby, their son, which they named Park, Park Kraken. Rear-Admiral Harrelson promised to be a good father to the son, and indeed he was. Until another standard year he would spend as much time as possible with the boy, when he would be called away on an urgent duty. It seemed that the New Republic had finally made inroads against Pelleaon's Empire, through a buffoon of a moff named Getelles. Pelleaon needed all avilable resources on hand to stop the New Republic, and that included calling up the Nemesis taskforce, and Rear-Admiral Harrelson. And so Harrelson would depart, leaving one year old Park Kraken and his wife Corsica behind on the world of Orinda.

In the Antemeridian Sector.......

The Imperial Star Destroyer Nemesis, along with her taskforce, arrived out of hyperspace at an intercept point near where the enemy fleet had been sighted approaching an Imperial outpost base. The sighting was made by an Imperial Viper Probot stationed out here in space as a forward reconissance unit by the outpost. It had sighted a taskforce of four cruisers, with no support ships, moving at flank sublight speed torwards the outpost, before starfighters launched by the cruisers had destroyed the probot, along with every other probot in the vicinity of the fleet. This seemed to be the New Republic's tatic as of late as they entered and gobbled up more and more territory of Moff Gettelle's sector.

Now, as the Imperial fleet exited from hyperspace, and scanned the surronding area of space, Harelsson wondered just how incompetent Gettelles was to let something of this magnitude happen. While sure, two whole fleets was more than the Moff could handle, his intial responses had been entirely foolish. Supposedly some incident had happened to the Moff's personal admiral just before the New Republic invasion had begun. Harrelson wasn't free to learn the details however, and was too busy with the task at hand to deal with it in any case. The sensors aboard the Star Destroyer detected the enemy fleet some fifty kilometers away, and closing fast. It consisted of some new and some old ships, basically one Mon Calamari type cruiser, of the type 90, a fearsome cruiser. Supporting it were two Majestic class heavy cruisers, and one old escort frigate, modified with extra armour and hangar bays added to it's spine. It seemed to serve as a sort of escort carrier for this group.

This was going to be a rough battle for the Imperial fleet under his command, Rear-Admiral Harrelson thought. Well he was just going to have to be better than his opponents were. He ordered all starfighters to be launched, except for the rookie green pilots in three of his TIE Fighter squadrons, and the squadron of TIE bombers carried on his Star Destroyer. That left two squadrons of TIE Interceptors, and three squadrons of TIE Fighters to deal with any enemy starfighters the enemy commander might send to try to torpedo his ships. He also brought up three of his four Lancer class frigates to help serve as an anti-starfighter screen. The Smasher, Grinder, and Terror moved into position forward, taking up stations along with the TIE Fighters.

Then, he decided on a bold manuever, something that Pelleaon had just done earlier in the war, except that Commander Harrelson didn't have the same resources on hand. However, that didn't mean that he was about to give it up. His Star Destroyer was too valuable to risk for this, but three of his Carrack class Light Cruisers would be more than enough for it, along with the remaining lancer class frigate.

"Capitan Alding, open a communication with the carrack cruiser Fury Punch." ordered Admiral Harrelson.

"Done Admiral. The line is open on your personal comm station." replied Capitan Mancuso.

Admiral Harrelson moved away from the bridge and down to his station, where he activated his private comm. His plan might work, it just depended on the situation at hand. He began to speak into the comm.

"Commander Hurk, this is Admiral Harrelson. I have a special mission for you, and three other ships. I want you to plot a course directly above and below the enemy escort frigate in the rear of the enemy fleet, two ships apiece. This is to be a microjump now." orderd Harrelson.

Commander Hurk caught onto what Harrelson had planned, but immediatly pointed out a flaw in the plan. "But sir, microjumping won't bring us out precisley as we can plan to be brought out. In all likeliness we can be brought out too far away from the enemy ship to do effective damage in a hurry." said Command Hurk.

"I know," responded Harrelson, "which is why I want your ships to prepare tractor beam locks for the two Majestic class Heavy Cruisers on the flanks of the enemy fleet. The friction created there should slow your ships significantly for your ships to be brought out of hyperspace at or very near the coordinates you have plotted."

"Ah I see, very good idea Admiral. However, two more things. First, the tractor beams will most likely be knocked out by the friction and forces involved, and number two, what are my orders to be after I have been dragged out of hyperspace?" asked Commander Hurk.

"Very simple. Tractor beams can be replaced much more easily than ships or men, Commander. I feel it is a very worthwhile risk. And to your second question, that is very easily answered. Destroy the enemy frigate and as many starfighters as you can, and then quickly increase speed to full and outdistance the other enemy ships before they can bring their heavy complements of weapons to bear on you. Once that is accomplished, we will execute a pincer movement to envelope and destroy the enemy fleet." stated Admiral Harrelson.

"Very good Admiral. I am preparing my course right now. I will be ready to jump in five standard minutes. By the way, which ships will I have for this jump, so I can transmit orders to them as well?" asked Commander Hurk.

"You will have your own ship to use, as well as the carrack cruisers Stormfury, and Hawk, along with the lancer frigate Warrior's pride. I trust you feel this is a sufficent fleet for the task at hand?" questioned Admiral Harrelson.

"Yes, Admiral. I am now executing my orders. I shall execute my attack at exactly five minutes from now. Good luck Admiral." stated Hurk.

"Very well then. Good luck to you too as well Commander Hurk. We are going to need plenty of it if we are to win this battle this day." said Admiral Harrelson.

With that, the battle was now underway. The enemy fleet was approaching at a slower pace now, having detected the Imperial ships that had appeared right in front of them. But they were still coming on at a sure pace, a sign of overconfidence. Admiral Harrelson was here to wipe that confidence right off of their faces. With streaks of brilliant white corona radiation, the four Imperial capital warships breifly broke the speed of light, and then settled down into normal space again. Right behind three of the enemy ships. But Admiral Harrelson immediatly noticed that one aspect of his plan had hit a wall, for tractoring the two Majestic Heavy Cruisers had the effect of partially yanking them around, exposing their full broadsides to the engines of his vessels. However, the internal gravity of a vessel could not normally be set to handle such a manuever, and so chances were that it would not matter too awfully much.

The three carrack cruisers immediatly opened fire on the modified escort frigate with their heavy turbolaser batteries, while their ion cannons sent streams of blue lightning into the heavy cruisers behind them. The lancer frigate opened up on the starfighters surronding the frigate, and the fleet, it's laser cannons scoring kill after kill. The concentrated fire of the three carrack cruisers quickly turned the frigate into a drifting mass of wreckage, with precious few escape pods managing to eject from it's hull. By the now the rest of the New Republic fleet was waking up and turning around to confront this new threat. Admiral Harrelson used this moment to his full advantage. He ordered his fleet to execute a microjump of their own that brought them to within five kilometers of the enemy type ninety mon calamari cruiser. Immediatly his rookie pilots and TIE bombers were launched to attack the enemy majestic class cruisers while Harrelson's capital ships unloaded everything they had into the enemy cruiser, named the Relinquishment. The mon calamari cruiser was caught in mid manuever, and chose to come back around to engage the Nemesis.

The starfighters that the New Republic taskforce had sent on ahead turned around came back torwards the star destroyer and it's taskgroup. The TIE Interceptor squadrons that Harrelson had deployed, however, were still where the original fleet was. These ships had their orders, and they swiftly caught up to the New Republic starfighter squadrons, and ambushed them from behind. The Republic's fighters fought with the TIE Interceptors, while bombers headed for the Imperial fleet, making them easy prey for the three other lancer frigates now coming torwards the starfighter engagement. The battle was now fully joined, capital ship fighting capital ship, starfighter fighting starfighter, and in some cases, the two becoming intermixed as one.

The battle raged on, with both opponents nethier willing to quit and leave the battlefield, both probably fighting to the death. The two Majestic class heavy cruisers were proving to be the most deadly to his taskforce, their wide variety of weaponry taking a heavy toll on his starfighter squadrons and smaller capital ships, which is what they were targeting while the Relinquishment engaged his flagship, the Nemesis. The Mon Calamari cruiser had suffered heavy cannonades from the star destroyer and accompayning strike class cruisers, and had lost most of it's forward shields. In return the mon calamari cruiser had inflicted moderate damage to the shield generators of the star destroyer. But the New Republic fleet was outnumbered, and it was outmanuevered as well. The enemy flagship, the Relinquishment, was the first enemy ship to go boom, exploding when a flurry of turbolaser shots from the [i]Nemesis[/b] drilled into her reactor core from her hull. With the enemy mon calamari cruiser dead, this left the two majestic class cruisers to deal with. They were swiftly dealt with, the whole engagement lasting some twenty five minutes. Although the Imperials had won the engagement, they had paid a heavy price in terms of lives lost, as many picket ships had been destroyed. The after attack force under Commander Hurk had been hardest hit, with two of the carrack cruisers being destroyed, including Commander Hurk's flagship, although the good commander had been saved. Of the rest of the fleet, three IPV systems craft and two Adz Patrol destroyers had been taken out. Other various ships, including the fleet flagship, had sustained damage in the battle. But their task was not over. Admiral Kraken had just recieved word that another system was under assault nearby, and that they were to proceed immediatly to the area to help out. Gathering up survivors from the destroyed ships, he ordered his taskforce into hyperspace. And his thoughts turned briefly away from the scene of battle to his family, and how he longed to see them again.....

On the planet of Orinda...

Corsica heard the crying of her little Park, and rushed into the bedroom to see what the problem was this time. The little boy had wet his pants again, so Corsica called in the nanny droid to bring in a fresh diaper while she picked up the baby from his crib, and carried him over to the table. Laying him gently on the table, she removed his diaper, and with a silent sigh of disgust, threw it into the waste chute. At that time the nanny droid arrived, and appropriating the diaper from it, she went to work on little Park. First she sprinkled some baby powder on his soft little hide, and then wrapped the diaper around it, and set him back into the crib. Dismissing the nanny droid, she started over the baby, and began to sing a song for Park, about her homeworld......

Some five systems near the planet of Orinda...

Admiral Kraken's fleet reverted from hyperspace within the planetery system, home to a recently estlabished Impeiral outpost, home to the Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II Eviscerator, and her taskforce. The Imperial taskforce had been suprised by a large New Republic fleet. Word was coming in of assaults on other outposts as it appeared that the New Republic was making another new drive to recapture Orinda from the grip of the Empire. This taskforce of New Republic ships consisted of three Nebula class Star Destroyers, four Majestic class heavy cruisers, twelve sacheen class light escorts, and fifteen warrior class gunships, a powerful fleet of modern ships. Steeling himself for the engagement ahead, Admiral Kraken ordered his fleet into the battle.......

Above the planet of Orinda, some two weeks later....

Rear-Admiral Kraken looked out of the viewports of his ship, the Star Destroyer Nemesis, at the motley collection of vessels under his command. It had been two weeks since the New Republic had launched a new offensive against the Empire, and this time they had brought heavy guns in order to complete the work. The remnants of several Imperial taskforces, including Kraken's own, had been assembled at Orinda in order to help fend off the final push of the Republic's forces. At the head of the fleet sat the moderatly damaged Super Star Destroyer Reaper. Strung out along the system were six Imperial type Star Destroyers, the Nemesis, Stormhawk, Eviscerator, Judicator, Agonizer, and Master Stroke. There were some fifty other support vessels, everything from old Katana fleet dreadnoughts to strike cruisers and lancer frigates, all damaged to some degree or another due to the recent engagements. The latter two Star Destroyers were showing the most damage, due to an engagement some weeks ago above the world of Adumar. The New Republic assault had been seen to leave several worlds by spies some hours ago, and it would not be too long now before it arrived. It would be a clash of titans to the finish, to determine which one would be victorious in this stage of the war.