A few lightyears from the planet of Taanab a hyperspace tunnel split open and threw out a small freighter like ship. It was one the galaxy had not seen before and therefore could not be classified on any ships’ sensor suite, not that it mattered, since no other ships were in the area. A pair of recon drones had made sure that the area around the temporary beachhead was free of any other ships and witnesses.

The ship itself was not sleek or pretty, it was mostly a series of support structures connecting the forward hammerhead looking command section with the engine and reactor section at the rear. That reactor section actually made up more than half of the ship’s mass and length. Without the ship would not be able to perform its intended function.

Underneath the ship lay a large rectangular shape with curved edges, folded up against the belly of the craft. It was wider than the ship was long and appeared to be connected to the forward command section with a series of struts.

After some moments of inactivity the rectangular structure started moving along its horizontal axis, rotating out into space under the ship. When it was directly perpendicular to the command section, the forward movement ceased. Once it settled into position the rectangle started to extend in height and width, until it was over twice the width of the ships length and over 1.5 times the ships length in height.

Bluish white light erupted inside the understructure, stitching the space between the length and height of the rectangle. The energy pulses came quicker and quicker as seconds passed, until the whole interior was filled with a static like appearance. The field soon stabilized into a slowly swirling plane of light.

It took over twenty minutes before anything else happened. That something was the black bow of another ship materializing out of nowhere in almost the center of the light field. Slowly more and more superstructure of the ship became visible as it slowly floated out of the vortex and into the blackness of surrounding space.

Like the first ship, this one was of a design not yet seen in this galaxy, however, this one was graced with sleek lines and angles. The relatively narrow forward design melded seamlessly with a wider rear section and became halfway down the ship. Along the rear were four outcropping that looked to be large hanger bays. The lower half of the hull was a downward facing triangular design, reminiscent of old ocean going vessels. Towards the front of this structure, however, two large tubes could be seen projecting out, covered from topside view by the forward hull.

Finally the large ship was clear of the field and its rear thrusters came online, pushing it away from the stationary ship at a slow speed. It was just cleared the field went another ship pushed through the portal, this one was a much smaller frigate or corvette sized vessel that came through fairly quickly and accelerated away from the gate to take up position behind the first ship.

Over the next half hour more and more ships slowly made transit through the large vortex of energy. Behind the frigate/corvette came a much larger ship, which was in turn followed by a number of smaller ones, until another destroyer type vessel emerged of the same class at the first one. Mixed in with these ships of war were a large number of freighters, which formed up into their own groups.

The last ship to materialize was the largest of the group. So large, in fact, that it barely cleared the edges of the field generator as it went through. Once it powered away from the gate, the field shut down and the whole rectangular structure folded back up slowly. Within moment that ship turned slowly and jumped back into hyperspace.

Where there had been only emptiness now there was life and motion as the fleet reformed into two task forces and jumped into hyperspace on two different routes. This was the return two and a half years in the making.

The blue and green light softly washed into the dark room and refracted over the two sweat covered bodies moving on the large bed at the edge of the suite. The two figures, locked in their sensual dance had let time slip away as their shadows projecting themselves against the dark walls, interweaving together as one in the dim rays of light. Both were grateful for the privacy their positions afforded them as well as for the soundproofing incorporated into the somewhat upscale suite.

Just as both were reaching the climax of their duet a soft chime went off and reverberated around the room. “Sir, as per your request, I would like to inform you that we should have field activation in thirty minutes. Also, we cannot seem to locate Admiral Cathora, she is not in her quarters, if you see her, please let her know everything is ready to proceed.”

A groan came from the male as the mutual movements ceased. “We still have some time.”

“Not nearly enough, I’m afraid.” The woman laughed and gently pushed him away. “There is always next time, of course. At the moment we have more important business to attend to.”

She rose from the bed gracefully and took a step towards the refresher.
“Maybe we can take a shower together…it would save some time.” Said the man with humor in his voice.

The woman let out a laugh and smiled as she turned on her heel, looking down at the man as he lay on his elbow, admiring her naked form. Had he been any other man, she would have never gotten out of bed without at least wrapping the covers around her, but this person was different. He seemed to truly appreciate her in her entirety. Not just her physical form, which she was completely self-conscious about, but also her mind and spirit. It was for that reason alone that she loved the man lying there, even if she would never admit it to him.

She leaned down towards him and stroked his cheek as she kissed his lips just once. “For some small reason I highly doubt that, sir.”
As she slowly pulled away again, Rob Stellar knew that with that one word, “sir”, the conversation was over and they were back to being professionals instead of lovers. He let out a soft sigh before smiling once more and watched the beautiful Hapan walk towards the other end of the bedroom. As more light fell upon the room, some of it shone on the woman’s back, highlighting a long scar that ran halfway down her back, along her upper spine before curving to the right around her lower ribs. He knew that it was that scar that had actually allowed them both to meet. Without it she would have lived a glorious and cared for life back the Hapan Cluster. Their paths would have never crossed.
That scar was also the reason why she was also so worried about her body image, even though she never admitted it.

To his surprise, however, when she entered the ‘fresher, the door did not immediately lock. It stayed open as the synthsteam shower engaged for the first time in…ever. Perhaps it was another small victory on his behalf.

“You know me so well…Admiral. Now hurry up! I have to get ready as well.” Rob laughed and rolled out of bed on the other side, moving towards the viewport with his hands behind his head.

“Yes, Sir!” Came the reply almost instantly and very professional.
Rob shook his head with a smirk on his face as he gazed out at the space outside and the world spinning below, standing there naked while crossings his hands behind his back. He had been here for almost two and a half years now and so much had changed for this system. What had once been a lifeless system, was now full of activity. Shipyards been built, mines and colonies founded, factories constructed, and most importantly, life had been restored.

He looked down at the half green and blue planet below, past all the ships in orbit and the massive construction docks, flanked by defense stations. The planet had been completely devoid of life when he had arrived, but after years of hard work and research it was now half covered in seas, jungles, and forests, as well as lush grasslands. The Rival Project has been a great success and every day acres upon acres of previously dead land were transformed into habitable environments where animal life could thrive. At the moment there were hundreds of different species on the planet, grown from samples collected all over the planet. The animals had all perished when the rest of the ecosystem was destroyed many years before, but their DNA still existed in the remains left behind. This had given the scientists much to work with in replenishing the planet.

The experiment had been conducted on another planet and moon within the system. Both had been just as successful, with the small moon now being completely covered in a stable ecosystem with a large research facility.

It was really amazing what they had accomplished here and would soon reveal to the rest of the galaxy.

Rob knew what was happening out there. He got reports of the Reavers attacking and they had made him sick. He had gone over the footage many times and it never got easier to watch.

“It’s all yours, sir.” The female voice came from behind him.

He turned towards around and smiled at Admiral Tamika Cathora standing there, doing up the last top button on her Black and Red admiral’s uniform. Her face was now expressionless. Rob had no idea how she could transition from lover to professional admiral so fast. In her mind he was no longer Rob Stellar the man she spent time with, but Mr. Stellar, her employer and founder of Stellar Enterprises. He had no doubt in his mind that she valued her job and position above all else. She had thousands of people depending upon her judgment and nothing was going to waver it, especially not emotions.

“If I may…you should get dressed. The men might not appreciate you walking around the ship naked…Sir.” She said the last part with a quick smirk that was done almost as soon as it had appeared.
As she walked out the room, Rob burst out into laughter and made his way towards the refresher. Today was one for the history books.

Rob Stellar rode the large turbolift all the way to the bridge. The lift was big enough to accommodate half of the bridge crew, but at the moment it was just him. Everyone was already at their stations waiting for him to appear. He adjusted his single piece tunic and glanced up at the digital deck counter, watching the lift fly through numerous other decks on its journey towards the bridge.

Rob thought about the time and instantly a chrono appeared before his eyes. It looked like a holographic, but he knew better. It was a cognitive projection created in his mind by his neural implant. The implant was wired into his completely central nervous system as well as most wireless systems built by Stellar Enterprises. It allowed him access data and activates various systems with just thought. It also allowed him to think of images and have them formed into projections inside his mind. His brain processed the information as if something was actually in his line of sight, even when it wasn’t.

The mental timer informed him that he still had five minutes before everything began and he took a breath to calm himself. If the test proved successful again, today would be the day of his return from isolation. The galaxy would witness a newly reborn Rob Stellar and restructured Stellar Enterprises. All the years of hard work would have paid off.

He wondered if after so long they had thought he had actually died from his sickness. News from the galaxy reached him every week, of course, but that did not mean he could read people’s minds. Well, at least not yet.

The thought made him smile as he looked down at his hand, squeezing it slowly and looking over it as he made it relax and open. It had taken a little bit of time to get used to the new body, but now it was just like a second skin. It was really did look like his old one, at least on the outside. In total he was a much improved version of his former self.

With a soft hush sound the lift ceased its movement and the thick doors retracted to reveal a small atrium. It was a connection point for the three turbolifts that serviced the bridge and also acted as escape pods. The lift system was the only way to get onto the bridge, except for the reinforced stair system that connected the floors below.

He paused just for a second before taking the steps out of the lift. This was going to be his big moment. Everything and everyone was ready and waiting for the gate activation to succeed.

As Rob walked through the connecting hallway between the lift atrium and bridge, he took note of the rather wide crease in the polished deck. This was a guide for the massive blastdoors to lock the bridge should anything happen. It was also an informal wireless transmission barrier and as soon as he passed that point, his mind lit up with new data from the bridge consoles. He could access almost anything he wanted from the ships systems from this point forth. Mental projections of the ships diagnostic checklist flashed through his occipital lobe, forming a display like screen in the corner of his eyes that he browsed through. Every system on the ship seemed to be running at peak performance and efficiency.

On the bridge Rob saw that every available station was manned and ready for action. Sailors looked up at him and acknowledged his presences. Their faces were all business today. They knew how important this was and how easily things could go wrong. They also knew that if this worked, they would all be going into a part of the galaxy they had never been before physically. They would be seeing and experiencing new things for the first time since their creation and birth almost two years go. Even with so much weighting on them, they were the perfect warriors, calm, collected, worrying only about the here and now. They might soon be coming to war for their first time and perhaps their last.

Rob ran his eyes over them slowly, appreciating all their effort and seeing how closely they all resembled each other. To an outsider they would all look like brothers, but he knew better. He was the one that arranged for their creation and in fact they were much like him in many ways, although they would most likely never know.

He nodded at some of them as he made his way through the center of the bridge towards the middle where a large tactical projection was being displayed. In front of it, Admiral Cathora and Captain Staponov were discussing something and pointing to the display. Rob stopped just as he entered the middle of the bridge, waiting for them to finish their conversation.

He took note of the projector displaying the planet below, the one they had called Riva, spinning slowly as a fleet of mixed ships orbited overhead. Further away from the planet, outside of its gravitational field, floated an immense oval like structure of over two kilometers in width.

“Welcome to the bridge, sir. You made it just in time.” Spoke the Admiral before turning towards him slowly as the projection shut down.

“Sir, the ships and crew are at full readiness. We are battle ready.” Added the Captain in his thick accent.

“Thank Admiral and Captain.” He nodded at both of the, took an extra second with the admiral.

He wondered if there were any rumors going on about what was happening between the Admiral and himself. If there were he would have heard about them by now. It seemed like they all knew, but never talked about it. That made him wonder why. Perhaps the Captain was keeping the crew out of his personal life.

Rob was about to speak when a female voice sounded throughout the bridge. “TransField activation in ten seconds. All indicators in the green. Ready for field connection.”

“Bring it up on the main screen Raia.” Rob commanded as he moved towards the front of the bridge and the largest of the holoscreens. “Shall we go and witness history in the making?”

He smile and stopped in front of the screen just as the image changed and zoomed in on the massive oval ring floating in space. As he watched, lights on the exterior ignited and illuminated the black space around it. The light they gave off reflected off a couple of research vessels floated close to the structure, monitoring the experiment.

On the edge of the screen a timer counted down the seconds while the mental timer in Rob’s head did the same thing. As the got closer to zero it seemed as if everything in the universe stopped. The bridge was completely silent and motionless. He could feel and hear the rhythmic pulsing within his body as, what other would call blood, circulated throughout his system. If Rob had a proper heart it would have been pounding at this instant.

Finally the timer hit zero…and nothing happened. It revered and started counting up the seconds.

“Energy fluctuations detected.” Called out Raia, the ships Restricted Artificial Intelligence as it processed every byte of date received. “Transfield activation commencing.”

Rob thought about looking closer and the image before them zoomed in further, showing only the massive structure. Suddenly, what looked like tremendous sparks, fired from one end of the station to the opposite. More and more of them appeared and connected until the whole center of the ring was filled with a solid field of static.

“Field destabilization detected…correcting…power flow increased…TransField stabilizing.”

Rob looked on as the field did in fact stabilize and grow even more solid until a great wall of blue and white energy existed, flooding the surrounding space with light. The Transition Field had been postulated by a group of scientists a few years before the founding of Sanctuary and the unknown regions had finally made their research worthwhile. With vast distances between systems and the need to take long hyperspace routes around various anomalies, the scientists thought they could create a spacefold tunnel between two distant points and allow a ship to pass from one point to another almost instantly. This would shave days, weeks, or even months off a normal hyperspace trip.

The only problem was that both locations needed to have a transition gate and the gates had to far enough away from any large celestial body so that gravity would have a minimal effect. As a few past experiments proved, a gravatic distortion could destabilize the field and cause anything inside it to at the time of distortion to get destroyed. If a part of a ship happened to get caught inside the tunnel during a disruption that part of the ship would be lost and the ship would be split into two parts, one part on each end of the two distant gates.

Work had already begun on using antigravity field projectors to counteract the problem, but at the moment that was only research.

“Foreign particles detected. Transfield fully stabilized and transit tunnel established.” Stated Raia as the data started to flow down the screen in front of them.

Confirmations from ground and space based research stations confirmed the findings within moments and Rob turned towards his Admiral and lover. “ Admiral Cathora. Proceed as planned. It’s time to make ourselves known in the galaxy.”

With a quick “Yes, sir!” the admiral instantly when to work shouting out orders. The display before them shifted to a far out look as ships from around the fleet moved into their assigned positions for the transit process. Rob felt the deck beneath him vibrate slightly as the large cruiser powered up and turned towards its assigned holding grid. Rob took one last look towards the large Transition Gate, just in time to see the first ship push through the gate. A brand new Nova Class Corvette.

What came out of hyperspace was not the modern military task force that had entered it. Dropping out high above the planet Taanab was a motley crew of three rusted super freighters, four large freighters, three Corellian Corvettes, and one aging Nebulon B Frigate. The ships powered up their sublight drivers and slowly started to move towards the greenish planet before them in loose formation. The four escorts lazily moved in front of the formation in an arrowhead to make up a screen with the Nebulon B and one corvette in the middle of the last two Corvettes. The Nebulon B took up position above the central corvette, as if to cover its topside.

“HoloSheath fully operational and stable, ma’am. Slight fluctuations, but nothing to worry about at the moment. Ships in loose formation and report no problems, awaiting orders. All weapons on standby and ready to power up.” Reported Captain Staponov as he stood in front of display monitor.

“We only need to fool them for a little while longer until the fireworks starts.” Admiral Cathora stated calmly as she stood at the front of the bridge, gazing at the massive holodisplay while bathed in red light.

The red battlestations lighting had activated the moment the task force emerged from hyperspace, reminding everyone onboard the ship that they were on was now expecting combat and to be ready for everything. Every being onboard the ship was now at his or her station and waiting to accept any orders that came from the commanding officers. Training was finally over and they would all get to see what they were made of. Some were nervous, some anxious, and others were chomping at the bit to get into the fight. That was the inexperience within them all. Sure they had hundreds of hours of training and simulated combat, but nothing could prepare one for actual combat.

Tamika stood there with her arms folded, her eyes running from one side of the large wall display to another as she took in the whole group of ships under her command. As he looked on, the image seemed to be coming through a haze that fluttered every now and then. It was hard to get used to, but her mind was starting to habituate slowly. The haze was actually the HoloSheath surrounding the large Pulsar class Heavy Cruiser. It was a technology not used very often, but could come in handy in certain situations when paired with special false transponders. It used a large number of small holoprojectors on the ships’ hull to link together and project a specific holographic image around the ship. Its sole purpose was to disguise a ship from visual observation from far away. The only catch was that the projection must be of a ship close to the same dimensions of the vessel underneath.

Even from this distance it was hard for the Admiral to make out the true hulls of the two Jackal Class Destroyers in front and to either side of the Pulsar. Without concentrating on the images, both ships looked just like two common super freighters found in these regions. Interspersed between the three large ships were four smaller freighters, which were in fact Nova class Corvettes. They were all moving around slowly as if they could not hold a steady formation, but that was also a fake, since they were all linked through laser data links and each ships movement was tightly controlled and calculated by onboard Restricted Artificial Intelligences.

Tami switched the view from the feeds onboard the Pulsar to those from the Iridescent, which was playing the part of an old Nebulon B Frigate at the front of the formation. No longer could she see the taskforce gliding silently through space. Instead the planet of Taanab grew large, just ahead and below the formation moving slowly towards it. Zooming in slowly, she could see that whole swaths of the planets pristine and fertile croplands were on fire. Black smoke was rising up into the atmosphere and covering massive areas of land beneath. People on that planet were probably going through hell, but help was on the way.

“Sensors, contacts. I’m reading fourteen ships, sir.” Called out the sensors officer as he punched in commands to his station and the new ships appeared in the middle of the bridge, beside the projection Taanab.

The captain moved closer and watched the image slowly change at the ships turned towards the mock convoy. Even through the rendering he could see the ships move without much coordination at first until they gathered slowly. At the forward displays Admiral Cathora switched the image once more and zoomed in on the new threat as sensors called out the ships.

“Reading one Victory class star destroyer, designated sierra one, one strike class cruiser, designation sierra two, three Skirmisher Cruisers…” The man continued to name off the different ships as Tamika watched on the display. The ships were getting larger every minute and the display started drawing rectangles around each hostile with a description of each attached beside it.

It seemed like the large Victory class and Strike Cruiser were situated in the middle of the Reaver formation with smaller ships on the outsides in random. The only other large ship did not have a classification and was tagged as Sierra three for the time being. This ship seemed to be cobbled together from the fore section of an old dreadnaught with the rear from two different lancer frigate rear sections. It was using these sections as thruster banks and moving slowly to keep up with the other ships. As she kept watching a smirk fell on her face because of how the enemy acted. It seemed that most ships were in it for themselves as the faster Protector pickets were pushing ahead of the larger ships instead of staying back for protection. Perhaps their disguise was working.

“Receiving transmission from Sierra One to all ships.” Raia informed the bridge through the speakers overhead.

“What is it? Are they trying to communicate?” The questions came from the rear of the bridge, where Rob Stellar sat in his seat, leaning forward.

“Unknown. Seems to be a data packet, though. Analyzing now…” The voice trailed off as the lights on the bridge flickered off and a shudder ran through the ship as the engines pulsed off then on again.

“Status report! What the hell was that?!” Called out the Captain as Tamika turned away from the displays as they shut down. The last thing she has seen was some of the other ships in the group slowing or speeding up as their engine banks wavered.

As quickly as they had gone off the lights returned and switched back to red. The stations and displayed all powered back up slowly, rebooting.

“Viral intrusion detected…infected and rewritten codes isolutated…new command codes reconstructed...viral analysis initiated and complete eradication will proceed when complete…all systems normalized…coordinating eradication with rest of taskforce.” Raia stated in her soft voice. Being constructed, she had no emotion and therefor no fear, unlike the rest of the crew onboard.

Admiral Cathora thought quickly and called out. “Raia, coordinate all stop for all ships. Pretend the viral attack has worked. Hold all systems at standby until my order. Distribute power only to ship essential systems and the HoloSheath projectors.”

She paused and looked back towards the display ahead of her, now back online. “Let them come to us. We will play helpless for a few more minutes.”

As the taskforce drifted in the silence of space, Admiral Cathora watched the helpless world of Taanab spin slowly through the now operational display. She wondered what the people below where going through. The world had been under Reaver subjugation for almost a year, but there must still survivors. Perhaps the remote areas were not hit as bad as the main communities. Before the invasion the planet had a population of almost 700 million and there was no way the Reavers could have devoured or killed all of them.

Her eyes gazed away from the planet, down and to the left, where she could start making out the shimmering hulls of Reaver ships speeding towards them. Light from the system’s sun and from Taanab itself was making their various colored hulls almost sparkle, contrasting heavily to the evil held within each of those ships. Only a few more moments and the enemy would find out who they were really up against.

“Receiving data from the EagleEye…it’s a surface scan of the planet.”

The Admiral turned around on her heel and moved towards the center of the bridge where the color holoprojection changed to show the planet itself. Markings started to appear all over it to designate the major population centers. Most were connected to Pandath, the capital of Taanab through skyways and numerous waterways within the area.

An infrared overlay soon followed, indicating the most tightly packed groups of beings. Most of the heat signatures were concentrated about the capital as well as the major nearby communities, however a few large heat sources were scattered throughout the countryside of the planet. Also on the country was a massive infrared signature indicating the fire Admiral Cathora had seen from space. It slowly moved through the driest fields, consuming everything it touched.

There were also a few curious concentrations of people outside the Capital proper. These were somewhat between the Capital and the third and fourth highest population areas. As the image zoomed in closer to one of the neighborhoods of Pandath, the whole bridge crew could quickly make out what was happening. The footage showed a group of people running through a narrow ally being pursued by a much larger crowd. Some of those pursuing were carrying blunt weapons, while others were holding blasters. Suddenly tiny flashes appeared from the crowd as those very blasters discharged. The small laser bolts impacted against a few of those running away, causing them to stumble and fall. A few of those running away stopped and went back to help their comrades, but were gunned down as well.

And then the crowd was on top of those that had fallen. The first in line stopped running and jumped on top of the dead bodies as the rest ran through them. As they passed it could be witnessed that some of the fallen were being torn into pieces, while others were simply being devoured where they lay.

“Enough… please.” It was the sound of Rob Stellar coming from behind Captain Staponov as he turned away from the display with disgust on his face.

“Captain…” Called out the communications officer. “ EagleEye shows that there is another ship on the other side of the planet. It is accelerating to engage us as well, but from the opposite side. It’s a Belarus Class cruiser, designating Sierra Fifteen.”

“Keep an eye on it. We have bigger fish to fry at the moment.” Smirked the Captain as he looked at sensor display.

It seemed that soon as he set his eyes on the display, ten new contacts appeared. The Pulsar’s sophisticated computer systems immediate sounded a single warning alarm and threw out new reticles on the new ships, designating their new hostile status.

“They are launching shuttles. Seems like they think the battle is close to over.” Stated the sensor officer rather calmly, concidering. “Sir, forward hostile elements are now within firing range.”

The enemy fleet had been split into two uniting during their dash for the Stellar Enterprises taskforce. The faster more modern ships at the front, along with the Victory and Strike class, while a few of the older ships hung back, such as the half dreadnaught, struggling to keep up.

The captain took one look at the Admiral, who gave him a nod before turning back towards her spot at the front of the bridge.

“Alright gentlebeings! Give me full power! All shields and weapons up. Initiate taclinks and form up. You can dispense with the HoloSheath. Time for them to realize who they are fighting.”

The Captain turned towards the center holoprojector as it changed once more to show his taskforce and the enemy coming together. As he monitored the situations orders were quickly spat out and a vibrations ran through the ship as the engines fired back to life, slowly pushing the heavy ship away from her place in space.

With all the orders quickly passed along to each ship through the secure laser data links, the ships could all link up and move almost as one. The new artificial intelligence systems incorporated into most of the ships were specifically designed to help ships communicate with each other faster and coordinate all operations much faster than regular beings could. Because of that, all the ships accelerated and turned as one. The cruiser and two flanking destroyers rolled at 45 degree angles as they turned away from the planet below slightly and pointed their noses down towards the Reaver force coming at them from below. They were no longer old freighters, but brand new killing machines.

As the ships moved and repositioned, flashes of light appeared from the enemy ships. The gig was up and they were firing on the SE ships to stop them. The shields of the forward escorts lit up as the first of the turbolaser and laser blasts impacted them, but held as the most of the bolts missed completely. The Reavers seemed to have sloppy fire control and even worse coordination. Still, with distances closing, more and more blasts hit the smaller escorts, making their shields flare. This time, however, as the escort adjusted their position to clear the way for the larger ships, they returned fire with their DP-13 cannons switched to ion instead of turbolaser bolts. Unlike the Reaver ships, though, the new Nova class ships has state of the art fire control systems and barely any of their return fire missed, even against the smaller Skirmisher class cruisers escorting the Victory Class.

Finally, with their turn complete, the two Jackal Class Destroyers and Pulsar cruiser unleashed their terrifying main weapons, shockwave Repulsor field projectors. The weapons were the exact opposite of tractor beams. Instead of pulling objects towards the ship, the projectors created a concentrated pulse of repulsor energy that exerted an extreme force on anything in its path. The Jackal had two of these powerful weapons, while the Pulsar had one heavy projector, which was almost twice as powerful as the standard one.

It was these weapons that discharged against the Reaver fleet. In a coordinated attack the destroyers fired first, one at the Strike cruiser and the other at the Victory. Space seemed to curve and vibrate in front of the ships as light bent around the extreme gravity fields generated by the weapons before the waves quickly pushed out towards their intended targets in staggered discharges. As two waves raced towards the Strike cruiser, one intersected with a small protector class gunship passing through the field of fire and crumpled the craft at the impact point. Not only that, but the repulsor field pushed the gunship backwards towards the strike cruiser, causing it to impact against the cruiser’s shields at the same time the first wave reached it. The gunships exploded almost as soon it hit and was followed up by the massive gravity wave as it battered down the forward shield, causing it glow brightly and flicker. Within less than a second the second beam smashed into the weakened shield and rushed through it, hammering at the cruiser’s hull. Deck plating buckled and crumbled inwards against the massive strain as nearby weapons emplacements exploded under the force, their generators and gas storage systems overloading.

When it was all over the top center of the cruiser was curved inwards and on fire in certain places as the remaining oxygen burned off. Lights and weapons all over the ship started to flicker on and off as internal systems and power distribution systems within that area ceased to function. The damaged was not just limited to that section, however, the massive pressure wave moving through the ship had caused decks below to rupture and cracks to form throughout the large cruisers internal structure. The nature of the ship’s design made it a hard ship to kill, though, and so it kept on fighting for the time being as most of the remaining weapons fired off blindly trying to hit something.

The Victory Star Destroyer was unlucky as well as it received an assault from both a Jackal Destroyer and the Pulsar Cruiser. The first to strike was the Jackal’s two Repulor beams, which impacted against the Victory’s top and forward shields as the ship was fired on from in front and above. The shields flared brightly and buckled under the dual impacts before collapsing. Two bright explosions lit up the top of the ship as what remained of the second beam crushed a few weapons emplacements along with a shield projection array.

And then the heavy repulsor beam slammed into the hull. The destruction was impressive to say the least as the entire destroyer heaved down in the weightlessness of space. Enough energy transferred into the large destroyer to cause its rear to lift up as the nose pushed down. The whole forward nose section shuddered under the impact and cracked along the entire superstructure of the ship, folding down almost completely before an explosion tore through it and ripped what remained away from the damaged vessel. All around the impact zone weapons batteries and shield projectors disintegrated, diminishing the fighting capability of the ship.

With that, every weapon on the ships let loose with a rain of fire made up of turbolasers and particle beam weapons, as well as ion cannon bolts. Without top side shielding, the top hull of the victory exploded with fire as weapons impacted all over it. A beam from one of the destroyers particle projectors ruptured one of the Victory’s missile holds and caused a tremendous explosion that ripped open a gaping hole on the top portside of the vessel.

Then the three massive ships and their escorts closed on the formation of Reaver ships, weapons discharging in coordinated efforts to bring down the enemy shields and destroy most of the ships. At all times two or more ships teamed up their fire in order to overwhelm the enemy ships with firepower. As planned, the two fast Jackal class destroyer powered their engines to full thrust and pushed ahead of the Pulsar Cruiser and through the Reaver formation as they accelerated towards the planet Taanab, trading fire along the whole way. AS they pass through the destroyers engage some of the shuttles coming towards the taskforce and were rewarded with three of them exploding under the assault.

Within minutes the Destroyers had punched through the reaver formation and picked up speed on their way to Taanab. As they turned to skim over the upper atmosphere, their ventral hulls pointed towards the planet, tens of small ports opened up and fired off series of atmospheric reentry pods. The pods glowed brightly as their sped through the air towards Pandath below.

Once complete, the Jackal Class destroyers turned back and launched four squadrons of their ready fighters. They pulled away from the pull of the planet just in time to see and register the Belarus class Cruiser coming over the horizon. It was in for a world of hurt.

The hundred reentry pods streaked through the atmosphere like meteors. Their forward sections glowing a bright orange-red color as the atmospheric friction caused heat buildup along the nose. The carbon structure of the pods caused the heat to dissipate and bleed off quickly as they descended through the atmosphere. As the hull cooled the contrails flowing off each one were minimized, lowering the chance of detection. Being night time, helped mask the black pods as well.

As the pods dropped towards Taanab, a section of each one shifted in shape slightly to change the aerodynamic properties of the pods, steering them towards their objectives. Groups of the dark transport units moved away from their previous positions and formed up into separate groupings as they each adjusted course slowly. Some of the pods were bigger and contained armored units, while others were smaller with four combat droids or special operations troopers each. Underneath them the megalopolis of Pandath-Taggoco-Milovar grew larger and larger. Most of the city was under blackout conditions, making it even more obvious that something was far from normal.

At a certain altitude a set of shields and repulsor units came online to protect the pods and slow their decent, respectively. Three of the pods malfunctioned and kept descending towards the ground at terminal velocity. One of the capsules slammed into a house on the outskirts of the city, pulverizing most of it and creating a small crater. Lucky, everyone inside the house had already been murdered many months before. The other two pods impacted a small lake and an empty field just outside the Taggoco spaceport, which was one of the objectives of 2nd Platoon, Delta Company. 1st platoon, Delta, was split up and had missions at strategic positions spread throughout the western side of the city. To the north was Pandath and operations within that city were given over to Bravo Company, with the capturing of the spaceport being their primary mission.

With repulsors slowing them down, the rest of the pods impacted the ground close to their objectives without much trouble. Coming down in a city landscape was always dangerous and a few of the pods plowed through the ceilings of building nearby, settling or falling to the ground floors before stopping. As they “landed” the shields of each pod expanded out to protect them from ground fire for a short period as stabilizer legs extended out to upright the capsules and hold them steady. As soon as this was complete the outer doors blew open and flew away from each pod, clearing the area. The whole landing took only seconds before the first of the assault troops advanced from their pods.

From one of these capsules jumped down four figures covered in dark armor from head to toe. Each one had their MIR-22 rifles at the ready as they scanned the surroundings. Almost instantly a horrible screeching cry filled the air and three of the troopers soundlessly ran in front of the fourth and kneeled down on one knee, waiting a few seconds before discharging streams of laser bolts into the alley before them. At the same time laser fire started to impact the shields surrounding the pod, but quickly died down as suppressive fire from the three troopers responded in kind. A whosh resounded through the narrow street as one of the soldiers fired off a fragmentation grenade and within seconds an explosion blossomed over two hundred meters ahead against the face of a building.

The man standing throughout the whole short engagement was veteran Special Forces soldier Colonel Ilmus Stevenson. He had been working with Stellar Enterprises since almost the beginning and had been brought into the unknowns to help training a new breed of soldiers engineered by the company. While most of the forces used by Stellar Enterprises were droids, living and breathing soldiers were still a major part of the companies military and security forces. The living soldiers coordinated and instructed the droids to help with the missions at hand to help operations run more smoothly.

From the moment they had landed and emerged from the drop pod, Ilmus had been checking the status of his other troopers, both droids and human, and issuing orders. Inside his powered armor suit, Ilmus, like the other living special operations soldiers were protected from all environmental factors as well as most of the weapons the enemy had. Not only that, but the suits increased all of their attributes, making them run faster and longer, jump higher, see and hear better, as well as communicate faster.

Inside the helmet Ilmus first called up the map of the whole Megalopolis and instantly got reading from all the locator beacons on the pods as well as the troopers in them. He could see some groups advancing at different paces as they encountered various levels of resistance. Ilmus sent out a few new instructions and watched as team of heavy droids quickly acknowledges and shifted their movement to help another group that was pinned down.

Ilmus gazed down the alley and zooming in on two figures half standing half swaying in the street, just watching them intently. A shiver ran down his back as his image moved in closer, showing them completely. Both were mad looking with their skin turn all over their bodies and fluids slowly leaking out onto the ground. Their eyes were bloodshot and he could see them breathing quickly and heavily. They had rage in their eyes, but for some reason they did not attack like the others laying around them, now smoking slowly from all the laser fire. Were they scouting them? Seeing what they would do next? Ilmus did not know, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out. These animals had killed millions and now it was payback time.

He lifted up his rifle and thought about aiming. As the thought crossed his mind, a reticle appeared on his heads up display, moving with his rifle as he sighted the first creature and pulled the trigger. The Reavers head exploded as the large caliber laser bolt slammed into it. Readjusting his aim, the Colonel fired again, but the second one ducked into a side alley, causing the shot to impact the building behind it.

Giving the street another scan he lowered his rifle slowly and sent a command to launch their drone. A door at the top of their pod snapped open and a circular drone fired up into the air, racing higher and higher until finally stopping at a hover, not able to be seen in the night sky anymore. Instantly more data flooded Ilmus’s HUD, showing infrared sources from around the area moving towards them.

“Command, Bravo Two-One, reentry complete, proceeding to objectives.”

As if in reply, a bright star lit up in the sky off to the east as the enemy Belarus Cruiser exploded.

“Bravo Two-One, Tengo Lead. You have angels up high.” Came the call as one of the squadrons that had launched from the destroyers descended into the atmosphere and came on station. They instantly started monitoring all local frequencies and transmissions.



Space Above Taanab

A crimson smeared assault shuttle veered right and triggered a burst from the laser cannons jerry-rigged on its side. The red bolts of light crossed across space quickly and impacted again the shields of the large cruiser hanging there in the middle of a spreading debris field. The debris had not long ago been actual fighting vessels and various freighters converted for combat duty.

The shuttle’s renewed assault almost instantly triggered a response from the Pulsar Cruiser. Two streams of turbolaser fire from a pair of Rotating turbolaser batteries lashed out at the small ship, most missed due to the others speed, but two bolts connected in quick succession. The shuttle turned away for another run, but unknowingly wondered into the firearc of an escorting Nova Corvette and disintegrated as an intense volley of laser bolts struck the craft, followed by a well-placed particle beam shot that almost completely tore through the whole ship, fore to stern.

Surrounded by the remaining Reaver ships, the cruiser shuddered slightly as its shields flared once more under a renewed assault. The Victory Star Destroyer hanging in space to the left had been damaged, but certainly not taken out of the fight. The Strike Cruiser had also been in the fight until moments before when a combined assault from the Pulsar’s Heavy turbolasers and Particle Cannons reduced it to a lifeless hulk floating only a few kilometers away.

The Reavers had tried only moments before to combine an assault against the Cruiser, using the damage Strike Cruiser to ram the Pulsar and lower its shields for an all-out boarding, but the plan had failed and they has lost four ships in the process. They had recovered from the initial surprise rather well, but now only the Victory Class Destroyer was left between Rob Stellar and the planet of Taanab being one step closer to freedom.

“Ma’am, the Roland and Jackal report all clear for Phase two. They took care of the Beralus.”

The Admiral nodded as she watched the progress with the fight with interest. “Very well. Initiate Phase Two. Instruct the Riverhead and Helios to proceed with their assault as planned. Switch the DPs to ion and concentrate all firepower on the VSD. Get those shields down and let them focus on us more.”

As the orders went out, the Pulsar turned slowly towards the Victory and rolled onto one side more, allowing more weapons to be brought to bare before a firestorm was unleashed against the enemy ship. Shields flared and shuddered along the Destroyer’s entire hull, but the unprotected forward section took the most punishment, even though it received the least fire. Armor plates glowed red as they were superheated by turbolasers. Some vaporized instantly while others warped and disengaged from the understructure. An explosion blossomed out as a turbolaser battery took a hit.

With the Star Destroyer under assault, two Nova class corvettes, one from blow and to the front and the other from its starboard side closed in. The one coming from the front pumped out a stream of precise turbolaser and ion cannon fire, destroying more functional weapons stationed on the unshielded side of the hull before firing off what looked to be four massive torpedoes. These were in fact boarding Torpedoes, each carrying a squad of eight assault droids. They closed on the Victory quickly and just before impacting the hull, a disintegration field generator kicked on, but only for a second. The field projected out, vaporizing everything in the torpedoes path, allowing it to pierce the hull and into the Star Destroyers upper most deck in that area. Once through into the interior of the ship, the forward armored corn ejected and allowing the occupants to rush out to complete their mission.

The four Boarding Torpedoes made it through the saturated area and impacted the VSD within a small diameter of each other, disgorging 32 heavily armed droids into the interior. These droids met only meet limited resistant at first and proceeded to their objective, which was to secure an area around the probable breaching point where the Helios would dock.

From the other side of the large Reaver Destroyer closed in the other Corvette, the Riverhead. She was getting ready for the ship’s shields to fluctuate a bit more before launching her own compliment of boarders. The Riverhead would never get the chance, however, because as she hung there waiting, a volley of concussion missiles fired from the VSD and raced in from point blank range. Normally the ship would be able to handle most of them through the use of anti-mission systems, but at such close range there was only time for the system to track and engage a few of the missiles. Within seconds the large missiles slammed into the Riverhead’s forward shields and overwhelmed them with sheer numbers. The shields held for precious few seconds before collapsing. Explosions almost enveloped the entire ship, fracturing the tough armored hull all over the forward sections and sides. The armor could withstand a lot, but it was not major match for the missiles impacting it. Witnesses outside the ship would see parts of the hull shudder and a wave run through it as the carbon cracked and shattered, but held on in some places because of the resin binding it to intact sections at the rear of the vessel. Finally a group of missiles smashed into the side outward projections containing the large boarding torpedoes. The resulting explosion penetrated deep into the Riverhead, ripping the ship almost in two.

The Helios closed on the Victory Class as soon as its boarding torpedoes hit the hull and the internal cargo of combat droids reported themselves onboard. On the bridge, the progress of the boarding parties was monitored over secure channels as the Corvette accelerated closer to the star destroyer floating in front of it. Turbolasers and ion blasts splashed against the shields and hull, but were not enough to stop the ship’s attack. Most of the weapons on that part of the enemy ship had already been destroyed or neutralized.

At a certain distance, the nose of the Helios pushed down and swung out of the way along the ventral hull session, exposing a completely flat surface with a large oval shaped impression taking up most of the area. The same instant multiple deceleration thrusters fired off and slowed the ship down quickly as it almost smashed head first into the VSD’s hull. The collision between the two ships never happened, however, as the Helios slowed down enough to calmly press the forward flat section against one of the only undamaged sections of the Victory’s forward starboard hull.

As the two ships came together and stabilized, two forward tractor beams came on from the Helios and clamped down to hold the ship in place completely. The oval impression extended forward and started a slow clockwise spin just as a pulsing concentrated disintegration pulse turned on around it cutting through the thick armor plating quickly and cleanly as the oval kept spinning slowly and pushing harder against that same plating. As the hull was being cut, a sensor pulse into the ships interior picking up a number of humanoids moving around in small groups towards the hull cutting operation taking place. Some in the last group paused and moved towards the wall on the opposite side from where a team of combat droids was cutting through a locked blastdoor.

Within seconds the operation was complete a slight clang sound could be heard as the large oval airlock clamped into place. All readings were in the green, confirming a tight seal and that it was ready for activation. At the Captain’s order the Helios closed the forward blastdoors that were situated behind the massive airlock and pushed the vessel away from the VSD’s hull. Everyone on the bridge could see the brand new airlock that was now attached to the other ship’s hull. It almost used fused on, as if it had been there for ages. As they kept looking, the airlock was commanded to open. The doors retracted into themselves and instantly atmosphere poured through the opening as if a water hose had just been turned on. At first it was simply air flowing through, but in seconds that air was filled with bodies as reaver after reaver was ejected into the deadness of space. Their arms reached out at the Helios as they flew past. Some even had weapons in their hands and were firing as they turned to turn towards the ship that sealed their fates, if they ever had fates to begin with. Some of them even came out in a trajectory that took them directly to the Helios, but they were quickly incinerated as they came in contact with the corvette’s shields.

When no more Reavers emerged from the airlock, it was closed again and the Helios moved back towards it, maneuvering carefully as the two ships made contact ones again. The atmospheric seals locked in place as two platoon sized marine units stood by to invade the ship. The majority of the combat strength was made up of droids, but a small number of living operators were there as well to take command of the operations once they were inside the enemy ship.

One of these living soldiers was a large Bothan male named Liak’ay For’ya or Liak to the people he knew well. He used to be a mercenary before his employment with Stellar Enterprises, an employment that was supposed to be temporary, but was now going on two years. His combat experience had come in handy when training the new clones being created at the Sanctuary facility. Back on Bothawui, in the army, he had hated bootcamp, but being in charge made it much better. He took out his frustrations and hated memories of those days on the men and women under his command. It was probably because of this that they had become some of the best soldiers in the Stellar Enterprises Defense Force.

Now he was here, on the Helios, checking his weapons as he stood close to the front of the assault line. This was his assault to lead, against an enemy they knew very little about. He knew the troops under his command could handle any mission, but it was almost a good idea to know who you were fighting before you go into battle. There were too many unknowns and that fact made the mission actually quite exciting for the old time soldier who had supposedly seen it all.

When everything was ready he willed the blast doors and airlock to open and both did as they were commanded, sliding open quickly. As soon as they did the first line of combat droids and two marines surged forward through the expending opening. Their weapons were at the ready as they rushed into the Star Destroyer to secure a beachhead.

Liak was in the second wave of men and machines, reinforcing the first. As he stepped onto the cold metal deck of the other ship he could see that for the moment they were alone. The area has been cleared of Reavers only minutes ago. His helmet display pinged with a new announcement, telling him that the first group of boarding droids had made their way through the blastdoor on the other end of the deck and were moving towards them to reform.

“Bring up the Sparkler.” Liak commanded as his eyes studied the area around them.

The sparker was actually a nickname for the Static bomb they had brought with them. The bomb was designed based on the Static Charge generator built into the Caster Class Cruisers, but on a smaller scale. It would release a pulse that would disable electronics in a certain blast radius, much like an ion bomb would, but without an explosive core.

As the ordered was being carried out, the Bothan looked over at their Combat Engineer kneeling down just to the right of him, the woman’s rifle moving back and forth along the hallway. “Eng, get some Moles down those corridors we need some recon and EW.”

She acknowledged quickly and reached behind to pull out three small disks from the large pack on her back and quickly programmed them for the mission before tossing each one into the air. The drones spun up quickly and silently, hovering in midair for a second before shooting down the corridor and curving towards their destinations, which were the few hallways leading into their beachhead location.

Just before the last drone turned towards its programmed hallway a flash appeared from that darkened hallway milliseconds before a missile slammed into one of the combat droids making its way back to the group. The droid’s chassis exploded into pieces, separating the machine into two at the torso. Even damaged heavily the droid pushed itself back up with one arm and turned the other towards the attackers and fired back down the corridor. The other seven droids stopped in their tracks and took up an advanced defensive position, their wrist mounted blasters sending streams of bolts down range at the coming enemy horde.

Through his helmet display, Liak could see the whole skirmish unfold from the feed the Mole drone sent them. Hundreds of Reavers were descending upon them from the depth of the ship. Many of them were dying as the last blaster bolts slammed into their bodies, vaporizing whole sections of their bodies. They did not die quickly; however, it seemed that the only truly lethal hits were headshots. Even some of the heavily disabled Reavers were crawling towards the droids with their legs or arms missing. They did not seem to feel pain at all nor did they bleed when shot. Many seemed to have weapons of different kinds from the rocket launcher to blasters to simple pipes or knives. As they got closer to the main corridor their moans could be heard, horrible…wretched moans. Even Liak, a veteran of many military campaigns shivered silently inside.

Behind him, there was movement and turned to see a pair of droids bring out a large sphere. They set it down on the deck and moved forward into the defensive line. It was time to move to the next phase of the operation. The Bothan moved towards the large bomb/generator and typed in the arm code into the control panel before issuing the evacuation order for the rest of his marines. They formed into pairs and peeled back quickly into the ship as if they have done it hundreds of times before.

He took a look back down the hallway just in time to see the massive swarm of Reavers collide with the combat droids. One of the droids was actually lifted into the air by a group and tossed against the wall as the others were toppled over. Some of the Reavers were actually trying to bite the machines, but their teeth cracked instantly, shattering against the armor the droids were wrapped in. As the droids began to stand back up, axes and clubs descended upon them trying to beat them into submission, but the droids withstood the assault. Some of their armor cracked in places, but there not out of the fight. Liak watched a Reaver fly into the area as one of the droids defended itself and slam into the bulkhead on the other side, bones and dark thick fluid spraying in all directions from the impact.

The rest of the herd surged forward, however, towards the beachhead. They were met with a torrent of blasterfire from the defending droids, shattering the forward ranks just as the airlock closed and sealed shut.

Behind the airlock Liak stood with his warriors and sent the command to trigger the bomb on the other side. It took a few seconds to get a response as the generator inside the weapon powered up and started to build up the static charge. Particles throughout the corridor coalesced together, making the air around it shimmer and sparkle, before a static like wave exploded from the core. In space the wave could have been stopped by powerful enough shields, but inside the confined space of the ship and inside the shields themselves the wave propagated quickly. Every piece of electronics the wave passed over were shorted and disabled. In seconds the charge passed over the reactor and engine room as well as the backup generators and bridge.

The Helios shook slightly as the VSD engines shut down and as the large ship started to drift. All lights went out instantly inside the ship as power was lost entirely. The Corvette had to quickly adjust itself to stay fully connected.

When the airlock open again and Liak stepped through, there was a massacre on the other side. Reaver bodies floated all over the place and thick globs of black fluid floated all around them. With the power dead, there was nothing to run the artificial gravity inside the Victory and only beings or machines with magnetic footwear were able to stand on the metal deck. Just before stepping back onto the VSD, Liak activated the magnetic field on his armor suit soles took a step forward, feeling himself clamp down against the deck plating. In front of him stood a row of combat droids, rooted to the floor themselves as a few of them fired off at the last few surviving Reavers that thrashed around as they floated mindlessly.

Pandath, Taanab

The ground beneath them shook hard as a bluish-white explosion cloud bellowed up one block to the North where two missiles impacted simultaneously. They heard the familiar groans and cracks as a building collapsed from the attack, sending dust and debris into the air. At the same moment a single Hammerhead fighter punched through the thickening cloud before veering away for another target. The attack had successfully stopped an advancing Reaver mob from ambushing Bravo Squad as they advanced towards their final objective.

The Reavers had begun by simply attacking the squad mindlessly in pairs and small groups as soon as they detected the presence of the Special Operations unit. These initials attacks were fairly easy to suppress, however, the enemy seemed to learn slowly. Attacks were starting to be become more coordinated and with much longer numbers of Reavers coming from many different directions. Reaver “Scouts” could also be seen at times from various alleys or high vantage points, such as building windows or roofs. These were ignored at first, but after the first few ambushes and unexpected clashes, the scouts were shot on sight. It wasn’t known how they were relaying what they saw, but for the moment it didn’t matter. Ilmus had to get his team to the final objective before the mission could proceed further.

He scanned the street ahead as they moving cautiously along the center of the road. It was something they would never do in a conventional fight, but this was far from conventional. They all wanted to stay as far away from buildings as they could. That was where most of the living dead waited for them.

At the far end of their spear formation Brute fired his HSAR at the third story of a building up ahead and to the right. The windows melted quickly as the stream of heavy blaster bolts from the Heavy Squad Assault Repeater smashed into them and traced a line slowly down the entire level. The fire peppered and vaporized entire frameworks that held the windows and supported the edge of the floor above. Slowly the rain of death moved further inside the structure and hammered the ceiling creating large holes as it swept back and forth further into the building. In moments the weakened ceiling collapsed, causing the Reaver congregation on that level to fall through onto the floor below. What fell through, however, were not whole people, but a mass of burned bodies and parts of Reavers.

Some were still alive and as Brute eased off the trigger, hands could be seen reaching over the edge of the melted windows before a few legless Reavers hulled themselves out and fell to the ground, moaning and screaming as they struggled to crawl toward the squad. Ilmus raised his rifle and squeezed off a few rounds as did the rest of the squad and watched their heads explode.

When the movement stopped Ilmus lowered his MIR and took a step forward. Almost instantly his left shoulder vibrated and the HID in his faceplate lit up, indicating of an approaching threat. He turned quickly, his actions made faster by the exosuit, in time to see two Reavers running towards him with their hands stretched out. They were almost upon him, with death behind their black eyes. As he started to bring his rifle up to fire, the first one’s head exploded. A millisecond later the second Reaver staggered back as if hit with tremendous force in the chest, just before his body exploded out. Black fluid and pieces of skin and bone flew in all directions. As the mist cleared Ilmus could see the Reaver still moving, one arm still intact, but missing everything else from the heart down. It was lying face down, but in seconds started to rise back up on its arm. Without support from the other arm it flipped over on its other side and just moaned, its mouth opening wide.

Ilmus smiled to himself, relieved, and turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder. His eyes zoomed in on the roof of the tallest building in the area. Atop the twenty five story office building a hand waved to him before settling back down on the weapon protruding from the edge of the roof. Reavers weren’t the only one with soldiers on rooftops. A few sniper units had been inserted with the company as well, but it had taken them some time in clearing their respective buildings of Reavers before they could perform their intended duties.

Ilmus nodded thanks to the warrior before looking back at the moaning animal on the ground before him. He walked over and lowered his rifle at its head and pulled the trigger, causing skull fragments and brain matter to splatter the feet of his combat suit. He smiled to himself inside the helmet just as more movement was registered above him, causing him to look up as the windows in building above him shattered and a pile of heavy desks came tumbling down on top of him, crushing him to the ground. Behind the desks a horde of Reavers ran through the broken window, jumping two stories into the street below.

All throughout the assault zones Reavers attacked in mass. Thousands of the creatures came out of subways, buildings, and just ran down the streets as all Stellar Enterprises forces in the areas. There seemed to be an intelligence behind them now as their ambushes started within seconds of each other and at weakened points along the established control lines. The spaceports seemed to be the heaviest hit just as the freighters for Phase 2 of the planet assault came in to land.

It seemed as if the Reavers knew these freighters were coming and were trying to prevent that from happening. It was these freighters, however, that sealed the fate of the Reaver counter attack. As they landed and popped open their cargo doors, hundreds of fresh combat droids poured out and instantly joined in the defense of these ports. The droids could be not be frightened nor could they be turned. They simply fought back with mechanical ferocity, never stopping or tiring. Even when surrounded they would simply bat or throw Reavers out of the way with their massive arms. They worked in teams to push the enemy back and secure the areas once again before continuing their attack further, decimating the Reaver forces and finally hunting down those that remained active in the killzones. Reavers did not pull back, they simply attacked and died to the last. Thousands upon thousands of their bodies littered the streets as Combat droids advanced over them, crushing their remains under heavy armored feet.

As the Reaver attack faltered, engineers inside a few of the new freighters were hard at work pulling out two large generator units. These units had almost taken up the entire cargo hold each. Power cables from the other freights at each spaceport were run to these generators as one ship would not be nearly enough to power them. It took some a good fifteen minutes to set up these generators and run diagnostics before they were powered up. As soon as the switch was flipped, or in this case button was pressed, a shimming field expended out from these generators and went on to cover the entire Pandath Megalopolis.