<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Three weeks ago… Location Unknown…<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


The tendrils of real space seized the Venerator-Class Command Destoyer in its mighty beckoning grip, peeling it from those swirling depths of hyperspace and back into the dark void.

A sight rarely seen: no Imperial warfleet came trailing into existence mili-seconds thereafter. Nor minutes. In fact… no fleet was to come at all.

The nearly 7 kilometer Destroyer powered savagely through space, a tremendous ion glow trailing the colossal warship. A dagger slashing through the darkness of space. Only… with infinite times more destructive power.

A cluster of ships lay ahead… a meager force, though a force greatly outnumbering the lone Venerator. And still… the malevolent craft seemed somehow to pose a great threat. A promise of destruction.

And this promise would only be solidified if one were to know of the man at the command of this grand warship…



The Grand Admiral eyed the task force warily, a questioning look controlling his visage.

“Reversion successful, Admiral,” came the vibrant and penetrating voice of the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Morgoth’s<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> commander, Captain Descartes.

Grand Admiral Hyfe had no doubt that Descartes was a competent officer… The New Order did not place imbeciles in command of their mightiest war ships… but he was having trouble discerning whether or not he favored the man. Then again, there were only half a dozen men in this galaxy the Grand Admiral respected at all. And even less of those that he was fond of.

As Descartes was not the usual officer under the Admirals command, and was not used to his antics, he humored the man with a response. “Thank you, Captain,” he offered with strained cordiality. “Status of that task force?”

“Shields online… weapons powered down, sir. I’ve patched ship statistics through to your TAC,” the Captain replied.

Daemon Hyfe offered a nod, inadvertently slipping back into his customary habit.

“Shields up, weapons offline, then, Captain,” he ordered.

“Aye sir.”

“Establish comm. link with their command craft. I want visual.”

“Yes sir.”

Hyfe swiveled the main TAC visual monitor in front of his command chair in preparation, straightening in his chair. He suppressed all emotions. This would not be the first time he had talked face to face with this great adversary… this… great ally.

Memories flushed back.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> My how the passing of time brings with it the tides of change…<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

Grand Admiral Hyfe really could honestly hold no bitterness against this man. And yet he had so many reasons to. What was it? Was it sympathy? Was it that strange sense of understanding… that feeling that he could, indeed… relate?

“Link established, Admiral.”

“Connect me.”

“Sir.”

Instantly, the face of a man appeared on the screen. Strikingly alien. Strikingly human. And what’s more, strikingly… Imperial.

The Grand Admiral’s harsh, aged-face flashed with indecipherable emotion. Was it sympathy? Was it hatred? Was it gratitude? Was it resentment?

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Was it at all possible that it could be all of these things?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

The Grand Admirals steely-gray eyes locked with the figures on screen, and he offered a deliberate nod.


“Greetings… Emperor Fearsons…”




<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Several hours ago… Edge of Imperial space…<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


“A target has been selected then?” Grand Admiral Hyfe inquired.

“Yes sir.” The small holo-projection of a Jutraalian Admiral crackled with static.

“And?” Hyfe urged, impatiently.

“The Jutraalian Empire concurs that location: Daishi is a strategically sound starting power for this campaign,” the Admiral stated.

Grand Admiral Hyfe stood silent for a moment. “Very well. Your fleets have been amassed, then?”

“Yes sir.”

“Excellent. Then we launch at once.”

“Yes, Admiral.” The Jutraalian officer bowed slightly in respect.

Daemon Hyfe did the same, then cut the transmission, and the holographic pod died.

The Grand Admiral exited the Eclipses aft bridge holographic chamber and reentered the enormous room that was main bridge, making his way directly for his command chair.

As Hyfe took a seat, an officer approached from the side. It was Commander Hayt, the head tactical officer, he knew. He was a short, sly-looking man. He had a thin weaselish face, with mouth like a slash in leather, twin ink spots for eyes, and a casual air of brutality about him, a sense of toughness and poise that would send a shiver through many a man.

“All units signal ready,” the man reported dutifully.

“Good… good,” Hyfe replied as he eased himself into his command seat, making himself comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as the damned bulky chair would allow.

The tactical officer continued to stand at attention until Hyfe offered a brief nod, and the man took the cue to return to his post.

The Grand Admiral took a heavy breath.

How many times had he been here? <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Right here.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> At the command of a massive fleet, prepared to give the order to engage an enemy. To start a battle… a war… that could result in the death of dozens of ships… millions of lives?

He let that thought slip from his mind.

“Captain, is my flagship ready?”

“The <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Ebony Vigilance<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> is fully at your command, Grand Admiral Hyfe,” came Captain Essian’s formal reply.

Hyfe nodded. “Begin the count.”

“Aye, sir.”

Shortly red numbers appeared on his tactical command console, counting down from 00:01:00. All around them, Hyfe knew, the other ships of his fleet would be locking on to this signal, counting down together, and jumping at the exact same moment.

The timer reach zero, and the ship gave a slight lurch as the pinpoints of stars blurred into blue streaking lines, and then into the familiar mottled form of hyperspace.

The Fleet was headed for Ord Mantell.




<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Now… Hyperspace…<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


Grand Admiral Daemon Hyfe stared out the foreword view port just as he always did before a major engagement.

There was little one could to for preparation when in hyperspace. Hyfe knew that. Everyone knew that.

And so his mind wandered, just as it always did.

General Kaine would at this moment be arriving at Despayre, Hyfe knew.

The 256th would be assembled at Asation, preparing for an operation of their own.

The Sith would be springing to action at Naboo.

The galaxy was alive with activity. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> But what did it all mean?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> That would be the real question on everyone’s mind.


Hyfe smiled at that thought.


<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Endgame.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->


The actions of the Grand Admiral were only a part of the whole. One piece of the grand puzzle. Yet the galaxy would long remember what he did here today.


He smiled at that as well.


“Reversion mark!” an officer shouted suddenly. “… in 10!”


The Grand Admiral cleared his thoughts, and rubbed his eager face in his hands, then sat up, staring out the foreword view port intensely.


“5!”

“4 -”

“3 -”

“2 -”


…

What?

The voice thundered across the holonet, all the way from Ord Mantell to the distant world of Eriadu, already under siege by the New Republic.

You are fucking with me!

The hologram of Lord Protector Alex York shook his head.

Preliminary sensor data indicates that this is Grand Admiral Deamon Hyfe's own fleet, Sentinel Division. The Ebony Vigilance has been detected in the system.

Dxun Isstal felt his knees grow weak, and he sank into his command chair, supported by two aides who stood beside him. The Supreme Commander looked into the hologram, horrow growing on his face.

Why?

York shook his head.

Power. What the Jutraalians offer, the Empire wants.

Dxun swore loudly, startling the bridge crew of the flagship.

I hope that power-hungry @#%$ rots in the depths of hell. This is the final straw.

He sighed and sunk further into the chair.

Admiral, commence an evacuation of all Galactic Defence Initiative locations and get as many civilians out as possible. You're to retreat the fleet as fast as possible.

The Lord Protector looked confused. Confused, that is, until he saw the look of anger on his Supreme Commander's face.

As you command, sir.

Dxun Isstal stood, looking over the bridge crew. They must have suspected something, he knew. But the true extent of that knowledge was overhwelming. There was no use hiding it from them. Those people would soon be fighting their former-allies.

The people that they had supported in every way, shape, and form since the beginning. And those @#%$ had turned on them, allied with a government that until only days ago they had waged a bitter war with.

The New Order would be oblivious to the presence of the Galactic Defence Initiative, but they would soon learn the errors of that.

They would feel the sting of the GDI, before that organization was crushed beneath the iron first of the Empire. In any other situation, Dxun would have felt a compassion for them. But he was through with sympathy. Each of his allies had in turn betrayed him because of their own desire for power.

It was only a matter of time.

But the GDI was not stupid. They had plans for such an occurence. They were simply not done yet.

"Commander," he said. "Activate Ord Mantell defences. All systems are to go live and prepare for immediate deployment." He pasued, considering his next words.

"Prepare my shuttle. I will pay a visit to the Grand Admiral. And try to find out what the hell he thinks he's doing."

"Admiral, commence an evacuation of all Galactic Defence Initiative locations and get as many civilians out as possible. You're to retreat the fleet as fast as possible."

Alex Nodded his head as he looked into the Holonet, deeply confused, and supprised at the recent developments.

"As you command, sir." was all he could manage to bring himself to say as he suddenly found himself short of breath.

As the Holonet faided out, he sighed, and turned to address an already curious command crew.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" Alex started "Today is truely a day of sorrow, and defiance. In a cold blooded assault, the New Order has declared war on the Galactic Defense Initiative. As you may have noticed, The New Republic is currently attacking a Defense Initiative Planet as we speak, and now, sources indicate that the Jutraalian Empire will be assisting the New Order in this conflict."

As he looked around, the faces of his crew turning a pale white, the emotion was evident. All of them knew...

The Galactic Defense Initiative would be crushed...

Three of the largest Superpowers of the Galaxy had declared war symotaniously against a faction that's main purpose was peace, and the Defense Initiative was outnumbered ten to one. Stepping down, and sighing as he slumped into the command chair of the Redemption, a Viscount/Strident-Class Star Defender, flagship of the Guardian Protectorate Fleet, he nodded his head, and issued the order.

"Make a jump to the Byss System as soon as possible. Order all ships to prepare for combat, and tell them to clean out there Cargo holds of any unnecessary cargo. We've been ordered to start a massive evacuation."

Alex sat as still as a bird frozen in the ice mountains of Hoth.

He felt the Icy breath of Death upon his neck...

"And recent reports confirm that the Galactic Defense Initiative has stated its intentions to intervene with the Jutraalian Naval presence in the Esseles System..."

"Turn that crap off," Ensign Yeldek demanded, reclining in his comfortable lounge chair, one leg sprawled over one of the arms. He wore his uniform in only half, his shirt unbuttoned half way down.

The petty officer who was near simply shrugged and switched off the holovid.

"Everything I ever hear these days is all about the Galactic Defense Initiative," Yeldek swore under his breath, "'oh yea the Jutraalian Empire is evil cause of this' 'Oh Fearsons is wrong cause of that'. God damn it makes me sick."

"It makes us all sick, shut the hell up," another of the lower ranking commissioned officers barked.

"Screw off Zazinsky," Yeldek responded.

A small verbal fight ensued amongst the two officers and they did not hear the attention on deck call, so much to their embarassment they received the awkward stares of the XO of the ship.

When they finally finished due to a more than obvious "ehem" from one of the non-commissioned officers, or non-coms, they both turned to face the commander, their faces turning as red as Yavin, and they immediately leapt to attention.

Commander Stark, the XO of the Allegiance-Class Super Star Destroyer Mithril Katana, simply smirked as he continued to walk about the lounge. His perfectly polished black boots were often the envy of those around him, and their rap taps were often the horror of those who failed in their duties.

Commander Stark was the heart of the Star Destroyer Mithril Katana, where Admiral Etherway was the brain. While the genious that had manuevered the Katana through a dozen battles, the blood had kept its interior workings ripe and ready for life...and to cause death.

Stark had made it very clear that the Katana was a ship of war, and if you could not pull the trigger and kill your enemy you were going to be driving haul speeders of bantha crap out of Mos Espa for the rest of your life. You were a soldier here, soldiers killed during war.

"As you know a peace treaty has been signed with the Galactic Defense Initiative," he said, patrolling the lounge with typical efficiency that accompanied a man that had spent the later years of his life in foxholes and battleships. "The Galactic Defense Initiative claim this to be treaty number two, despite his majesty's ignorance of the prior treaty.

"Approximately seventy-two hours ago the Damorian Corporation launched a sneak attack on Jutraalian forces, a press release was made on this not long ago, if you haven't read up on it, do so." He got to the area where the holovid was and simply looked at it, both hands gripping his wooden pointer before him.

"We launched an immediate counter strike, all forces capable and ready in that sector were launched. An enormous skirmish is ensuing at this moment over Esseles that is threatening to turn into an all out war, and in a sense," he turned around with a slight grin, "it already has."

None of the officers in here doubted the man's desire to get into another fight. It was what kept him alive, what kept his blood flowing.

That scared a lot of the men aboard the Katana, but also inspired them in a fashion. This man was fearless to an extent, but never at the expense of his men. He loved his men, they were like family to him, they were not expendable, not any one of them.

And as was always said, the most successful leader is one who would charge first, who would lead them into battle.

Stark had a bad habit of trying to get himself demoted so he could lead charges. He was a scary man to befriend. He was even scarier to enrage.

"The Galactic Defense Initiative has recently made several demands on the Jutraalian Empire, and it is indicated that they have no intentions of honoring their deals. Several of their battleships were found riding past our borders in the Sluis Van-Eriadu junction. The emperor has ordered that due to the Initiative's attempts at political sabotage and militaristic irresponsibility, we are to assist the New Order in an attempt to eradicate the starfleet and military assets belonging to the Galactic Defense Initiative.

"The Mithril Katana will lead the campaign into the Brak Sector. We are going to kill every single soldier that says they're part of the Galactic Defense Initiative until they surrender. Of course this is just a quick brief, we have a full briefing in twenty, and I have been sent by the CO to tell you all to shower and get your asses up to the briefing room in those twenty, do you understand?"

"Sir yes sir," came the crescendo of confirmation, followed by a series of salutes which was quickly returned by the XO of the starship of dozens of battles. Then he clicked his heels and proceeded out of the lounge, his authority lingering behind like too much perfume.

The men scurried to get ready.








Admiral Etherway watched as the stars moved past him in an almost serene blur, like tiny guides, little buttons of such insignificence that he could dot them out with his finger and forget them later on, only to know that he would be out there in a few days, weeks, months, years, decades, he would be in the very star system based around that star that he blotted out with his finger, scorching it in an inflamed battle.

The thought was not one that exhilerated him. He was the exact opposite of his XO, he was a man that loved peace over war, loved all that came with it, and hated war. Not that he hated warfare, but rather what war entailed. He loved the strategy and tactics of it all, but so utterly hated the death that was required to make it a war that often times he spent nights weeping in his chambers, mourning the dead he had caused.

His own sister had been lost to the conflict with the Chimeran Syndicate when they had dropped chemical weapons on her residency. He had hence condemned bioweapons in his own moral state of mind. Even once when Supreme Admiral Telween ordered the armament of the Angel Virus onto the Mithril Katana he had commited an act of insubordination and defied the admiral, openly stating no.

Etherway had been court martialed for that. Emperor Fearsos himself had been the judge in that instance and had stated that due to moral obligations, he could not rightly punish with strictness the admiral, and gave him six days open arrest.

There was a quiet hiss from behind as the doors whispered open, and the tapping boots of Commander Stark suddenly drowned out the sounds of the engines behind the admiral.

"Sir," he said, and the sound of clicking heels was heard, and the folding of material, he was saluting.

"At ease Commander," he said, almost sadly. There was another sound of folding cloth, the man moved to a brisk almost parade rest. Stark was very formal. "How are the men?"

"Eager and ready sir, their lust for battle with the Galactic Defense Initiative is rivaled by little sir," Stark said, a bit of pride and almost envy evident in his tone.

"See to it that all goes directly according to plan. Are the gunboats and Defenders launched?"

"Affirmative sir."

"Okay...I'll see you in the briefing room."

"Aye sir," another fold of cloth, then the rap tappings of those shiney black boots as he left, followed by the whisper of the doors, and the fading sound of those raps.

The admiral blew out a quick sigh as the stars began to streak back into blue lines, then simply disappeared into a pulsating cerulean tunnel.










The briefing had gone according to plan, all sections of the battle had been laid out, contingency plans upon contingency plans for every situation had been laid out, and every man knew the battle better than they knew themselves. Intelligence had defined every possibility for the battle, and they were ready.

The TIEs and Gunboats had jumped into hyperspace first, and had dropped out first so that they could get a preliminary scout of the star system.

It was exactly as they had planned it.

The enormous ship that was the Allegiance-Class Super Star Destroyer cried out in a muted scream as it and its battle group began to fall from hyperspace, surrounded by tiny dots that were starfighters.

The sun gleamed nearly as brightly as Commander Stark's brisk smile.

Hell was about to be unleashed.

The command chair swiveled so that the admiral could face his XO, and he gave our a resigned sigh, pushing asside his guilt for just a moment. "Let the battle begin, designate delegatory commands, institute full fighter combat, and hail the Imperial ships here."

"Sir," one of the radar boys reported suddenly.

"What is it?" Stark demanded immediately before Etherway could even get a chance to realize what was said.

"We have several shuttles on scopes," the enlisted man cried out. Stark's eyes widened with excitement.

"Excellent, order the Defenders to break off and begin engagement, TIE/lns to back them up, no...scratch that, TIE/lns backing interceptors backing Defenders, get a pair of transports ready, I want that @#%$ Isstal caught."

"Are you sure he's here?" Etherway asked carefully.

"I know he's here...I can feel it in my bones..." the younger but far more experience XO said calmly. "And if it isn't him those have to be officers, no one uses shuttles otherwise."

"Affirmative," the admiral agreed, then turned to the comms station. "Send out a sector wide transmission, order the cease of all civilian traffic. Navigation," he turned to the nav officer, "set a course for Ord Mantell's moon...we're going to try and get a looksie at what we're up against."

The orders were carried out, and it was time. Stark grinned, Etherway sighed, and the bridge was a hustle and bustle of activitiy.

The massive Imperial fleet dropped out of hyperspace, appearing in the space around Ord Mantell as if by magic.

One hell of a magic trick.

The Eclipse-Class Super Star Destroyer Ebony Vigilance led the fleet of nearly 100. Sentinel Fleet Division I, Legion I.

On the crafts bridge, the magician smiled callously.

“Shields up. Bring weapons online,” Grand Admiral Hyfe ordered.

“Done, Admiral,” replied Captain Essian.

“Abolisher phase Alpha: Initiate. Activate abolisher fields.”

“Aye sir,”

“All Attack Spheres, deploy fighters, 30 %. Defensive screen.”

“Launching fighters now, sir.”

Hyfe paused.

Angling his tactical command console down, a glance at the BAC visualization display confirmed what he saw out the view port. No enemy ships?

Could that be right?

It didn’t matter.

“Charge the superlaser.”

“Right away, sir.”

“All pickets: move 2.5 klicks to the fore. Activate gravity wells. Have them stay just behind the TIE Devil screen.

“Yes sir.”

Daemon Hyfe glared at Ord Mantell in anticipation. A brief shimmer of green static let him know that the planets defenses were coming online.

The massive New Order Fleet was forming up into its proper battle groups. Pickets were surging ahead at a distance of 2.5 klicks, maintaining position just behind the defensive screen of TIE Devils. Abolishers were dropping behind and coming to life in a crescent moon formation, evenly spaced for maximum coverage, creating a web of destruction for any enemy ships that may attempt to come in from their rear.

And then out of the corner of his eye, Hyfe saw the faint flashes of light of small craft emerging from hyperspace. Far to his right. Sporadically. Fighters. Preliminary scouts.

“Our Jutraalian friends are already beginning to arrive, Captain,” Hyfe said amiably.

Captain Essian nodded merrily, his pink lips curling up in a goofy smile beneath his closely trimmed beard.


The New Order’s fleet continued to move towards Ord Mantell.

Twenty Six Minutes after Initial Contact - Ord Mantell System

When the first New Order/Jutraalian Imperial warships emerged from hyperspace over Ord Mantell, the emergency alert was signalled throughout the fleet. The Star Destroyer Viscount, of the Ord Mantell garrison that had been evacuated to Holding Sector 22-Alpha when the Imperial warships were first spotted, broke off from the fleet proper and made a short hyperspace jump to the rear of the enemy formation. Behind them, trolling at a distance of some lightyears, out of effective sensor range of the enemy fleet and all but invisible on its solitary journey.

The ship's emergence from hyerpsace came some thirty-five minutes after the first Imperial warship was sighted above Ord Mantell. This event triggered yet another series of alarms, which finalized orders on all GDI ships in the galaxy and prepared the government for war. The announcement was made then that a state of war existed between the Galactic Defence Initiaive and the allied New Order/Jutraalian Empire governments.

The Viscount, attatched to special mission duties, was the first GDI warship to make any sort of contriution to the war effort. She did this by laying some 50 000 mines behind the Imperial fleets, in the same channel that any reenforcing vessels would be forced to travel down.

Or, so it was, that the Empire would be forced to reatreat down. The mission profile called for an immediate deployment of some one thousand hyperspace interdicting Empoin Mines and several thousand assorted mines of other varieties.

By the time the Empire learned these mines existed, it would be to late to do anything about it. The Empion blasts would scramble any computers and wipe their memories clear, rendering most ships helpless long enough for the other mines to do their work.

It would be one helluva party if the Imperials chose to reenforce their position. And, in light of everything, that event seemed likely.

Nearly an hour after the first New Order warship emerged from hyperspace to attack their allies, the Viscount cleared the newly laid mine field and made the jump to hyperspace.

<hr>

"Viscount reporting mission successful. The trap is set." Dxun Isstal nodded, looking at the sensor profile that showed the Imperial fleet over Ord Mantell.

"What are the positions of the Imperial fleets?"
"They've entered the outer defence perimiter. They are now within range of our EMPRESS Defence System." Isstal nodded again.

"Commence primary ignition of EMPRESS. All stations to come online and fire as ready. Let's give the Imperials a surprise, gentlemen."

The TIE Defenders were easily in range of the enemy shuttles by now and as the small craft came to view over their HUDs they switched to ion cannon fire and let loose with the pulsating blue streams of light.

Honor One, who was leading the flight group, scored several hits against his specific shuttle, unsure whether or not he had caused any real system damage, but he knew he was doing something, he knew his shots were at least hitting.

The rest of the TIE Defenders who had broken off did similar attacks, causing electrical shocks to pulsate throughout the shuttles, crackling about.





The Allegiance-Class Super Star Destroyer Mithril Katana cut through space as easily as lasers through paper. Captain Etherway watched hesitantly, the battle - if it could be called that - had gone so far so good. They had considered this possibility, but they had put it low on the probability listings.

He rose from his command chair and took a step closer to the sensor board, watching the different grids of Jutraalian ships and Imperial ships moving about in their assigned patterns. He had already set up a communique with the Empire stating their intentions of scouting out the moon known only as Montell Minor.

He rubbed his hand against his jaw in thought, the wars with the Galactic Defense Initiative were just going on and off it seemed. But now that so many allies had been massed for this specific one, he had little doubt this would be the last.

Reports had indicated an evacuation attempt of some sort, and the emperor had responded indicating that any civilians found on military transports were going to be disabled and sent to designated refugee camps.

Leave it to Isstal to do something sick like shield himself behind civilians.

There was a small signal being picked up well beyond their visual scanning, it was too faint to identify but it could have been a starship of some sort, but it could have been space debris.

"Keep an eye on that," Etherway ordered, moving away from the sensor board, "but don't focus too much time on it, remember our objective."

"Roger sir."

They continued their decent toward the Mantell Minor, their fighters - save for those going after the shuttles - moved on a tight escort.

The admiral turned and walked to the comms station, avoiding idle conversation on the way, the loudly tapping Commander Stark close behind on his heels. When the two got there, the enlisted leapt to attention.

"As you were," he said, and the enlisted went back to his seat. "Is the plan set?"

"Aye sir," the younger man responded.

"Alright, unleash an ultra high wave frequency and plenty of static to all possible Galactic Defense Initiative comm frequencies and channels, we have to block the codes from being sent to those EMPRESS systems, got it?"

"Aye aye sir, being sent now."

(Shuttles? What...?)

"And so it begins." Dxun Isstal nodded, looking out with absolute disgust to the Jutraalian ships.

He sighed.

"Order EMPRESS to cloak and fire, standard procedure. Alert all ships within communications range that Imperial ships are present in the Ord Mantell system and that they've raised Abolisher fields. I do not want another Lady Eriadu."

There was a long pasue as the order was sent... and then:

"Sir, communications are being blocked. Communication with EMPRESS is impossible." Dxun looked at the man and smiled thinly.

"The commanders are not stupid, Colonel. Watch." The EMPRESS system had beend designed some time ago by the GDI Research and Development Branch to attack enemy ships through unconvential means. The lack of communications they now faced was not a hinderence in the slightest, for the stations had been designed to work without guidance. That was why they all carried cloaking devices.

Mere minutes after the communications jam was put in place, the stations vanished. All according to preset emergency procedures.

"EMPRESS has has fired successfully, sir." Dxun smiled and looked out across the opposing fleet. One after another, the dozen invisible stations fired. One EMPRESS station alone would take several shots to disable an enemy starship, but Ord Mantell had twelve in her orbit.

One by one they were unleashed on the oncoming fleet. TIE Devils, their computers unable to withstand the pressure, were severed from their motherships and spun out of control. Larger ships, felt systems failing as the waves hit them in succession.

Essential systems, weapons controls, communications, artificial gravity, began to short out. On some of the more unfortunate vessels life support began to fail.

And even now the EMPRESS would be altering course and recharing, preparing for another wave.

The ESD shuttered only slightly, and the lights flashed briefly, but the sight through the foreword view port suggested something much more than a system glitch.

“What the frell was that?!?” Hyfe demanded as the green pulses that had smashed into the Eclipse passed by.

“I… don’t know, sir.” Captain Essian replied, dumbfounded.

“Well you had better figure it out! FAST!” the Grand Admiral demanded. In all his days… he had never seen anything like that.

The real problem came when he glanced at his BAC visualization display.

“Where in the hell…” Hyfe stammered. “What happened to our TIE Devils!?”

“I’m sorry, sir… I don’t know. They… they appear to be gone, sir.”

Hyfe didn’t waste his energy yelling anymore. He knew it would do no good. After all, he could not place blame on Captain Essian.

He hurriedly punched buttons on his tactical command console, scrolling through options, various holographic displays flashing on and off, one to the next, until he came to the passive sensor scanning information he was looking for.

Just then, the Captain interposed: “Sir, the fighters are still there! They’ve just been taken off line, sir. Every single one of them…”

“Admiral, sir?” a voice interjected, quickly yet cautiously.

Commander Hayt.

The Admiral looked to him and nodded.

“If I may, sir. I believe I may know what this is. I’ve heard rumors of a new defensive system... a cloaked station of some kind that employs extremely powerful EMP pulses that temporarily short out electronic systems on enemy war craft, sir. Though I had no idea it was a Galactic Defense Initiative tech… I didn't even know if such a system really existed... Untill now, sir.”

The Admiral’s eyes narrowed in concern. A cloaked defensive platform... armed to the teeth with a superweapon EMP device?

The Admiral glowered at the deck, then looked up. “What is the fleets status, Captain?”

“We’ve suffered very little damage, ourselves, Admiral, but the fleets damage is far more extensive. All fighters launched, as you know, have gone offline for an indefinite amount of time. Some of support craft have suffered minor system failures, but nothing detrimental to their battle readiness. All ships a kilometer and above are holding fine sir, with minor shield loss. I'll note, additionally, sir, that the craft in the far rear suffered very little damage, as the EMP blast had been blocked almost entirely by the numerous craft in front of them.”

Grand Admiral Hyfe looked satisfied. They were fine for now… but he knew they couldn’t stand against a constant barrage of those blasts for long.

“Captain,” he spat suddenly. “Move all Reign-Class Star Destroyers to the fore, full speed. Have their legions break formation and clear a path. Quickly.”

“Aye sir,” Essian replied without hesitation. He didn’t yet understand the order, but he didn’t have to. His job was to follow orders, not analyze them, as the Grand Admiral seemed so fond of reminding him.

“Emergency message to Battle Group V:” Hyfe began. “Send in the wolf pack.”

“Message sent, sir. ETA 3.6 minutes.”

Hyfe nodded impatiently, rubbed his jaw.

“Move abolishers up to join the main fleet formation. Drop pickets to our rear. Keep them online for premature hyperspace terminus. I want them pulling shrouds out of hyperspace 2 clicks behind the fleet. Standard emergency formation AA-6.” The Admiral paused, sighed. “Tell them to look it up if they don’t know the procedure.”

“Right away, sir.”

“Sir!” Essian shouted. “The TIE Devils!”

Hyfe’s gaze flashed to his tactical console. “BAC holocams: maximum magnification!”

Suddenly a visual monitor came to life, showing the thousands of TIE Devils that had gone offline, still moving towards the planet due to space vacuums lack of friction. But the interesting note to this was that while most of the fighters were heading uninterrupted towards their imminent end, a handful of the small craft were impacting some foreign object or objects, smashing into bright clouds of destruction… debris scattering and throwing space garbage every which way. Several dozen fighters, in all, impacted what appeared now to be 2 seperate animate objects in space. Billowing clouds of exhaust and flame were originating from some unseen, and unlucky victim.

And then suddenly, the Devils began to come back to life. The EMP effects had at last worn off. A large number of the fighters immediately swung about 180 degrees and began to head back towards their motherships, the Attack-Class Carrier Spheres. About a third of the craft, however, being well out of effective range of the ACSs, continued plummeting towards the planet, unable to receive operating signals from their control craft. Soon, several hundred TIE Devils found themselves smashing uselessly against the gencore planetary shield defending Ord Mantell.

By this time, however, two points in space were flaming or sparking or leaking something…. Hyfe didn’t know what it was, but he knew they were damaged. And he knew they must be the mysterious cloaked defensive systems.”

“Order remaining deployed fighters to attack those targets!”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Immediately, Hyfe’s BAC showed the agile fighters swinging about, flashing towards the damaged stations in a huge swarm, and then let loose with laser fire.

One of the EMPRESS systems, its location clearly having been compromised, dropped its cloak, and the 250 meter craft became fully visibile. It immediately opened fire with its arsenal of weaponry that would have, in any other case, been indisputably lethal. But against the huge swarm of tiny fighters, its weapons were practically useless.

Explosions along the hull of the first defensive station, the one currently under assault by the Devils, let the Admiral know that weapons emplacements were being quickly and systematically destroyed.

He didn’t know how much damage these things could sustain and still fire their powerful EMP blast, but he knew the Devils would not relent until their target was destroyed.

All of this had happened in a matter of two minutes or so.

Hyfe looked away from the BAC, letting the Devils do their job. He had many other things to concentrate on.

He realized now that he was standing. For how long?

Probably since the EMP blast. He took a seat in his command chair once more, glancing to the BAC display. The jumble of green blips that represented the Imperial fleet was uninterpretable. He had the computer magnify x3. Immediately the small blips representing the fleets Reigns were visible, moving quickly through the mass of other craft up to the front of the legion organization.

Hyfe stared out the view port at the growing sphere of Ord Mantell, his mind working in overtime.

“Pull the fleet in to tight formation Captain,” Hyfe ordered. “I want us packed like a bunch of nerfs. Not a meter is to be wasted. Width of 16 kilometers max. Pull all support craft into a tight line at the rear.”

“Yes, sir,” the Captain replied.

“Are the Reigns in position yet?”

“Aye, sir. They are forming up now.”

“Good. Order them to position themselves for maximum coverage and protection of the rest of the fleet, but so that they can continue to move towards the planet.”

The Captain couldn’t help but pause for the briefest moment. “Yes, sir…”

“They are our shield, Captain.”

“Shield, sir?”

“That’s correct,” the Admiral began. “The Ionilium Plating aboard the Reigns should offer excellent protection against this type of weapon. The armor consists of Frasium, which is the element with the highest mass to hold many of the Ionized electrons in its valence. This element has been proven to hold Ions from the Ion Cannons of many ships. The armor has a special feature in that it has many circuits and many wires traveling to 2 large cache barrels near the main and foremost power generator. The energy absorbed from the Ionilium is transferred first into energy modulators and fed into the cache barrels for later use.”

“I see, sir,” the Captain said, smiling. Only now did he remember who the primary designer of the Reign-Class Star Destroyer was… the Grand Admiral himself. “So the fleet is packed together behind the reigns in order to maximize the protection they offer.”

Hyfe nodded.

“And the shrouds, sir?”

“You shall see, Captain,” The Admiral remarked good-humoredly. “ETA?”

“Uh… 3 seconds ago, sir. They are requesting orders, sir.”

Hyfe smiled.

Admiral Etherway tilted his head forcefully to either side, loosening and cracking the tightened muscles that strained in his neck. He blew out a sigh as the starship lingered lazily across open space. The beautiful figure - cosmetically modified to look almost exactly like Darth Vader's flagship, the Executor - was flanked by its small scouting escort as it began to move ever closer to the moon of Ord Mantell, passing by the imminent battle that was about to begin.

Commander Stark at his side had his hands folded at the small of his back. He watched everything intently, his eyes never staying in a single spot for long. He was an asset to be revered aboard any Star Destroyer not for his ability to lead - that was Etherway's job - but rather to come up with strategies and tactics that would otherwise be totally overlooked.

Stark's eyes suddenly went wide with intuition.

"We're going to be-," he was cut off suddenly as the TIE Defenders who were pulling up a tight patrol began to spin eradically out of control before a wash of blackness hit the ship, then disappeared. Everything was back to normal a few seconds later aboard the Mithril Katana, but the Defenders were still stuck in their tight spin.

"What's going on?" Etherway demanded, his against the transparisteel viewport as he watched his pilot spin helplessly.

Stark sighed, knowing this to be the famed EMPRESS systems. Many many hours had been devoted to studying the sattelite defenses, to trying to exploit weaknesses and ways to slip in and destroy the things, to resist their powerful blasts.

The only solution they'd found thus far was totally refitting every ship in the fleet. They would have to go into the hull of just about every ship and replace it with a firm rubber hold, that would take years, and in a war time situation they didn't have time to pull back ships for such a thing.

"That is EMPRESS sir," Stark said with a resigned sigh. Two of the TIEs crashed into each other and exploded, the remaining four flew well beyond the small fleet. "Those fighters are beyond our help."

Behind the Katana one of the Strike Cruisers began to falter, slowing down from the rest of the fleet.

"By the Force..." Etherway muttered as the ship tried desperately to realign.

"Their sysystems will be back online soon, we just need to be near them at this point in time, we need to fend off enemy attacks until they get their shields back online," Stark said hastily, having seen EMP blasts before.

The Battle of Sluis Van had been thought of as an all out EMP war, it had gone all and about as easily as one might send out radio transmissions.

It was hell during those kinds of wars.

Thousands died needlessly if the EMPs were in the wrong hands. The enemy would simply move in and pelt them, destroy them there and then, killing them like bugs trapped in filament.

It was disgusting.

"We can take at least six more blasts before going down, but our escorts won't be as lucky," Stark commented. As he spoke one of the several sattelites' cloaks dropped, and the Empire's forces caused seething explosions all throughout the craft until it simply blew in on itself.

"Should we call in reinforcemenst?" Etherway asked, trusting his friend's opinion.

"Not yet...we have to clear a hole for them first. I'm glad we hit them with a small force first now..." a sudden grin came to his face then. "Actually..."

He grabbed a datapad from his belt and went to work furiously on it. After a few moments, he handed it back to the admiral.

"Get these in here fast."

When the orders were relayed it was noted that the ETA on their arrival would be five and a half minutes thanks to the close stationing of troops and ships before the battle.

"We'll hold those @#%$ off yet. Keep the fighters close and don't launch any more as of yet."