In a moment things can change; change so much that you wouldn't be able to recognize the situation if you were coming from 5 minutes in the past to the present time. Cortex Sinar had experienced 2 such occurences in his life- the first occuring early in his teenage years, when he watched his father and mother get murdered in front of him and his sister dragged off into a slavers ship. It had awoke a fire deep within Cortex, providing the fuel for his crusade against humans, his crusade against the most overbearing, opressive race in exsistance. His hate group, his progressive organization the Advanced Guard had helped keep the fire alive, providing him with an outlett to continue feeding his burning desire to ruin the human race.

The second had been during he Advanced Guard uprising. Helped discreitly by the Bothan government, the members of Cortex's group had been well armed, and had the complete element of surprise. All across the habitable regions of Ryloth, Advanced Guard members had fanned out, weapons at the ready, especially concentrated around areas of Ryloth's actual government and the corporate Hq of Ryloth Rising Inc . They had made sure everything was prepared, passed out thermal detanators, blaster rifles, and prepared teams to quickly set up the E-Web repeating blasters they had been given. Everything had been planned down to the exact second, and at precisely midday at the equator of Ryloth, it began.

With a violent explosion of blaster fire, it had begun. The Advanced Guard member had stormed the government offices, courts, corporate buildings, armories, comm relays and hanger bays. It had been quick, precise and relativly bloodless. In an amazing coup de tat, no collateral damage was recorded, and the only deaths were recorded by members of the "opposition", government officals and corporate intrests, who in Cortex's opinion were out only for themselves, and their human overlords. As the revolution subsided Cortex went on the planetwide holonet and adressed the planet.

He told them of what was happening, and what was to happen. He announced Ryloth was free of its opressors, and announced that they had become the first planet to be accepted into membership of the Diversity Alliance . He announced that all human assest on Ryloth were being seized, and would be subsequently distributed to the Twi'lek population. He told them that the galaxy was changing- the aliens who were oppressed by Humanity would rise up, and free themselves of this terrible yoke. The celebration had been spontaneious but tremendous, as the Twi'lek people sensed that they were taking part in a great moment in galactic history.

It was one of those moments when you would not have recognized the situation if you were from 5 minutes in the past. It was a great begginning, but only that. For Cortex knew that there would be many more instances like the one on Ryloth, that would lead to the ultimate victory, and unseating of humanity from its position of power....

Cortex had celebrated his fair share after his revolution, but while much of his rank and file continued to protracted festival for a day or so, Cortex realized that his position was precarious, and celebrating was not in order. Ryloth was completly devoid of a defense fleet, had no planetary sheild or turbolaser network and his army numbered at the most 1000 loyal followers with no weapons heavier than some thermal detanators and a few E-Web repeaters. Any group in the galaxy, even the most pathetic pirate outfit could easily come and plunder Ryloth and nearly snuff out, unintentionally, the flame of change in the galaxy. He could not after so much hard work allow the Diversity Alliance to fail- his big break had come and he was not about to allow this once in a lifetime oppurtunity to slip away.

One of his first acts as ruler of Ryloth was to use a portion of his newly aqquired treasury to send a courier to the neutral shipyards of Fondor (they were neutral since the fall of the New Imperial Order) to purchase a pair of Class 1000 Cruisers to act as defensive and patrol vessels over Ryloth. At 300 meters, they were small, but relativly well armed, and definatly better than nothing. Still they had a major problem with them, which was basically the fact that they were built by human laborers, by a human contractor over a human world. This was to Cortex, unaaceptable, it seemed like feeding the enemy whom he was trying to kill. Unfortunatly their weren't many options; the major shipyard worlds of the galaxy were almost all human: Kuat, Fondor, Corellia, Bilbringi, Tholatin- and a good majority were under the control of the Empire- the most opressive human regime in exsistance. What other options did he have: the Bothans- but he couldn't get them directly implicated, the Mon Calimari- but they had too many human allies to work too cooperativly with the DA.

Then it came to him, who would provide the much needed war material, the ships which would turn the tide against the human opressors and carry freedom to the alien species of the galaxy. Perfectly located, and well suited to his alliance, the residents of the Roche asteroid feilds would be the perfect shipbuilders fro the Diversity Alliance. He need to see the Verpine...

"I still don't see why you have to do this, I mean I know this is important...."

Cortex strained to concentrate on the dataapad he was looking over; while the annoying, piercing voice of Cleivge Hintona reverberated through-out the cavern that was Cortex office. This finacial report was of vital importance, especially because it dealt with the purchase of the 2 Class 1000 Cruisers from Fondor, and the feasibility of purchasing more ships from independent contractors, matters critical to the growth and survival of the Diversity Alliance.

".... you could just send a representative, an Advanced guard member, or a diplomat, or even me- send me for..."

Cortex had plenty of practice blocking out outside noises and disturbances, skills of which a public figure like himself could not do without. His work was of vital importance (the Class-1000 cruisers were a good value for their price and would be good for patrol and system defense until larger ships could be obtained) and he should have been able to easily ignore his friend and confident, except for one nagging problem- he had a point. In fact, Cleivge’s position, and the argument he had that supported his point was so valid that it was the same argument the Cortex himself used to justify his decision, which of course made it very difficult to persuade Clievge the reason for his position.

“…. it just doesn’t make any sense, what does it have to be you personally…”

Cleivge was trying to convince Cortex that his planned personal visit to the Roche asteroid fields was unnecessary and possible dangerous and threatening to the stability of the Diversity Alliance. Cleivge thought that such a trip could possibly lead to the collapse of the Diversity Alliance, because without Cortex’s leadership the small and poorly armed Advanced Guard who made up the security forces and much of the government could make mistakes that might cause unrest; and then not have a strong personality to deal with any resulting tension. He felt that without Cortex the population of Ryloth’s currently glowing support was cease and the entire concept of the Diversity Alliance would crack, crumble and be forever lost into the pathetic obscurity of Ryloth’s planetary history. Cleivge was convinced that the job could be done by someone less important than Cortex, allowing time for the Diversity Alliance to stabilize, cool dow and settle in on Ryloth. Cleivge assumed their was a great deal of time for which this period could take place in- but Cortex knew he was wrong. Planets became aligned and out of reach for the alliance, and the human oppressors grew stronger with each passing day- to become a force to be reckoned with the Diversity Alliance would have to be a prolific, fast paced organization, not a stagnate, cumbersome one which could get bogged down with caution. No- daring was needed, bravery and cunning to unite the varied peoples of the galaxy together for a common cause among there many differences. It woul…

“Well- are you just going to sit their and ignore me? Have I lost the respect we supposedly share and no longer merit a response?”

Cortex suddenly realized his thought on the matter had been as effective as any technique in blocking out his friend’s long winded and repetitive argument. Judging from the annoyance and frustration he detected in Cleivge’s voice, as well as the subtle twitching of his lekku that he had asked for Cortex’s opinion on the matter. Well he was about to get it.

“Cleivge, listen to me, I know you have the Gaurds… (he started to say the name of his old group in place of the newly formed Alliance) I mean Alliance best interests at heart, but you must understand my reasoning. We must expand- our success hinges upon it. We must solidify our base and grow if we wish to accomplish our mission…”

He saw Cleivge about to but in but he continued in perfect syntax, allowing no chance of interruptions.

“You think that I alone hold the weigh of the Alliance on my back, but you also know that this is not true, for if it was then I would be doomed to failure from the start. There are many capable members of the Guards (he went back to the old name barley realizing it till several words later) who can hold the fort well enough while I’m away.”

Once again Cleivge started to speak, his lekku moving as he began a rebuttal, but Cortex continued on.

“I know I know, you think they could deal with the Verpine just as well as I could- but that is not true. You see Cleivge, although Ryloth may be the spiritual and emotional home of this group, it is not the physical. Ryloth does not contain the necessary elements to form the backbone of our group, and while we shall play a key role in its leadership, its manpower and it strategy, we must first obtain the essential facilites for which such manpower is used and such strategies are planned.”

He could tell Cleivge was not convinced and so he decided to be brutally honest.

“Cleivge, let me put it this way- I would rather me go to Roche and recruit the Verpine, in the process letting Ryloth fall to the humans, than stay away from Roche and let Ryloth survive untouched for a year.”

It was then Cleivge finally began to understand, and his lekku showed Cortex that. Sometimes it seemed, that smoothing over your option was not the best way of expressing it, though most career politicians would tell you otherwise. There was a silence, and then Cleivge spoke.

“I’d like to accompany you then, when you go.”

Cortex was about to say Cleivge was need here, but realized the folley fo such an argument, and so instead he smiled and nodded his head.

“Of course Cleivge, I wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact you can make yourself useful now by preparing our things, our Class-1000 cruisers are due in later today or tomorrow, and we must be ready to leave as soon as the first one arrives- I want this trip to be quick, effective and hopefully, not memorable at all.”

Cleivge nodded.

“I’ll get on it right away Cortex, I must go.”

He turned and left Cortex’s office, leaving Cortex to the quiet peace of the cavern/office. He allowed the silence to absorb him, then set about finishing his anylazsis of the funds and Fondor’s prices for Class-1000 cruisers….

The arrival of the Class 1000 cruisers to Ryloth was played up into quite a spectacal, at t direction of several public relations savvy members of the Advanced Gaurd decided that it would be great way of showing progress almost immediatly. They're arrival had produced good spaceflight photos of the 300 meter craft, and all across the habitable regions of Ryloth Advanced Guard members had touted their prowess in battle, aweing the younger Twi'lek generation with cross sections, weapon technical data and datacards to fill out to apply for the new Diversity Alliance Navy. The PR Twi'lek's made a point of saying that although the ships would be offically given number designations, the crews and their captains could vote on name for the vessel to become their call sign in battle. The best names immediatly being debated by enthusaistic youngsters included "The Destructacon" and "Imploder". They gave appraising speeches, talking about the effectivness of the cruisers for their size, and their relativly powerful armament, but especially honing in on that fact that because they were inexpensive that more would be on their way. This hit home very well- more ships meant a better defense as well as an improved economy in several ways, both from direct jobs relating to crewing the vessels, but also ground based industries in spare parts and matinence, as well as greater protections for ryl spice shipments that were plauged by pirate groups operating in the sector.

All of this was well and good, improving morale and energizing the public, bringing them more and more of them more activly onto the side of the Diversity Alliance. However to Cortex Sinar, it was all just a sideshow- Ryloth could become 100 percent loyal to Diversity Alliance- it would matter little if Ryloth was a target of a larger group- to Cortex his trip to Roche was of the upmost importance, and he would need to requistion a Class 1000 cruiser to make the journey. He seemed to be one of the only members of the Advanced Guard that truly saw how important the trip would be- most were to caught up in the founding of the Alliance and the take over of Ryloth to see that that sucess was merley a first babystep, nothing more. Witout further support the Diversity Alliance would collapse, and be nothing more than a footnote in galactic history. Cortex however could see beyond that and knew that the sucess of his mission to Roche was paramount in importance, and Cortex was not about to allow failure in his alliance.

"Cortex, our transport shuttle is waiting."

Cleivge Hintona, the reluctant confidant, had appeared in Cortex's doorway.

"Your luggage has already been transported."

Cortex nodded, and stood up, ready to leave as soon as possible. Cortex knew time was of the essence- and had been ready for quite some time to leave, awaiting only his transport.

"Let us depart then..."

And so began the trip that would set the stage for the furute of the Diversity Alliance...

"Welcome..." there was a slight pause. It was still unclear what Cortex Sinar's title was supposed to be- and even he wasn't quite sure what his offical title would be. Still the captain of the DA-001 , more interestingly known as the Fire was looking quite uncomfortable, and so Cortex supplied a title.

"Chairman- just chairman." He said quietly, and saw the captain's lekku move ina relieved fashion.

"Chairman Sinar to the Fire ."

Cortex inquired why the Fire was chosen as the ships nickname, and the Captain had a good time explaining about the Fire and its siter ship, which had been metaphorically called the Ice . The captain told Cortex and his entoruage about how since the ships were the first in Ryloth's independent defense force they were named to mirror the planet's enviroment, and nothing was more accuratly descriptive than Fire and Ice.

The Fire had been selected as Cortex's courier ship by a simple numeical order- the Fire was numbered before the Ice on the Diversity Alliance naval manifest being drawn up in an cave that was transforming itself into the Alliance's naval command center. The Ice had been designated to stay behind at Ryloth for system patrol and defense.

Finally after quite a bit of conversation the captain finally said, "Now I'll have someone show you to your quarters." Cortex was ready for the journey to begin and thus gave the captain a smile, and maintained the aura of enthusasism as a crewman showed him and his group their quarters a midships in the 300 meter cruisers body. The tension of waiting seemed finally to be over, and Cortex was now relaxed.

He bgean settling in for the hyperspace trip which, although not a marathon, would be lengthy. Still, the usual hassle of unpacking and prepaing his quarters was almost a relief for him. He felt as if he was going on vacation- though he knew that this was quite a bit more important than anything as trival as a vacation. As he lay down on the bunk in his quarters a familar voice came over the ships intercomm. It was the ships captain, announcing that the vessel was preparing to enter hyperspace. Cortex smiled, ready to decide his and his alliance's fate....

35 Hours Later, Roche System

The hyperspace trip had been uneventful, like almost every such trip Cortex had ever taken, and in comparision to what was coming up with the Verpine was actually quite boring. Cortex knew how much was riding on his successful negotations with the intellegent insect race. The crew of the Fire had been most accomidating, treating Cortex and Cleivge to full, ship wide tours, time in the ships simulators and a luscious meal of real food from the ships exstensive stores. (it was a patrol vessel and thus was designed to be able to stay cruising for a great lenght of time without resupply) Cortex had spent some time strategizing, staring out at the swirling blue of hyperspace, and contemplating what was going on.

He was begginning to think that he might be over estimating the worth of the Verpine to the Alliance- they might be important but they were not as essential as he kept making them out to be. In retrospect his worries and qualms were probably all uneccessary- the chances that the Diversity Alliance would be perceived as threat; no merely even known to exsist by a major galactic power was unlikey. His worrying was for naught; Roche was important, but not nearly as critical as he was making it out.

"Mr. Chairman come look at this."

The Fire's approach was slow and non threataning, as to not alarm the Verpine. Still the sheilds and turbolaser batteries were charged to full power, for an asteroid field was quite a dangerous place for any ship to be travelling, and in the Roche asteroid field, where planetoids that were as big as the Fire or larger, the threat of being crushed was verl real.

Cortex walked over to the Fire's Captain who had bidd him ove to the large bridge viewport. Two shining metalic asteroids were hurtling toward each other at breakneck speeds.

"There's an impromptu pool going on between the sensor and weapons crews- both have been tracking these two for about 5 minutes."

Cortex allowed himself a little chuckle- the atmosphere on the ship allowing him to be informal. Betting on a pair of asteroids was not something you got to see everyday.

"So hows it work- this pool I mean."

The captain gave Cortex and apprasing look and said,

"Well sir, whichever asteroid destroys or dislodges the other from its path is the 'winner'. If they are both destroyed or both change directions its a draw."

Cortex's face narrowed, a look of intrest on his face.

"Well isn't it obvious what will happen- I mean with your sensors you can easily tell which asteroid is larger and which one has a higher velocity. It really simple math, maybe add a little geometry and it all figured out."

It was the captain's turn to smile.

"Sir, things are never what they appear. Just because one rock is larger or traveling faster does not mean its a sure victory- you have to understand that a pure metal asteroid is very uncommon, and although many asteroid have a metallic covering, their inards are tough but relativly brittle rock. The large the asteroid, the lower the chance its pure metal. Plus you have to understand that some asteroids are more/less stable than others, with structral flaws and other imperfections, less so on a pure metal asteroid but still a chance. No sir, all the math in the galaxy can't tell you which of those two is destined to survive the collision."

Cortex let this sink in and stared outthe bridge viewport at the asteroids who were careening at each other, growing in size as the grew closer to the Fire . Cortex began to see that although both appeared to be completly metallic, one was notciable larger than the other, though not by a large margin. The Fire's central computer suddenly began giving a countdown, with a mix of asteroid stats. (Amaer realized this was ot authorized when the ship's commander whirled around to see who had tampered with the the computer- but no one seemed to be out of place, so he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the viewport.)

The computer told the crew that the asteroid were moving at the same approximate speeds, the larger one moving marginally slower, and were on a direct head on collision course. The countdown began in earnest, and the crew began a furry of l;ast minute enrties and exits from the pool, along with side bets- quite undisciplined, but their were no reprimands. And then the final countdown began:

6....5....4....3....2.....1....

The explosion was some distance from the ship, but still a sight to see. The kinetic energy involved had created quite an explosion, and a huge cloud of sparks and dust. The crew waited with baited breathe, as a shockwave began carrying the remnants of the loser away, to see which asteroid had emerged the victor. Then quite suddenly, moving considerable slower, but still in a straight path was the smaller asteroid.

A combination of cheers and boos coursed across the bridge, as credit chips and pay slips changed hands ina furry of activity. Cortex smiled as he waited the metallic asteroid fly on, amid quite a bueatiful shockwave that was hitting the Fire's sheilds and illuminateing for a second before dissapaiting. He found the situation quite parallel to his own, and saw the asteroid as his future- flying staright on....

M<eanwhile the captain began to restore order, and the bridge returnd to a murmur of conversation. The captain jarred Cortex from his thoughts with a message.

"Time to go- we're being hailed by a Verpine collective..."

To get to the Verpine collective which had hailed the ship, the Fire had manuever into the thick of the dense Roche asteroid feild; an excurtiatingly difficult manuever for the 300 meter Class 1000 cruisers. The ship's sheilds were powered up to full, both partical and enegry, and its weapons and tractor beams were in use almost constantly, fending off the chunks of rocks which came to close to the patrol vessel. Still, even at full vigilance, no measures could completly protect the cruiser from the asteroids, and dull thuds and crashes signaled collisions and impacts. Most of the collisions were insiginficant, but if any of the planetoids punctured the Fire's hull, the damage would be significant, and the loss of life great.

Of course the Fire itself would not be carrying Cortex and his diplomatic team to the Verpine- the danger of asteroid impacts was too high on such a large target. A shuttle had been prepared, and was loaded, waiting only for a free path in the field to launch. Onboard Amaer and several of his Advanced Guard members who would act as both bodyguards and diplomatic assistants. All waiting, the natural defense of the Roche asteroid feild sheilding the Verpine from both hostiles and friendlies.

A few more minutes won't make much of a difference, time is not quite that fickle.

An intercomm suddenly flickered to life in the shuttle. It was the voice of the pilot, advising Cortex the rest of the passengers on the shuttle to hold on, they were lifting off. Cortex made sure his restraints were fastened, and waited, assuming the shuttle crew was proficent enough with their skill to get the shuttle safley to the Verpine planetoid which had hailed them. All their was left to do was wait...

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Dealings with the Verpine were surprisingly easy, made so by the uniquness of the Verpine themselves. An insectoid race, the Verpine had envolved to a point where only intellegence members of their species were born, making their entire race sentient beings, making them a unique insetc species. Their physiology allowed for the most effective form of direct democracy ever engineered in the galaxy- they could communicate via radio waves produced in their that could be heard by other Verpine at up radi up 100 kilometers, a skill which allowed every member of a collective a say in every major decision, and made any Verpine the virtual leader of its collective.

When Cortex had told the Verpine greeting party he wished for diplomatic talks the Verpine party had waited a moment, to poll their clan/collective. Then they had led Cortex and his guards/aides to a conference chamber not far from th docking bay, ready to listen immeidatly, with almost no preparation or delay.

Very efficent.....

"...... And you have to understand that they are leeches- bloodsucking parasites who use aliens who are kind and are trying to nurture a relationship- and when those aliens are no longer useful they don't compensate them for their past endeavors! NO they take them and enslave them, and corrupt their homeworld, locking them into eternal servitude: profitting from the fruits of their labor while the workers themselves starve and sucummb to common ailments, which usually are not fatal, but if left to their own devices will ecome scourges. The humans sit by and laugh at their suffering, while the grow rich and powerful, fueling their war machines and luxury homes all on the backs of the innocent, who wished for nothing but fellowship, and partnerships for the betterment of all...."

Cortex was laying on the rhetoric hard, his firey speech cascading over the Verpine represenatives, setting the stage for his final manuever. He continued along on his cries of woe and destruction, an example he could have taken from any number of alien species under the opresssion of humans, be they in the Corporate Sector, the Empire; anywhere. The Verpine however did not share his passion for anti-humans, even if they felt some animosity against that species. Still, Cortex had a trump card which he could play when he felt it was needed. He let the rant continue for a few minutes, then drew it to a close. He paused, catching his breathe, then come in for his killing stroke.

"You think to yourselves- how does this apply to us- how does this apply to the Verpine. I will tell you, its quite simple. According to my history lessons, it was a Verpine collective which hepled Admiral Ackbar design the B-Wing fighter, correct. It was a New Republic who said they would support Roche Engineering with government contracts, and pass out royalties on your B-Wing which you owe 50 percent of the design, or should have.Tell me, where is the New Republic Defense forces to gaurd Roche? Where are there royalties which you were promised? Where is everything you were promised, if only you helped the New Republic? I don't see it- and I know none if it exsists. You were taken, had, blatantly lied to by the human diplomats who worked for the human leaders of a HUMAN government. The New Republic claimed it would listen to all points of view- but they lied- the New Republic was all about getting alien races to work for the humans in their intergalactic power strugg;e over who would RULE the aleins of this galaxy. The New Republic was a facade- but the Diversity Alliance is different. We have no intention of a central overlording government- the alliance is a loose confederacy, united with one goal, one purpose- the overthrow of the human authorities which opress the alien's of this galaxy. Our alliance will fill your shipyards with orders, we will send fleets to protect you, our payments will be swift and in full. We wish only for you membership, so that we may quite dealing with human vendors and have you build us our grand fleets. We will not force, but we do implore- think of the opressed races of the galaxy- by improving your position, you improve the Alliances position and therefore improve their position....."

It continued for another minute or so, but by then Cortex realized he had the Verpine hooked. He had said the right things, pushed the right buttons, and assured the cooperation of one of the galaxy's most proficent races- and he was quite proud. After he finised speak the Verpine thanked him, and said they must poll their collective.

The left the room for about 15 minutes, and then returned, amazing Cortex how quickly decisions of great magnitude could be made with the Verpine ability of direct democracy. The Verpine then told Cortex the words he had been waiting to hear. They said that their collective was ready and willing to join the alliance, but that the remained of the Verpine people should also be given a chance to weigh in on the matter, and listen to Cortex's speech. Cortex nodded, knowing that with a just a few repeat performances he would have the Verpine in the Diversity Alliance, and the alliances future would be set. A path of resistance would be laid out, and the humans would cower in fear as his power multiplied- the would pay for their sins and quake in their boots at the sound of the Diversity Alliance.

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In the end Cortex made 11 more speeches, to large and powerful Verpine clans/collectives. Each one voted, and each one agreed with the first- they would petition the Diversity Alliance for membership. Cortex had been elated, and had enthusiasticlly began sprouting production figures and numbers and Cleivge Hintona on the shuttle ride out of the asteroid field, championing the Verpine's industrail prowess. Not even a small collision with an asteroid could dampen his spirits on the ride, and when they finally reached the Fire his face still had yet to drop its warming friendly, happy smile. He retired to his quarters, and lay on his bed, pleased with his success, realizing he was living his childhood dream....

The Verpine were recruited, and Roche secured. The Diversitty Alliances ranks contnued to swell, and their power grew by leaps and bounds.....