To many of the senior officers throughout the whole of the Empire, ruthless methods of torture and cold inhumanity were in bad taste, to officers of the Guard they were unanimously alien. To the leader of the Imperial Inquisitoriate, they were a day’s work. Seated in one of the three chairs arrayed in a semi-circle near one of the three inward slanted windows, the Viscount Ierin del Forza enjoyed a thin tabocca-staff. As one might expect of a Corellian aristocrat, they were not the kind an ordinary citizen might purchase at a newsstand or fueling station – to most of the citizens of Corsucant, one pack came close to exceeding a month’s pay.


Desaria would doubtless die before affording me the title of gentleman. Del Forza inhaled sharply: thumb and forefinger wrapped around the thin cylinder as he removed it from between full lips. He had long been forced to work with the newly promoted Grand Admiral and held no feelings for him, though he could admit – to himself, at least – he considerably enjoyed taunting the quintessential nobleman. The Viscount leaned back into the warm embrace of the Corinthian-leather padded chair, secure in the knowledge that if his Kuati nemesis learned of his Hutt-related dealings, he would face a painful elimination.


The good Grand Admiral, he contented himself to think, would be far too preoccupied by the stiff resistance of the native forces to pay any heed to the facts that swirled about him. Del Forza also counted on the abilities of Major Meicomp. Little did his newest minion know that the Inquisitor had taken great pains to track down his daughter and wife on Raltiir and, should he fail or betray him, they would be put through some…unpleasantness.


Grand Admiral Desaria had proven true to his pattern of military professionalism, choosing Toydaria as the target of his next assault. The politically minded officers had suggested in a flurry of memoranda that Da Soocha V be brought under his guns – he had dismissed them out of hand, pointing out to Grand Marshal Kaine who supported him that despite its historical significance as a former Rebel base, the world held little strategic value and he would not sacrifice the momentum of his advance for a trophy conquest. The Viscount del Forza moved his tabocca-holding fingers to his right brow and made a loose salute in the direction of the horizon, silently giving praise where due.


While Desaria moves off to deal with the resistance Toydaria has to offer, the Major can finish his work on Saki. Things are proceeding as planned.


A cursory glance at his wrist chrono lead to rapid extinguishing of the tabocca-staff – the High Inquisitor was running late. The Emperor did not like to be kept waiting. Another report to His Majesty…

Reign-class Star Destroyer Suvarov
C-plus Four Hours…


“ I trust your trip up was uneventful?”


“ Of course, Telan - - you needn’t have sent your shuttle though; I have my own.”


Grand Admiral Desaria smiled widely and the two shook hands in the brightly illuminated bow launch bay. Craning his neck, Desaria looked around at the shuttles and transports that dotted the recessed berths and the racks above. “ But my dear Marshal – I don’t have room for yours! And I doubt you could afford my parking fees.”


Marshal Murat had been likened to a children’s fable on his homeworld of Telti, though it was not without a great deal of respect – he had risen higher in the Imperial Army than had any resident of the Inner Rim world before him. As a joke, the large gentleman wore the costume of his nickname to a ball on Coruscant and not a soul in the building could stop from laughing the whole evening. Desaria remember it immediately when he heard a jovial bellow work its way from Murat’s lungs and resonate through the landing bay.


The two man began striding aft, the Army officer having removed the breast-plate all officers wore in the field. “ You did not bring me here to sample the ambiance of your flagship, Admiral.”


“ Indeed – you have heard of my plans to drive on to Toydaria?”


“ I have,” Murat replied, saluting a squad of stormtroopers making a round about the bay’s platform. “ We still have three cities that have not surrendered on Saki. I have planned simultaneous assaults on two of them then a link up and assault on the third but that will take two days to assemble and another week to complete.”


“ I would not be as callus as to remove your naval support especially since this entire sector is crawling with pirates and brigands. I am leaving III Squadron here to patrol – I expect V Squadron in the next two days. That is composed of ships you will find most useful for planetary operations. But you know the quicker we reduce the fortified worlds here the less operational assets our enemies will have to strike from.”


Nodding as he thought, Murat pursed his lips. “ Yes, but here we do not deal with a single enemy per se. On Toydaria, there is a planetary governor but he answers to the Hutts. The city-leaders on Saki are in place only to make sure the appropriate tribute and protection credits are amassed for them. You will begin to run into some rather well-armed forces being paid very well by the Hutts – they wont as easily as others expect. We have already encountered some rather stubborn resistance down there, a group of infantryman aided by some Hullooth-class Battledroids which only the GDI ever used.”


“ Oh I know – but the more garrisons we are able to put in place the quicker law and order will be established. Marshal – I depart for Toydaria in six hours. I have re-embarked a regiment of the Guard – the rest I trust you will put to good use. Glorious days ahead, my friend. I will see you on my return.”


“ Good luck, Admiral. Try to leave some for the Army.”

The Ministry of Colonial Affairs had dispatched Declaration of Annexation to every world in Hutt Space thought few had heeded the demands in the documents themselves such as the rending useless of all planetary weaponry and the recall to garrisons of all regular armed services personnel. Grand Admiral Desaria knew the documents by heart and sincerely hoped they would be obeyed by the time he reached Toydaria, though he harbored no illusions about the reality of the matter: even if the documents were received by whatever form planetary government took that day, no one would comply without fire raining from above.


Intelligence reports on Toydaria had been sketchy at best: that is to say they contained the exact encyclopedic specifications on geography and climate. Nothing was known as per resistance and armament. Not even the Fleet-Foreign Assets office of the General Staff could quote any numbers to the Guard. Thusly they stumbled into battle ready but for what was the question on every captain’s tongue. Cursory examination of a few city officials on Saki revealed the existence of several cruisers on loan from the Hutts though details were not forthcoming in the two hours between conquest and departure.


When the tunnel of swirling blue and white faded to black, pinpricks of white light dotting the panorama, every sensor on every ship scanned every square meter of space for whatever data could be gleaned.


“ Sensors – report. All ships – shields up.”


Captain Vorran looked down at a terminal in the crew pit and spoke up to his commander. “ Two cruisers, Carrack-class: highly modified are in system. IFF tags are not responded. We read seven smaller freighters which are visibly armed with a maximum of Class 3 threat ratings.”


“ Planetary weapons?”


“ Scanning sir – it will take some time to sweep the entire surface. No visible power signatures or shields at this time, Sir.”


“ Squadron II to screen the jump point; Squadron I – line abreast. Bring all ships to one-quarter and pull the cruisers back to rear-positions.”


The fleet broke in two, the last-reverting formation moving out into a ruff cone around the entry vector of the Imperial squadrons so no ships could block what quickly become an exit vector should trouble arise. Forward, the more prominent squadron of the Guard advanced towards the rather humid-climated mass of Toydaria. Four Star Destroyers, Suvarov, Majestic, Indomitable. and Conflagration spread out as their smaller escorts fell back to screen their vulnerable drive engines. With considerable predictability and no small amount of bravery, the two cruisers moved directly into their path.


“ I am never surprised at the valor or idiocy displayed by native captains,” thought Captain Vorran aloud. Many agreed with him, but the Grand Admiral was quick to direct the crew.


“ Re-transmit the Order of Annexatio. With considerable predictability and no small amount of bravery, the two cruisers moved directly into their path.


“ I am never surprised at the valor or idiocy displayed by native captains,” thought Captain Vorran aloud. Many agreed with him, but the Grand Admiral was quick to direct the crew.


“ Re-transmit the Order of Annexation. Give them a warning salvo across the lead ship’s bow – starboard turbolasers.”


Data streamed on open channels from the largest and newest of the battleships shortly before six casement-mounted double-turbolasers fired in tandem in the path of the heavily refitted ships. The ships were quick to return fire, concentrating on the Suvarov. Together they mounted ten turbolasers and four times as many ion cannon. The violence of the attack was not unexpected but it gnawed at the shields nonetheless.


“ We are at seventy-percent Sir!” called the defensive-control officer from the port-aft terminal next to the control corridor. Vorran pulled up a topographical diagram of his ship and ordered without dispatch a re-routing of power from the aft shields to compensate.


“ Conflagration – a full salvo of warheads at the crusiers. Indomtiable and Majestic – full cannonade as soon as the projectiles impact.”


From Admiral to Communications Lieutenant the order was relayed and compressed into text. Through tite-beam laser beam transmissions, the smallest of the four behemoths was apprised of the Grand Admiral’s command. The Captain, a tall and quite beautiful woman from Desaria’s native Kuat, ordered her ship brought to one-third and coasted just ahead of the Imperial battle-line to give her gunners a clear shot from stem to stern. All sights clear, fifty proton torpedo warhead launchers belched flame into space. The projectiles themselves activated individual booster engines and made good time to their targets. One after another the first dozen impacted the collapsing shields of the right-most cruiser. Three of the torpedoes went wide, continuing on until their fuel source was expended: the remaining nine collided with unprotected hull and tore vengefully inside. Another twenty-five buffeted the second ship without mercy, turning pocked grey hull red with fire and black with ash.


No time was wasted – as soon as the last torpedo exploded the two Imperial III-class Star Destroyers on the line opened up with forty double-turbolaser mounts a piece and battered the cruisers into submission. No man was left alive to offer resistance as what atmosphere remained fed raging fires throughout.


“ We are negative for life-form readings on both craft, Grand Admiral.”


“ Very well,” he replied, something uneasy gnawing at his mind. “ Deploy fighter compliments for broad-picket positions. Captain - -keep ours close in just in case. We have not won yet.”

Like rabid hawkbats they fell upon their prey from above the ethereal plane of battle. Firing wildly as they went, explosions dotted their targets. Shield spheres shrank until only armor plating was exposed to the cold of space and the horror of flame. Debris filled the vacuum. Reports of casualties came from all around, stunning those who through their actions only moments before thought themselves masters of the field.


No one was more stunned than Grand Admiral Desaria when six highly retrofitted Marauder-class Corvettes appeared high atop his formation, their sensor echoes shielded by the mass of a dilapidated space station long since abandoned and adrift. Armed with missile launchers not standard to the design, the ships targeted only the cruisers and pickets that sat behind the Imperial battleships. Barely had the ships slipped from their cloak than those batteries that could aim on the larger warships began firing, but surprise had already been achieved. Two of them were slain on descent but the other four let loose their entire compliment of missiles in record time. One of the fifty-meter Constrainer-class Interdiction Pickets, a craft never designed to be a combat vessel of any kind, winked out of existence followed closely by two Fire-class Frigates, though one of them did not die spectacularly rather being pounded into a lump of unrecognizable scrap.


After them three squadrons of TIE Defenders did chase pouring unrelenting laser fire into heavily protected drive engines. The first act of the Marauders’ appearance may have been complete but the final act had not yet commenced – they drove headlong into the Second Squadron of the Imperial Guard. Each one of the four remaining ships fired off its sole remaining projectile, a hideously un-aerodynamic shell that plodded on into the formation. Turbolasers tracked into their path and the four frigates that moved forward to give chase locked immediately their laser-gantlings. They bulbous pods were destroyed in turn but not before each one scattered a hundred micro-mines. Small though they were, their numbers told against the red-and-black schemed frigates. Explosions lined their wake, proximity sensors detonating each one and its closest neighbors. One of the frigates lost its shields and scurried back only after its communications tower had fallen victim.


“ Admiral – do we retreat?”


Grand Admiral Desaria shot an angry glower in the direction of his flag captain who looked genuinely concerned. “ The Imperial Guard does not retreat!” he bellowed, low but stern. “ It does, however, fall back. Bring all ships about and re-from with Squadron II. Attach six Defender squadrons each with a flight of blastboats and reconnoiter the entire system. I want it mapped out without a micrometer’s omission. Squadron II – flank ahead left, us to flank-ahead right, Suvarov on point.”


A chorus of affirmative replies rung out while the Grand Admiral recalled every detail he could of the brief but violent engagement. He recalled then how the Marauders were able to fire off so many missiles in so short a time – a trick he had encountered during campaigns against the Galactic Defense Initiative so many months ago. To accommodate the popular and successful strike missions created with that tactic in mind, GDI yards had produced special launching systems that were mounted externally. They could not, however, be reloaded without a port to dock in. How in the name of the Emperor did they get them? Raided shipments? A possibility. Something here is distinctly wrong and I have paid the price.

Saki


Whether from smoke obstructing the sun above or the natural course of the day, Major Meicomp knew not – he saw only that night had fallen: at the very least, light had been robbed of its dominance over the land. He knew also, riding away from the small domed-city of Rathanx, that he hated the miserable world of Saki. Between small cities created from an aesthetically putrid mix of prefabricated structures from about the galaxies were broad swaths of brush-laden hills, tall hills, wide valleys, and a stream every now an again. It was not that he found the tranquility of the open space unpleasing – it reminded the Intelligence operative far too much of his home Klandooine at the extreme Rim-ward edge of the Colonies. The near desolateness was a reminder of the distance he had put between himself and the backwater world on which he had been spawned: it was with no small measure of pride that he recalled the enormity of that number.


The sound of guns rumbled in the distance, a considerable ways away. The occasional explosion and flash of light over the horizon came from behind the Major, an unmistakable notice that the Imperial Army had finally arrived to lay siege to the little city. He knew having just come from the odd assortment of tall buildings and shaky dwellings and universally shady establishments that they would have little trouble breeching the defenses and moving one step closer to the complete conquest of Saki as a whole.


BUMP Meicomp braced himself on the window-pane of the open-topped speeder. A cursory glance at some status meters revealed what he already known – he hit an air pocket, at least that is what the natives called them. Saki’s surface was littered with small patches of randomized gravity, playing hell on any repulsor-life vehicle. Thankfully the spots were small and easily glided over. He could not deny a tinge of pain from his lower left ribcage, however.


The old man put up a more staunch resistance than anticipated. The wound was merely a bruise from an expandable baton often used by planetary police forces – standard issue to the officers of the Imperial Civil Defense Corps and any troops on occupation duty. He had been quick to remove the old man of his weapon but not before said weapon greeted his side in a most brusque manor. Meicomp, as a result of a sounded alarm, had to dispatch of the governor with his blaster rather than the poison he had planned. His escape had been unchallenged but still, he had not time to destroy the datacards confiscated. So there they sat on the opposing seat, an inviting proposition to any man of moderate curiosity.


High Inquisitor del Forza had ordered them destroyed, not read. Though a forbidding tone had been present and the notion of their mindless eradication had been implied, no direct order said he could not glance at them. Placing the speeder on automatic, he laid a direct course to the only city now not in Imperial hands and, hands free to browse, decided to ignore the implications of his orders and find the reason he had been sent into the fringe of the galaxy and forced to mingle among its scum.


Major Meicomp was certainly surprised at the secrets hidden inside.

Imperial Intelligence assets assigned to the Guard were brought before Grand Admiral Desaria and given what some seasoned veterans might have considered a harsh dressing down. The white-uniformed aristocrat leveled his comments without reserve and concentrated his attack on Captain Udank, the black-clad officer assigned as the senior Intelligence representative on his staff. For their failure he berated them until his mouth ran dry and retired from the chamber to seek a cool glass of tea. His words sank in and they dared not depart the room until properly dismissed by Brigadier-General Maxim, the Admiral’s Chief of Staff.


“ Do you think they got your message?” asked Major-General Brusilov, joining the Grand Admiral as he made a fast-paced advance towards the bridge.


“ I should hope so. I find it irritating to say the least that they have terabytes of information on what I long dead officers did in their pre-Academy days but cannot give me an accurate or even estimated enemy strength report. Many Guardsmen are dead today and their deaths remain on their heads.”


“ Perhaps you should vent some anger towards the General Staff’s Foreign Armies’ Office.”


The Grand Admiral cast a sideways glance at his walking companion. “ I intend to. Something I can do for you General?”


“ Actually - yes, sir, there is. I have compiled a report on my division’s assault on Saki.”


Desaria did not even look at the proffered flimsiplast. “ I scanned your report, you did as ordered.”


“ This isn’t the same report, Admiral. When we took the city we found a storehouse containing about seventy-thousand rifles blaster rifles and other small arms. We did not have time to actually inventory them – we left that to the Army – but on cursory examination I saw several crates with Imperial seals. I ordered them open and found some rather rare MerrSonn pistols. I recognized them because I started a collection during our conquest of the Initiatve. No army in history save theirs ever equipped their officers with MerrSonn weapons. They make excellent explosives but terrible pistols.”


“ Fascinating, General. You wish to take some home?”


Brusilov smiled. “ I already appropriated a dozen. My point is that there is no reason that Imperial cases should have contained them. We have most of our captured munitions stored in the Deep Core and rarely transport them unless to be smelted into better weapons. If these pirates and such raided Imperial convoys they would have gotten the good Blastech pistols we use. My question is simple: how did the pistols wind up in Imperial crates without the seal ever being broken?”


Grand Admiral Desaria stopped. Several images of the previous engagement flashed into his mind and the General’s report no longer seemed so rudimentary. “ Come with me…”

Imperial Center


“…I don’t believe I authorized you to contact me. Ever.” Though the tone of voice was even there was a forbidding nature to the words themselves that seemed to promise a certain unpleasantness. Relaxing though he was after a long day of meetings and conferences, High Inquisitor Ierin del Forza had about him an air of menace that had cowed many sentients.


“ Many apologies, Your Grace, but there was no reply to my standard querries.”


The Viscount’s skin almost crawled as he imagines the loose-skinned Atraxian on the other end of the comm-channel. Though he was a humanoid, his oval eyes and almost white hide reinforced del Forza’s thankfulness at being almost the breadth of the galaxy away. “ With obvious reasons. I believe I informed you that our dealings are at an end.”


Whether it was a sense of urgency or the apathetic tone of the Imperial’s voice, del Forza knew not, but the other man lost all pretense of decorum and civility. “ You can’t just abandon me!!! I bought your merchandise and paid handsomely for it. Now your armies are at the walls of my city and you expect to leave??? I’ll have your guts for floss!”


Del Forza wanted to laugh but, in all honesty, he was too tired. True enough the tantrum of the city-governor was comical, but sleeps’s embrace beckoned to take him without resistance. “ You knew full well you would have to fight sooner or later. I’m sorry you don’t have longer to play but your delusions are not my problem.”


The other man bit his tongue, realizing the string of insults he wanted to send would be pointless. “ Fine - - I don’t care about this city. Get me out of here! Send me one of those nice white shuttles you Imps dally around in or I’ll see to it the whole galaxy knows what you’ve been doing!”


A threat of exposure. How…expected. “ Oh really? I doubt that.”


“ Why is tha – “ a chime sounded on the other end and the man moved away from the view of the holo-recorder. Sporadic banter was heard as was the familiar sound of a single blaster bolt. Another figure, previously unseen, moved into the path of the recorder and after grabbing a few disks from a desk drawer began dousing the room in what he assumed was a flammable liquid of some kind. Cloaked in robes, the figure was unidentifiable. It raised its blaster and incinerated the recorder, bringing static then nothingness to the Coruscant end of the transmission.


Del Forza sat back and smiled tightly. “ Because I have taken steps to assure such a thing never happens. Well done, Major. Well done indeed.”


Sleep came soon after, the High Inquisitor departing into unconsciousness after collapsing onto his bed.

Toydaria


The Empire had fallen back to cover its entry vector and from there had regrouped. Having already lost three ships, another two in formation but heavily damaged, the Imperial Guard advanced cautiously. Approaching the station that had shielded their previous attackers, many an eye averted itself upwards. Light danced across their retinas when the mighty Suvarov loosed a volley into the abandoned platform and turned it into so much slag.


“ To all ships, all frequencies. This system has been Annexed by the Galactic Empire. Any ship that does not comply immediately will be considered hostile and destroyed. This is your only warning.”


Captain Vorran nodded to Desaria, a clear signal that the message had been sent. The Grand Admiral stood and paced forward to the viewports, deliberate in his stride. “ Push out the pickets to fifty kilometers. All ships ready for pursuit orders.”


Desaria looked out into space, then back in at his reflection on the viewpane. He cut a dashing figure he thought, his white tunic and jodhpurs immaculate, jackboots polished, the Crossed Sabres of Gold and Rubies above the Imperial Cross dangling at his neck radiating a brilliant luminescence. Taller than most men, he had retained the physique of his Academy days when he was not only a cadet-instructor on bladed weapons but also adjutant captain of the Raltiir shockball team. He looked barely half his forty years and took a great deal of pride on his third gracing of the cover of Modern Imperial. He had earned the ire of many peers when it became known that some of the public considered him the ‘Playboy of High Command.’ This was a reputation he could be proud of for there were few open slots on his dance calls at the balls on Coruscant, but no dalliance ever went further.


“ I think it is safe to assume, Captain, they are not taking us seriously.”


Vorran sighed. “ That would be a reasonable assumption, sir. No ship has stood down or readied itself for inspection.”


“ Very well then. Let us be true to our words. Open fire on any ship that has not complied.”


The Suvarov lead the forward squadron, one Destroyer to its left and two to its right, each one tapered in a tight wedge. The escorts that had taken such a beating only hours before now chomped at the bit for vengeance. Following orders from their command ship, the frigates and light cruisers moved away from their much larger brothers and fell in among the chaotic assortment of craft. Laser gatlings rattled off round after round, light turbolasers tracing home on any ship that mounted a weapon. Explosions flared in and out of existence between the Imperial battleships and Toydaria’s orbital tract.


“ Dispatch four squadrons of Defenders from Majestic. Begin herding those that comply into line.”


“ Aye sir. We have received about fifty stand-down notices in the past several seconds.”


The Grand Admiral let a smirk tug at the edges of his mouth. “ I have no doubt. Captain, instruct Intelligence to scan every frequency on Toydaria and find me just who is in control down there. In the mean time, move Squadron II around the world and take up position opposite us. Dispatch our frigates to make a complete sweep of the system. Any abandoned structures are to be reported, catalogued, and destroyed.”


“ Of course, sir!”

During the Guard Assault on Toydaria


Ylesia



Having fallen to the forces of the Empire, Saki presented the real beginning to expansion into Hutt Space. True enough, Ylesia was already occupied and undergoing a dramatic urbanization. Saki marked the second world to fall and thus was moved Ylesia from isolated border fortress to sector capital. Toydaria sat under the guns of the Imperial Guard, and for the first time since the end of the Battle of Endor twenty-five years before the Hutts had reason to fear for the safety of their realm.


The one man in the whole of the Empire who understood the implications of this acquisition most was doubtless High Inquisitor del Forza. Such a realization did come naturally – after all, his scarlet and black-clad minions would be those most employed to pacify the three-sector wide expanse. Gliding into Ylesia’s orbit, safe inside the red-lined Aurora-class Star Destroyer Purifier,* del Forza felt a new chapter in his life open. Here the Inquisitoriate could rise to a new level of prominence through vigilance and ruthless subjugation.


And then, the title shall be mine once more. At a hearty gait, del Forza made his way to the dagger-shaped vessel’s launch bay then headed for the surface of Ylesia, a squadron of Defender’s around him. All the while he nursed a latent hatred for the man who had robbed him of his position as Grand Inquisitor. Both he and this newcomer had been summoned before the Emperor who granted the rank to his apparent favorite, while relegating del Forza to High Inquisitor – supposedly with the same power as before and answering only to Hyfe himself. Such a blow it had been to the Corellian’s pride.


Ylesia proved an unattractive place, even now with the revitalization in full-swing. Somehow as the warm air slapped his face, del Forza felt distinctly dirty. He would have greatly preferred to conduct his business aboard the Purifier – his contact, however, had declined on security grounds.


“ Major Meicomp – you have done well.”


The High Inquisitor spread his arms as the doors closed behind him, leaving he and the Intelligence officer alone in an expansive dining gallery inside the largest Imperial garrison base on the planet-surface. Truly the Viscount was pleased for Meicomp had eradicated a number of people that posed a direct threat to the power of the Inquisitoriate.


And me.


“ Your Excellency.” The Major remained seated near the center of the pillar-less room, several pads and flimsiplast sheets arrayed before him. Something in his tone disturbed the Viscount at a very deep level.


“ Major, I am pleased with your work but do not forget your place.”


The Major smiled and stood, clicking his heels and coming to parade-ground attention. “ Your Excellency,” he bellowed. “ I have uncovered the moving of captured assets from arsenals at Belaphron, Carida, Corellia, and Bastion to enemies of the Empire. Funds from these sales were transferred to thirty-seven separate accounts at six banks on Muunlist.”


At that moment, a man totally unaccustomed to being taken by surprise, the Viscount del Forza froze.




*OOC Note - the Purifier is an IC command ship for the Inquisitoriate. It is not, unlike all Guard vessels, a built combat craft. It is for rping purposes only.

Toydaria


Ten hours the Imperial warship had scanned the Toydarian surface, taking great pains to map it without a meter’s void. The unscathed frigates of the Guard squadrons ran as close to the atmosphere as their Grand Admiral would allow, bombarding the world with invisible sensors pings, a veritable army of droids and computers drinking in every detail. Such an undertaking had never been attempted by the Guard as a whole and such was the inexperience of any commander that even Baron Desaria placed himself under the direction of Major Alfonz Ridolast, senior – and only – cartographer aboard the Suvarov.


The enterprise was completed, revealing more about the Toydarians themselves than Intelligence had in what they considered a detailed report. Living in hive-type cities quite reminiscent of the Geonosians - save for a diametrically opposite climate, they appeared to conceal technology under rocks and dirt, covering those with flora and fauna of every imaginable kind. Mapping the surface was one thing - -ascertaining what lay beneath the sometimes-kilometer high mounds proved impossible.


“ Still no communications with the planetary government?” Desaria asked, strolling about the crew pit.


“ Negative, Grand Admiral. We are monitoring a large quantity of surface-chatter but cannot decode or decipher any of it. Our protocol droids are trying to translate.”


The Grand Admiral nodded and placed a black leather gloved hand on the shoulder of the young but determined ensign. Walking further among the duty stations, he came to a stop behind Captain Vorran.


“ Admiral, I can track thousands of repulsor-life vehicles and some aerodynes, but we have not been able to differentiate between civilian and military installations – if you can consider those hills installations.”


Desaria hummed, thinking to himself. “ Captain, how long to deploy the prefabricated garrison base from Indomitable?”


“ I’m not sure. Lieutenant Weiss – contact Captain Albemar and ask how rapidly he can deploy his TX-5.” Blocking out the flagship’s fleet-comm ops officer, Vorran turned to Desaria. “ With all due respect sir, is it safe to deploy in an unsecured area?”


Grand Admiral Desaria looked at his flag-captain with a smile on his face, both knowing the Supreme Commander of the Guard knew the answer full well, both knowing the duty of any good executive officer was to consider all areas.


“ Captain, it most certainly is not. Which is why the garrison-base will have no one aboard; two volunteers can pilot the tugs to take her down. We can have the garrison itself standing by.”


“ Ah. I stand corrected.”


“ Captain – Indomitable reports thirty minutes to deploy.”


Desaria smiled again and turned to the communications officer. “ Tell Captain Albemar to deploy then – but keep the garrison aboard.”




Deprived of the five thousand soldiers and officers responsible for its operation, the TX-5 Imperial Pre-fabricated garrison base was little more than a square construct with a few point-defense cannon, interior medical facilities, crew quarters, and the other necessities to sustain a command independently without re-supply for two weeks. More importantly to the pair of eyes watching from the Reign-class Star Destroyer Suvarov, it presented a very tempting target for any surface defenses that had not shown themselves.


Tractor beams holding the egg-type cocoon in a firm grip, two wasp-looking yard tugs from the Destroyer to the flagship’s right descended towards the atmosphere of the world below. They passed the forward frigates, the TIE patrols, and then the sphere of protection offered by close proximity to the most powerful warships in the sector. Into the highest level of the atmosphere they plunged, and nothing happened.


Further still they descended. To the two young Warrant Officers brave or foolish enough to volunteer, all seemed to be going well. Their illusion was shattered when a blue ball of flame rose like a phoenix directly at them. Without hesitation they disengaged their tractor beams and yawed away from the path of whatever had come to kill them. Neither tug was endangered though their charge was enveloped by the fireball giving rise to a rain of debris into the stratosphere.


“ I’ll be damned.”


The Grand Admiral kept his satisfaction to himself and dismissed Vorran’s quiet outburst. “ Tactical?”


“ Sunni-Arms ion cannon, early model. Location – grid 615.”


“ Excellent work. Proton warhead launchers – target that grid and eliminate everything within it. Captain Vorran – send a message to Marshal Murat on Saki and ask if he has any troops to spare. Unless of course, he wants the conquest of Toydaria to be solely a Guard affair.”