Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

[MarkWarrior]

"At first, it seemed like the normal inspection of a derelict," Durald explained to the Jedi Council. "As I have spent a lot of time among the Mid and Outer Rim, this is far from the first time I'd dealt with the aftermath of a skirmish between pirates, bounty hunters, or just an accident of some kind."

She paused, centering herself in the force and allowing herself to recall the exact order of events without being overcome by the emotions that had existed in those moments.

"Both ships were identified by our ship's warbook, and because the majority of Interdictor-Class cruisers had defected to Revan according to our records, I boarded the transports headed for that ship."

"Did you not consult the Force before boarding?" Master Mundi asked. "Would it not have revealed to you which ship you should have gone to first?"

"There was no warning of danger until the Dark Jedi had awoken and begun attacking the crew whom we'd sent to the Thranta. That the Interdictor had remained with the Republic Navy instead of going over to Revan wasn't clear until after we'd boarded the Horizon and made our way to the bridge. That was when the Force alerted me to the presence that was aboard the other ship."

"Your report says that you acquired the personal effects of the Jedi who perished aboard the Horizon." Windu finally spoke.

"Yes, the dead Jedi had a holocron and a lightsaber on his person when he died. I collected both and then moved to the Thranta, bringing with me a squad of Clones for backup. Following the Force's guidance, I regrouped with those aboard the Thranta and moved to engage the enemy."

"Were you so certain of your victory?" Master Tiin asked.

"No, master," Kalyna shook her head. "I entered into this battle with the knowledge that I was likely going to perish. I am not as strong in the force as many of my peers, and I lack the talents that would lend themselves to individual combat. But as I am the only Jedi who is a member of Battlegroup Huntress, it is my responsibility to handle these matters."

"Weakened, this foe was," Yoda said. "Recently awoken, hmm?"

"Yes, Master," the Knight replied. "He was extremely skilled at lightsaber combat, and if he had been in a calmer state of mind instead of berserking, he likely would have been able to kill me along with the rest of the Clones. He did not utilize any force abilities, only his blade. As it is, we were only able to survive due to the quick thinking of one of the engineers. Due to his distraction, I was able to kill the Dark Jedi."

"I wish you had preserved the body and the ship," Adi Gallia commented. "Such an ancient soul must have had some knowledge we could have used against the Sith. We still do not know Dooku's master, and that could have helped us narrow the search."

"I searched the Thranta for anything that might be of value to the order," Kalyna replied. "Apart from his lightsaber and the trail of corpses, he left nothing behind. Anything he knew died with him. As for why I didn't preserve the body, after seeing what had happened to the Horizon, I was not willing to take chances of spreading some sort of plague through the fleet or the Republic."

"It is the opinion of the majority of this Council that you made the right decision," Master Windu stated. "You are to be commended for your actions and those of your Battlegroup. You've not only dealt with a threat that we were unaware of, but have also enabled the Republic to regroup and save many civilian lives."

"Thank you," Kalyna bowed. "What am I to do with Val Harik's lightsaber and holocron?"

"Keep it for now, you must," Yoda said. "Speak clearly on this, the Force does."

"Very well," the knight replied. "I'm afraid this is all the time we had free for the comms. I have to rejoin the battlegroup. We've been assigned to hunt Grievous, and they're gathering now to depart."

"May the force be with you," Windu nodded.

"And with you, Masters."

The transmission cut out, leaving Kalyna in the dark room.

Giving a long-suffering sigh, she turned and left. It didn't matter who you were; meetings with the Council always left every Jedi exhausted. She was no different and would need to meditate later to recenter herself.

Despite bleeding her emotions off into the force, the sheer terror, rage, and worry of that short battle would sometimes come back up as she dealt with the darkness that had radiated off of the enemy Jedi. Rest would be necessary before going up against Grievous.

---

The High Council Chambers were rarely this empty, even during the last few months of this war; they had attempted to meet in person as much as possible. Communications could be intercepted, and it was good to give them time to decompress.

But in this instance, after the communications winked out, all that was left was Yoda and Windu in the chamber. The rest of the masters were out on deployment, and Windu would be joining them soon.

"Should we have informed them about this?" Windu asked, gesturing to the datapad in his hands.

"Confirmed all the information, we have not," Yoda shook his head.

"But parts of it we know are true," Windu replied. "Such as Skywalker's marriage to Senator Amidala. That means that there has to be something of value there."

"Hard to judge, this information is. When more clouded, the Force becomes."

"Obviously, we can discard some elements of it," Windu agreed. "Palpatine may be a politician, but a Dark Lord of the Sith?" He shook his head. "We would have noticed. But there are other things we can evaluate."

"Have Jedi Sentinals working on it, I have. Find out if there is more truth, they will."

"I hope that none of the rest of this is true," Windu sighed. "But we cannot afford to ignore the information when it's offered to us. Unfortunately, I cannot follow up on any of this myself."

"Keep you informed, I will," Yoda leaned on his gaffer stick. "Follow the Will of the Force, we will."

After that, the two parted ways. Windu had to rejoin his fleet in orbit, and Yoda was to spend time with the Crechlings today.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 30

The worst thing about being a part of a battlegroup that was attempting to track down an enemy fleet, was that we were reactionary. From what I could remember, not even Dooku was able to keep track of many of Grievous's movements from the old TV show dad had recorded back on our Tivo. Which meant that Republic Intelligence, Fleet Intelligence, no one that was a part of any major intelligence agency knew or could predict where the rogue cyborg was going to go next.

So, a lot of our job for the next few weeks was jumping into a system that had recently been hit, then guess at what the next target was and try to get there first. It was kinda odd, if I were completely honest. Grievous seemed to avoid a bunch of major shipyards in favor of hitting targets that wouldn't hit the war effort for the Republic all that much. But once I looked deeper, it clicked.

Grievous was hitting small fleet sections with larger amounts of Jedi. Sure, he was also attacking certain systems as he was probably ordered to by Dooku and the Confederacy. But Grievous was more focused on taking out his anger on as many Jedi as possible over completing those orders. At least for now, and currently wherever Grievous went, Durge went also. Maybe we would avoid the speederbike jousting this time around.

Still, it had led to us going on wild chases and only meeting a handful of smaller ships that barely did anything to our battlegroup. Essentially those that were left behind by Grievous's fleet, or those who were trying to join him.

After almost a month and a half of this game of cat and mouse, Teskit decided he'd had enough and called a meeting for all of the senior officers to join.

"No one in the Republic Fleet has been able to pin down General Grievous at this time," Teskit opened up the floor. "I tire of chasing this villain. So, we don't be chasing him anymore. Instead, we will bring him to us."

The Commodore nodded at Jedi-Commander Durald and gestured for her to take over.

"After some rough analysis, we've finally identified two patterns that Grievous follows. One of them is that he goes after Jedi. The second is that he will abandon the fleet in orbit to go after Jedi on the ground," Kalyna tapped the holotable and it showed a system in the core that was nearly in the colonies or the Mid-Rim. "Tinnel is the core world we have chosen for this. While not the most prominent system, they do have shipyards capable of producing Venators, Acclamators, and Dreadnoughts for the Republic Navy. Though in the past they tended to work with CEC and various starfighter companies instead of ships larger than corvettes, of late, Kuat Drive Yards has licensed them to begin producing the aforementioned ships."

The holotable shifted to show the void as well as the handful of defense stations that kept the shipyards safe.

"I have made a request to the Council and they have agreed to assist with our plan," Kalyna said. "We have four Jedi Knights along with their cruisers coming to join us here. We'll then leak that we're assembling a battlegroup to launch an attack directly at Raxus. When Grievous takes the bait, we'll eliminate his fleet in orbit while the other Jedi handle him on the ground."

"Lieutenant Hull, the Horizon will be crucial in this battle," Teskit looked at me, his holographic representation as stoic as ever. "Your ship's interdiction field generators will be required to keep the enemy locked into Tinnel. We cannot allow them to escape."

"Understood, sir," I nodded. "What if he doesn't arrive, or it's another one of the decoy fleets the Confederacy likes to use?" I asked.

"Then it will still be another enemy fleet that we have removed from the board," the commodore replied, the other officers nodding their heads in agreement. "Now, I'm sending you each your orders. All sections will be working under a subcommander for the duration of this operation. Should communications between the Hyperion and the rest of the fleet cease, you'll follow your section commanders orders as if they were my own."

The commodore waited until we'd all responded before leaning forward with a savage grin.

"Now, let's make sure that General Grievous regrets the day he decided to strike against the Republic."

---

Five days later…

Tinnel looked like most worlds in the galaxy. A wide varied climate, an abundance of flora and fauna, and a mixed human and near-human population. It had been settled a many millennia ago and had pretty much remained the same throughout the years it had been a part of the Republic for. Sure, it had sided with Revan during the Jedi Civil War, but many systems had done that, it wasn't like they were alone in that. The only other thing of note that could be said about it was that the massive crater where a city was once said to be. It had been destroyed so long ago, the only tales left were legends and myths.

Outside of those few facts, Tinnel had been a productive, if usually forgotten world among the thousands that made up the Galactic Republic. That is, until we arrived.

The entirety of Battlegroup Huntress had dropped out of hyperspace with enough space and time for the local PDF to detect us. They'd been informed of the plan in advance, but it was still better to not offend the people you were going to be relying on in a few short days.

"Horizon, you and your escorts are to move to the designated nav point," Commander Task ordered. I'll remain here with the rest of the section and act as a QRF for whatever the commodore needs."

"Aff," I replied and turned to see the helmsman already inputting the instructions for the engine crew.

I glanced down at my tactical display. We were being escorted by two ships we'd worked with on the last battle. The Eclipse and Starfury were on our port and starboard flanks, along with a pair of Acclamators that had been modified to carry starfighters instead of ground troops, and a couple of corvettes armed with anti-fighter weaponry.

It took a few hours for us to reach the place where we were supposed to be hidden, but eventually, we were safely secreted away in the mass shadow of one of Tinnel IVs two gas giants.

We'd be sitting the initial portion of the battle out. Only revealing ourselves once the main enemy fleet had ventured too far into the system for it to be practical for them to attempt escape. Sure, we'd be cornering the Separatists, but I wasn't sure how much harder droids would fight over people when push came to shove.

Protective instincts could be programmed into droids, loyalty could be programmed into droids. But that instinct to lash out and make others pay as much as possible for bringing you down wasn't something most droids possessed. After all, not every droids was HK-47, IG-88, or R2-D2. Those droids were special for particular reasons, they weren't the cannon fodder that made up the majority of the Confederacy.

Which is why I thought that the Commodore's plan had a decent chance of success. I was just hoping that the Force didn't decide to have other plans…

For now though, I had to make sure everything was ready. So, I had Aliya and the engineers going over everything to make sure that nothing would break too badly when we went back into combat. We knew that something would break, we just weren't sure what it was yet. Our hope was that it wasn't the grav well generators. Because our entire plan relied on them to work.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 31

The Separatist fleet that came out of hyperspace outnumbered Battlegroup Huntress by nearly half again our number. But come they did. From what little we could pick up from the few unencrypted channels that they were broadcasting on, it seemed that instead of one of the Providence-class carriers or dreadnoughts, Grievous was using a Munificent to manage the entirety of the fleet.

Which made sense to me, given the advanced sensor suites and communications gear that were standard onboard the star frigates. But all it really meant was that we had a priority target for our interdiction.

In our testing over the last two days, we discovered that we could use the gravity well generators to stop an entire fleet. In exchange, we had to sacrifice either offensive firepower if we wanted shields and point defenses. Or sacrifice having our shields dropped down to twenty-five percent efficiency. Unless we were willing to rip out the entire hypermatter reaction core and replace the thing, we were limited in just how much energy we generated.

Our most useful asset to the fleet made us a target. Thankfully, I did have the two Acclamators along with the Eclipse and Starfury as escorts. But anything other than a wolf pack of Munificents or light cruisers was going to require reinforcements. Lest we get overwhelmed and lose the ability to lock Grievous in the system with us.

One of the awful things about space combat was the sheer amount of time it took to get anywhere. Even with hyperdrives and modern engines, it still took the Separatist fleet several hours to reach weapons range for the main section of the battlegroup.

With our orders being what they were, we were on standby until both sides were fully engaged. If we launched the trap too early, then it was entirely possible that the enemy would pick up on what was happening and that Grievous or any of the other leaders would escape the trap we'd laid.

So for now, we watched what was happening across the solar system through a small relay, waiting for the signal to move out of the gas giant's mass shadow and do our part in this battle.

Two hours later, we got just that opportunity. The enemy was entangled in our own battlegroup, and reinforcements were going to be arriving soon.

General Kenobi had been tapped for assistance and was bringing another fleet to help us accomplish this. But given his position in the Outer Rim, it would take two days before he arrived. All we had to do was survive.

"Helm, get us a course out of the mass shadow," I ordered, standing with my hands clasped behind my back. "Everyone else, start planning on rerouting power to the grav well generators and shields. We're going to be relying on the rest of our section and fighters to ensure that we're kept in this fight."

I was answered by a chorus of yes sirs, and the Horizon emerged from the mass shadow along with the other four ships of our section. Hundreds of starfighters streamed from the pair of Acclamators, and our own complement joined them in formations around us. Then, thirty minutes later, the lights dimmed for a few seconds as we switched power to our generators, trapping both our fleet and that of the enemies in the system with us. There was only one way they were leaving, and that was by fighting their way out.

---

"Commodore, the Horizon has begun interdiction procedures," the communications officer relayed to Teskit, prompting him to lean over the tactical console.

The enemy had yet to even come close to breaking the shields of his new flagship, the Defender. A handful of enemy ships had broken off for the ground, but Teskit had to leave that to the ground forces to handle. It was his job to ensure that Battlegroup Huntress destroyed all of the enemy opposition in the system. With that in mind, he instructed one of the Arquitens wolfpacks to move onto the Defender's flanks as escorts along with a trio of Acclamator carriers.

He left a pair of Venators and the Acclamator destroyer Shards of Elysium behind to act as a QRF while he himself began shifting the Defender and the other fleet

"Captain, ground forces are reporting that there are Magnaguards on the surface. Force Recon believes that Grievous is likely on the surface somewhere."

"Good," Teskit kept his grin to himself. "Then all we have to do is eliminate this fleet, and he will have nowhere left to flee."

In any other situation, the tactical console would have been a horrible sight to see. After all, the blue shapes that were the ships and starfighters of the Separatists outnumbered his fleet, and the display showed that very well. But the Republic's ships were better on average than the most numerous CIS ships. With a Venator being capable of handling at least four Recusant-class destroyers without needing serious repairs, Teskit wasn't too concerned with them or the Munificent Star frigates that were the lynchpin of the enemy task force. No, his concern was with the Providence-class carriers and destroyers that were along the enemy's backline. Them along with what looked to be a hastily refit Lucrehulk were spewing out droid fighters and bombers at an alarming rate. So, it was up to his flagship and its escorts to remove them from the tactical playbook.

As they got closer, the Defender finally began taking hits that rocked her shields, dragging them down bit by bit before the massive battleship finally began to return fire. Her Turbolasers focused on the closest target, a Providence that was outfitted more as a carrier than a dreadnought. The Defender's heavy turbolasers first struck the CIS ships's shields, making them glow a brilliant blue, then a few moments later, had completely overwhelmed them.

"Have our escorts focus on taking out the enemy ships once we've stripped their shields down," Teskit ordered. "Our bombers can clean up. We're going to have to move on that Lucrehulk."

Teskit's reasoning for targeting the Lucrehulk and its escorts was twofold. For one thing, that ship carried enough starfighters to fight his entire fleet. For another, said battlecarrier and a wolfpack of mixed destroyers and frigates had shifted and were heading for where the Horizon was stationed. They could not be allowed to open the way out of the trap.

But as the Defender began to eliminate the enemy that stood in her way, it became clear that she wasn't going to be able to catch up to the enemy fleet section. Not before they'd engaged with the Horizon and her escorts. In any normal situation, they would have microjumped to assist. But with the Gravity Well generators locking everything down. Well, that wasn't an option anymore. The Horizon would simply have to hold out until the Defender caught up to the Lucrehulk. There wasn't any other way.

---

"Do you think we can take some of these home with us?" A Clone Commando nudged one of the still intact electrostaffs from a dead magnaguard with his DC-15 blaster rifle.

"Negative," one of the B-2 Super Battle droids that had been repainted and attached to the four-man squads replied.

"You're no fun," the Commando chuckled. "Hey Bruiser, we killed a lot of droids today, but I haven't seen any sign of the big guy yet."

"He's probably on his way to take on the Jedi, Crack," the leader of the Commando unit shrugged. "We're just here to help clean up. It's their job and that of the Arc Troopers to take him out. Besides, Trick hasn't picked up any communications signaling for help. So the trap is still good."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Bruiser," the tech of the squad replied. "All I'm getting is static. Which means either we're being jammed."

"Or the comms relay is offline," Hulk offered. "Could be either or."

"What do you think, B?" Crack asked the droid.

"There is no sign of signal jamming," The deep voice of the vocoder responded. "There is a 70% chance that the relay station has been shut down and is in use by the enemy to observe our communications."

"Well, Kriff it all," Trick sighed. "Bruiser, we should to go clean that up. Otherwise, the whole op's blown."

"Copy that," the leader nodded. "Hulk, go commandeer a speeder of some sort that's capable of carrying our friend here. Crack, police these bodies and grab whatever ordnance you think we're going to need, and Trick, make sure that none of this stays on the grid. If they're listening in. Then we need to be sure that we have the advantage of surprise. Oh, and B," The B-2 seemed to look at the commando leader quizically. "Look menacing."

"Roger Roger," the droid's photoreceptors shifted from olive green to red, and its vambrance opened up to reveal the wrist rockets mounted there.

Whatever was going on, it was clear that this battle wasn't just going to be decided in the void. There was going to need to be something done on the ground as well. Otherwise, Grievous would slip through the Republic's fingers. Again…

Author's Note: Sorry for the delayed updates across all of my fics for the last week and a half. Had some big stuff that I had to deal with IRL. Should be back to regular updates soon.

 

[MarkWarrior]

"Sir, we've got enemy fleet sections moving toward our position. What are your orders?"

"Keep the grav well generators up and running," I ordered. "And divert as much power to rear deflectors and engines. The others will have to run cover for us."


We weren't going to be able to outrun the modern ships. At least not while keeping the interdiction field operational. So, we had to compromise. Even if I didn't think it was worth it to sacrifice four ships for the one in this battle. That line of thought didn't fall into the grim calculus of the long strategy of the war. The Horizon was valuable. Not only as something of a prototype for testing new gravity well generators. But also as the only ship in existence that could lock down a system and allow no hyperspace travel out of it.
So, we turned tail and ran. Our engines pushed out thrust as the Starfury, Eclipse, and pair of Acclamators turned and charged the Separatist section, pushing towards us. Even though pushing a Lucrehulk that had been converted into a battlecarrier was near suicide, the Acclamators stood the best chance of survival. Given we'd converted most of the extra internal space that was reserved for ground troops into extra starfighters, spare parts, and shield generators, we had at least some hope that they could hold out while the Defender caught up.

It still didn't sit right with me as I glanced over at the tactical display, watching the red icons of the other four ships charging the five blues that made up the Confederacy's attempt at erasing the Horizon from the system entirely.
"Tell half of our starfighers to peel off and join the rest of the section," I ordered. "Lieutenant Treal will have to make do without. If they break through our screen, it won't matter much that we have fighters to assist."

Half of the small dots that represented starfighters surrounding my ship moved away and joined the clusters that surrounded the other ships. Hopefully, they'd be able to make a difference.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the 'good' news for the day. Because a pair of Consular-Class ships dropped out of hyperspace around us.

"Are you with Battlegroup Huntress?" the breathless voice of one of the ship captains asked as the communications tech handed me a headset.

"Verify their ship IDs," I muted the headset to order the sensors officer before receiving a nod of confirmation,

"IFFs confirmed," the woman replied. "The Kamino Defense Fleet's their last reported location, though."

"We are a part of Battlegroup Huntress," I replied. "What do you need, Exposition?"

"We need reinforcements." I could hear the captain's relief. "General Grievous and Ventress are attacking Kamino, and we've got orders to bring as many fleet assets to reinforce as possible. We ran into General Kenobi's fleet earlier, but he was wrapped in a battle worse than this one. We nearly burned out our primary hyperdrives to get here fast enough to see if you could assist."

"We have Grievous locked down in this system," I shook my head. "You must be mistaken."

A few seconds later, we were sent a hologram of Grievous cutting through clones on Kamino, the timestamp matching up with a few hours ago.

"Sorry, Horizon, but I'm afraid whatever HIGHCOM told you, we were all wrong."

"Understood," I replied. "Cut the gravity well generators and bring full power to our weapons," I turned to the viewport. "Helm, turn us around. Comms, patch the Consulars into our encrypted comms to the Commodore. We've got new that needs to be brought to his attention."

"Thank you," The captain of the Exposition said. "Now, what can we do to assist?"

"Get in formation and help keep starfighters off our flanks," I ordered. "We can't reinforce Kamino if we're all dead. So, we've got an enemy fleet to deal with before we head out."

The Horizon seemed to thrum with power as we dropped the gravity well generators and diverted the extra power back to our engines and weapons.

Our escort of Acclamators and Arquitens was currently engaged with the wolfpack of Munificents and Recusants that the Lucrehulk had been using as escorts. However, the Lucrehulk was focused on us, and more fighters streamed from her hangars to move through the void towards us. Sure, the massive converted freighter might be attempting to run, but now that they knew that the Horizon existed, we were going to have to be killed.

As we started to get into extreme weapons range, though, the Defender and her escorts micro-jumped directly behind the Lucrehulk. It was a risk, one that saw an Arquitens and a CR-90 ripped apart, but it paid off when the Acclamator battleship's guns began to sing.

Deflector shields had to be focused and cycled in the direction of the most enemy fire that was incoming to be utilized in the most efficient way. With the Lucrehulk now facing fire from us in her forward sections and in the rear from the Defender and others, she was vulnerable. Even with the extra generators that had been crammed into her hull.

Unfortunately, we couldn't prevent her retaliatory fire, and the Separatist vessel was ignoring the Defender in favor of hitting us. The Horizon shuddered as we took fire from the quad turbolasers that had been bolted onto the Lucrehulk's hull.

At first, things seemed fine. We were weathering the storm, even if our shields were beginning to wither under the assault. But then, the enemy fighter and bomber wings got involved. Our shields nearlty vanished, and it was only through a brief surge of emergency power through those reacotrs being activated that brought them back.

"Prepare an emergency jump to hyperspace!" I gripped the console in front of me as a bomb hit the ship, and I was nearly thrown to the ground. "Anywhere but here. Send a message to the Commodore, we'll rejoin him-" Another hit wrested my grip away from me, and the last thing I saw before my head hit the wall behind me was the streak of stars indicating hyperspace.

---

Teskit frowned as they watched the damaged Horizon leave the system. That last hit from a bomber directly on the bridge had been painful to watch, but if she were still able to effect an emergency jump, then he didn't need to worry about the ship until after the battle.

Refocusing his mind on what was in front of him, the Commodore began to issue commands to the rest of the ships in the battlegroup. The escorts with him diverted to either attack the sides of the Lucrehulk or to render assistance to the section that had been escorting the Horizon.

While the battle cruiser was a formidable opponent, the heavy turbolasers and missiles of the Defender were able to decimate her engines and leave her floundering and vulnerable in the void.

"Begin targeting her turbolasers," Teskit heard the Clone Commander who was in charge of the Defender order. "She's crippled; we may be able to board her and gather intelligence."

"Good call," Teskit nodded at the clone. "Begin recalling our ground forces. Our Arc Troopers and Commandos will be suitable for this task. We need to find out why our trap failed and where Grievous is located. If the Consulars are right and he is physically present on Kamino, then the means of deception must be revealed."

"Shards of Elysium, begin hunting down the wolf-packs. Destroyed or fled, it makes no difference to me."

"Yes, Commodore," Commander Ronard replied, the frown on his face evident. "We'll start cleaning house."

The Acclamator destroyer was among the fastest and most heavily armed ships in the fleet outside of his own battleship, and Teskit knew that when combined with the other fast elements of the fleet that they'd soon have that job done. It was his responsibility to keep the last Lucrehulk pinned in place as well as deter the last pair of Providence-class carriers from deciding to eliminate their chance for intelligence gathering.

One by one, the Lucrehulk's guns went silent, its hangars all bombed closed, barring one. That would be their entry point.

"Have the rest of our escorts move to assist the fleet," Teskit ordered. "Once the system is clear, we'll leave behind a section to ensure that there's no enemy elements remaining while we continue on to Kamino."

"Sir, what about the Horizon?" the Clone Commander asked.

"She'll have to find her own way home," Teskit replied, masking his thoughts behind a mask of calm. "Unfortunately, one ship and her crew is not worth sacrificing a world for."

"Yes, Sir," The clone nodded.

Hopefully, the emergency jump had only taken them to the next system. But there was always the chance that it tossed them out in the deep core or elsewhere. Time would tell. For now, though, he had a battle to win and a planet to reinforce.

---

"You guys, Theta squad?" A local militia man asked, his speeder stopping in front of the group of commandos and their B2.

"Who's asking?" Bruiser asked.

"Colonel Waters is recalling all of Battlegroup Huntress's ground elements," The militaman hopped off the speeder. "But Arc and Commandos have priority."

"Do you have a line of comms to the colonel?" Crack asked. "We've been jammed for hours."

"Speeder has an antenna that breaks through jamming," the man replied, pointing out the small strip that was the antenna. "There should be a channel you can reach him on."

"Thanks," Crack hopped into the speeder and patched the antenna into their communication lines.

"Colonel Waters, Theta Squad, here," Bruiser said once Crack gave a thumbs-up.

"Theta, good," Waters' voice was the usual calm and collected Coruscanti accent. "You're the last squad to make contact. We're pulling back to the void, there's a Lucrehulk currently disabled, and we're to do some intel extraction and then scuttle the ship."

"Sir, we're currently on our way to eliminate the local jamming. Mind if we take it off the map, first?" Bruiser asked.

"Go ahead," Waters replied. "Once you take that out, we can route transports to you."

"Thank you, sir."

"You're killing more clankers," Waters' bloodthirsty grin could be heard through the line. "Don't thank me, just execute."

The channel then closed, leaving the squad in silence.

"You hear that, B?" Hulk asked. "We get to finish the job. Today ain't turning out to be so bad after all!"

"Affirmative," The droid's eyes shifted from red to blue to indicate satisfaction.

Trick remained silent, the sniper always having prefered to only talk when necessary.

"We're keeping the speeder," Crack said to the militia trooper.

"Sorry, sir," the trooper shook his head. "I can't do that or the Captain'll have my head. I can go with you, though."

"Sounds good to me," Bruiser shrugged. "We just need to get there ASAP."

"I've got a route that circumvents most of the fighting. But there are some Droidekas we'll have to dodge."

"Weaklings," B stated.

"What B said," Hulk grinned. "We'll take them out along the way."

"Alright, Theta, first the jammer, then back into the void. We get to board another ship!"

"Is it too late to go back to Kamino?" Crack asked. "I had a nice bunk, great weather, and gravity there."

"No blankets, rain, and heavy G training," Bruiser reminded the tech.

"Still better than low-g missions," Crack shrugged. "But I guess it is a good mission. Can't let the Arc Troopers get bigger heads than they've already got."

"Exactly," Hulk slapped his brother on the back. "That's the way to think about it."

"Stow the chatter," the militia trooper said. "Moving up on Droideka alley."

"Hulk, man that gun," Bruiser ordered. "Let's finish this up."

"Yessir," Hulk moved into position behind the heavy repeating blaster. "Looks like you've got an infestation, good thing you called the exterminators!"

The speeder drifted into the alleyway, and Hulk began firing on the droidekas before they put up their shields, shredding a good portion of them before they turned and began firing.

"B, you're up!" Crack said, tossing a grenade over the side of the speeder.

"Inferior machine," B killed two droidekas with a well-placed wrist rocket and some rubble. "I will bathe in your oil."

"Get some!" Hulk continued firing as they finally left the alleyway and moved further to the comms station. "We should go back and get the rest of them."

"Negative," Bruiser shook his head. "We've got our missions. Let's see them through."

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 33

"That's a concussion," was the first thought I had when I opened my eyes. Reaching back, I touched something wet, mostly dry, and sticky. My hair was matted with blood, and I'd have to get this checked out by the medics when I got the chance.

Grunting, I ignored the pain in my head and grabbed the nearest console.A few seconds went by and I pushed through the fog before pulling myself up. Then I waited for the area to stop spinning before continuing. Everyone had been thrown by the hit to the bridge and successive jump to hyperspace. There were groans of pain and silence from most of the bridge crew.

"Lieutenant Hull to Medical Bay Aurek," I finally found the button for the intercom on the console I was using for support. "Have medical teams report to the bridge, we've got wounded."

I continued looking around the bridge while waiting for a response, my gaze passing over something that I noted mentally before moving on. Then I went back to what I had just seen. No, I wasn't crazy, we needed to leave the bridge. Right now!

"Belay that order!"I scrambled for the intercom. "Meet us in the corridors along the entrance to the bridge." then I left it on as I started barking orders to the bridge crew that was mobile. "Grab someone and get them off this bridge!"

All the while, I never took my eyes off the crack that was slowly spreading through the transparisteel that acted like 'glass' for the ship. It should have just shattered entirely, but instead of shattering entirely and exposing us to the void, or explosively decompressing and killing us all it had held.

It wouldn't hold for much longer, though. So, I started grabbing one of the still waking members of the bridge crew and helping them to the entrance. There, I handed whoever it was I had grabbed off to the medics. Then I went back and grabbed two more. Ignoring the churning in my stomach as my vision swam.

Two more people saved. Going back, getting another, passing them off. Voices stopped holding meaning, language seems to not exist anymore as the blood pumping through my ears drowns them out.

The cracks continue to spread, but there's still more people there. Drop the last one off as vision blurs. Can't leave them there to die. My responsibility, my crew, my ship.

I feel arms grab me, and a blurry face speaks, but it's just noise. Lose the battle against the pressure in my esophagus and vomit. Finally, my vision clears enough for me to read lips. What do peanuts have to do with getting people out alive?

Then I feel a stabbing pain in neck and look at the injector that the medic is pulling away. I try to fight the enroaching darkness. Bit by bit, losing ground until it overtakes me and I completely lose the fight.

–
–

I woke up to the harsh white lights of the medbay. My pain was muted, but still present. If I had a concussion like I thought, then it was likely they couldn't risk giving me anything more for the pain than they already had. Which was fine. I'd rather be in pain than risk not being able to think.

"Ahh, Lieutenant Hull, you're awake," a Twi'lek with green accents walked over, a datapad in her arms. "Good thing too, there were some concerns that we'd have to do surgery if the medications we were using to keep the swelling of your brain down didn't work."

I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to lie back and rest. I'm sure you have questions about everything, but they can wait until we're certain you're going to make a full recovery. Brain injuries are not something we take casually. Now, lay back and try to get some rest. If our scans come back clear, we'll have someone here to debrief you fully. For now, enjoy the quiet."

Of course, now that she mentioned it, I did feel a bit off. Like I didn't have any energy. Not even enough (yawn) to keep my eyelids open…

---

Three days later…

"Sir, I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to be out of the infirmary yet," Lieutenant Junior Grade Crix Vane said as I stepped onto the secondary command center. The younger man was the XO, and had been taking care of the day-to-day operations while I was out of commission.

"I'm on provisional release," I waved him off. "Now, I've already gotten an update from Alina. We took a beating, but aside from the bridge, we're in mostly good shape. So, the next thing we need to know is where we are."

"We don't know," Vane sighed. "We've got astromechs running calculations and trying to figure that out now. Preliminary results put us at somewhere in the Unknown Regions."

"Do we have any hyperspace-capable starfighters left?" I asked.

"Two," my XO consulted a datapad. "But they're currently in pieces while the tech crews try to put them together in a way that we get one functioning fighter. The rest of our escort was left behind by our emergency jump."

"Once we figure out where we are, we're going to have to start heading back towards Republic Space," I said, doing my best to hide the headache that had made a reappearance. "

"Sir, we've got a contact on the edge of the system! It's the size of a Venator, and is moving fast!"

It took a few minutes for the external camerast to get a glimpse of what was moving towards us, but once it did, all of us froze.

"Shut everything down, go to emergency power," I ordered once I'd regathered my wits. "If we go dark, then maybe it'll think we're dead."

We had everything shut down by the time it had reached us, and everyone held their breath as it circled us. For some reason, even though we knew that there was no way it should be able to hear us if we spoke, no one uttered a single word. The external camera feeds showing it circling, and then stopping in 'front' of us.

It paused for a moment, and then decided that we weren't a threat. Unfortunately, it might have been better for us if it had decided that we were a threat. Because it extended its jaw and wrapped it around the bridge, and then started dragging us to the 1st planet in the system. Debris from ships familiar, and utterly alien orbited the planet, a graveyard that consisted of nothing more than dust and echoes….

---

"Commodore, it seems that Grievious had all of us fooled," General Kenobi's hologram had its arms crossed, with General Shaak Ti's on the second holographic pedastal. "With you and I each chasing the fleet that we believe he was present in, he opened us up to an attack on Kamino."

"Faked transmissions from designated Munificents in each fleet," Commodore Teskit frowned. "Combined with Magnaguards deployed to the ground invasions to help keep the disguise up. Unfortunately, given the nature of this deception, it will be hard to confirm where Grievous is in the future."

"It does pose a departure from what we have seen in the past," Kenobi agreed. "Given the circumstances, though, we will be hard-pressed to ignore any of the fleets that seem to have him present."

"Thankfully, we managed to repel the attack on Kamino," General Shaak Ti said exhaustedly. The blue hologram displayed a few bacta-soaked bandages dotting her frame. "But it will take time to rebuild what was destroyed. With training setbacks, I wouldn't expect more than a battalion or two for the next few months."

"That is unfortunate," Kenobi stroked his beard. "But we shall have to endure. With the destruction of three fleets, this will have been a setback to the Separatists."

"Indeed," Teskit hid a smile. "Which is why I'm preparing my battlegroup for a strike. There are several systems producing war material for the Confederacy that must be taken if we are to win this war. So, I will be departing within the next few days to Eriadu."

"Very well," Kenobi nodded. "Now, I regret to leave, but I must make a report to the Council."

"HIGHCOM," Teskit nodded. "What Grievous is doing is critical information to the war effort. We must see to it that they receive it."

The transmission then dropped, leaving Teskit alone to reach out to the people that he ever seemed to have issues with.

Sighing, he reached out and typed in the commands that would connect him to HIGHCOM. It was time to report his failure…

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 34

Of all the things I had expected to find, a veritable graveyard of ships that had been collected by a dragon wasn't one of them. There were ships from every era that had existed up to this point in the galaxy. Ships from the Hutts, the Chiss, Rakata, the old Republic, and more that none of us recognized.

We were now a part of a Dragon's Hoard, and needed to figure out how to escape.

Which is why all of the senior staff were assembled in a small conference room just off the secondary command center. With the main bridge damaged until we could limp into a shipyard, we were going to be buried in the center of the ship.

"I'm going to be completely honest," I looked around at the bridge crew and Alina's choice of engineers. "My first instinct is to try and find some way to kill the creature. But if any of you have other thoughts or options, then we should probably explore that as well."

"I mean, it's clearly intelligent enough to consider certain objects to have value," Alina commented. "Maybe we can negotiate with it?"

"We've got a few protocol droids in the holds for situations where we don't speak a common language," the weapons officer replied. "Might be worth seeing if we can broadcast something that it can understand. I mean, this is the find of a lifetime. There've always been rumors of creatures like these, or of other things that lurk in the Unknown Regions or Deep Core. But there's never been a confirmed sighting."

"And there won't be if we don't live to tell the tale," I sighed. "Now, I know that we've sustained damage to the bridge, but I didn't know how bad it was until the most recent assessment. We would have been fine, but the creature dragged us back to this 'collection' point using the bridge. It's barely attached at this point. So, we need to run more tests, see what exactly we're losing in efficiency by operating out of the secondary command center. Then, once we've established that baseline, we'll dig a protocol droid out and see if we can talk to it." I stabbed a finger at the holographic dragon. "If we can't, then we're going to have to be very lucky. Because some of those scars are ancient. This thing has been in fights before. Probably from bigger ships that hit harder, too."

"Um, sir," the communications officer raised her hand. "Why don't we try to use the system to our advantage? It clearly wanders and leaves the system. Because it wasn't here when we first arrived. Our power systems and tractor beams are intact. If we wait, we might be able to start analyzing some of the ships around us. Affect some repairs or modifications, and then leave or take out the creature."

"No reason we can't try all three," Alina shrugged. "Start by stripping anything useful off some of the ships nearby. I see at least two other Interdictor-Class cruisers out there."

"We still have several thousand droids in our holds," one of Alina's engineers offered. "They're not all the engineer class, but there should be enough to at least crew one of the ships out there. Could run it as either a distraction or a secondary if we're already stripping some of them for parts."

"Then that's what we do," I said after thinking about it for a minute. "Alina, I need some of your engineers working with the sensor officers, identify the ships that we can make use of for our repairs, as well as likely candidates for manning as a secondary ship. It might also be worth checking for any starfighters we can rip out of the hangars."

I looked around, checking to see if anyone else had anything to bring up. There weren't any; most of us had been on the bridge when it got hit and were still injured in one form or another. Even the few clone officers we had were suffering from fatigue and the pain from their injuries. So, with everyone's hearts and minds clear, we finished the meeting and went to our respective stations. We had no idea when the dragon would be leaving. So, we would have plenty of time to activate droids, do active scans, and get things ready for executing the plan.

There was one thing that I did wish we had. Having a Jedi aboard, or at least someone force-sensitive enough to tell us if there were any dark side artifacts influencing the dragon,n would have been a boon that might save us time on some of our plans. The Rakata ships didn't exactly inspire confidence in me, given what I knew of their empire, not to mention the other ships that looked like some trailers for "The Old Republic" game that I'd never ended up playing.

In the end, though, I knew that a large part of me just wanted to kill a dragon. After all, what boy didn't dream of being the knight in shining armor facing the dragon's flames to defend people? I'd just have some help, is all.

–
–

One week later…

"The creature left the system two hours ago," the sensors officer reported as I stepped onto the bridge, my Republic Mod armor having long-since replaced my uniform. "We're pulling in the first of the ships we're going to strip for repair parts now."

I watched through the external cameras as another Interdictor was slowly pulled close to us via the tractor beams. It'd take another hour or so before we brought it close.

There were three Interdictors in orbit other than the Horizon. Two of them looked and scanned like they had been built by Revan's Star Forge. The third, though, it looked like it had faced off against the Dragon and lost. Badly.

Our plan was to pull in one of the Star Forge vessels and strip it of anything that might be useful before using the next gap in the Dragon's arrival and departure to crew one of the more intact battlecruisers that orbited the molten lava world 'below' us.

There were three options we had highlighted for the extra firepower they could provide. The Harrower, Centurion, and a Thranta. The latter of the trio was our backup plan if either of the first two didn't work. After all, after our experience with older ships, we had picked up some of the older manuals. If you overloaded the hypermatter core of a Thranta, you could expect to destroy an entire fleet element. It should be enough to kill one dragon. But that was the failsafe option.

None of us wanted to destroy everything in the system, and another emergency jump might take us home, or it might take us deeper into the Unknown Regions. Having the foodstuffs to last for three years without rationing sounded all well and good. But if we ended up completely lost out here, then we might not make it back.

"Drop me a comms link if you need me," I said after reading through all the reports I'd been sent. "I'll be helping out with repairs."

The Ensign responded and went back to sorting through the ghost signals and old emergency beacons we'd detected since arriving. We wanted to document everything as well as we possibly could. After all, no one back in the Republic would believe us if we didn't have the proof with us. That, and maybe we could resolve some of the questions about explorers that had disappeared throughout the millennia. We'd only know when we returned.

---

The Drake returned to his home, arriving on the edge of the system and taking in everything that belonged to it. This hunt had been longer than most. The Hunted had finally learned to avoid the usual hunting grounds, and he had to range out beyond the norm.

Unfortunately, there were no trophies or trinkets to bring back home. Usually, there was something, but there had been no new treasures to add to the Hoard since the one that had appeared a short time ago. The gift had been well received, and the Drake had gladly accepted it.

Flying back to his nest, the Drake surveyed all of its Domain. There were some treasures that had been moved, but that was not unusual. Despite his best efforts, he could not control the fabric of the universe and, as such, had to accept things as they were.

Reaching his Nest, the Drake carved his way through the atmosphere, uncaring of the burning streaks he left behind. His mate was waiting, their Creche would be hatching soon, and the Hunted tasted better burnt anyway.

The Warmth of the Mountain was comforting to the Drake after so long in the void. The heat from the bubbling red rivers generated the proper heat for his mate and creche. A Caldera lay in the center of their nest. Barely big enough to hold the two Drakes and their eggs, but it was perfect for them when they lay together.

Gently touching down, the Drake passed on what was left of the carcass of the Hunted to his mate and watched as she ate and then curled up around the eggs. A puff of smoke signaled gratitude as she slowly drifted off back into hibernation.

Scooting his body closer to his mate, the Drake intertwined his tail with hers and drifted off into sleep. He had been awake and hunting for many moons now; it was time he rested…


Author's Note: Loosely based on Stellaris's Ether Drake.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 35

The dragon had been gone for a couple of weeks now, which had given us enough time to strip the other two Interdictors of everything that was useful. Of the two, one had been a standard Republic variant, and the other had been among those used by Revan. The Republic variant had sustained some serious battle damage, but its internal power and infrastructure was easier to work with than whatever had been done to the one used by Revan's forces, so we'd mostly stripped parts from the Republic variant and used them to repair the damage done to the Horizon.

Thankfully, when it was all said and done, the Horizon was back up to full strength, if not a little better than before. We'd pulled the backup power generators from the 'spare' ship and wired them into our systems as well. If we turned them on, we could temporarily boost power to our shields or engines, but we'd burn them out through prolonged use.

As for the Reven Interdictor. We ripped the starfighters out of its hangar and left it alone after that. While at first, several of my crew had wanted to board and take it for ourselves, the sheer feeling of something being wrong had quickly changed that idea. It was a good thing that the cargo holds and hangar were adjacent to eachother, because it allowed us to quickly take whatever we thought we might need and leave.

While most of us were working on repairing the Horizon, a small group of people led by Aliya had done sruveys of the two other ships we were confident we could use to help fend off the dragon if necessary. She reported that while she'd have liked to use the Centurion battlecruiser, it was going to be hard to get it working to a satisfactory degree. Instead, her and her team had chosen the Sith Harrower.

Of course, it was while her team and the droids we were planning on using to help crew the other ship were busy that the Dragon returned.

"Sir, sensors are picking up the creature! It just dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the system and is moving towards us."

"Just bring our power levels down to what we need to monitor the situation," I replied, moving to behind the sensors officer and looking over his shoulder along with the people beside him as the dragon dragged what looked an afwul lot like a whale behind it. "Looks like it went hunting," I felt nervous. "Did we ever get anywhere on the communications possibility?"
"The protocol droids kept glitching out and having to get reset when we tried getting a translation suite together," Vane shook his head. "To be honest, we're mostly just hoping that it ignores us if we attempt to leave."

"I really don't want to fight it," There was something intensely terrifying about the thought of facing a dragon the size of a Venator. Sure, there was still that masculine urge to fight the dragon, but that was being tempered by the thought of the men and women that were under my command.

So, we watched the dragon move through the system over the next few hours until it ignored us and the fleet of derelicts entirely. Instead, it moved through the planet's atmosphere, smoke trailing off the flesh of the space whale as if cooking it on the way down.

"Get me a line to the Harrower," I glanced at the comms officer. "We need to know her ETA. If this thing has to take its time to eat, we should be able to escape via jumping to hyperspace."

"Chief Engineer Aliya Alitas here," her voice graced the headset I'd been handed.

"How long before you and the ship are ready to jump to hyperspace?" I asked.

"Five, six hours," I could hear her shrug. "The systems on this ship are weird, and we've been completely locked out of the bridge. We're running things form the secondary control center. We should be able to leave once we restore power to the hyperdrives. But we're going to need you to feed us the coordinates."

"Alright," I replied. "Shrink that time as much as possible. We've got a window of opportunity here, and I don't want to waste it."

"I'll see what I can do," She sighed. "We'll contact you once we've reestablished power to the hyperdrive. Alitas, out."

–
–


Three hours later…

"I've got power to the secondary systems!" Aliya slapped the panel she was working on, grinning as it finally stopped glitching and flared to life. "Just needed a little percussive maintenance."

"Bridge is still on lockdown. But we've got power to the engines," Conor Jalatian the other lead engineer reported. "Say what you will about the B-1 battle droids, but the engineer variants are pretty good at this."

"I'm just glad that we've got enough to make the skeleton crew requirements work here," Aliya replied. "Keep working on the reactor and those power couplings. We need the backup hyperdrive up and running at a minimum."

"I've got a group working on that," Conor said. "I've got a team working on the bridge lockout. I can reassign them assist with working on the hyperdrive if you want."

"No, keep them working on restoring access to the bridge," Aliya shook her head before remembering that he couldn't see her. "We're going to need that access if we're going to gain full control of this ship."

"Aye, ma'am. We'll keep on it."

"Now that power's restored to the secondary command center, I should be able to help with narrowing down some of the problems from here."

The engineer droids around Aliya were already tapping into the systems and beginning to feed data to the teams working throughout the ship. Aliya herself was patching the ship into the battlenet that the Horizon used. Changing the frequencies and comms channels necessary to give the other ship a good IFF reading. Friendly fire wasn't, and she wasn't going to set things up for her or the other engineers to accidentally be killed if and when it came to an engagement with the creature that controlled this system.

–
–
Twelve hours later…

"Why won't the stupid bridge doors open?!" Aliya felt like slamming her fist into the console again, but instead simply hit the side of her thigh. "Please tell me that the rest of you have good news?"

"Primary and backup hyperdrives are finally online and staying that way," Conor reported. "I don't know why we had such massive power fluctuations earlier, but we seem to have fixed whatever was up with the reactors."

"Prepare to receive the hyperdrive coordinates from the Horizon," Aliya stopped trying to get the bridge door open. "I think we're still in that window of opportunity."

"Roger Roger," the B-1 manning the comms replied, it seemed that no matter what tweaks they made, they still wouldn't say anything else. "Sending confirmation of hyperdrive to the Horizon, standing by to receive coordinates."

A few seconds later, they had the coordinates and were ready to jump out of the system.

"Triumphant, we're preparing to jump, confirm reception of coordinates and sync up with us."

"Triumphant here, coordinates received, we're ready to jump when you are."

A few short moments later, the two ships left the system behind. The Dragon's Hoard had not kept its hold on them.

---

The Drake shifted in his sleep and cracked open a lone eye. Something had changed. It was as if a fog had been lifted from its mind, and now it could see clearly.

Moving away from his mate, he nudged her awake and bade her to look after the Creche while he explored their home. Flying through the atmosphere and reaching planetary orbit, he paused. Reaching through the system with his senses, he searched for something out of place, eventually, finding what was wrong.

Someone had stolen from his treasures. Two of them were gone, and a third had been scarred moreso than it had during his taking of it. Roaring his displeasure, he made to leave the system and give chase when there was a tug on the bond he shared with his mate.

The clutch of eggs had begun to hatch, he could not leave the system and abandon his mate and their young during this time. So, even as he sensed the treasures get further away, he turned and headed back to the planet. He would reclaim his treasures. He had all of the time in the universe to do so.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 36

"Alright, we're clear of the immediate danger," I looked around at the assembled senior officers. "What's the status on the Triumphant?"

"We've got access to most of the systems," Aliya replied. "Only thing that prevents us from taking full control is that the bridge is completely locked down. We can't even get in from breaching the viewports. Whoever owned the ship before us replaced them with armored panels and sensors."

"We do have some other options there," Conor, the other lead engineer said. "But most of them involve not being able to close the doors there anymore."

"Let's leave that option for last if possible," I tried to hide my smirk, knowing that they were thinking about using explosives to breach the bulkhead doors. "Are we going to need access to the bridge to keep the ship moving with us?"

"No," Aliya shook her head. "We can do pretty much everything we need to from the secondary control center. The only issue we might run into is that we don't have access to the ship's databanks. Those are going to be locked away on the bridge."

"Then let's leave the bridge for another day," I said, stroking my short beard. "Now that we have time, I want a full inventory of the Triumphant. We've got our ARC-170s repaired, but I want a full squadron out there for recon if possible. There's a safety in numbers. Especially out here in uncharted space."

"Given we're going to be operating at efficiency below what our maximum is, we're authorizing the activation and use of reprogrammed droids to fill out crew roles," Lieutenant Crix Vane said, the holoprojector showing a handful of droids that were sitting deactivate on the Triumphant. "We're aware that this would have been a Sith Empire vessel, but several of our droid experts believe that they have a method to reset the combat and engineer droids and make use of them. Now, they're going to be testing their method first. But if we see results, we should see an increase in our crew complement."

"That's part of the reason we're going to be conducting a full inventory," I interjected. "We already pulled everything off the other Interdictor that we thought might be useful before we left. So, we've got half a full complement of Starfighters, even if they are dated, and a smattering of spare parts that should be somewhat useful for both ships. But we don't know what's in the stores for the Triumphant."

"There aren't any bodies," Aliya said quietly after that. "There were bodies on the other Interdictor. But there aren't any on the Triumphant. That's part of why I want access to the bridge. All of the lifeboats and escape pods are still present, there isn't any visible damage to the interior of the ship beyond the degredation of time."

"If you can find a way to get onto the bridge that doesn't involve removing the bulkhead doors, then I'll approve getting in," I replied. "Until then, we're going to proceed as planned. Now, moving onto navigation. The Astromechs and astronavigators are confident that they've found a relative location for our position. By best estimates, it's likely to take three months to return to known space. In all probability, it's going to take six months to a year if we're wrong about things."

I waited for the news to settle in before continuing.

"Thankfully, we were fully resupplied when we left the Core," I tapped a control and our list of food and water rations appeared. "We should be good for the return journey. But, we're going to be keeping an eye out for habitable planets. Fresh water and food are the sort of things that will keep morale high. We're also going to be moving to shift pattern Aurek. With how much work there is, I don't want anyone burning out or making critical mistakes. That goes doubly so for our engineers and other technicians. Make sure you're fully rested before doing any work on either of our ships or before we execute a jump. The last thing we want or need is for a critical mistake to cause us to get stuck out here for longer. Now, are there any questions?"

"Just one, sir," one of the last few starfighter pilots raised his hand. "There are only three pilots still present. Sure, we can probably use the rear gunners from our 170s to make up a gap or two. But I'm not sure that's a good idea out here in the Unknown Regions."

"You're right," I sighed, "It's not a good idea. Which is why we're going to be pulling some gunship pilots to fill in the gaps," I nodded at the clone that was in charge of our groundpounders. "It's not my favorite option, but it's all that's left to us. We'll have the two 170s, and four of the Aurek-Class running escorts. We need comprehensive scans of the systems that we're going to be jumping into."

"We're going to need to work out a rotation schedule for our deployments," the pilot replied. "We'll be spending a lot of time in the cockpit. There's going to be some issues if we don't get the proper breaks in-between."

"No better time to do that than now," Lieutenant Vane said. "We can sort that and the engineering schedules now. Get things sorted so we don't run into issues in the future."

---

Location: Eriadu

It had been weeks and there had still been no sign of the Horizon. If Lieutenant Hull or his people had deserted, there would have been a sign of them already. Instead, there had been no communications or sightings of the vessel whatsoever. Which meant that the vessel was another victim of the perils that came with utilizing Hyperspace.

Forcing the lost ship and crew far from his mind, Commodore Teskit instead considered the holographic map in front of him. Those systems that were aligned with the Republic were vastly outnumberd by the blue systems that surrounded them. Sullust was among them, the shipyards there produced ships for the Confederacy in great numbers. Well, it was time that the Republic moved to block such a vital resource here on the Outer Rim.

"Commodore Teskit," A smooth female voice interrupted his considerations.

"Maarisa," Teskit smiled as his old friend entered the room. "It's been a while."

"I see that you've finally managed to earn a promotion," the tanned woman smirked. "I was worried that you would be doomed to be a junior officer fro the rest of eternity."

"Competence always shines through," Teskit shrugged. "Now, how can I assist you, admiral?"

"The Republic won't be willing to contribute extra ships to assist you with taking Sullust," She replied, studying the Commodore's face for a reaction.

"I'm well aware of HIGHCOM's reluctance," Teskit replied, gesturing to the holographic map. "The CIS has been agressive and hit hard of late. I understand why they have pulled back to defend and rebuild lost forces. Clones and our personnel are not as easily replaced as the Confederacy's droids. But if we do no strike at one of the major worlds, then we will be ceding the initiative to the enemy. General Grievous is many things, unintelligent and unwilling to take advantage of weakness is not among them. If we sit back, he will strike as he did before, and we have no means to devise which fleet he will be with as of yet."

Admiral Zsinj considered Teskit's statement for a few short seconds before responding.

"All of that is accurate," She looked at the holomap and the systems it was focused on. "But the ORSF is not the Republic. If you can persuade me that with our assistance that your assault will be successful, then I will personally see to it that you receive the ships and assistance required to break through the Sullustian lines."

"We will use my battleship and destroyer as a spearhead," Teskit took control of the map and triigered a simulation. The ships of his fleet appearing and the known enemies in the system appearing as well. "Our job will be to focus on the enemy Providence and Lucrehulk-Class vessels that are in the system. The rest of the fleet will split according to our objectives. With wolfpacks of combined Arquitens and Acclamators hunting and destroying any stragglers. While I would like to capture the Sullustian shipyards intact, if we cannot, then we will need to deny them to the enemy. In the event that we are likely to fail, I will instruct my fleet to skuttle the shipyards. If the Horizon were with us, I would interdict the system. But alas, she is not, and so we will not be able to prevent the enemy from escaping or from contacting the greater Confederacy for Reinforcements."

"You still haven't told me where my fleet comes in," Zsinj crossed her arms. "Why do you need extra ships?"

"Because while we have the firepower to take out the majority of the enemy firepower," Teskit waved for the simulation to proceed. "We do not possess adequate anti-starfighter assets to keep my fleet alive. If the estimates are accurate, then we will win against every ship that comes against us. But we will still fail," the simulation showed all of the ships being swarmed by fighters, bombers, and boarding craft. The battleship and destroyer the last of the Republic vessels to be destroyed. "The ORSF has significant assest that can assist."

"Run through a few more simulations with me, first," Maarisa leaned over the table. "Let's see what othe tactics may work. I'd rather not spend my entire fleet on a gamble."

---

The lights that lined the Triumphant's corridors were dimmer than the lights on the Horizon. Instead of the harsh white that seemed to illuminate the Republic's vessels, they were a darker, more comfortable yellow-white in color.

I didn't even really want to be here. But Aliya had insisted that she'd found a way to get the bridge open, and as the acting CO of two ships, I needed to be present to help deal with whatever was on the other side. (And if I didn't come, then she'd open up the doors anyway but without sufficient backup. It was as if she was being compelled to open the doors)

Fortunately, I hadn't come alone. I'd brought two squads of Commandos, a handful of the old War droids we'd found on the spare parts Interdictor. I'd also put on the Republic Mod armor that I'd acquired, and made sure that all of my weapons were ready. I wasn't taking any chances on what might be on the other side…