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((Those ships have to be further out... and I can't retreat, we're fighting in the combined gravitational mass shadow of Dxun and Onderon. I can't retreat, and unless you start running to escape the gravity well neither can you))

Borill shook his head... The enemy had scored the last of his bombers... at least the last of those that hadn't returned to his hanger bay after the first volley. Those that remained, some 68 T-97s were quickly being loaded with a pure Mag-Pulse load... Another dirty little trick in Borill's bag.

The bombers weren't the only ship being loaded with mag-pulse rounds, the Hektor's Shield itself was the loading its tubes with the Mag-pulse derivates he'd managed to obtain. On his sensors the Dxun fleet dropped out of hyperspace... well out from being able to engage them. The gravity wells of Dxun and Onderon had insured that. It would take them several minutes to close to engage... several minutes in which Borill could maneuver.

Onboard one of the Canderous class frigates a Mandalorian named Ichi Maki plugged himself into ship's computer. Covered by his mandalorian allies the ship itself became one with him... It's sensors came online, its drive active and its weapon systems operational.

On most of the Canderouses the boarding teams had met with astounding success, the small crew size and sheer size of the boarding teams had assured them of a victory in a boarding operation, but the speed had been far swifter then first anticipated. Only on one vessel was it going slowly, the one ship that had Noghri onboard... That had been the wildcard. Already two more were begining to maneuver under the controls of the boarding teams... Thus equalizing the odds once more.

((EDSON will you post. The boarding operation has begun!))

((Even Detre can't survive in a vacuum... Oops there goes another NPC. You can't have that ship secured. Edson's Character is aboard and their squad...))

The Mandalorians and Stormtroopers that had secured the ships knew what to do the moment the enemy shuttle arrived. They cut life support, killing all the boarders by opening the entire ship to the vacuum of space. They were unharmed, saved by their sealed armor suits. The noghri had never been issued breath masks, the very reason that Thrawn himself never used them in boarding operations.

Borill smiled as the Noghri shuttle spun off the ship, out of control. He glanced at Kusei, "Alright, lets show these guy how a Canderous class is suppose to be used."

With a flash the Canderous's under the pro-loyalist and mandalorian controllers launched a volley of missiles. Within moments the Acclamator III and Victory IV were under a withering barrage. Their shield broke and failed leaving the controllers with two choices, flee or die.

(And the suddenly my ships were destroyed: the end. Nope.)

Already aware of their flaws, the Noghri crews never left the ships. In fact, they didn't empty into the hangar. They headed landed directly at the starboard side.

One of the other commandos was about to open the doors, when Detre stopped him. "Have you learned nothing? They've probably vaccummed the ship."

"How can you be sure?" he demanded.

"Because we're noghri," he countered. "We don't use field gear, including survival suits."

"No..." he cursed.

"However, there are alternatives." He hit his comlink. "Have the on-board team bring us survival suits small enough to fit Noghri."

~

As soon as the vaccuums were engaged, Mandalore the Conquerer's plan went into action. He had forseen the use of ram ships, and he intended on making sure the Noghri would go to the rescue. He also knew his enemies would be expecting just that, so he had the liberty of arranging commando teams with spar survival suits on board their ships. These units didn't attack the enemy commandos once they boarded, but instead waited for them to take control of the ship.

Therefore, once the Dar'manda effectively had control of the ship, Droma and his eleven Commandos piled out of their cargo bins and headed straight for where the Noghri shuttle had landed. When they arrived, Droma greeted the Noghri through his two-way comlink. "Welcome to the Vindicator."

The Noghri replied. "Put the suits into the cargo hold on the ship. We'll secure them on the otherside."

They did so, and five minutes later, Detre and his noghri companions stept into the vaccumized ship, looking quite ridiculous. "This does not befit a Noghri..." the commando from before stated disdainly.

Droma chuckled. "No, but it sure as hell keeps you alive."

The other Mandalorians laughed, and they proceeded for the bridge.

~

Suddenly overcome by an assault from their own ships, Elladan immediately order there ships to vear off, away from the battle, torwards one of Onderon's small defense platforms. They were still peppered a bit, but after some strenuous minutes, they successfully broke off.

"We can't engage them at this range, sir." Sven called. "We can hide, but if they want to flee, they have as good a shot as any."

The chiss nodded. "Let them flee. They can't reverse things, and it's only a matter of minutes before our two teams retake the ships."

"You do realize they won't be able to pilot the ships, with the crew mostly dead."

"Very aware. All I need is for them to get rid of the other commandos and stop the harrassment."

((I'm going to win this thing EK... whether you like it or not.))

With the enemy ships pulling away and the starfighters that had been launched with them faced with the choice of continueing to fight or running the Hektor's Shield's Predators found that their foes had disappeared along with their motherships. Now free to target other objects the predators looked for and found the Noghri shuttles... They swooped in and scrapped the vessels from the ship's hull with stunning ease.

Borill nodded as the enemy ship's moved off, "Good, our shields are still at full, their first fleet is shattered, and the Canderous-class ships they'd brought to fight us with our under our control, each borded by a force equal to or twice the size of its original crew... ((Thats right there's over 200+ troops on each ship now. Each assault shuttle delivered a platoon of forty troops, and each rammship delivered 30 mandalorians)).

The Canderous class ships quickly formed up around the Hektor's Shield as it turned to face the second fleet.

Frowning Borill glanced at the comm officer, "Priority one transmission to Admiral Akla. Request additional forces for the Onderon Operation, we've defeated their first fleet but a second fleet has arrived."

The comm officer nodded then spun on her seat, "ETA thirty minutes for reinforcements."

Borill frowned, "Thirty minutes eh?" He sighed, "Reverse course, we'll give ground for time... In the meantime start shuttling additional troops to the Canderous-class ships. Lets make sure we keep them... and send some Zero-G Troops as well."

Ten minutes later, Kathleen and her hundred or so Mandalorians had rounded up the few guards on board, while the Noghri and technicians spread throughout the ship, seizing all of the facilities and ordinances available. The bridge was taken with little fuss, save for a stubborn security droid that the witch quickly lightsabered.

"Bridge is secure," her lead commando called, as she finished hoarding the captives onto the few escape shuttles and launched them into space. "But we've got company."

Peering out one of the viewports, she spotted what reinforcements decided to show up: a pair of Wombats, a Nemesis, and a Stalwarth. "Evac when ready, Major. We're done here."

"Roger." There was a brief exchange of turbolasers between her Canderous and the other ships, but before there was any further response, the raiding party and carrier retreated to hyperspace, on route to Mandalore.

(Assuming he's alive. If he isn't...well.... but if he is, then my guy may yet just have a future)

Mossa heard a huge explosion coming from the base he recently vacated. After a few screams of delight, he stopped to put 2 and 2 together.
"Okay...Explosions towards here...I'm here....Not grenades, but booming....AAAAHH!! WAR BEGINS!!"
He ran like crazy towards his ship, while his grenades dropped and exploded behind him.
When he arrived at the fighter, he opened the cockpit, where many explosives were crammed. While he prepared the ship for departure, something outside of the ship caught his eye. One of his explosions had uncovered a holovid deep in the ground,so he decided to go out and get it.
When he activated it, it looked like a large generator of sorts, but with no type of way a guy like Mossa could figure out what it was. Mossa got on the ship and departed, trying to find out what he would do next.