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((Yes, you hit a convoy... part of which was carrying replacement hyperdrives for my forces. Commodore Kull is pissed...))

It was in the dead of night that the call came. Borill moaned as the small cylinder beside the headstand began to beep and vibrate. He rolled out of the bed and pulled the comm from the headstand. On the otherside of the bed a selonian moaned in her sleep. With a sigh Borill flicked on the comm, "Borill here..."

The now familiar voice of Commodore Kull answered him, her voice normally emotional, was now almost shaking with anger, "Admiral. Elladan Kenet just struck our convoy from Kuat!"

"Slow down Commodore..." Borill answered as he stood, "What happened?"

There was a pause on the line, one that Borill could tell was from the chiss taking a deep breath, "They struck a convoy headed for Garos IV. Among the items stolen were the replacement Hyperdrives for the ships we used on Taris."

"Sithspit, any word on how long before new replacements can be sent?"

"Another week, maybe two." Kull answered.

Borill frowned, "Alright, contact Admiral Akla and tell him Rear Admiral Elsyn requests that he shift his focus to convoy escort... and have him up the Garos IV defense fleet. Kenet wants to strike back... and I'd rather not have him pulling a Sluis Van."

Korriban, the planet Jedi dared not go. The Sith of old were entombed in great masoleums in the valleys, as their sith hounds guarded the entrance. Enough sith roamed the galaxy to turn Korriban into a training ground for their troops, their marshalls and their greatest warriors.

Krayt would not tolerate a fool's guard, and Ferno had long since reveled in the fact that Korriban was the third most secure planet in the galaxy.... next to his own base of operations and coruscant, of course. But what interested Ferno was not the tombs of the dead (he already had paid them enough respects for this decade), nor the troops being trained to wreck havoc against the loyalists and other threats which could occur. Nay, not even the hostile fauna tempted his fury.

Nay, in a deeper cavern, which few Sith dared tread, a threat had been cast down for nearly twenty years. Undisturbed, save for the few foolish apprentices which could not handle such a creature, it fed off the life sustinence of rodents and other prey, and grew more twisted by the powers of the dark side.

Ferno had insisted he go alone. The path was too perilous for standard troopers to traverse, and they would just get in the way. When the beast was tamed, defeated, or otherwise, he would signal a retrieval team for pickup. Armed with his lightsaber, his knowledge, and the pure ancient powers of the oldest sith, Ferno had nothing on the beast. Yet, he was confident he could capture it unharmed.

"That's insane, according to what you predict master droid!" Veers had noted, seeing the approximated data on the evolution of the creature. "If I did not know mi'lord better, I would almost insinuate that he was being cocky."

The rust-colored droid simply turned his head slightly at an angle. "It isn't cocky or boasting if my master can do it." Veers had understood this before, but Ferno was still quite unknown. His record against the peaceful jedi was all but spoilt. One loss against countless others throughout his supposed discovery twenty years ago. But against a beast, a creature without limitations, without reserve, without mercy, no record even came up in HM's databanks. Yet, the droid was still confident.

Ferno quickly put the memories back into the very rear of his mind, as he approached a keyhole rock formation, one which he knew quite well. An unmarked tomb, perhaps of a lesser sith whose ego had led to this construction, but not really powerful enough to be fully trapped within. Ferno glanced at the stone door, and gave a strong electrical blast. The door, seemingly unharmed, cracked in two all of a sudden letting out the foulest stench this side of Nal Hutta's worst sewage pipe, as death itself crept out. Ferno looked at the ground, as he floated inside. The darkness met the knight with little resistance, as his mask glowed brighter. But the red illumination from the eyes did little to help, though Ferno needed it not.

Reaching out with the force, everything brightened, till it became as bright as day. Rocks, stones, skeletons disappeared if he chose it, and off in the deeper part of the tomb the creature stirred. It sensed the sudden drop in pressure, the ringing explosion at the front door, and it felt hungry. It charged for the entrance, as Ferno stood against a stone wall, blending into the side. The creature itself hunted by sight, and also by the force. The Tuk'ata had long since been devoured, as Ferno watched the creature race by him. Ten meters away, the creature sniffed, as the knight lifted a hand and performed a quick choke.

Writhing in pain, the creature could easily be examined by the knight. Nearly twenty feet long, from nose to tip, it had glaring eyes as red as the lamps in Ferno's mask. a jaw protruded filled with the worst set of canines to ever meet a dentist, as the cheeks seemed to have fallen inward to a hard bony skeleton. The forehead stretched backwards, possibly to help aid balance for the creature, as a long, spindly carapace matched thin arms and powerful haunches. Each appendage ended with six claws, arranged four by two, and a tail which matched its bony structure extended twelve of its twenty feet, ending with three sharp blades which could contract into a single spear tip.

The creature was let go out of its grip, as Ferno gave it a chance to defend itself. First, the creature dropped, before climing up the wall as if gravity did not affect it. It let out a blood thirty roar, as thorny spikes erupted all over its body, like a switchblade armor. It seemed as though it could not see its prey, as ferno switched off his boots. A lightning bolt arced through the air, sending the creature to the side. It still seemed to not see its predator, as Ferno lit his saber, and then switched ti back off. From his movements, he finally could tell the beast had found what to look for.

As both combatants let out a roar, Ferno holstered his saber, pulling out a pair he had made for a more difficult opponent. Two curved sabers connected by a chain provided a whirlwind attack against the creature. He would need it, he expected, as the beast lunged forward...

TK-106 ran to the nearest shuttle, he and his squad loaded on and took off quikly. This meant there was trouble.

They were approaching the Hecktor's shield when they neared the docking bay the navi requested landing.
"This is assault shuttle no.3 requesting landing, over."
"This is the Hecktor's shield, you are cleared for landing in the main landing bay."
"Roger that, were coming in"
as soon as the shuttle touched down the troopers unloaded. they ran to their battle stations.
If this was a real emergency most storm troopers were trained in space fighter combat, so TK-106 could fill in as a TIE pilot if he was needed.
The halls were crowded with men and women trying to get some where in a hurry.

The tail, that was the key. Its tail lounged forward, as Ferno gripped as hard as he could with his left hand, and began to spin. The creature attempted to slash, but suddenly it found the room spinning. Its first reaction was to let its spines embedded on its vertebre-like tail out, and it followed this instinct. Yet, the grip would not let go, even with the twenty-second spine securely drawing blood.

Its sudden anticipation to continue spinning was met with further challenges, as when it decided to come back on itself, it found itself coming closer to the wall at a surprizingly fast speed, ending with a large thwump. It would retaliate, this time without trying to snap with its tail. This predator, this hunter seemed to phase in and out of existance, faster or slower than the beast could track, and it was utterly confused as to how to best attack the two red orbs. Going frontal, it charged with a roar, clawed talons slashing, as it found nothing but air.

Ferno was about ready to dance. His hand hurt from the spine, but the blood loss was inconsequential. Both sabers ignited, as he threw the first half in a downward slash, the centrifugal force adding speed to the slash, as the red blade came crashing down on the shoulder blade spike. Much to Ferno's slight amusement, the blade bounced off.

So, the Ack Dog hide did last, even after all this time...

Ferno began to flip the blade over his right shoulder, his left hand grabbing the other hilt, then bringing it with a slash horizontally across the beast's temple. Two more blows came from the whirling blades, as the chained sabers rang against the armored hide of the creature. Ferno stepped back, allowing his opponent to resume itself.

The creature had learned that close combat would hurt. Attacking with its tail would only get it caught and into more trouble, and it began to consider the ranged attack. Its three tail spines opened up, as it summoned throughout its body an organic acid, and fired at the spectre. By the time it released, the beast found no target to attack. The opponent was far too quick for it, so it thought. But it had never moved an inch. It stood right in front of the beast. Or did it?

Ferno was not any faster or stronger than the animal, precisely the latter, yet he was smarter. The brains which constructed Ferno's plans formulated one which even the beast would understand. He charged forward, and found his left hand caught by the beast. His right hand clasped the other, as the two monsters caught themselves in a handhold of equal strength. The red orbs stared at each other, while the masked figure channeled more strength through the force.

The beast knew its chance had arrived. Using its tail, it reached back, winding up for a strike down through the skull. It threw all the weight it could down, yet it found itself unable to push further down. A metallic grip had entrapped its tail. The only thing it had left was its most devastating weapon. So close of range, with such a great opponent, it must feed on the blood of this animal. Only then could the creature evolve into somehting stronger. It knew the strength it could gain to overcome its enemy lay in the blood of its opponent.

And so the mouth opened, the beasts curled toungue springing forward with enough force to shred open a stormtrooper's helmet. Ferno could not react in time to dodge the attack, instead pushing his head slightly forward to take the hit. The toungue's spiny hooks hit the metallic mask, stunning the creature that this beast had a tougher hide than it did. This was the opening which the tail had created on its first strike. Its weapons exhausted, it could only attempt to beat the masked warrior into submission, yet it did not seem to be able to go down in the darkness. It seemed to feed on the shadow, draw life from the creature.

A swift kick to the midsection sent the creature sprawling, as several key punches and a bat-swing from a sith sword sent the creature outside the door to the tomb. The bright light blinded the creature, as it let out a roar that demanded vengance, getting up, bearing its teeth once again.

But revenge would not serve today, as bars of metal surrounded the creature, and Ferno stepped out of the tomb, robes billowing in the air parted by the sudden capture. A quick blast of lightning, amplified by the probes within the cage knocked the creature out, as troops prepared to ship it up to the ISD Slayer, now in atmospheric orbit.

Ferno took two fingers to dust off his right shoulder, and took off himself to his personal shuttle, waiting for him over the next ridge.

Soon as the fleet showed up, Elladan smiled. "Okay, renember the plan, guys. First things' first, let's lure them a bit away from the yard."

A moment later, the Victories began reversing, backing up a bit, but still ready to defend. As soon as they were a few hundred meters away, he nodded to station two. "Now, signal the other parties to begin moving closer to the north-side of the planet, one ship at a time, slow enough to not set off any alarms.

The officer nodded, as Elladan turned to Sven. "Make sure the forces don't get too close to the planet. We need to get in and out and cause as much destrocutio as possible, not get the whole fleet on our backs."

Next, he turned to Detre. As soon as there's even a .001% chance of them launching any kind of boarding parties, activate the LT Transverter, and fire a few salvos of our weapons. If enough of their ships get taken out, we'll hammer them some more. If more than a third are still ready to fight, we'll leave.

Then, he turned to his comm officer. "Make sure they feed is secure. We're guaranteed at least seven minutes, maybe more, without slicers interfering. When and if they do, make sure all they know is the old code for the Transverter, and that we DO plan on using it."

He looked at Sven. "Hopefully they'll come at us in the belief that our device will fail. I doubt that, but we must be prepared for all contingencies. In any case, I want our jammers operating at 200%, and I want NOONE hacking into our systems AT ALL."

(Basically, if you launch more ramships or boarding parties, we'll just throw the switch and turn anything else within eiht miles into a bump on a log. And be aware we did change the signal.)

(Anything else I need to post to.... scrounge a victory? or at least a successful raid?)

(We're not THAT close to your base. We're barely even within ultra-maximum range of your outer-most defenses.)

Now it was time for stage three.

"Have our raiding parties succeeded yet?" Elladan demanded.

Sven confirmed the report. "The supply convoys north of Garos and both north and south of Junction have both been seized, and are ready to go home."

Elladan nodded. "Then let's go while we still can." A short command later, and the four Victories and their support craft hyperspaced away, before the battle even began.

Once the ships returned within Wayland-space, Elshae'k assesed what the ploy had done to off-set the defenses a little. "What was the catch of the done, Lady Kathleen."

The lady offered a grim nod, then handed over a datapad. Outside, several large freighters were unloading supplies, while nearly thirty more headed for Mandalore. "Overall total is thirty-seven captured freighters, and some raided escrot corvettes. We even managed to secure a few frigates. I'd say we have nearly 100-million tons of raw materials, plus a freighter's worth of ship parts, bound for Garos. One of the convoys a few days ago had several brand-new hyperdrives, Class .5 ands 1s."

"Good catch indeed," the chiss admitted. "I daresay our friend will be rather encensed that he's lost such valuable equiptment."

He turned to Sven. "Is my ship ready, Captain?"

"Almost, Commander. Thanks to the fresh source of materials, it'll be done by tommorow, day after that at the latest."

"Good," he then turned to Drakel. "How go the upgrades of your facilities?"

"Well, Commander." The man didn't nod or salute, as most would have, but this was about as much respect as he was going to get. "We've already replaced most of the older turbolasers and defense satelites. Once we have more spare materials, we'll begin enlarging the yards themselves, so we can build bigger ships."

The chiss nodded, and returned to his quarters, and sat at his datapad-laden desk. He was tired, and needed some more rest, and for now, things would be fine in his empire, at least for the next hour.