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Once again, Ritt found himself staring down five enemies, and in zero G nonetheless. It was back to "beat on the blind guy". So he slipped and used the force once or twice to help reorient himself in the hold. That didn't matter, though. As he floated, he helplessly got pummeled ball by ball over his body, as whoops and hollers echoed.

"At least this is better than sitting around. Its been a week since we've taken this place, its finally a chance to let loose," Wishmaster expressed with a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, yeah. Beat on the handicapped commander. He can only outfly you blindfolded," Ritt replied a smile on his face.

"What we ought to do is get the remotes out and let them play along too. After all, dodging blasterfire is rather difficult if you're windin' up for a good pitch," Rico added. Ritt had drifted off into silence, however. The voices blurred, the flows of the force had shifted, the sand disrupted. Something didn't feel right. The sith were due to attack at any time, but they'd be detected when they did arrive. Paranoia kept soldiers alive, but unhealthy doses made you miss critical details. "Ritt? Sir? Snap out of it."

"Sorry, guys," He mustered up. "Lets get in a drill while we're pumped up. Suit up and launch in fifteen. We've got nothing better to do, and the other pilots must be bored."

While the attitude wasn't entirely pleasant, nobody had much to disagree with. Ritt himself went to get suited up washing his face off. He had no mirror in his room, though sometimes he wished he did anyways. He clicked a button on the wall, as the music of Lenny Koggins got his head into a beat as he did some pre-fight stretching in his flight suit.

~~~~~

Out on Combat Air Patrol, Reverend gave a great sigh. Nothing on scopes for the week hadn't given him much to look for; Being a Republic officer hadn't given him permission to slack off.

"So I was telling my gal back at base how I was goin' on a secret mission and be back in a couple days. She's not gonna give me any lovin' anytime soon," The eighth slot pilot said in a low moan.

"Did I give you permission to b***h, soldier?" Reverend replied, not really in the mood to think about friends and family at home, no matter how annoyingly quiet the sector had been of late.

"Sorry sir," sparked through the com. Reverend had no interest in trying to correct anyone at any time. He tapped the sensors, as his head rested against the back of his seat. Scanning the space, nothing seemed to be happening. Counting the stars, he began to try and name the various systems he could count. Scanning the horizon, something didn't seem right. Three stars were exceptionally bright. They didn't make sense. It didn't click in his head until a beeping noise occured.

"Home Plate, we have bogeys on sensors," Reverand began, as he took a look. "Clear that, those are hostile Anzati* inbound! Sniper fire inbound, take evasive action Home Plate!"

~~~~

Onboard the Bathurst, everything had turned red. Normal lighting had temporarily shutdown, as the energy was drawn to the engines. The entire ship had rocked, throwing Ritt to the side as the gravity shifted.

"If that damnable captain scratches my ship just one nick," he began, as he rushed down the hall, using the force to compensate for the gravitational pull. Tuing was not to blame, after all, he was only trying to protect them from as much harm as possible. Long range weaponry was not always accurate; hopefully that last minute move would be enough to dodge it.

He reached his fighter, noticing one pilot launching as he began the emergency startup sequences. The fighters were mostly unarmed; only a pair of boosters were currently listed for the fight, as teams worked to lock a pair of concussion tubes to the rack. Another pilot had started to take off, but as the ship jolted from a hard hit, the fighter was thrown off course, running into another ship, effectively making both a tangled mess.

Ritt couldnt' take any chances; not letting the craft fully warm up, he felt deep into the force to lift it up and align with the Bathurst's changing horizon, until perfect launch occured. Throwing the throttle forward, the small fighter blasted out, letting itself out into space and out of harms way.

"Situation, Daredevil? Repeat, Home Plate, what's the situation? Over," Reverend said over the coms. It was easy to see what had put them into an uproar; missle tracks were plainly visible to the naked eye (in this case, Ritt simply guessed it had to be a missle). Taking command of the situation, Ritt realized that they had waited too long.

"Reverend, official order. Weapons Free, repeat weapons free, over," Ritt blared over all coms. Flipping frequencies, he quickly listened to the Nova and Garath's coms, as they complained.

"Sniper switched, heading point 175. Switched again, heading point 243. They're hitting us with missles from multiple vantage points."

Ritt flipped back to the coms. "We've got multiple snipers at various headings. Points 32, 175, and 243. Break off and engage, shooters, repeat, break off and engage, over." As the group began, everything stopped.

"Skip that playmates. Long range sensors lost contact. Keep close to Home Plate and be prepared for anything. We are preparing coordinates for Friendly space currently. Repeat message, skip that playmates. Prepare for jump," Tuing's voice announced over the coms.

"How long until evac of the marines, over?" Ritt asked.

"Ten minutes. Comscan has detected three cruisers launching fighters at 087 degrees. Prepare for a furball, boys."




(*In brevity, the code "vampire" is a hostile Anti-missile ship. In this case, we shall replace the word with a SW equivalent, most notably the Anzati)

"Now then, I will show you to your quarters." Caladon stated as he motioned for her to follow. "Though ive a feeling you wont be using them for long. Follow me, please." Caladon begain walking away from Stryder and heading towards the inner keep of the castle, glancing back to make sure the padawan was keeping pace.

When the two had gone, Lord Lee came down the stairs and walked to strider, curling up the bag of popcorn for later consumption.
"Well it looks like the advanced will be getting their fight in a jiffy." he told Stryder. "My scouts have just contacted me regarding several large ships being pulled off for an engagement somewhere. They left their stations a day ago."
"I was wondering why you felt the need to inerupt me. Define large ships." Stryder told him.
"Cruisers. Three confirmed."
"Do our boys on the line know about this?"
"No. The report is hot off the wire. It takes time to sneak messages out of Sith Space."
Stryder cursed. "Send word to the destroyers Harlock, Quel-Droma, and Coruscant. Tell them to hype to the station to reinforce our men there and tell them to be ready for trouble."
Lee nodded. "Consider it done, my lord."

Back in her quarters at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Saria was trying out some new ideas she got from Obroa-Skai. Unfortunately, most of her experiments resulted in either failure or different results that turned them into something other than what was expected. One mixture that was supposed to be a medicine evaporated in an instant. Another became nothing more than a substitute for hot sauce. One unsuccessful experiment exploded in a blue and red cloud of smoke, and what remained was just a mess of goo. There were a few successes however. She kept notes in a datapad to record what she had tried and the results of each. Perhaps later she would have better luck. For now however, she needed a break.

Saria went outside to get some fresh air and relax. She started to stroll around the compound aimlessly, looking around to see some of the younglings playing in the distance, and a few padawans doing some outdoor training, along with various other things. " How could anyone despise this? " she thought. " What is there here that threatens anyone? All we want is peace in the universe. "

__________________________

Siren didn't get a unanimous vote of support from the other political figures on Thule, but it played out in her favor despite it all. They met with her privately one on one. The few that didn't support her just so happened to meet an untimely death at the hands of an assassin that was against Thule being united under what they claimed was a dictatorship. However, Siren's personal forces quickly apprehended the assassin and brought them to justice, an act that convinced the others that she knew exactly how to handle things and was prepared for anything. Those that remained gave her their support.

Within the next few hours, there was a big public meeting in capital city. After a few speeches were made by the political figures present, Siren was named Queen of Thule, with everyone uniting behind her. Her plans for Thule have come to fruition. The planet was hers.

(( I dunno if " queen " would fit as well or not, but I don't know what else to go with that would equal Siren having power over the whole planet. ))

As Caladon turned back, a strong, imposing figure stood leaning a giant of a man wearing the robe of a jedi master. His hair was blond and braided throughout, his skin was golden and scarred. He bore a bright smile and waved to Aurora."Let Lord Styder know that Master Gohgei has arrived. He seeks t speak with him." He said to Caladon.

Revan's image starred at the woman, "I am Revan, now what do you intend to do with that shield young Mando'ad?"

* * *

Saul felt his skin crawl slightly as he stepped up to the bar of the cafe and left the short message with the bar's proprietor. As he stepped out and headed back toward the hangar he felt his pulse slow. If there'd been a trap, he'd failed to spring it so far.

As he reentered the Hangar Saul felt his heart begin to thunder in his chest again as he had time to think through what he'd begun doing. He already was a wanted man, and defecting would only make him a more desirable target for his former compatriots. He was about to slam the door shut on his past, and he hadn't even formally admitted what he was about to do.

Akira had figured it out, maybe she saw him just as a scared little boy or something, but she knew he was running from the sith and that was enough for her.

As he ascended the ramp of the ship he heard a yelp of surprise from the cockpit, apparently the ship's computer had made its bloodthirsty nature apparent.

"You expect me not to complain with your clean white hands in my innards? I want the bloody hands of my master, maybe I should just self destruct and kill you all," The Computer yelled as Akira kicked the speaker. "What the matter jedi... afraid of a little puter?"

Akira grinned to herself at that, "You don't know who you're messing with." She pulled out a panel and pulled out a set of slicing tools from her pockets and plugged them in.

"What now... daisy... daisy..." The voice went through a burst of static before a new voice emerged, a female voice, "Personality overridden, new personality loading..."

"A pity that doesn't work with people," Akira said as she slammed shut the access panel.

* * *

The ship was black, craggy and ferocious in design. It's side decorated by sith glyphs that glowed a hue like that of force lightning. It was a hybrid, a mix of technology and the force, much like it's pilot... awaken from a long slumber the black cloaked figure stood, it's body feeling no age, no pain, nothing. The whir of metal, a shiny armor beneath the concealment of the inky cloak, was all it heard. But it's puppeting spirit heard far more, and was more entwined with the force then any living being should be, for it shouldn't have been living, nor should it have access to force but it did, like the exile had long before.

The last battle with Revan had done this, created the twisted spirits and their bodies, a punishment Revan thought suitable for these true sith that had come to the galaxy's gates. He stripped them of their bodies, and the force he thought, and replaced them with machines, holding each spirit in immortal torment within the cage of these machines, or so he had hoped. He sent the cages which were their disembodied minds back to the Sith.

But the six had learned to turn their torture, their misfortune and disfigurement, into weapons and with the key to the galaxy's gate found, it was time for them to avenge themselves upon the galaxy. They would find Revan's Shield, deactivate his machine guardians, and sweep into the light of the known galaxy like an everlasting tide.

The puppeting spirit guided the body into the ship's cockpit and together the body and spirit guided the ship to awake and leap into the brilliant blue tunnels of hyperspace.

Aurora looked over and saw Master Gohgei smiling face standing near Master Caladon as he waved to her. This she was not ready for, nor was she expecting to see Master Gohgei here at Lord Stryder’s fortress so soon after her arrival on planet. She returned his wave, excused herself form Lord Jarek before following Lord Stryder over to where her master stood

“Master Gohgei.” She greeted him.

Stryder frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "I was not informed about this." He said in an annoyed tone. "It bothers me no small amount to have people arrive at my home unnanounced. It also bothers me the Council thought not to consult me on having you assigned under my command."

Stryder arched an eyebrow.
"Oh? And go where?"