Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Sorry to disappoint EK but Dathomir is no the goal of this operation. Are you familiar with the Solo Slingshot? No, well meet a logical derivative of it... the Bothan Scythe.)))

Commodore Kull smiled coldly as the hyperspace counter slowly dropped. Thirty seconds... Twenty seconds... Ten seconds...

Commodore Kull braced herself, "All hands, brace for turbulence!"

Seven... Six... Five... Four... The blue tunnel of hyperspace collapsed and was replaced by starlines. Three... Two... The starlines began to fade. One.

With a tremendous groan of strained metal, and a concusion that shook the bridge the Trafalgar dropped out of hyperspace. A mere hundred and twenty kilometers above the surface of Taris.

"Helmsman, full thrust! Ten degree's down angle." Commodore Kull barked. The Stalwarth-class ship was falling, it's massive bulk being pulled in by Taris's gravity. Ahead Commodore Kull could see the two Wombat-II Star Frigates that were the point of her battle line do the same maneuver. Behind her the two other Wombat-IIs and two Stalwarth's would be doing the same.

The altimeter began to fall, the ship was now at ninety kilometers above the surface and falling fast. The sublight drives groaned from the pressure of running at full thrust. The ship was hurtling forward. Slowly the descent slowed, then stopped. They had leveled out at sixty kilometers.

Commodore Kull sat, chagrined, it had worked. The insane plan Admiral Elsyn had crafted worked. Ahead the shapes of the Taris Shipyards began to rise above the planetary horizon. Glancing at the displays Kull noted the speed... Over a hundred and twenty MGLTs! Thanks to gravity assistance of Taris itself.

Above them the Mandalorian and Loyalist ships began scrambling, but they were already far outpaced. The only hope they had at catching them was to try and nab them as they came around again on the next orbit.

There would be no next orbit, "Helmsman, ninety degree rotation. Stardboard Gunners target Taris's ground defenses, port gunners target the orbital structures."

The Stalwarth began firing as it passed over the primary urban centers of Taris. The attempts to engage the Trafalgar from the ground were doomed to failure... their orbit was low and counter to the planet's rotation giving the gunners only a fleeting shot at the ship as it passed. Still the Stalwarth's gunners fired down on the defenses as they passed. Planetary Turbolasers and Ion Cannons were fixed points, and they were known points in the Imperial Databanks.

Ahead the shipyard that made Taris a weapon loomed large. In the cavernous bays Commodore Kull could see six Victory IVs in the final stages of construction. They would never see combat as the barrage from the port missile tubes launched a volley into the shipyard, blasting apart tugs and supply containers. Mauling the nearly finished hulks and blowing apart worker control stations. The shipyard itself was to massive to take down in one strike, but even so the Stalwarth's would take their own crack at it.

The ships shot past the shipyard, blasting away at it as they passed. Knocking out valuable equipment and destroying weeks worth of construction. A pair of Tartan cruisers that had been on close escort duty were hosed down by the supporting Wombat Star Frigates as they passed.

Allowing only herself a hint of a smile Commodore Kull turned to the navigator, "Set course for Junction. Engineering devote all power from weapons to the engines."

"Aye Commodore," The main engineer answered as the ship bucked from a ion cannon impact from the ground.

Commodore Kull glanced at the helmsman, "Take us out of orbit."

The three Stalwarth-class Star Destroyers and four Wombat-II Star Frigates shot upward with the enemy ships now in hot pursuit. As they finally began to enter range they disappeared leaving behind the results of an epic hit and run.

The ship engineers weren't pleased by the damage done to their ship's hyperdrives in the maneuver, but that pailed in comparison to the damge left behind. The shipyard would be closed for some weeks and with the loss of one of the enemy's shipyards however temporary the Imperials gained room to maneuver, and that was all they would need.

(Damn you. Now I have to go and piss you off.)

Centares was a planet with about one billion people, and one of the few worlds along the outer rim spared by the Vong Invasion. The planet wasn't much nowadays more than a few decent cities, an acidic lake, and strip mines. There were some spaceports, and the biggest threat for the Empire here was that it lay on they Perlemain Route beyond Junction, and would still clog the ways in.

Losing Junction hardly mattered. They hadn't held the planet long enough, and most of the recruits had been taken off planet anyway and spared from the battle. While they were being trained, though, the third Mandal fleet assaulted Centaures.

Three Canderouses was enough to knock out the planetary gun emplacements in short order. A few waves of fighters and some steady fire from an assault frigate later, and the planet demanded ceasefire. Five minutes later it all ended, and the force was given leave to set up defenses.

~

Elladan cursed to himself as he red the report. Taris. His primary ally, his first ally in all of this, had been hit, and disabled effectively. The shipyards were in ruins, and four of his prized ships lay in smoking heaps. Rage tore through his chest, and he vowed he'd avenge every person who died to keep the Loyalists alive. "What's our status, Sven?"

"Not good, sir," the captain replied. "They busted all of the ships, and we'll be lucky to scrap them into one. The yards themselves suffered mostly cosmetic damage in nature, and there are only seven deaths so far. Otherwise, we'll be back on schedule in two weeks."

The chiss shook his head. Two weeks was a lot, and without Taris, he had to rely even more on Dxun, Wayland, Mandal, and Mandalore. "Is the fleet ready to attack?"

"Not quite. The infiltrators will need a few more hours to sift the data throgh the ship, and ensure it spreads through the Imperial comm channels. Unless, of course, you'd rather attack something else?"

He thought about it, but Elladan decided against it. "No, stay on schedule. Our losses are cut short for now, but we can still fight. We'll fit the Pellaeon in three hours."

When the smoke had cleared, the Bridge was theirs.
Any and all resistance had been terminated.
Mandalore swept the room for life signatures and them turned to his men.
"Voor. Set yourself up infront of that door and cover us. Call up the nearest Vode you can find to help us keep this secured. Wedge, jack into the computers and hack the systems. I want complete control of this station."

Voor slapped down the bi-pod of his heavy repeater and laid down in front of the hole, his Range finder flipped down over his visor as he scanned the hall they had battled their way through.
Wedge tapped the side of his helmet once and then doffed it, revealing the face of a young dark haired man with a cybornetic implant at his temple.
Wedge made his way to an uncharred consol and drew a datacable from his implant, connecting it to the computer.

Mandalore pressed a hand to the side of his helmit and activated his Comn.
"Kusei. Status report."
"Station two and three are ours. Awaiting orders."
"Find out where the planetary Garrisons are stationed and point your guns at them. Be ready to blast them from orbit."
"Elek, Mand'alor."

Mandalore looked to Wedge, the young man's eyelids cloesed but his eyes behind them moving rapidly.
"Are you in yet Wedge?"
"Hold on. I'm not as fast at this as Kusei is...there. The Station is ours."
"Transmit a surrender demand to the surviving station personel, lock all guns on the nearest city, and give me the Defender's Comn frequency. I want to put an end to this quickly."
"Done...done...and done. Go ahead Mand'alor."

Mandalore felt the entire station shift slightly under his feet as the Golan shifted its position to aim at the planet below.

"Attention Kenet Loyalist forces. I am Mandalore the Immortal. My people and I have taken possecion of your Golans and have locked on to your ground based garrisons, as well as Junction's major population centers. Either power down your ships and surrender to the Empire, or we will begin to orbitaly bombard Junction with your own Golans. You have five minutes to decide before we open fire. Any attempts at interstellar communication, retaking the golans, or any violent acts in general will result in the immediate execution of planetary bombardment. That is all."

Wedge cut the communication and Voor chuckled.
"Not pissing around, eh Mand'alor?"
"Kenet believes he has the Moral High ground." Mandalore stated. as he stared out at the planet of Junction. "But with such a stance comes a high price. His will be forced to surrender in order to protect the civilians. And if I read him wrong, the Junction will simply serve a demonstration to Kenet's member worlds as to what will happen if they remain with him."

Wedge, still conected to the computer systems glanced briefly at his leader.
"What if the Imps dont agree with our plans? They might not like us glassing all those taxpayers."

Mandalore chuckled. "This is historically how the Empire dealt with rebelling worlds: Threaten them with destruction. Treason comes with a high price in the Empire, more so when the Sith rule it. But if the Empire doesnt like our methods, then they can handle Kenet and his Dar'manda alone. We're allied with the Empire, not in service of it."

Mandalore stared out the window, absently loading a fresh ammo pak into his carbine as he waited for Kenet's forces to surrender.

Aboard the Golans, hope was lost. Junction was lost, the hangar was lost, and their lives were lost unless they surrendered. Without warning, Mandalore the Immortal's HUD flashed, and they received word from the few survivors. "We surrender. Please, cease fire."

Apparantly, common military personel were ridiculously weak against the Force, or so Kathleen thought as she lounged in the mess hall. Her synthetic nerf steak and water were the least of her concerns, she'd told the other loyalists with her, and that was true enough. Their job here was almost done.

While they finished their bland meal, some off-duty technicians and a guard came to their table. "You're the crew from Junction, right?"

"That'd be us," the Witch admitted. "Why? Has our escape from the Mandalorians not reached all parts of the ship?"

"Actually..." The sat down, placing their trays with identical slabs of nerf down on the table. "We wanted to ask about what you told that Hangar worker."

"Ah. Not much I can tell you about that," she shrugged, tearing a piece of the tough meat with her fork and knife. "All I know is that the Sith were behind the attack on the Palace a few months back."

"How'd you find out?" one of them asked.

"Mostly by word of mouth, and what I overheard on the comm channels betwen Junction and Hapes."

"You said 'mostly'," another stated. His bars identified him as a comm officer. "What's the other part."

Time to set the trap. Kathleen turned to her nearby Witch accomplice and nodded. Moments later, both women reached out to influence the four people with the Force. "Well, one of the Holonet Channels, a while back, released exclusive findings on the attack. The Sith already cracked down on the relay station, but I managed to secure a copy of the holoproj."

"Really?" the comm officer asked with poorly hidden excitement.

"Yep. It might be bad if I gave it over to you guys, but if you made it worth our while..."

She hadn't even finished the statement when the man gave her a tab with a hundred credits on it. "Is that good?"

Kathleen looked at him, then shrugged. "We're leaving today anyway, and it's of no use to me. Here." She retrieved the holoproj from her pocket and handed it over to them. She motioned to her companions and they got up. "Just renember, you didn't hear it from us," she said, waving her hand gently at her side.

"Yeah, we didn't hear it from you," he repeated dully, eyes glazed.

"If you get caught with it, you'll be executed as traitors."

"if we get caught with it, we'll be executed as traitors."

The other witch, Lyael, nodded, finished up with her, so that the trick wasn't so obvious. "Make sure ou tell all of your fiends. They'll find it amusing."

The comm officer repeated the message, and both groups left, heading in opposite directions. Under 'orders', the infiltrators returned to their ship, and left to return to Junction to aid in the Imperial occupation there.

While the two witches and the mandalorian commandos left, the comm officer immediately told all who'd listen to him, and once he was on comm duty, made sure as many of the other comm officers knew about the Sith, and what the holoproj showed, with the fearsome Darth Krayt and his assasin droid standing other the dead carcases of Imperial Knights and guards.

Mandalore nodded.
"For rank ametures, you fought well. Sorry about what happened to your beloved space stations, but we really didnt feel like taking the stairs."
He turned and walked towards Regent,his poise confident. "Now, before we turn you over to the imperials, I have a few questions to ask you."
His wrist vibroblade shot out from his gauntlet.
"I do hope you plan on cooperating."

"Thanks. I Think I will met you on the Hektor's Shield. I'm sure you'll feel safe surrounded by all your "soldiers"."
Mandalore nodded to his men. "Take them to Kusei and Ari. I dont have time to interrogate them right now."
The Mandalorians nodded and dragged the prisoners away.

Mandalore watched the men depart for a moment longer before he turned to his two cohorts.
"Wedge, Voor, come. We have to pay a visit to our allies."

"Kandosi." Voor stated as he shouldered his heavy repeater. "I want to see if those floors are as heavily polished as they say they are."

"We'll find out. Wedge, find us the nearest of our boarding ships. We'll take one of those over to the Shield."

"Elek, Mand'alor." Wedge stated as he dove back into the computer one last time before withdrawing his datacable and putting his helmet back on.
"This way, Mand'alor."