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Cale activated the ship's warm up sequence. The instrument pannel lit up in a series of colored lights as the ship's systems powered on.
Cale slid his helmit on and fastened it as the vessel warmed up. he glanced over the control panel to check for errors as the selonian and whatever crewmen it could enlist started clearing things out of the way and securing them.
Suddenly a thought crossed his mind.
What the hell am I doing?
His thoughts continued as his hands danced across the controls almost automatically. I'm taking a single fighter out to fight proffessional military pilots and four star destroyers with only a private security company's antique relics to back me up. the wooks have done no favors to me. and who gives a vrelts a** about these freighter bums. if they were smart, they would have bolted by now. logically, the only reason Im jumping ship is so that Im not on this thing when those destroyers blow it apart. thats makes sense, right? gotta look out for number one.
but what about when you were at Endor? you flew there against the full might of the imperial fleet when you could have simply not gotten involved in the first place.
That was different. I was a stupid kid then. times change. so shut up.
Different how? The Alliance needed help. now these people need help. the least you could do is buy them time to escape to hyperspace. besides, what kind of outlaw runs from a fight?
a smart one. now shut up. I shouldn't be arguing with myself.
a song ushered forths from the depths of Cale's mind, a sweet tune that he could never forget.

Cale's more practical side scowled.
Cheater.
The path was clear, the instruments showed all green, and the spacers were opening the hold. before a vacume could suck everything into space, a magnetic shield popped in place and held the atmosphere in check.
Cale flipped one more switch on the control pannel. the Red and gold coloring of the ship fadded away to a matte black color scheme. across the dorsal surface of the Phoenix, a learing white human skull and crossbones materialized.
The standard human symbol for piracy.
"and the Devil knows my name." Cale said silently to himself with a grin.
He ignited the thrusters and shot out of the cargo bay.

Cale leveled himself out and cut his acceleration as he took stock of the situation. one of the destroyers was moving in fast to intercept the freighters, who were sluggishly trying to move out of Kashyyk's gravity well. The SD was broadcasting the standard Imperial message: "Surrendar or be destroyed." But from the way the vessel moved toward the freighters, it looked like it was more interested in catching than disintegrating.
"Tough times, eh imps?" Cale muttered. "Big bad navy, all the good toys, and now you're nothing more than Pirates." his sensors notted the launch of two squadrons of fighters. none of them were TIEs.
"I-7 Howlrunners? wow. these must be tough times to be an imperial." Cale hit his accelerator and blasted off toward the howlrunners.
As he barreled in he oppened fire on the imperial craft. white hot bolts of energy rained down upon the I-7's. the squadrons scattered though he managed to blast one of them. The Phoienix twirled around and locked on to a second one. despite the pilot's efforts, Cale trailed him just long enough to lock on with one of his short range missles. he let it fly and peeled back swooping around for another target as the missle blew the I-7 to pieces.
Cale straffed another fighter and damaged it, spinning the Phoenix around to tail his wounded advisary. Catching it in his sights, the outlaw opened up with his lasers, blasting the enemy craft's engines and launching what was left to deep space.
"Sith, this is almost too easy!" Cale exclaimed. "What do they teach you guys at the acadamy nowadays? how to die with honor?!"
a Fighter locked on to Cale's aft and started peppering the Phoenix with green bolts. Cale shook his head and dipped the nose down, looping his craft behind the other pilot. he shot the imp down and laughed."Well you guys sure know how to die, I'll give you that! But winning wars ain't about Dying for your cause, its about making the other guy die for his!"

Ther Fighters were coming in thicker now, their numbers starting to make up for their ship''s flaws and their low piloting experience. several of the X-wings had been blown apart, though the A-wings were hlding their own. A few of the freighters had escaped to hyperspace, but the rest of the Convoy was still moving sluggishly.
The Star Destroyer sat not far off from the fleet, stareing down the three smaller vessels that made up the Convoy''s escorts. Neither side had opened fire yet. The smaller ships certainly knew they didn''t stand a chance against the Star Destroyer, but Cale had no Idea why the Imperial ship was just sitting there.
Not that he had much time to think about it. there were more than enough I-7''s to worry about.
Cale rolled the Phoenix to starboard to avoid the lasers of an incoming Howlrunner and cut his acceleration, letting the moron fly right into Cale''s crosshairs. the following explosion marked a baker''s dozen of kills, but there was plenty more who were itching to hole the Pirate craft.
"Y''know, the Republic sure is taking their sweet time to get here." Cale grumbled. "Four Destroyers pop into Republic territory and I have yet to see even one farkling capital ship!" he patched a comunication over to the Nebulon B as he dodged the attack of yet another I-7.
"Kern''s Drift, here. Who''s Hailing?"
"This is the guy who''s doing your job for you. what the hell are you guys doing over there?!"
there was some mumbling over the comn as the comunications officer talked to her superior. then a different voice replied back.
"Copy, Pirate ship. we''re holding our position. over."
"get off your asses and Call the republic! you got a comunication relay!"
"Cant, Pirate ship."
"Why the hell not?!"
"The SD is blocking our call."

THe sight was not pretty. Kashyyyk burned, the war cries heard from so far away. Wookiee growls and machine creaks and cranks filled Imperius' ears. Overhead, the few TIEs he had gathered streaked over-head, harassing the Wookiee villages, spraying ozone everywhere. Overhead, the few star destroyers and ex-CIS cruisers opened their turbolazer batteries on the other side of the planet.

Imperius laughed, the battle was won.

And then, they came.

A Republic fleet suddenly dropped out of hyperspace, and unleashed their fighters. Several swooped down to fight off his TIEs, but most of the E-Wings and a few B-Wings turned towards the capital ships as the Republic Mon Cal MC80Bs lumbered towards the Star Destroyers.

Imperius growled and fumbled for his comm, and recalled the fighters back. Howlrunners, TIEs, and Vulture craft shot over to protect the fighters, but he had a feeling it was to late.. Filling his mind with the anger he had felt at Theran's revelations, he used the energy to fuel his motion, running and leaping the five miles towards the main offensive.

He lit his lightsaber and cut through a few Wookiees towards Alpha.

"ALPHA!"

The droid opened it's wrist rifle and blasted through Wookiees to get to him.

Yes, Lord Imperius?

"You are a fool."

And with that, Alpha was decapitated.

Drako watched as the Jedi moved to the side. Try rebound he slid along the ground and hit a pile of Mandalorians, droids and Wookies.

He looked to his fallen brothers. The sounds of the battle echoing. THe Jedi said some thing .....but his words were lost.

............MY.............. BROTHERS!!!!!!!!!!!

Drako turned to see the Jedi run. Drako felt some thing burning in him. Drako didnt think he only felt the dark side. Drako took off after the Jedi. His force pushing him as fast as it could.

Drako leaped into the trees. He bounded all around. He cut through trees to get at the Jedi.

Neb grinned as the droid general began slashing at every branch in his way just to keep up. But the plan was not even started. Neb zigged and zagged, dodging past droids and imperials alike, but this was nothing.

Neb found what he wanted. Drako was in such a fury to catch up to him, he wouldn't realise himself. Or so Neb hoped. Finding his target, and placing a very large bet on the mind of the mandelorian, Neb did the coldest thing one could possibly do in his mind.

Neb stopped, watching Drako come out from teh trees swinging in fury. Neb moved back, gracefully evading the swings as the general became even more furious.

"Come on, you bucket of bolts. Can't you get any more wild?" He stated.

Then, he set his plan into action. As the general swung, Neb grabbed a fellow mandelorian soldier, letting the general decapitate his own man, as Neb came up behind the droid with saber drawn.

"See, now you have killed one of your own. Your anger consumes you. You think you control your power but instead, you let your emotions control you. You think that your emotions fuel your power, and you think you can control your emotions, but they control you. What happens when you kill those closest to you? What happens when you kill a friend, or possibly a brother? What will your power do then?"

Mordranna was surprised by the wreckage of the Clone Wars relic that was flying towards her. Still, she managed to deflect it, cleaving the droid in half. "'Some amount of force' you say?" she incredulously asked as the droid pieces fell to the ground. "I suppose that the destruction of Alderaan was all good in your eyes, is that what you mean to tell me?"
Mordranna then brought up her lightsaber in a defensive stance, awaiting Valycia's next move. "Let me tell you something: you cannot have true peace by ruling by terror," Recalling the words once spoken by the great Master Yoda, as Neb once recited to her during a hyperspace travel, she began. "In the words of Master Neb, and Master Yoda before him: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."

(( something like that, anyway ))

"Or, would you prefer to rule over ruins?" Mordranna stated, her azure gaze locked onto her's.