Classis XII Sector Thraecia's Story

For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction...

The small colonial world of Chaya Sar would be avenged, that was the promise that Emperor Prince made to the Imperial Admiralty after receiving the distress call.

"They will be avenged..."


"..We've tracked the hostile vessels to this sector of the Ayenee galaxy that we've identified as Cobalt Edge, a previously Varden territory under the occupation of an Emperor Mor, and Something called a Sith Empire." Lieutenant Ogilvy reported, handing the paperwork to Admiral Leia Nash, the supreme Commander of Operation 'Sword of Retribution.'

"I've compiled reports from preliminary long range scans of the area from Prowler flights in and out of the system, it's heavily fortified, but intelligence reports that our warships outclass theirs by a fairly wide margin." He added, maintaining a rigid posture.

Admiral Clegg stood in silence as he listened to the preliminary planning session, at roughly a thousand light years away, masked by a dense radiation cloud.

Nash kept a stern look, the interior of the Absolution bearing the fresh scars from their fight over Isiria, the outer hull was spared no exception, but fortune smiled on their blind jump, and they had managed to jump somewhere close enough to regain their bearings and jump back to the Empire.

"We'll launch forward reconnaissance elements, tag the positions of their vessels, and initiate with a quantum plasmid and thalaron volley from our missile cruisers, from there, Task forces one and two will jump in here... and here." She said, gesturing to the holographic map.

"They will acquire targeting solutions, and open fire immediately after jumping." Nash explained.

"Formations of Gemenon class cruisers, and Athena missile cruisers will jump here, beyond this dust cloud, they will use telemetry from the Datalink to saturate the enemy formations with high-yield warheads, ensure the Commanders of these ships avoid friendly fire."

"Inform the fleet to synchronize their jump drives, We'll initiate the operation in one millicenton." Nash said confidently. "You're dismissed."

Bryon was the first to depart, leaving the embattled Absolution to board the Keeper of Abbasid.


Everyone conferred with their crews, plans were being drawn up, attack plans disseminated and prepared, a well as jump plots, but one ship in particular, a Reverence S Class jumped into the system itself, carefully positioned behind the moon of a gas giant.

Engaging it's cloak, the singular Aschen ship moved silently, garnering telemetry on both planetary position, and the positions of almost every warship within Cobalt Edge, critical information for the coming strike.

Within the Sancturary as Mor spoke Vinh hissed bnehind her helmet. Turning her head she scanned the corriddor behind her. She never responded to More yet she heasrd him say clearly who she had acted brashly. She simply grunted something berfore speaking "Resources were needed, the planet was small, the system did well. what was lost was regained." Vibnh growled. Over the last year or so of training, harsh as it was, it came in handy.

Vinh could return to hunting her favorite targets, Creans. And also make messes that her droids grew from, literally. She growled however, her sanity was in shards since her old Master left her fdor dead, she'd grown to hate the Jedi order because of her master, a Crean, Mundi. She turned her heasd towards Mor, her back to him "We have company" Her voice was deep, almost deadish

Without waiting for his reply she turned, but something stopped her, radio missives came through her helmet. perfect. Vinh turned, she could see out of the corner of her eye that Mor was nodding,. It was time to defend their home. Smiling behind her mask. She grunted again and headed off for her shuttle back to her ship.

In orbit of the gas giant the moon quickly revealed by everything in the system made it such a dangerous place to be as a laser of green speared into the massive ship that hid behind its shadow. In the well of the gas gaintm, the gases from the gas giant itself masked the raidation signature of the moon. Making the rock appear barren and lifeless as the ship arrived. Energy masked by thre gas giant focsed its sensors on the new arrival. Orders were passed. A pale beam fo green eerngy slammed into the tail end of the ship as the moon revealed itself to be a fully armed battlestation. with single reactor iginition the shot was aiming to disable rather than destroy ouright as information was sought as droid fighters swarmed the area from the 'moon'.

Something had entered its range of protection and was wanting to know what had entered so armed and ready to fight, and why it was there.

A patrol of Droid Starfighters were moving as normal as energy flares were spotted of escape pods from ther destroyed vessel. the droid briefly stared at it befoire crowing out to his fellows "Hey guys look! A buffet!" the droid shrieked something then ni binary and dozens of Buzz Droids broken into view chowing down on the escape pods, destroying the systems within a few of them, some of the droids went ham on the pods. omnce the escape pods were devoid of life the droid patrol dutifully sent the debris to a world devestator somewhere within the system

The massive super star dreadnought floated in space. Its droid crew using active scanning to deep scan everything as droids reported destruction of a ship in shadow of the battle station. Vinh smiled behind her mask as she watched ont he holo of the system a shiop dying out. Ah the deaths brought no pity from the shattered woman. unless they were Creans in which it brought sheer joy to her heart.

She tuirned to the droid next to her "Commander. Bring me a Crean prisoner, I want them to see this battle, if they do not enjoy it, I will kill it... here... on my bridge."

"Yes sir" the normal B1 series droids regarded their organic commander as a he. mostly because of how modulated her voice sounded, that and her mind was so damn broken whatever shreds of sanity she had left were interwoven with wiresd and metal keeping her alive.

"Inform Emperor Mor; We have incoming fun. We will await his command to fire, in the mean while, defenses yo maximum. I want that ship's crew!" Vinh commanded. A chorus of "yes sir" was heard over the many screens as the wporld deveators got to work pumping out more Droid fighters, and in some cases full on star destroyers ready for battle with full crews and amaraments

As soon as Choi left the Sith Emperor concentrated upon every force adept under his sway within Cobalt Edge. Those silver masked coteries aboard every vessel and stationed on every planet within this nexus of the Force began to divide and conquer as the vessels and planetary defenses of every nation within the sector began to act cutting off entry and exit through the now not so strange technology that the previous inhabitants left for them.

The Infinite Empire seemed to fully come alive as ships from every quadrant came to life both those manned by droids and organic soldiers alike. Every ship that was not fully automated by a compliment of a droid crew felt invigorated and pushed by zeal alone as Mor and all his coterie he connected with amplified his battle meditation.

Meanwhile Atom 7k awoke to several disturbances within his grid and began to examine the stars and planets helping speed the information along as Mars Corp. and the Crimson Legion began to implement the information and direct fighters and activate planetary defenses upon their own accord.

The Icy planet bellow began to erect a planet wide shield whilst several silver masked force adepts kneeled before their Emperor and offered their own essence to amplify what Mor already had. Soon he would look upon his space he controlled not through the use of a control panel or a communications screen but simply through the Force. All life and all things would be clear to him as he expanded upon the principle of battle meditation only to amplify it more.

(Posting Order. Princess, Marcus, and then Fife. Sorry for the small post guys.)

It didn't take long for the singular Reverence S to acquire the signature of the battle station, though it's shields were active the moment it jumped in, they did everything they could to defend the lone Aschen ship from the weapon's impact.

The green beam slammed into the milky white shields of the Aschen ship, which flared brilliantly as the energies were dissipated across the entirety of the bubble, but even Aschen shields could not repel firepower of that magnitude.

A small tendril of green pierced the veil of light, and impaled the Reverence S, gouging a hole several meters wide into it's Kanvium hull, exposing decks, and venting debris and a few people that weren't vaporized into space.

The entire ship shuddered, and the CIC was pandemonium.

"Shields are down! We have hull breaches in all decks, aft section! Engines one and two are down! FTL is down!"

"Damage control to Aft Sections! Put those fires out!"

"All hands defensive positions!"

Finally the Commander managed to regain order, with an axial spin, and several key systems offline, he made a snap decision. "Take us out of phase! Now!"

"Phase Shift generators are still active! Transitioning now!"

As the Droid star-fighters closed in, the crippled Aschen ship managed to completely disappear, vanishing from even the most sensitive scanners.

In this mode, the Aschen ship was outside realspace, and could not interact with anything outside of it's phase shift bubble, likewise further attacks would pass right through the Aschen ship as if it wasn't there, as it technically wasn't.

However, though they were out of phase, the engines and FTL were down, which meant the lone ship was dead in the water for now.

---

The main fleet had finally arrived, utilizing the telemetry, they jumped in just beyond the Ice Planet's star's Heliopause, the debris from the Oort cloud obscured the true number of Aschen vessels, and both the Keeper of Abassid, and the Absolution were the first to take position, as a dozen or so Aegis cruisers took up formation around the two command ships.

Bouncing energy back and fourth among their position, a massive canopy shield was erected around the two Command ships and their escorts, a canopy shield that could withstand even a fully powered super-laser shot, or even a sustained turbolaser bombardment.

Thousands of Aschen ships took up position, from Reverence Is to Hastati class cruisers, settling into combat formation, hundreds of Galaxy and Hera class robotics cruisers, along with Satyr and Gemino class Drone Carriers took up formation among the fleet.

The Electronic warfare would be the first to begin.

Broadcasting on a powerful wireless frequency, the Droids aboard the Sith vessels, and the Starfighters would likely begin to experience glitches, perhaps a delay in executive functions, as the Aschen began to broadcast powerful jamming fields, Planck fields around their formation to prevent any unexpected surprises, and ECM Jamming fields, which meant the Sith vessels, including the Death star would find it oddly difficult to target the Aschen ships, and at these distances, hitting anything below a Reverence II in size would be next to impossible.

Millions of Signatures appeared all throughout the system, false signatures broadcast from the Robotics cruisers. Both droids in ships, and those in space would likely find it increasingly difficult to function, as the hacking became relentless.

Missiles would be unable to find their targets should the Sith choose to launch them, diverting wildly off course once exposed to the Aschen jamming fields.

Hundreds of thousands of Drone Starfighters poured fourth from the Drone carriers, with massive AI Banks controlling entire squadrons at a time with a computation rate that was beyond even the human mind.

Each Furie class Combat Drone was armed with twin 30mm A6 Mass Accelerator Cannons, mounted under the wings, and inside the wings themselves were enclosed missile bays that contained five 150 kiloton nuclear warheads mounted on a rotating rack.

Hundreds of Thousands of Furie class drones surged fourth towards anything they could find, and the enemy would find that ray shielding was useless, as the solid mass slugs tore through shields unhindered, and shredded armor alike. Even the most resilient starfighter would likely be torn asunder by the sheer number of unmanned drones being deployed.

They never seemed to end...

With each Fury drone killed, ten took it's place as they seemed to keep pouring from the Drone Carriers, manufactured in real time via Light-Mass fabrication.

They merely served as a distraction...

Moving fourth, executing tactical jumps the Aschen encroached on the defending ships, some of them jumping within scant dozens of meters of an enemy ship.

One Star destroyer was unlucky enough, that a Hastati Cruiser jumped within three meters, hull to hull, the resulting spatial displacement would ripple across the Star Destroyer, before the Hastati Class cruiser brought it's ventral Turbodisruptor banks to life, unleashing a withering salvo against it's Shields, which likely wouldn't last mere moments before the unstable energies from the Aschen weapons fire overloaded the generator.

The Keeper of Abassid executed it's own jump, as Admiral Clegg opted to jump directly into the din of battle.

The 16km Command Carrier winked in amidst a formation of Star Destroyers, it's gargantuan shields easily shrugging off even the most concentrated turbo-laser fire.

Swiveling it's Frag Cannons, the Keeper of Abassid unleashed a torrent of slugs in all directions, with each slug easily capable of putting a hole clean through even the mightiest Capital ship. The Backbreaking release of kinetic energies likely making short work of the Sith vessels, as the Frag Cannon was almost unstoppable, and shields were a useless defense against them.

The World Devastators were not spared either, as a dozen Iconoclast, and Punisher class battleships jumped into a wide delta formation, concentrating their punishing SuperMAC Batteries on the World Devastators, each Ferric-Tungsten slug moving at 36,000 Kilometers per second, which was a staggering twelve percent of light speed, and was highly likely the World Devastators would be unable to withstand such withering firepower.

That left the Death Star...

Hundreds of Thunderbolt missiles from Athena cruisers Light years away would make quick work of the heavily armed and armored battlestation, as they jumped in within a scant 100 Kilometers, they released hundreds of individual Independent warheads, each containing a 25,000 Teracochrane Tricobalt warhead, these warheads were self guided, and immune to outside influence. Among those hundreds of warheads were decoys, which meant that any point defense systems would have to contend with both live warheads, and decoys.

Each detonation on the hull of the Battlestation would tear a hole into subspace, the resulting rift in the very fabric of space and time would be almost impossible to defend against, the resultant yawning chasm into subspace threatening to tear the Battlestation in two, and this tear only got worse with each Tricobalt detonation.

The withering salvo of Tricobalt munitions on the fabric of space and time in this system was akin to someone taking a machete to a carpet, hacking, slashing, and rending asunder the very reality of space.

The Battlestation would likely stand little chance, as the mightiest of shields and the thickest of armors were all but useless to these types of weaponry.

The Battle was now underway, the full might of the Aschen Empire coming to bear, seeking retribution for their loss.

Whilst the emptiness of the void was suddenly filling with metal and energy and plasma and death born upon firey wings, something dark and distant and unnatural was birthing itself. The region was saturated with the filth of hyperdrives and slipstreams of interstellar travel, the fabric of reality was sundered into infinitesimal fragments as the veil between the void and the emptiness was split over and over and over as craft by the hundred slipped through the passage of worlds.

And as they tore across the galaxy in their vain quest to wreck a great plague upon each other, they in their folly and their haste caused something very dark to strike not just their location but their very reality itself. Where the thin veil was already weakened, a probing tendril was able to locate this thinning and with the force of an inexorable god sundered it.

Light and time and matter and nothingness converged in on itself as bolts of green energy and light shattered in an open space just within sight of the growing battle of foolhardy ships. And as the bolts grew in size they grew too in frequency until they warped and crackled together and in their combined might they tore the heart out of creation itself as an impossible tear elongated and warped as though it were a bubble born from the crust of a planet.

This bubble of light and energy which seared at anything that dared venture too close elongated and stretched until it was just over a kilometer long and near half as wide, a double curve like some form of extraterrestrial egg and as sudden as it had formed itself the egg cracked and shattered, revealing a vast and utterly alien ship.

The ship hung there, silent and unmoving until a shock of purple light seemed to sliver up the sharp edges of its armour, hard points fluttered with an energy that blinked out of existence should one dare to look at it for too long. Energy began to spike to a point beyond counting as it escalated to a point that hardly seemed even possible by any standards. The ship had awoken, with shields that barely registered in the visual spectrum and a great incandescent glow that seemed to glitter at its edge. Though what it's purpose was remained unclear for now.

Yet at the prow of the vessel, metal plating retracted over view ports and screens to reveal the bridge to the outside world, hiding from whatever maddening realm they had passed through in order to reach here. The bridge was small, only room for seven officers as well as the ships commander. It was from here that they could observe all that stretched before them and what they saw did not please them.

"Ship-Master... We have arrived." These aliens, all clad head to toe in armour which made detailing their physical form impossible, spoke not with their voices but with their minds, through the very ship they piloted they were connected to each other and could communicate at the speed of information itself.
"Where is here exactly helm? Have we found something new?"
"Impossible to tell right now sir, readings are recalibrating but... It seems we have been successful, we breached the dimensional barrier. We may be the first beings to enter the third dimension." The thoughts of joy and wonder were so rapidly shattered that it seemed they had hardly taken a chance to blink.
"Sir, I'm afraid that's not entirely correct, this region seems to be populated... And not too friendly either. I'm reading multiple hostiles with more incoming."
"Understood, power up all systems, prepare the Constructs for combat, it would appear that we have not yet left the threat behind. We are the last hope for our people, we cannot allow it to end here."

Whilst the battle began before the, the lone ship waited and watched for any that would be daring or foolish enough to move against them first.

Atom 7K would have simply scoffed at the idea of a foreign body invading his matrixes and initiation cyber warfare without even considering his background count. The Noise was ever present but the Council A.I. simply pressed the advantage by searching out the red herrings and sending viral code out towards the enemy ships. The artificial intelligence released his agents to work with a multitude of programs that ranged in the thousands as attack ICE began to search and counter the intense Aschen invasion as fragmented code began to derail the attempt at slowing down the Sith war efforts.

"I was baptized in Data, I'm Atom 7K....." The A.I. began to enjoy this little game of cat and mouse as those millions of signatures began to find themselves dwindling to just a few thousand. Within seconds the broadcasted signals then shrank to hundreds if not less. Even the droids aboard Vihn's ship would seem to work with more tenacity as they interfaced with the agents and their artificial master. So long as Atom remained operational those glitches and delays would be dealt with and dealt back tenfold as his patrol ICE would begin to slow and brick primary Aschen systems aboard their invading ships.

Meanwhile what ships that continued to fight with tenacity not seen before as Emperor Mor and his coteries continued to amplify the Sith Emperors battle meditation. The Droid fighters may have been under the influence of the A.I. but the biological troopers and ships with living crews continued to fight on. For every ship lost however two more would take its place as Cobalt Edge housed several Star Forges that seemed to continuously produce more and more droids and ships to wage this war.

Big Brother is always watching...

As the alien colonization ship moved through the black void of space towards the planet Cryo, the lone Aschen watchtower situated in a Lagrangian point was tracking it's every move.

Several pairs of eyes became instantly affixed to the massive tracking display in front of them, and the Watchtower Commander, an old man by the name of Golan Jarlath watched intently, before he puffed on his pipe, the fumerello smoke wafting in thin wisps in front of him.



"Signal the fleet." Jarlath ordered, turning away from the display and back to his officers. "Track the trajectory of that object, and signal the nearest garrison to intercept." He ordered, and his officer replied with a crisp salute.

Jarlath slowly turned to face the screen once more, as the Aschen War machine opened up one eager eye, and turned it on Cryo.

---

The Athos, an Imperious Class Command Carrier was the first ship to respond, as it had been the closest. Running a cordon in a nearby sector that was rumored to be a haven for pirates, she was able to make a quick jump from her assigned sector, to Cryo in a scant twenty minutes.

Winking into view, it slowly settled it's position in Geosynchronous orbit above the planet, tracking the alien ship's trajectory.

Commander Aeryn Murios watched in silence as the Command Carrier settled into position, it's escort of six Hastati class cruisers, four Athena class missile carriers, and the Solar Wyvern, an Iconoclast Battleship moved into position, using trajectories being calculated through the datalink, the small flotilla of vessels formed a loose net, with the Command Carrier at it's center.

Aeryn pondered the next course of action, the strange object must not be allowed to land on the planet, so that left her with one choice.

"Colonel..." She called out.

"Give word to the cannons; make ready and fire!"

The Athos' massive Frag Cannon batteries slowly lined up on the ship's axis, while precise measurements were being calculated.

Each of the six three-barrel frag Cannon batteries loaded their ordinance, a massive ferric-tungsten projectile that was accelerated to near relativistic velocities, which would impart planet-cracking amounts of kinetic energy on a target.

The Iconoclast Battleships and the Hastati cruisers followed suit, triangulating short, and long range armaments.

"This is Watchtower to Command Carrier, be advised Planck packs are online and charging, bring your reinforcements in before we lock down the system."

In a bit of pride, Commander Murios chuckled.

"This will be an easy fight."

A single sound, like the peal of a church bell, disturbed Agarran from his contemplations. He picked himself up off the ground and made his way out of his den to the primary command center of the Akorn, a massive sphere shaped room wherein Canturs and Marnols were at work with the many control, navigation, and mapping systems that controlled the vessel.

Report Agarran gave the mental command to his subordinates, who immediatly responded with images of the aschen vessel.

Hmmm, it has a curious shape doesn't it. He mused as he watched identifiers marking external weapons on the Aschen ship, he noted with mild interest that the identifiers indicated that the same weapons were being armed.. I doubt they will listen, primitive brutes that they are, but try and send a hail to them. Remember to send the signal along either a radio or electromagnetic spectrum, otherwise their technology won't read it.

His subordinates leaped to the order, sending a ceasefire signal across multiple channels. The Akorn itself did not stop in it's movement, but reoriented itself so that it's front was facing the Aschen vessel.

Three battle ships of Imperium make flashed into the sector they where soon followed in by ten ships of Aschen make the ships sent no hails and it was clear they where powering up weapons and shields.

On the Bridge of The Sacred Flame the largest of the Imperium ships a Lich named Kolvin watched "prepare to destroy this Aschen scum all imperium ships open fire...Aschen ships stand down make them think you are the help...for now."

The Imperium ships opened fire on the true Aschen with no warning or hail they ment to overwhelm the Aschen.

Commander Murios watched the approaching vessel quietly on her displays, when a communications officer turned. "They're broadcasting a ceasefire signal. I've also got confirmation that the first fleet is en-route."

Nodding slowly, she cleared her throat. "Send hostile challenge and ID, standard protocol."

With a curt nod, the Comms officer turned and picked up the communications receiver, broadcasting a hail on multiple channels.

"Attention unidentified vessel, this space is under the dominion of the United Aschen Empire; your unauthorized contravention of our borders is currently being construed as an act of aggression; identify yourselves and state your intentions, or we will fire upon you."

At that moment the Command Carrier shuddered from weapons impacts, her shields flaring brilliantly in protest as the unidentified ships jumped in.

"They're Imperial, but no valid IFF Signatures. The XO reported. "The others seem to belong to the Imperium of Man."

Growling, Commander Murios barked her next set of orders. "Bring us about! Full military thrust! Activate the recall protocols on those Aschen ships, and destroy the Imperium ships!"

Slowly, the Command Carrier reoriented it's position along with two of the Hastati class cruisers. The opposing Aschen ships, would likely suddenly begin to experience technical difficulties, glitches in firing control, shields fluctuating, until suddenly they would shut down, and refuse any inputs from their crew, like flipping a switch, the Aschen ships would shut down and become unresponsive to their crews, leaving them vulnerable.

The Imperial Ships were next, as the Command Carrier unleashed a volley of projectiles that were originally intended for the strange ship, each massive frag-slug careened through the void of space, and upon impact, would impart enough sheer kinetic energy to single-handedly overload void shields, as was demonstrated against the forces of the Crimson Slaughter when they attacked the Cosmora Archipelago.

Considering an entire volley was launched, the Imperial cruisers in the Command Carrier's line of fire would likely suffer withering damage from the initial salvo, while the Hastati cruisers jumped away, winking in among the likely now disabled Aschen ships, they were beginning to prepare Marine strike teams to retake the stolen vessels, and kill all those aboard.

Agarran blinked as what appeared to be an entire fleet shock jumped into the sector, and then opened fire on the aschen vessels. He peered closely at the screen, and in response to his will it zoomed on the new ships. Some of them are Aschen, but others are different.... A query came to him from one of his underlings, and he responded.

A new signal was broadcast, a message that sounded like nothing so much as deep resonant chords struck on several piano's at once, along with similiar musical sounds forming an orchestral piece that, if one was imaginative enough, quite actually sounded like a unique form of speech. Alongside this audible message was a text based one, in case the first message was indecipherable to the recievers. It read as follows.

I am Agarran Magthulia, Escion Commander of the Akorn Atru Van Dalu dor nakt Vashun. I mean no offense, nor do I believe it is necessary, but I offer assistance in dealing with your assailants. If you accept, we shall engage targets you indicate to us in the manner of your kind, if you do not, we shall await patiently to engage negotiations with you.

There... hopefully that won't be seen as too... rude, to them. In that same moment he gave several commands which, due to the psychic nature of the draconid species, were received and responded to at the speed of thought, near instantanously the forward motion of the Akorn ceased, and at the same time many gemstone like objects located across it's hull began to glow with a soft blue light, preparation of the weapons system to fire.

The Aschen would find that the recall protocols had no effect on the former Aschen ships. They may be dead but they weren't dumb enough not to have removed such systems years ago. So the Aschen ships that winked within them got the unpleasant surprise of being fired upon by the ships they thought disabled.
Meanwhile the Imperium ships pushed forward seemly not caring about damage as they increased to ramming speed guns blazing all the way towards the Main Aschen ships.
One of the Imperium ships opened to reveal it had been repurposed as a giant carrier. Swarms of fighters of all kinds launched forth using their speed to harass the Aschen ships and nick away at their shields as the larger ships closed in.

The problem with the Aschen recall having no effect on these ships, would require whoever managed to commandeer them, to dismantle key systems without triggering the self destruct, a tedious and often specialized process that required the skill set and the command codes belonging to those who originally constructed the ships. It was a system hard wired into every Aschen ship and impossible to remove without completely gutting the ship's systems and utilizing only the ship's hull and chassis.

Thusly did the recall system begin to take effect among the Aschen ships, and those that somehow didn't take to the recall, automatically began to self destruct, which meant these commandeered Aschen ships began to self terminate in brilliant explosions, as dormant code hard-wired into the very computer systems the ships depended upon came to life.

So the moment the Recall systems were somehow rendered inoperable, the Aschen ships among the strange fleet simply exploded in brilliant flashes of white, sending debris in all directions. This left the Imperial ships alone, to endure another withering salvo from the Command Carrier.

"Prepare the second volley! Be quick!" The Commander ordered.

"Sir! Incoming message from the aliens, they're offering to render assistance!"

Growling, Commander Murios nodded. "Send a reply, tell them to pick their targets and engage, we'll discuss their compensation when this battle comes to a close."

Nodding the communications officer sent a reply to the strange Tarragon vessel.

"You've been given weapons free, pick your targets and engage, if you assist us, you will be rewarded."

Agarran licked his chops as the response was received and projected across the mental link. He then smiled at the mention of a reward.

As ever, these primitives think of giving us gems and gold, never realizing the true bounty lays before them in all it's grandeur

At that, the blue glowing gemstones scattered across the surface of the Akorn lit up with a terrible bloody red light, and all at once a series of crystaline orbs, thousands upon thousands, were floating in the space surrounding the Akorn. These all flashed once, and then were rendered into a series of beams that lanced towards and through the imperium vessels, like needles and thread they wove about and through and among the imperium vessels. Void shields were completely useless against the attack, if any were even still active to speak of, as the beams that lanced through the vessels were not only weaving through the ships, but were weaving through the physical and nonphysical planes as well.

This attack, that tore through the thickest plates of armor, and what it couldn't penatrate it simply phased through, was coordinated, though it seemed little more than madness. The beams would first make their way through the weapon systems, obliterating cannons and launchers, before moving on through critical systems such as the engines, life support, hanger bay, and bridge.

After the beams had threaded themselves throughout the vessel, they would vanish, taking with them the surrounding matter as they deatomized.

The end result would be a quite satisfyingly disabled series of ships, which the aschen could board and deal with as they wished, should that be their choice.

As the former Aschen ships had years before been taken and striped of any recalls or self destruct systems and now ran on ghost power there where no blown up ships. But the Undead had wasted enough time here and their ships faded away almost as if they where an illusion gone forever from the system before the dragon beams could even reach them.

With the odd incursion swiftly dealt with, the Aschen could finally turn their attention to the strange alien vessel that still remained, again the query was set and Commander Murios waited in silence.

"We appreciate the assistance, and will be willing to hear your requests for compensation, however the fact remains. This space is under the control of the United Aschen Empire. You have proven yourselves at least somewhat non-hostile for the moment; we still need to ascertain why you have come here. Therefore we ask you state your intentions here."

Murios listened intently to her bridge officer as he communicated to the strange alien vessel; behind the scenes, a second bridge officer was signalling for reinforcements, in the event things did not go well.

The massive vessel's weapons began to power down, as evidenced by the fading glow of the gems scattered across it's surface. This was done mostly to further show Agarran's nonhostile intent.

Agarran himself was contemplating what to do from here. On the one hand he had been given express permission to use whatever force was necessary to secure the colony on Cryo, on the other, he truly did not feel like getting embroiled in a conflict that would undoubtedly last for many, many, many thousands of years. He could request his father's deployment to the sector, but he really didn't want to listen to that old beast lecture him once again upon strategic maneuvering and tactical variety.

On the other hand, the Aschen fleet was present and would undoubtedly see his Akorn's colonization as hostile. More than likely they had some sort of base or colony of their own located on the planet itself, and the Akorn's process would most likely obliterate that, and that would not be good. Adding to this was the fact, as he learned from his subordinates via their telempathic link, that the lead vessel was sending deep space communications, probably calling reinforcements.

This annoyed Agarran, though he understood the reasoning. They had just seen the Akorn's Defense system in action, and no doubt they had deduced it's ability to decimate large vessels with relative ease. Agarran even supposed they would have come to the conclusion that it wasn't a single target specific weapon either, or at the least he doubted their commander had ruled out the Akorn's ability to decimate an entire fleet, at least the current one. And so the best course of action, the one Agarran would have taken, was to call for reinforcements to increase the number of targets and thereby increase the drain on the weapons power.

The reason this annoyed Agarran was because it was an all too effective strategy. Indeed the weapons system had already been powered down to redirect energy to the phasing field. And with that in place, the Aschen weapons would be rendered useless, they'd never even come near the Akorn, as the Phasing field acted as a sort of shaped wormhole. The Aschen fleet could fire anything at the Akorn, but the Akorn would be completely unnaffected, as everything that went into the phasing field passed into a different phase of reality, one where the Akorn was not present. This defense made the Akorn essentially untouchable, but had the annoying drawback of restricting the Akorn from doing anything at all.

The result: a stalemate that could essentially last forever, or until the Aschen empire fell apart. Agarran wondered if he could afford to wait that long.... No, the aschen government was totalitarian, which made it effecient and long lived. It could be millions of years before it even began to decay. Too long a delay to be seemly before the court.

Well, that only left Agarran with one discourse. Diplomacy.

He shuddered at that.

Once more the melodious signal was sent to any active receiver, underlying it was of course the translation, which read as follows.

"The Authority of your government is recongnized, therefore I shall respect your demands and explain my presence. I am Agarran Magthulia, Escion kithid in charge of this Akorn. I have been sent by the Tarragon Collective, the governing body of my people, with the express purpose of Colonizing worlds. The collective has designated this world, the one you call Cryo, as my next assignment. As such, I intend to Teraform and Colonize that planet in order to make it habitable for my species."

"Understandbly, this may be undesirable to you, however I can assure you allowing me to proceed with my task could be more benaficial to your government than would otherwise seem. If you have the Authority to Negotiate on behalf of your government, it would be my pleasure to invite an envoy of yours aboard my Akorn to make arrangements for resolution of this situation, and the betterment of our respective civilizations."

Those inside the Command Carrier's CIC were understandably perturbed at the message that followed, there was an overbearing silence as the creature's message played on the speakers.

Murios simply watched the displays, shaking her head, they were coming to take this world from the Aschen; this was a demonstration, some kind of trick. Perhaps it was to buy time, either way the protocol was clear.

The Aschen Empire would sooner obliterate Cryo rather than allowing an alien civilization to gain a foothold so deep in their space.

This was a lot of weight on the Commander's shoulders, and Murios could see the merit in delaying these creatures in talks while preparations were made to remove them.

They seemed confident, but Murios knew the Aschen held the cards.


The Aschen fleet before the Akorn was but a fraction of their combined military might, the Command Carrier a mere taste of the might they could bring against the Tarragon.

"Agarran of the Tarragon Collective, I am Commander Aeryn Murios, please understand that there would be very little to benefit my people by merely surrendering this world for your colonization, allowing you to obliterate whatever settlements are upon this world. It's a rather large, and somewhat unrealistic proposal to think we would simply allow this to happen. I will forward your requests for negotiation to my government, but it will take some time for them to consider your proposal. In the meantime, I would gladly forward you star charts of planets that are close to Cryo's parameters, outside of Aschen space."

She frowned, which only deepened when the realization set in, she had to buy time for the rest of the reinforcements to arrive, with a brief gesture, a large display erupted before her, while several officers worked to transmit the message back to the main fleet in the Gaelian System, and the Ministry of Defense.

It was turning to be a very long day.

The Process of even beginning to negotiate the surrender of a planet was a long, unrealistic one. Ceding territories required a unanimous quorum vote, a unanimous Parliament vote, and consent from the Emperor.

The circumstances would have to vastly benefit the Empire, and be of strategic and geopolitical importance. Even for a backwater planet like Cryo, it was still an Aschen possession, one they would defend with the full might of their military capabilities.

Agarran sat back on his haunches while he contemplated the Aschen reponse and formulate his own reply. Of course he had expected their commander to be extremely resistant to the idea of allowing their colonization, but he was quite pleased that the immediate response had not come in the form of weapons fire.

Clearly their commander is of a greater intelligence than the usual prospects... or perhaps our intel is not as current as we thought.... Musings for later.

He frowned suddenly as his subordinates once again discovered transmissions into deeper Aschen Territory. He sighed then, realizing what the commander was playing at.


Once more, a signal was transmitted.

"Primarily, allow me to dissuade you from the use of negotiations as a delaying tactic while you signal for reinforcements. You have not witnessed it yet, but my Akorn's defense systems place us outside of your phase of space, you quite literally could not touch us no matter how many ships you have present. This defense system also prevents us from either firing or relocating while it is up, but that is not of consequence for me. My species is quite immortal, and I am very much capable of waiting through several millenia of negotiations."

This first segment was accompanied by a musical note that was quite obviously a sound of irritation and aggravation.

"Secondly, I can assure you that whatever settlements you have in place need not be decimated by our colonization. Measures can be taken to allow us to terraform the planet while also leaving your established presence entirely untouched. I refer again to our defense system, a technology i am fully authorized to present to you as a gift.

In addition, your governments authority, as I sated before, is already recognized, thus the establishment of this colony would in no way mean the surrender of the planet. I believe the term your species use is... rented? Something of that nature. The point being that, once the colony is established and self sufficient, the Tarragon Collective will relinquish control of the colony and it's denizens to you.

And as a final note, you were just witness to the firepower held by a civilian colony vessel, a defensive turret. With that in mind, imagine the power of our warships. The benifits of a military alliance between your government and the Tarragon Collective are quite a deal more substantial than you may believe, I assure you.

Again, Invite you to send an envoy for more fluid and direct negotiations."

Word filtered back to Vinh as she watched the fight from her flagship. Moving controls on a holotable before her she watched the fight unfold. A ring of five Death Star Battlestations formed and fired on a centeral point in space as a sixth death star fired on the beam of the other five, directing the shot at the main carrier moving things it seemed.

The delta formation of fighters and ships met a stiff wall of defense as countless droid starfighters swarmed the area and moved closer to the core of the delta formation to destroy it. The system was packed with ships as it was, how could they get in ? It didnt matter. Vinh was going to see victory for once her own way.

Behind her mask she watched everything carefully. Perfect. The battle was unfolding how she wanted. Exactly how she wanted. She smirked at the loss of a stardestroyer when another ship warped into the system too damn close. Directing her attention on the ship she used the Force, causing the reactor to shut down and then go critical. She felt the tinest hints of intrusion into her own mental systems of her rebuilt braincase but smirked darkley behind hermask as Lord Mor's Ai countered it easily.

The star destroyer that was destroyed wasnt a big loss, but when a few more were lost it didnt really matter, Vinh could make dozens more to fill their place. Sure Vinh was unhappy she lost ships, but she didnt lose her flagship, that would suck greatly

Her goal was to be met. She was in hope of forcing the attackers into a deadly trap she had the battlestations once more open fire as Super Star Destroyers rained hell on the enemy ships. An hour passed, maybe more as the the Sith observed the fleet of her own being bolstered by the numerous star forges churning out ships.

Vinh smirked in victory. The battle would be hers ? Hopefully so as they outnumbered the enemy fleet it appeared, even with the destruction on both sides Her happiness amplified through a radio hail from Victor that her stolen vessel had been recovered successful with no damage to the ship.

Vinh began building then what she knew was possibly thel argest ever vessel in the fleet, but it wasnt going to be enough. She knew that to begin building the vessel as fast as possible was one thing, but to have it have air to breathe was entirely another. So building the massive cruiser would take time. And hopefully it could end up the way she hoped

On one of the planets, Celos IV infact, just outside the battle zone, tempers flaired and a battle began on the planet,. Sadly Vinh couldnt be called upon to quell the sudden rebellion. As she herself had gone to face an old friend....