The Sol Hope, a SW AU

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well, since I didn't get a reply from my last post in the thread, I decided to play it safe and just start a new thread for the actual story. Here it is, so you can all mock my lack of skill. . In all seriousness though, I put a lot of work into this, though I am well aware I can't write as well as the better authors on here. Please read and review, since if I don't get feedback I can't improve anything that needs it.

Edit: I added a poll now for later on in the story timeline. The questions are at the bottom of the most recent update (second part of the battle scene). I don't know if I can add one, so if not can a mod let me know and I'll remove it.

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Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

4 months BBY~

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The planet Arcadia, the first colony of Earth, and main military base for the Sol Confederacy, sat in orbit of the star Alpha Centuari. The people who lived on the blue-green orb were peacefully going about their lives. Despite being the main military base it was not readily noticeable to the average civilian…and they certainly weren’t complaining about it. Even after a century of colonization there was nowhere near the population of Earth yet. So a lot of the military bases could be placed in the country. It was from one these bases that one Liza Fisher was graduating from the Confederacy military academy after five years of extensive training.

“Man it is so nice to be out of there…I never thought I would be so happy to leave any place in my life.” Liza thought.

As she walked towards the tram that would take her to the docks to take over command of her new ship, the newly minted Commander thought back on her life up to this point…

Liza had a fairly normal life…for a Colonial that is. With the main power base still on Earth, even a colony as old and well regarded as Arcadia was still considered second class. It was inevitable something like that would happen, but it still made it much more difficult to move up in life. Liza had been well off in that regard, with both of her parents serving in the Confederacy Armed Forces, her father in the Army and her mother in the Navy. They had both retired before she was born, but Liza had been raised on stories of them fighting off Vaggari incursions.

Needless to say, that made the young women want to join the Defense Force herself, but it had been fun trying to decide between the Army or Navy. In the end, Liza had decided on the Navy for one simple reason, she wasn’t big enough for the Army. The Confederacy Army had very strict recruitment requirements, among them that you had to be at least 5’8” to join up. At only a little over 5’2”, Liza was too short and petite to join. So she had gone with plan B and joined the Navy.

Once there, she had gone through the toughest years of her young life, her parents hadn’t been joking when they said boot camp was the hardest thing they had ever done. It had been a living nightmare, and Liza was not eager to have to go through that again. She hadn’t even made any real friends while there, since her standoffish attitude precluded that…and left her in trouble with the drill sergeants more often than not. But in the end it had been worth it, she had eventually got out of that pit and into officer training at Arcadia’s equivalent to West Point. Once there, Liza had a somewhat meteoric rise to the top five percent of her class, and she had kept that, despite being constantly looked down upon by her classmates who were generally wealthy, unlike Liza herself, who had to pay for everything, since her parents didn’t have the money to support her.

But still it had all been worth it…

“Liza Fisher! This is your stop, space dock 24!” the conductor on the hover tram yelled, knocking Liza out of her reminiscing.

“Yes sir!” Liza yelled back, pushing some of her red bangs out of her face and departing the tram to see her new command.

And it was an impressive sight, the dark green hull glistening in the early morning light. Here she was…the first of the refit Cestus class Frigates…CSS Allegiance, and she was Liza’s ship now. As the young commander walked up to it, she could see shuttles going back and forth between the ships small hanger and the dock, transferring supplies for its first cruise in years. They were joined by hundreds of people milling about, loading and unloading supplies. All in all, it looked like some omnipotent being had kicked over an ants nest and they were trying to put it back together. Liza smiled at the sight; soon this would be her crew.

Unsurprisingly though, there was only a small group of officers meeting Liza, since the Allegiance had a small crew.

“Hello ma’am, you must be Commander Fisher correct?” a man only slightly older than Liza herself asked, while flashing a quick salute.

“Yes I am, I’m guessing you’re my XO Lieutenant Harding right?” Liza asked, returning the salute.

“Yes ma’am, if you’ll follow me I can give you a quick tour so you can get to know the Allegiance.” Harding said, heading back up the boarding ramp.

Liza nodded to herself and followed her new XO into the frigate.

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Confederacy/Chiss Border Zone

Unknown Regions

4 months BBY~

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Grand Admiral Mitth’raw’nurudodo, better known to the Galaxy at large as Thrawn, was finally returning home. He had been exiled all those years ago for the Outbound Flight fiasco and nearly starting a new war between the Confederacy and his own people the Chiss. He had never been able to grasp why his people couldn’t understand the threat that letting Outbound Flight go represented. But they were so eager to keep the Confederacy happy that they would take the word of one of their Captains over the word of one of their own people. But after years of exile someone had stumbled upon Thrawn who actually listened to him…the Galactic Empire.

So here he was, in command of a fleet of three Imperial-Class Star Destroyers, with a handful of smaller ships providing escort, finally going home.

“Unknown ships, this is Sol Confederacy border station 23, stop and identify yourselves or you will be fired upon.” Said a broadcast from a small satellite hovering around a planet that Thrawn was getting supplies from.

Thrawn just gave a small hand gesture to his tactical officer, who proceeded to destroy the annoying Confederacy base. The Emperor wouldn’t be happy about possibly starting a war, but Thrawn was too smart for that. He had used a Vaggari ship that had been captured recently to destroy the base. So if the Confederacy found the wreckage they would see damage from Vaggari, not Imperial, weapons.

With that out of the way, the Imperial fleet gathered supplies before continuing on its way to Chiss space, only stopping to make sure no survivors or recordings of their fleet was left in the system.
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Cssila System

Chiss Ascendancy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Cssila

A few days later~

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After a few more days’ travel, Thrawn’s fleet was now in orbit of the Chiss homeworld. Even with the navigational problems of the Unknown Regions slowing his fleet down, Thrawn had still arrived before most of the Chiss Navy could.
A Chiss fleet did surround his small fleet, but Thrawn’s people weren’t stupid they knew they didn’t have the firepower to handle the rouge Admiral’s fleet.

“This is Admiral Mitth’raw’nurudodo of the Galactic Empire. I request an audience with the High Council.” Thrawn said.

“So you finally found people who would listen to your crazy ramblings eh Thrawn? The Empire isn’t recognized by the Chiss Ascendancy…why should we grant you an audience?” was the reply, not even using Thrawn’s real name.

“Simple, I have enough firepower to wipe you and your fleet off the face of the Galaxy. I would rather not have to fight my own people though. So just get the Council together and we can avoid bloodshed.” Thrawn shot back.

After a few minutes, most likely spent figuring out where the rest of the Navy was, and how powerful Thrawn’s ships actually were, a tense reply came back from the planet, “Fine, you will have an audience with the Council. Don’t do anything stupid traitor.”

“Acknowledged, you made the correct decision.” Thrawn said.

“Don’t waste your breath, don’t think we don’t know about the Empire. You are a traitor to your people Thrawn, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.” The man on the other end said before cutting the link.

Thrawn just shook his head…did no one except Palpatine actually believe him?

“Prep my shuttle. And let the honor guard know to bring their weapons, we aren’t welcome here.” Thrawn told his Captain, before leaving the bridge.

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After a short ride to the surface, Thrawn and his guard were escorted to the High Council Chamber. There the heads of the Five Families met them. Thrawn could tell right off that they weren’t happy to see him.

“What brought you back from your exile Thrawn? And in command of an Imperial Fleet no less.” One of them asked.

“Yes, what could possibly be so important that the Empire gave you a fleet to come home with?” another one asked.

“My esteemed collogues…you already know what would bring me back…the Far Outsiders.” Thrawn answered.

The leaders of the Chiss people just shook their heads at that.

“We have already had this discussion before you were exiled Thrawn. Even if these ‘Far Outsiders’ have the forces you say they do, we have more than enough power with the Confederacy to handle them. All we have seen of their forces wasn’t very powerful and that was years ago.” The head of the Third Family said.

“And just like all those years ago, I say you are being ignorant…if they were such a weak force then why did the Emperor want to stop Outbound Flight from ever leaving for fear they would get it? This is a man with the power of the whole Galaxy and they worry him.” Thrawn said, hoping his argument would work this time.

“You need more than that Thrawn. Why should we take the word of a man we’ve never met, and who took over the Republic to form an Empire? How do we know he isn’t using you to gain our allegiance?” the head of the Fifth Family said.

Thrawn shook his head lightly, “What else do you expect me to say? The most I can offer you is an alliance with the Empire to fight them when they do come, though you will have to break from the Confederacy.”

“And why would we join the Empire? Not to mention the fact that the Confederacy has been a good ally since the end of the last war, even going so far as to fight off Vaggari incursions while you were exiled. You are just reinforcing the decision to exile you in the first place Thrawn.” The head of the First Family said.

“Sadly its obvious you still won’t believe me…I have nothing more to say to you fools. The offer for an alliance is still open, though you are too set in your ways to take it.” Thrawn said, standing to leave.

“Don’t get your hopes up Thrawn. We won’t take that offer up unless there actually is something to the Far Outsiders.” The head of the Second Family shot back, as Thrawn left the room.

“Are you really going to give up that easily sir?” one of Thrawn’s guards asked once they boarded the shuttle.

“Of course not. I already have people in place in both the government and Defense Fleet. They are ready to act if there is any sign of the Far Outsiders. Those fools won’t stay neutral forever, eventually they will join the Empire, and the Confederacy will fall.” Thrawn said, letting just a little bit of his grudge with the Confederacy show through.

His men nodded…they had heard what had happened between Thrawn and a Captain Smith of the Sol Confederacy. How the Chiss government had just stepped aside and let the Confederacy have its way with Outbound Flight. That was the main reason for Thrawn’s later exile, that and the fact he constantly tried to drive home the threat of the Far Outsiders and the need to launch preemptive strikes on enemies like the Vaggari. Needless to say, that hadn’t gone over well with his commanders, and it was only a matter of time until Thrawn was exiled. And after nearly a decade and a half stranded alone on an out of the way planet, the Empire found Thrawn.

And thus the position he was in now, a covert Grand Admiral, and in command of the Unknown Regions branch of the Imperial Starfleet. Though calling his group a ‘fleet’ was giving it too much credit, considering a Sector Group had more firepower.

But that was beside the point, since as soon as he reached his flagship Thrawn set a course back to Coruscant, to report the stubbornness of the Chiss Government to Palpatine.

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Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

4 months BBY~

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“It’s nice to be home. I didn’t get to come here nearly enough during training.” Liza thought aloud.

“Well you should be happy ma’am. I certainly wish my family lived on Arcadia. But with Cestus being on the boondocks…” Harding said, seeing his commander off to her family’s house.

“Oh don’t worry Harding, you do know you can come in if you want, I’m sure my parents would love to meet you.” Liza said, with a grin on her face.

“Oh I’m sure they would, but that wouldn’t be proper, they don’t even know who I am.” Harding protested.

“Oh get over yourself Lieutenant, my parents won’t care, just come in with me.” Liza shot back, practically dragging her XO in over his frantic protests. “Hey Mom, Dad I’m home!”

After Liza yelled that, two identical heads of red hair stuck out into the hallway, “Liza! You’re back!”

And with that, Liza’s younger sister and brother came running at her.

“Whoa, be more gentle with her, she’s probably still sore from running her new ship. Congratulations by the way dear.” Liza’s mother said, peaking around the corner in time to see her oldest daughter knocked to the ground by her squealing siblings, with a tall man standing on, obviously holding in a laugh.

“Okay Mom, we’ll get off her.” Tom Fisher said, pulling his sister Jane off of Liza.

“Man, if I had known that would happen I wouldn’t have announced myself.” Liza said, dusting off her dress uniform.

“I have to admit, I didn’t expect your family to be like that ma’am, you’re much more formal than that.” Harding said, trying and failing to hide his amusement at the situation.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Lieutenant, come in the living room and take a seat, I need to find my father.” Liza said, pointing her XO to a seat.

Once Harding sat on a couch, Liza set off to track down her parents, since her mother had walked off once the younger siblings had sat down. She eventually found her with Liza’s father using an old barbeque grill out back, obviously cooking a welcome home meal.

“Oh hey Liza, congrats on graduating. Just give me a few minutes and the meal will be done.” John Fisher said.

“You look nice in that uniform by the way honey. I think the look suits you.” Mary Fisher added.

“Really? Thanks I guess, though this thing is such a pain to get on…why must the Navy make these things so uncomfortable?” Liza asked, absentmindedly running her hand through her shoulder length red hair.

Mary laughed at that, “Don’t ask me dear, I hated those things myself. Though yours at least looks better than the one I had to put up with all those years ago.”

Liza grimaced at that…her mother had shown her that monstrosity, in all its sickly green glory. Thankfully her generation’s uniform was a darker forest green. Though the thing was still extremely uncomfortable. But that was something that every military had to put up with, no matter where they were from.

“By the way Liza, who was that man, you’re boyfriend or something?” Mary asked.

Liza sputtered on hearing that, “No!! That’s my XO Lieutenant Harding, he just drove me here and I offered to let him come in.”

Mary just smiled at her daughter, “Okay dear, no need to freak out about it. Though you do need to get a boyfriend already.”

Liza just continued to sputter and stare at her mother like she had just told her that her favorite pet had died.

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Meanwhile~
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“So your Liza’s…XO, that is the right word, right?” Tom asked.

“Yes it is, and yes I am your sisters second in command.” Harding answered.

“That’s so cool! What do you do on that ship though?” Jane asked.

“Keep the thing running. Liza has too much on her plate as is, so I help keep the crew in line.” Harding answered, feeling a little out of his depth, he didn’t have younger siblings, just older ones.

“That must not be easy. Our sister doesn’t do a lot of work.” Tom said, taking on a stage whisper for the last part.

Harding smiled at the young boy, “Don’t be hard on your sister, she does more work than anyone else on the Allegiance now. I haven’t seen such a hard worker in a while.”

“Whatever you say Mr. Harding, but I still think she is lazy.” Tom said.

“You just keep on thinking that.” Harding said, ruffling the young boy’s hair.

“Do you think we could get a tour of the ship sometime?” Jane asked.

“I don’t see why not, but that would be up to your sister and parents, not me. But your sister won’t care, she’s too nice for that.” Harding answered.

Said Commander was standing in the hallway, and blushed a little at that…she wasn’t used to people complimenting her. But once she got that under control, Liza headed into the living room.

“Dinner’s ready guys, just don’t run Dad over getting the food.” Liza said.

“Yes! We are so hungry right now, right Jane.” Tom said.

“You got that right! Out of our way Liza!” Jane yelled, both twins running past their sister.

“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Harding asked, with a bemused smile.

“Why bother? They didn’t listen to me before I left for training, so why should they now?” Liza answered.

“Okay then, lead the way Commander, ladies first after all.” Harding said, sticking his arm out.

“Oh a gentlemen are we? Good to see some people still are.” Liza said, taking the proffered arm.

She then led him to the dining room, not noticing the slight blush on Harding’s cheeks.

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Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Earth

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“So we lost contact with Station 23 eh? That’s right on the border of Chiss Space isn’t it?” Admiral James Smith asked.

“Yes sir, but we don’t know who attacked it. It might have been either the Chiss or the Vaggari, we just don’t know.” The messenger answered.

“Okay then are their any ships nearby that aren’t already engaged?” Smith asked.

“Yes sir, the Allegiance on Arcadia just finished refitting. And we have already had the Danube on its way there. There are other ships, but none of them have the new upgrades.” The messenger replied.

“And we don’t want to take the risk that this was the Empire, since our older ships can’t fight them…makes sense. Okay, tell the High Command I’m going to head to Arcadia and take the Allegiance with me to investigate.” Smith said.

The messenger nodded, and left the ship. And with that, Smith launched the Enterprise, heading for Arcadia.

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Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

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“Well, looks like we have our first mission ma’am.” Harding said, reading the message from the Enterprise, Admiral Smith’s flagship.

“I wonder why one of our stations would go dark like that…I don’t like it. The Chiss aren’t stupid enough to attack us, even with a good chunk of our fleet down for the refits. But I wouldn’t put it past the Vaggari from what my parents told me of them.” Liza said, putting on her captain’s hat.

Harding looked a little confused by Liza’s words until he remembered what she told him at her parent’s house. Both of them had fought the Vaggari Incursions about 27 years ago now.

“Yes ma’am. Neither would I, my parents had stories of the attack on Cestus from their great-great grandparents. So I know how brutal those ‘people’ are.” Harding replied.

Liza nodded, “Yeah I know, come on Lieutenant, lets get this baby underway.”

Harding nodded, and set about giving the crew its orders. And with that, the Allegiance launched on its first mission in years, the Frigate seeming to shake in anticipation.

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Chiss/Confederacy Border Zone

Unknown Regions

4 months BBY
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“Looks like the Danube beat us here sir.” Liza informed Admiral Smith via hologram.

“Looks like it, I wouldn’t put it past Ravensburg though, he always was fast.” Smith replied.

“Yeah I’ve heard of his reputation sir. It's good to have him if whoever did this is still in the area though.” Liza said, before cutting the link.

Smith then turned his attention to the debris field in front of him. It was obvious the station had been obliterated quickly, since it didn’t call for help. The dagger shaped hull of the Danube was coasting through it, obviously looking for survivors or evidence of what had happened. Smith had to hand it to his subordinate, Edward Ravensburg could get where he needed to be faster than most Confederacy captains.

“Sir, you might want to see this,” the sensor officer said.

“What is it son, did you find evidence of who did this?” Smith asked.

“Yes sir, and we have a match in the database for this type of weapons damage. It was the Vaggari sir.” The officer said.

Smith’s eyes widened on hearing that, the Vaggari had been oddly silent since the Outbound Flight Project came through this area and destroyed a good chunk of their fleet.

“Are you absolutely certain Ensign? We haven’t heard anything from the Vaggari in years.” Smith asked.

“Yes I am Admiral, though I wish I wasn’t. There is no denying it, this was done by the Vaggari.” The young officer replied.

Smith shook his head lightly, “Okay then, open a channel to the Allegiance and Danube, we need to start searching for the ships that did this. Make sure to send a message to Navy Command though, we might need them to get Chiss help, they know this area better than we do.”

The communications officer nodded, and sent the messages. After a couple minutes, holograms of both Edward Ravensburg and Liza Fisher appeared over the holopads.

“You called sir?” Liza asked.

“Yes, what do you need Admiral, we need to continue searching the debris.” Ravensburg said, his flame red eyes a little disconcerting to the Admiral.

“Yes well, we haven’t found any survivors so there probably aren’t any. We would have found them by now trust me. But we did find something you two need to know; the debris has signs of Vaggari weapons fire. We need to break off two of the ships to explore the area and see if they are still nearby.” Smith said.

Both of the younger Captain’s eyes widened a little bit.

“The Vaggari? Are you sure Admiral, my parents beat them back with the rest of the military years ago.” Liza said.

“Yes I’m sure, I wish I wasn’t trust me. Liza, your ship will stay here and continue looking for survivors or recordings. Edward, your with the Enterprise, lets go see if we can find the Vaggari.” Smith ordered.

Both the Captains nodded, and cut the links, with the diamond shaped Allegiance taking the Danube’s place in the debris. The two cruisers then jumped out, trying to track down the Vaggari who did this…not knowing that it was actually the Empire, and they had just left their weakest ship behind, with Thrawn’s fleet not having left Chiss space yet…
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Well there was the first chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed it, and reviews. If I need to work on anything just let me know. No idea when I can get another chapter out though. Oh and if anyone found it odd that Thrawn had a larger fleet that is simple. Instead of disjointed Vaggari, and the weak Chiss fleets in the Unknown Regions like in Canon, there is now the regional powerhouse of the Sol Confederacy to deal with. And I will delve into Thrawn's past with the Confederacy later on, to clear up any questions on that front.

[Skywalker_T-65]

In answer to the old thread being locked:
Heh...whoops. Sorry about that...guess I should have read the rules more throughly. I'll be more careful about that from now on. And sorry for wasting your time.

[Mayabird]

Link to the stats and numbers thread.

It looks alright, except for a few things for writing dialogue that I will nitpick now.

“Dinner’s ready guys, just don’t run Dad over getting the food.” Liza said.

“Yes! We are so hungry right now, right Jane.” Tom said.

First, you should use more pronouns. You had repeating lines of "Liza said" and "Tom said" or whatever for absolutely no reason instead of just he or she. In fact, a lot of times, you can just leave out who said what if it's just two people talking. They're alternating, so we can keep up for the most part. Also, the format should go like this:

"This is a statement," said Mayabird.

Not periods, commas. I noticed you did use commas a couple times but it was very inconsistent.

[Skywalker_T-65]

^ Understandable, that is why I asked for feedback, didn't even realize what I was doing there. I'll work on that for the next one. Slightly ironic that I used to use commas in my older stories but my beta's back then said it wasn't right...need to learn to listen to more than one opinion on this stuff.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well here is the second chapter. I'm surprised I got this out so quick though...oh well. I hope you all enjoy it, since I put a lot of work into improving my writing for this one. Probably still not perfect, but hey, at least I tried. Please give me some feedback though, I need to know if I am doing this right here, since I don't know if the story itself is good or not (at least by SD.net standards, by FF and Force.net it is since people have said so on both those sites). But I take the opinion of the people on here more seriously since you guys know what you are talking about. Okay, enough talking, here is the second chapter of Sol Hope.
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Confederacy/Chiss Border

Unknown Regions

4 months BBY
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“Any sign of survivors?” Liza asked her sensors operator after they had coasted through the debris for several hours.

“No ma’am. If the Vaggari really did this they probably took any survivors as slaves,” the officer answered.

Liza nodded her head, and turned back to the viewport, the wreckage of Station 23 bouncing off the Allegiance’s shields. She still couldn’t believe it, her first mission and the Vaggari came back to attack the Confederacy. Her parents were not going to be happy to find that out.

“Captain! A ship just dropped out of hyperspace outside the debris field, and the design isn’t in our database!” yelled the sensor officer.

“Bring it up on visual, we need to find out what that ship is,” Liza said.

The other officer nodded and brought up a visual of the unidentified ship. It was a design that the young Commander had never seen before, a dagger shaped blue vessel. It resembled a smaller Missouri, but the Confederacy battleship wasn’t as blocky as this ship. But that was the last thing on the mind of the Allegiance’s crew, as they knew that ship was probably stronger than their own frigate.

“It doesn’t seem to know we are here yet…keep monitoring it but don’t let them see us,” she ordered.

The crew nodded, and worked to keep the debris field between them and the blue ship. At first it seemed to be working, since the larger vessel was moving off, looking like it was leaving the area, but then the Allegiance was painted by a wide ranging sensor sweep, and the ship turned right towards the smaller Confederacy frigate.

“No, they spotted us!” Harding yelled, turning to snap orders at the crew.

“Wait Lieutenant…what if they aren’t violent? It’s odd that they would have such a large ship, but they haven’t attacked us yet,” Liza pointed out.

The officer just shook his head at his Captain’s naivety…just because they hadn’t attacked didn’t mean the blue ship was a friend. So he still ordered shields raised, just to be on the safe side.

“Try to open a channel with them, maybe we can talk them out of attacking us…if that’s even what they plan,” the Commander ordered.

The Ensign on the comm station nodded, and started transmitting a message, “Unidentified vessel, this is the Confederacy frigate Allegiance state your business in our territory.”

But the other vessel remained ominously silent, and didn’t change its course at all. As the blue ship got closer to the Allegiance, Liza turned to her gunnery officer.

“Start charging the MAC…I don’t like how they’re staying quiet,” she ordered.

After a quick look at the other ship, the officer set to work, and pretty soon enough the main weapon of the Allegiance was charged and aimed at the larger blue vessel.

“Any change, are they still ignoring our hails?” Harding asked.

“No change, they still aren’t responding, and they haven’t altered their course,” the Ensign answered.

“Okay then, start backing us out of the debris, we need a clear path to jump to Hyperspace,” Liza ordered.

With that, the Allegiance started to back up, but it kept its bow pointed towards the other ship for as long as possible, since they needed the MAC for any serious battle. But eventually the ship had to turn in order to get a good jump, and that cost them…

“We are ready to jump ma’am, just give the order and we…” Harding started, but he was thrown to the deck along with the rest of the bridge crew as a barrage of green turbolaser fire flew towards the Allegiance.

“Damage report! What just hit us?” Liza yelled.

“That ship just fired a barrage of turbolasers at us! Our primary shield is down, and the secondary is only at 80%!” yelled the tactical officer.

The entire crew was shocked by that news…they knew that ship was larger than theirs, and in all likelihood stronger, but to take down their shields like that in one barrage?

“Well I think you have your answer now Commander, may we fire back?” Harding asked sarcastically.

“Of course, fire the MAC! Turbolaser gunners can fire at will!”

On receiving that order, the men in the CIC deep within the Allegiance’s hull aimed and fired the MAC in the bow. The recoil from that blast showed why it deserved its place as the main weapon on the frigate. But they hadn’t faced an enemy like this before, and it was loaded with one of the less dense shells. So thus when the round impacted the blue ships shields it just bounced right off.

“What was that, how did the shell just bounce off? Did it do any damage to their shields?” Liza asked, somehow keeping her cool…if only barely.

“Only a little bit…we need to get back behind the debris, it should provide some cover,” Harding answered.

“Okay then, move us behind that debris now!”

“Yes ma’am!” the helmsman replied, diving the Allegiance almost like a fighter.

Thanks to that quick maneuver the return fire from the enemy overshot the Confederacy ship, but the small amount of turbolasers on the Allegiance that returned fire weren’t enough to do much damage in return. Once the ship was somewhat safe behind the debris, they tried to restore shield power. But the power behind that first barrage had damaged the generators…the most the crew could get was the secondary shield up to full, the primary one was fried. And that blue ship hadn’t given up on them, as the pyrotechnics in the debris showed, it was battering its way through.

“We can’t stop them can we?” Liza asked.

“Not alone…and we lost communications on the first hit. They knew exactly where to hit us!” Harding angrily yelled as he punched a nearby console.

“We need to retreat then, is the hyperdrive still operational?” the Commander asked.

“Yes it is, but we still need a location,” he answered with a question.

“Jump to Arcadia then, if they know where to hit our ship then they probably already have spies in place.”

Harding nodded and tapped the helmsman on his shoulder. The Allegiance turned away from the debris and started to engage its hyperdrive. But a lucky shot from the blue ship hit its engines, damaging the hyperdrive just as the ship jumped.
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Chiss/Confederacy Border

Unknown Regions

Star Destroyer: Admonitor
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“The Confederacy ship escaped Admiral,” an Imperial officer said.

Thrawn nodded and turned to his communication officer, “Send a message to the rest of the fleet, they can come in now.”

Said officer nodded himself and sent the requested message. The rest of the fleet soon arrived, taking formation around the flaghship. They then jumped back towards Imperial space, a fact that Thrawn was very thankful for, since he loathed being in Confederacy space. They were the reason for his exile, and the Alliance with them had ruined his people. They were weak now, and would rather listen to the Confederacy then one of their own children. It was one of the few things that riled up the calm Admiral…but he would be back, and with more forces if his plan for his own Empire came to fruition.
****************

Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Earth

****************
“So let me get this straight…not only did we lose one of our outposts to the Vaggari but our newest frigate has gone missing? How did this happen!” the Head Admiral yelled at Smith.

“I don’t know sir. The Allegiance just vanished; it didn’t even send a distress message,” Smith answered.

“Was there any wreckage? A beacon? Anything?” the older man asked.

“No sir…nothing at all, its like it was never there.”

“Is Ravensburg still looking around the area?”

“Yes sir he is, but unless he expands the search to the surrounding systems I doubt he will find anything.”

“Well take the Enterprise back out, we can’t just abandon Fisher and her ship,” another Admiral pointed out.

“I know that, we will head out with a couple of frigates as soon as the ship is restocked with the heavy shells,” Smith replied.

“Good luck Admiral…I think we all will need it.”
******************

Unnamed System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Allegiance
*******************

“Ow…what hit my head?” Liza asked, as she slowly regained consciousness on a dimly lit bridge.

“One of the consoles. That last hit knocked us around quite a bit. Only life support and sensors are operational,” Harding answered, helping his Commander to her feet.

“Any idea where we are?” she groggily asked.

“No ma’am, this system isn’t on any of our charts…I honestly have no idea where we are.”

“What about causalities? We must have lost some crew from that last hit.”

“Relatively light, we only lost 57 men in the aft section. Though we have a dozen wounded, including you ma’am.”

“What are you talking about I feel fine…”

“Your bleeding Commander.”

“What…” Liza said, but then she felt a nasty cut on her forehead.

“You might want to lay down in your cabin Commander, I’ll send a corpsman up to treat that gash,” Harding said, guiding his friend to her room, only for Liza to collapse about halfway there. That left Harding carrying his Commander to her bunk. After he set her down, the Lieutenant called up a corpsman, and left the room when the medic arrived.

He then headed back for the bridge, to try and bring the ship back into some sort of spaceworthy state.

“How are the repairs going?” he asked one of the other officers.

“Well enough sir…the hyperdrive and engines took a nasty hit at the end there. We might be able to get the backup going, but with no idea where we are…” the other officer answered with a shrug.

“I know what you mean, we need to figure out where exactly ‘here’ is. Are we still in Confederacy space at least?” Harding asked, this time directing the question at the navigator this time.

“That much I can say with certainty sir, we are still in Confederacy space. And from what I can tell we are somewhere between Station 23 and Arcadia. But beyond that I really don’t know.”

Harding just gave a noncommittal grunt at that, and turned back to the viewport. It was a truly magnificent view…the bright orange star they were orbiting set against a backdrop of a beautiful green nebula. But there was not a planet in sight, so they needed to fix the engines, the Allegiance didn’t carry anywhere near enough supplies for them to float in empty space until someone stumbled on them, and they definitely weren’t in any condition to fight the Vaggari or that blue ship again.

“What about the shuttles sir? Shouldn’t they have hyperdrives?” one of the other officers asked.

Harding just shook his head, “Unfortunately no, we didn’t think we would need the hyperdrive equipped shuttles for a mission so close to Arcadia. We have shuttles on board but they are short range ones.”

“We really weren’t ready for this mission were we sir?”

“No we weren’t, I can’t believe High Command sent such a new ship and crew out. And Smith shouldn’t have left us alone,” Harding said, venom clearly evident in his voice.

The crew was a little surprised to hear just how angry their XO was, but it was well known how much he cared for his crew, so the losses must be tearing the man up. So the crew threw themselves fully into repairing their wounded home, it was the least they could do.
*****************

Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia
*******************

“What do you mean my daughters missing!!” John Fisher yelled.

“Yeah, what happened to our baby?” Mary asked.

“I told you, we don’t know. The Allegiance went missing investigating a station on the Chiss border. I can’t tell you anything beyond that,” the military representative answered.

“Like heck you can’t! We both served in the military in fought in the last Vaggari Incursion, we deserve to know what happened to our daughter!” John yelled again, keeping his language in check since he knew the twins would be listening in.

“Look, I wish I could say more, I have a kid on that ship too. But I really can’t say anymore, its classified what the exact mission was. All I can say is that you know who was involved with the station,” the rep said, giving a significant look towards the Fisher’s medals and flag.

Following the man’s eyes, both the elder Fisher’s realized what he was hinting at…the Vaggari had probably attacked their daughters ship. That raised both their tempers; the Confederacy had promised them that the Vaggari wouldn’t be anywhere near Arcadia and its neighbors anymore.

“Well goodbye then, I hope for both our sakes that the Allegiance returns soon. I don’t like the idea of my son being lost out there anymore than you like the idea of your daughter being lost. Not to mention the Allegiance is the pride of the Arcadia shipyards, a lot of people want that ship to be safe…and for what its worth I truly am sorry about your daughter being missing,” the man said before leaving to head back to the main military base on Arcadia.

“Well…he was nice enough about it, all things considered. Though I can’t believe that the Vaggari are back, we beat them badly last time,” Mary said, looking at the medals.

“I know dear, I can’t understand it either. I may have been in the Army, but from what you told me the Vaggari didn’t have much of a navy left by the end. So it’s beyond me how they could have built back up in such a short time,” John replied, looking at the medals himself.

Jane and Tom watched their parents from their bedroom door, and even with how young they were the twins could tell something was wrong. All they had heard of the conversation was Liza being missing. And that alone was enough to really freak the two out; they couldn’t comprehend something happening to their sister. But at the same time they didn’t want to mess with their parents, who obviously wanted to be left alone. So they just silently shut the door and went back to bed.
*****************************

Confederacy/Chiss Border

Unknown Regions

Enterprise

4 months BBY
****************

“Any luck on finding the Allegiance, Captain?” Smith asked the hologram of Edward Ravensburg.

“Not yet Admiral. I did find something interesting though. A MAC shell, and from the way it’s so deformed it had to have hit a powerful shield. It is the right size to be from Allegiance too, so they had to have fought someone. And whoever it was had to have been stronger. I wish I was here instead of them, my ships stronger and my crew has more experience,” Ravensburg answered.

“Nothing you could have done Captain. The Allegiance was our newest frigate. Your ship may be a frontline unit but it’s showing its age. I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, but the Danube wouldn’t have fared much better against whoever attacked them.”

“I know that sir, no one should have the nerve to attack one of our ships .”

“Trust me, I feel the same way Captain. But we need to expand our search radius. Take the Freedom and search the nearby systems. I’ll take the Enterprise and Justice and search the further out ones. The Chiss are scouring the systems on their side of the border, so if Fisher had to flee that way they will find her.”

“Yes sir. I’ll leave a shuttle on the planet here to search down there and see if they can find any evidence of what happened to the station since that investigation was cut short.” Ravensburg said, before turning his cruiser and its new frigate counterpart towards a random star system and jumping to hyperspace.

Smith let out a heavy sigh, and gave the order for his own cruiser/frigate pair to jump to a system farther out than the one Ravensburg was heading for.
**************************

Unnamed System

Sol Confederacy

Allegiance

4 months BBY
*****************

“Any luck on getting out of here?” Liza asked coming onto the bridge.

“No…and are you sure you should be up Commander? That was a nasty cut on your head after all,” Harding said, eyeing the white bandage on Liza’s brow that contrasted so badly with her red hair.

“Yeah I’m fine, the corpsman just said to take it easy for now. And how are the repairs going?”

“Well enough, thankfully the reactor wasn’t hit so we have the secondary shields and the weapons back up. But the best we have been able to do is get the engines up to sixty-seven percent, along with the backup hyperdrive. So we aren’t going anywhere fast. But as soon as we can get a jump plotted out we can head back to Arcadia.”

Liza let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding, “Well that’s some good news. I was starting to get worried.”

“Commander! Two ships just dropped out of hyperspace!” the sensor officer yelled.

“WHAT!! Are they ours?” Liza yelled back, the room spinning a little as she moved to quick.

“Scanning…no they aren’t…those are Vaggari ships, one frigate and one destroyer.”

Normally that wouldn’t be a threat to as new a ship as the Allegiance…but the frigate was still not anywhere near ready to fight, not after the beating it had gotten from that blue ship.

“Charge the MAC and raise shields, we won’t get out of here without a fight,” Liza said, dreading the damage her ship was likely to take…
____________________________________

Well there was the chapter. Like I said, let me know what you all think of it.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well here is the next chapter. Sorry this one took a little longer to get out than the last one, I got a serious case of writers block there for a little while. In the end, I am satisfied with this chapter still, despite the block. On another note, in one part you will notice horrid grammar...that was intentional. It is a translator working with a race that uses a language it is not programmed with interspaced with words from a language it does have. So thus, you get very broken English (I never liked how in SW everyone can talk Basic, or in ST the UT can translate absolutely anything). So please, don't kill me over that, it hurt me to write it (I am normally something of a grammar Nazi...heh, heh). Enough talk, here is the chapter. By the way, if you can guess the race who has the aforementioned bad grammar go ahead and try (here's a hint...they aren't from SW). If no one can guess (or even bother to try) then I will tell you all in the next chapter.
___________________________________________________________________________

Unnamed System

Sol Confederacy

Allegiance

4 months BBY

**********************
Three ships were hovering in deep space. On one side was the heavily damaged Allegiance; on the other were the two Vaggari ships. On the bridge of the Confederacy frigate was a scene of barely controlled chaos. The crew was doing everything in their power to get the ship ready for battle, but it wasn’t easy considering the shape the vessel was in.

“Are the Vaggari doing anything?” Liza asked, back in her Captain’s chair.

“Not right now, they haven’t moved since they got here, that is not like the Vaggari, they normally would have attacked by now,” Harding answered, not sure what the other ships were waiting for.

“I know…this isn’t like them at all…something’s not right here.”

“Do you want the MAC loaded Commander?”

“Yes Lieutenant, they may not be attacking but we need to be ready.”

“Ma’am they are trying to contact us. Do you want to open a channel?” the communications officer said.

Liza and Harding looked at each other, both thinking the same thing…why would Vaggari want to talk with them?

“Open a channel, but keep the MAC ready, and man the turbolaser turrets, we need to be ready if this is a trick,” Liza ordered.

The other officer nodded, and opened the channel, and the bridge was immediately blasted by frantic yelling. But it wasn’t in a language anyone on the Confederacy frigate understood, which was odd in of itself, since they had a translator programmed with the languages of all the species they had encountered…including the Vaggari.

“Anyone recognize that language?” Harding asked the crew.

At the chorus of no’s that answered that question, Harding turned to Liza, “Should we let the translator try and figure the language out? Or do you want to fire?”

Liza shook her head, “No, try and get the sensors to zoom in on the ships, I have a feeling they aren’t a threat. And set the translator to work too.”

Harding shook his own head, he wasn’t sure what his Commander was thinking, but he still gave the order. When the viewscreen showed a close up of the Vaggari ships it shocked the crew. They were even more damaged than the Allegiance herself was. It looked like a miracle the ships hadn’t fallen apart yet.

“See? They don’t look like they could even fight us,” Liza pointed out.

“Looks can be deceiving Commander…and you know that. Is the translator having any luck?” Harding asked one of the other officers.

“A little, we can talk with them as long as it is slow. Their language is remarkably similar to the Vaggari language…but with a completely different language mixed in with it,” the officer answered, obviously excited at meeting a new race.

“Calm down Ensign…we still don’t know who they are.”

“I know sir, its still exciting though, we haven’t found any new people since the Chiss.”

“Which is precisely why we need to be careful…what if these people destroyed the Vaggari and are coming for us or the Chiss now?”

The younger officer gulped before turning back to his station and getting back to work on translating. Harding smiled at him before turning back to Liza.

“Well Commander, shall we try this again?”

Liza nodded, “Yes we will. Reopen the channel and lets see if we can talk now.”

Again the bridge was blasted with shouts, but this time it was rendered in English…albeit extremely broken English.

“No shoot! We no want to fight!!” the voice yelled, with a distinctly female inflection.

The bridge crew was a little shocked by that, unless this was a very elaborate ruse it wasn’t Vaggari in those ships. Especially since in every encounter with the pirate race no women had been in command. Though a couple of the more comedic crewman laughed at the odd accent the translator gave them.

Liza cleared her throat, “Hello? We don’t want to fight you either but you need to tell us who you are and how you got those ships.”

After a short wait while the translator worked over the message the disconcertingly human voice responded, “We happy you not want to fight. We are the People and we fought the Oppressors to free our world. We won battle and took ships to look for help. The Oppressors talked about a ‘Confederacy’ that was strong…strong enough to stop them. We are hoping you be them.”

Liza looked at her crew trying to judge their reactions, and saw only hope that the story was true. Heck…she hoped it was true, if these ‘People’ could beat off the Vaggari and get a couple ships then they might be worth bringing into the fold. After all, aside from some Chiss the Confederacy was only humans and it couldn’t hurt to get new talent.

“I would like to believe your story, but we need some sort of proof on who you are,” Liza sent back to the former Vaggari ships.

There was another short wait, before the reply, “We no have way to prove our story. We can only let you come to ships and see us. We let you take however many you need, we no attack.”

This time it was Harding who raised an eyebrow, if he was hearing things right then they were willing to let them send over as many people as they wanted to talk. But if they did send over a team it would need to be heavily armed in case this was a very intricate trap…which while not normal behavior for the Vaggari they couldn’t be too careful.

“Okay then, we will send a group over to your ships to talk. Don’t try anything funny.”

“We no try anything. We only want to find help for Home.”

********************
Unexplored Space

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

‘People’ Destroyer

An hour later~

*******************
“Wow, I’m still surprised this thing can still fly…it is really beat up,” Harding said as the shuttle approached the larger of the two ships.

It wasn’t a pretty sight; there was holes and carbon scoring all along the hull. There was even some exposed electronics along the ship. The design looked like it might once have looked nice with its wings and somewhat organic look, but it was horribly marred by damage. It honestly looked ready to fall apart at one blow from a turbolaser.

“I know, and I thought we were in bad shape…” Liza added looking back at the Allegiance, which while it was beat up, it still looked okay for the most part.

As the shuttle pulled into the battered vessels launch bay, they were greeted by humanoid figures. Though they couldn’t be farther from actual humans if they tried. Covered in fur from head to foot, they were wearing very little clothing, only something that resembled a kilt. To be honest, they looked like…well…lemurs, giant lemurs. With very human like bodies…especially the women. But that didn’t change the fact that they were very alien.

“Wow…not what I was expecting at all. They are almost as alien looking as the Vaggari themselves. Even the Chiss look more human than they do,” Harding said.

“I know, and it makes more sense now that they had such a different language,” Liza pointed out.

Once the shuttle landed, the tallest member of the ‘People’ group came forward, and it was obvious that she was the one they had been talking too, if only by the air of authority the black furred women carried herself.

“Is that translator working right now?” Liza asked the Ensign from earlier.

“Yes Commander, I doubt they will have good grammar still, but at least we can understand them,” Ensign White answered, still a little surprised they had brought him along.

Liza nodded, and took the translator from the Ensign before turning to the women.

“Hello, I am Commander Fisher of the Confederacy ship Allegiance. What is your name?”

After a slight delay while the translator did its job, to shocked looks from the ‘People’ crew, the woman answered, “I am Kris-Ar, Captain of this vessel. We talked earlier. And I am glad to hear you are Confederacy.”

Liza nodded and gave a quick look at White, who just shrugged, surprised that the translator was actually working right…for the most part.

“I am glad to hear that Captain Kris-Ar. Can we find a room to talk?”

“Yes, follow me Fisher.”

With those words, the dark-furred women walked back towards her group, and the Confederacy group followed her as Kris-Ar led them to a meeting room. It was in surprisingly good shape considering the rest of the ship. The banner draped over one of the walls was obviously not a Vaggari one; it was a green tree on a blue field.

As Kris-Ar sat down, Liza sat down herself across from the dark-furred Captain.

“Okay then, I have several questions for you Captain…where are you from, how you fought off the Vaggari, and how you found our territory.”

Kris-Ar stared at Liza for a second with her large green eyes before answering, “We come from Home. I don’t know where it is, not in a way you would understand. We fought off the Oppressors by gaining their trust. It wasn’t easy…I lost my daughter to an Oppressor Lord.”

Hearing that, Liza’s heart immediately went out to the young woman in front of her. She herself hadn’t had any children yet, but Liza could understand what it must have felt like to lose a daughter. So she smiled lightly at the alien woman across from her before saying, “I’m sorry to hear that Captain. All I can offer right now is my condolences for your loss. I still need to know how you found our territory if I am going to help anymore.”

“Thank you Fisher. The way our ships found you is simple. The Oppressor ships had your people in their ‘computers’. We used it to find our way here before we went to Arcadia…is that the name?”

“Yes it is, that is my home actually. It’s a beautiful planet. I’m not sure if I should be happy or angry that you were coming for it though. You seem like nice people, but the Vaggari having Arcadia’s location stored…that is not a good thing.”

Kris-Ar blinked rapidly, apparently that was how they communicated, before saying, “I’m happy you like us, but I can see your problem. I wouldn’t want you to find Home without us knowing either.”

“That reminds me, if you want, we can escort you to Arcadia to meet some of our leaders. It’s not like your ships are any threat…no offense.”

“None taken, we realize how hurt the ships are.”

Liza nodded, and stood up to leave, but Kris-Ar surprised her by standing up and hugging the Confederacy officer. Liza blushed fiercely and pried the dark furred woman off.

“What? That is how we say farewell,” Kris-Ar said, not sure why Liza’s face had turned red.

“Yeah…but humans don’t hug people unless we know them well…especially not wearing so little clothing,” Liza said back.

Kris-Ar looked down at her body before looking back at Liza, “Really…but this is how the People always have dressed. We live in a very hot area.”

“Okay then, just please don’t do it again until we know each other better.”

“As you say Fisher. I look forward to seeing your home.”

Liza nodded, and left the room with the rest of her group, giving Ensign White passing thanks on getting such a good translator worked up.

********************
Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

*********************
“Unknown ships dropping into the system! Three contacts, two frigate class and one destroyer!” the communications officer on the Enterprise yelled.

“Move on an intercept course, and get the Justice over here. We can’t let them get to Arcadia. Try and hail Ravensburg too, wherever he got off to,” Smith ordered, as the Arcadia class cruiser moved to cover its namesake world.

“We have a visual on the ships sir…wait one of them is the Allegiance!”

“Are you sure? What are the two other ships then?”

“Two Vaggari ships sir, once frigate and the destroyer. But oddly enough, the Allegiance looks to be in better shape than either of the other ships. It’s possible that they captured them.”

“We can’t be sure about that Lieutenant, try and contact the Allegiance.”

After a couple failed tries they finally made contact with the battered frigate, “Admiral is that you? Good to see that Arcadia is still here.”

“Yes it’s me Commander Fisher. What happened to your ship and why are you worried about Arcadia?” Smith asked.

“We were attacked by an unknown ship. It completely overpowered us and hit the Allegiance as we jumped into hyperspace. I was worried it had come here next since we didn’t have any other ships nearby.”

“I can see why you were worried, we’ll talk about this ship once the Allegiance is in dry-dock. But who are your friends in the Vaggari ships?”

“They call themselves the ‘People’. Apparently they fought the Vaggari off their home planet and captured a handful of ships. These are two they sent towards Arcadia with the data in their computers. They are actually quite nice people, despite the fact they don’t look human at all aside from overall body shape.”

“Hmm…okay then, bring them in with you, we have the space in the dock to repair their ships too.”

“Yes sir, Ensign White, send a message to Kris-Ar letting her know to follow us in. We will follow your lead Admiral, our engines still aren’t at full power.”

“Okay then Commander, follow the Enterprise and we will keep you covered in case that ship shows up.”

With those words the comm channel was cut and the now five-ship group headed for Arcadia orbit.

*******************
Coruscant System

Coruscant Sector

Core Worlds

Galactic Empire
*******************

“So Admiral Thrawn, do you have any explanation for your failure to bring the Chiss into the Empire?” Emperor Palpatine asked.

“Only one thing my Lord…the fools refused to listen to your generous offers of aid,” Thrawn answered.

“Nice try Admiral, my sources told me you tried to get them to break from the Confederacy and then attacked one of the Sol ships. That went completely against my masters orders,” Vader said from his corner of the room.

“That doesn’t relate to how he failed Lord Vader. He failed since the Admiral couldn’t see past his hatred of the Confederacy. I trust I won’t have to repeat myself this time Admiral Thrawn…don’t defy my orders again. If I send you back to your people get past your hatred of the Confederacy and work with them. Their knowledge of the Unknown Regions will help root out the Rebels,” Palpatine said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

“Yes my Lord,” Thrawn answered, before turning to leave the room.

Once the Chiss Admiral was gone, Vader turned towards his master, “I still don’t trust him Master, he can’t see past his petty prejudices. He will betray you someday if we try and bring the Confederacy into the Empire.”

“I know that very well Lord Vader. Don’t think I don’t have spies in place too. If Thrawn tries anything they will act to remove him, I don’t leave loose ends.”

“I know Master, I will give the same orders to my own spies.”

“No, don’t do that Lord Vader. Thrawn is still far from an idiot, he will notice if too many of his men start acting odd. He is even now going to be trying to root out your men.”

“Very well Master, I will head back to the Devastator now and continue looking for the Rebel’s base.”

And with that Vader left Palpatine to his planning.

***********************
Admonitor

************************
“Welcome back Admiral. How did the meeting go?” Thrawn’s second in command asked.

“Not well. Set a course back to the Unknown Regions, we need to speed up forming the Empire of the Hand, these fools need protection even from themselves,” Thrawn answered.

And with that the fleet set out…to set up a fortress of sanity in the Unknown Regions…though Thrawn was the only one who thought of it as that.
**********************

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well here is the next chapter. This is somewhat shorter than the first ones, but oh well, at least I got it up here. That being said (and I probably should have said this earlier...) the first Arc will focus on the Confederacy and the Unknown Regions. It won't be till we reach ANH or so that we start focusing on the SW Galaxy proper. Also, since no one guessed on the 'People', I have an answer on who they are based on. Anyone read the Destroyermen series? That series' main non-human species is what I based my 'People' off of. I have only recently read the books, but they are very good (if weird)...so I decided using the Lemurians (the race) worked for using a non-SW race for the Confederacy to meet. Hope no one gets angry at that...since this is supposed to not be a crossover. And I made a slight change to the timeline to explain their homeworld (not that I could edit the thing...but that isn't the point).

That is all I really have to say up here, I would like some more feedback though, at this point I don't know if it is good, or horrible, or just meh...I need to know in case it needs to be improved in some way.
_____________________________________________________________________


Alpha Centuari System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Arcadia

4 months BBY~

*****************
“Man, it is so good to be back here,” Harding said, looking down on Arcadia as the Allegiance descended, followed by their new friends and the Justice.

“I know we are very lucky it wasn’t Vaggari who found us. Though we need to think up a better name for Kris-Ar’s group than ‘The People’ don’t we?” Liza asked.

“Good point…it could get confusing if we don’t think up a name for them sometime soon.”

“How about Lemurians?” Ensign White asked, being as he had been studying some records Kris-Ar had given the Allegiance.

Liza rose an eyebrow at that, “Lemurians…really? Couldn’t you think of something more creative?”

White looked mildly offended by that, but said calmly, “Funny Commander, but think about it…they look like giant humanoid Lemurs, with some cat-like features. I figure that we need a name that will be easy to remember, and Lemurians works well enough for that.”

Liza nodded, “Works well enough I guess…just still not very creative.”

Ignoring a fuming Ensign White, Liza set about securing her ship and heading to the shuttle bay to get a ride to Navy Command.

**********************
Arcadia

Capital City: New Athens

Navy High Command~
***********************

“Fisher! It is good to see a familiar face!” Kris-Ar shouted, almost hugging Liza again…before remembering that it wasn’t a custom for Humans.

“Nice to see you too Kris-Ar…at least your wearing more clothes this time…” Liza said back, the last part mumbled under her breath.

“I’m sorry, did you say something Fisher? This ‘translator’ you gave me might not be working right.”

“Nothing Kris-Ar…nothing at all, now come on, we have to meet the Admirals.”

The newly dubbed Lemurian gave Liza an odd look, before following the Commander into the meeting room.

“Commander Liza Fisher of the UARS (1) Allegiance reporting sir’s,” Liza said, saluting the men and women in front of her.

“At ease Commander. I take it that is this ‘Kris-Ar’ you told us about?” Admiral Smith asked, since he was the most familiar with Liza.

“Yes she is…come on up Kris-Ar.”

The black-furred Lemurian hesitantly stepped forward and bowed slightly to the assembled Admiral’s, “I am Captain Kris-Ar of Seraaca Home…what your people call the ‘destroyer’.”

“Alright then, can you explain to us exactly who you are and where you come from?” one of the other Admiral’s asked, wanting an explanation direct from Kris-Ar as opposed to Liza’s report.

Kris-Ar cocked her head to the side, before responding, “But I already told Fisher where we are from and who we are? Why would you need me to repeat myself?”

“It’s not that we don’t trust Commander Fisher…we just want to confirm what she told us.”

“Understandable…we are the People, and we come from Home. From what we saw of the Oppresors star charts, and what Fisher let us see of your own ones, it would be called Epsilon Eridani 4.”

“Really…we never sent any probes out there did we…” one of the other Admirals mused…it was odd that they hadn’t considering how close Eridani was to Earth.

“That is odd…and it explained why we never found them. Though the idea of the Vaggari having a base that close to Earth is somewhat frightening. We need to scope out more of these planets,” Smith said, before turning back to Kris-Ar.

“How many people do you have on your ‘Homes’ and how many of them do you have?”

“We have about 14,000 of our people on the Homes. And we have 5 more back at Home proper.”

“Okay then, Commander Fisher, help them get settled in while we repair the ships. Take Captain Kris-Ar to the old barracks and tell the guards to open it up for her people.”

Liza nodded, and after snapping off another salute took Kris-Ar’s arm and led the Lemurian back to the shuttle.

Once the two women were gone the Admirals started discussing what they had just learned.

“So, these people are from Eridani…makes me wonder how we never found them before,” the one who asked the first question of Kris-Ar said.

“It does make one wonder…but now that they have found us what are we going to do? We could just repair their ships and send them off and ignore them from now on. Or we can send Fisher and the Allegiance on a diplomatic mission to Eridani since they seem to trust her,” Smith pointed out.

The other Admirals nodded, “Good points Admiral Smith, but are we really sure about opening relations with them? The only other aliens we have relations with are the Chiss…and that’s not really a very good example of how first contact can go.”

“I still vote for opening relations with them, if they could fight off the Vaggari, then they must have something worth allying with them to get. And with how outnumbered we are by the Empire we could use the allies.”

“That reminds me…that ship that the Allegiance’s recordings had attacking it was obviously an Imperial design…I believe our spies called it an ‘Imperator Class’ but they don’t generally paint them anything other than slate grey. It might be a good idea to contact the Chiss, after all that ship came from their side of the border.”

“That would be a good idea, I’ll pass it up to the Ambassador, meeting adjourned.”

******************
Arcadia

Old Confederacy Navy Barracks

Outside New Athens
********************

“This is a very beautiful planet Fisher,” Kris-Ar said, quite frankly in awe of what she was seeing.

“It is isn’t it Kris-Ar? By the way you don’t need to keep calling me by my last name all the time, Liza is fine,” said Commander replied.

“Okay then Lizaa.”

“What…did you just stretch out my name?”

“I did? Sorry, I was trying to speak your language without the translator,” Kris-Ar said, with the Lemurian equivalent of a blush.

“It’s okay, I was just curious. It’s just Liza…no need to stretch out the ‘a’ at the end.”

“Okay, Liza, did I say it right that time?”

“Yes you did, hopefully you won’t need that translator forever and we can talk without more without it.”

“You want to talk more? I will try and learn ‘English’ better then.”
“We get along well, why wouldn’t I want to talk more? You are the first friend I have made who isn’t human.”

“Really? That is interesting, but let’s see these buildings now, I need to see if my people can live here comfortably.”

Liza nodded, and walked up to the guards who had watched the exchange with somewhat bemused expressions on their faces, “Hello, can you unlock the barracks for me? I am Commander Fisher and I have orders direct from the Admiralty.”

“Yes ma’am, just show us the orders and we can open the doors right up for you,” the head guard answered.

Liza pulled a holo-projector out of her uniform pocket and turned it on…with it playing Smith giving Liza permission to open the barracks up, including an authorization code so they knew it wasn’t forged.

“Okay then Commander, feel free to head inside now, along with your friend. Do you need an escort?”

“We will be fine Sergeant. Just be ready for more of Kris-Ar’s people, they are going to move in here while we work on their ships.”

The Sergeant nodded and moved aside to let the two women walk past him. Once Liza and Kris-Ar were inside the complex, they realized just how large it truly was. It hadn’t been in use since the end of the Chiss/Confederacy Wars, but they could tell how many people had once called it home. It was definitely big enough for Kris-Ar’s people to live comfortably while the ships were being repaired.

“I like this place, it is surprisingly wide open. I think my people will be happy here until the Home’s are repaired Liza,” Kris-Ar said happily.

“Nice to know you like the place Kris-Ar…shall we start unloading your ships now?” Liza asked of her new friend.

“Yes we should, let’s head back to Seraaca and Nerissa.”

*************
Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Earth

Capital City: St. Louis, former state of Missouri (2)
************

“So, the Empire has tried to make you split off from our Alliance and ally with them eh?” Jason Brandt, President of the Sol Confederacy (and the United Earth Republic) asked of the Chiss man across from him.

“Yes they did, or to be more specific…that traitor Thrawn did,” Neras, the head of the Chiss First Family answered.

“Thrawn? Didn’t you exile him for constantly breaking your laws? Or at least campaigning to break them?”

“Yes we did, the final straw was attacking another race without provocation. We exiled him to an uninhabited planet on what was at the time the border with the Republic. Apparently once it became the Empire they found him and made him an Admiral. Which shouldn’t be surprising, no one denies that Thrawn was an amazing tactician, but that doesn’t make it any easier to see him working for that tyrant.”

“Hmm…I can agree with that. Ever since the Empire was formed we have been weeding out spies and having to deal with constant overtures to give up our independence and join with it. We will never do that of course, we value our Democracy too much, and some of the outlier colonies would likely secede and declare war on us if we tried.”

“Same for us, that Palpatine does not like any threat to his power, however small. I don’t doubt our people’s bravery, but we just don’t have the numbers to fight. Taking that into account…what do you want to do my friend?”

“We can’t declare war over this, even with the fact that Thrawn fired on one of our ships. We just need to keep a closer eye on the Empire, and notify each other if one of their fleets enters our territory again. By the way, we found a new race recently…if you want to send observers along to their homeworld when we send our ambassador you can, as a favor from me for telling us about Thrawn.”

“I would like that. Unlike most of my people, I am not very xenophobic. That is the one part of our culture that my colleagues and I are trying to change for the better.”

“Okay then, I’ll send for a shuttle to take you back to the First Family, hopefully we can see each other again soon my old friend.”

****************
Epsilon Eridani System

Sol Confederacy Territory

Unknown Regions

Planet: Epsilon Eridani 4

3 months BBY
************

Four ships dropped out of hyperspace into the Eridani system. Two were Lemurian captured and Sol refitted Vaggari ships, the Seraaca and Nerissa. The other two were the repaired Allegiance, and the Chiss Springhawk, formerly Thrawn’s flagship and now the personal ship of the Chiss Ambassador. Five other former Vaggari ships, three frigates, one destroyer, and one cruiser soon flagged the four ships down. All of them were in about as bad of shape as the Seraaca and Nerissa had been before they were refitted at Arcadia.

“This is Carraca Home, is that you Seraaca and Nerissa?” a male voice came over the radio.

“Yes this is Captain Kris-Ar of Seraaca Home. We bring friends from the Confederacy the Oppressors spoke of,” Kris-Ar replied in her own language.

“That is some welcome news Kris-Ar, come on in to Home and we can discuss this in more detail.”

“Understood Carraca, we will follow you in, this is Seraaca signing off.”

Kris-Ar then turned around as she heard Liza walk onto the bridge, the Confederacy officer riding on the Lemurian ship for this mission, leaving Harding in charge of the Allegiance.

“That went easier than I thought it would,” Liza commented lightly.

“Of course it did Liza, my brother is in command of that Home. He would recognize my voice and Home anywhere. Now it’s just a matter of getting the Council to listen to us.”

“That is going to be fun, I wonder how they will react to us and the Chiss?”

“The Council will be happy to meet you, I’m not as sure on these ‘Chiss’. It might go either way with them.”
****************
Nirauan System

Unknown Regions

Planet: Nirauan

3 months BBY~
************
The planet Nirauan…a desolate place…but it was the perfect planet for Thrawn to set up his Empire of the Hand on. Thus the reason that 3 Star Destroyers were orbiting it and sending down troops to build a base. In the lead ship the Admonitor, Thrawn paced along his bridge, eager to head down to his new base.

“The construction is proceeding according to schedule Admiral, soon the base will be ready to receive the troops, and we can keep the Defender in orbit as a space force once we leave,” the Admonitor’s Captain commented, pointing at a blue Victory class Star Destroyer orbiting nearby.

“Good news Captain, I will be visiting the base shortly, prep my shuttle for launch,” Thrawn replied, leaving the bridge.

I don’t know what has gotten into him lately…the Chiss not listening must have shook him up more than I thought… the Admonitor’s Captain mused, before sending the message to the hanger.
****************

A/N: Well that was the chapter. Now I can do the two notes:

1. The reason I used UARS (United Arcadia Republic Ship) is because despite all the planets being part of the Confederacy, they all have a unique planetary government. And each of the planets are allowed a small number of ships for their own use, separate from the main Confederacy Navy. It depends on population and other factors though (for example, Arcadia as the first colony has 6 ships, where as Earth has 10 and a border world like Cestus has 2). Using those examples... it would be UERS (United Earth Republic Ship) for the Earth fleet, and UCRS (United Cestus Republic Ship) for Cestus. If they are in the Confederacy Fleet proper, it would be SDFS (Sol Defense Fleet Ship).

2. As I showed in the timeline, St. Louis was the largest city in the US to escape being nuked in WW3. Because of that, it became the Capital of the UER once it was formed. And the people of Earth wanted to avoid the stigma of using major cities of the old regimes that got them in this situation in the first place...so thus even with DC, Moscow, Bejing etc. being rebuilt, they used St. Louis as the Capital. Of course that is me being a native Missourian speaking...

[jayel]

the story premise is good enough, but the character language is stilted and wooden, people just don't talk like that, you have some one say something and the next person repeats part of what was just said

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well here is another chapter. I am not really satisfied with this one, I think it could have been better. But I wasn't sure how to make it longer/better...so thus you have this. That being said, the next few chapters will be the Confederacy/Chiss Alliances first joint war, so it will get better. And hopefully I will get more readers...in any case, let me know what you think of this chapter so I can improve for the War Arc.
_____________________________

*************
Epsilon Eridani System

Sol Confederacy Territory

Unknown Regions

Planet: Home (Epsilon Eridani 4)

3 months BBY
**************

“Nice looking planet you got here Kris-Ar,” Liza commented, as the Seraaca descended towards a large island.

“Thank you Liza, as much as I liked your home it is nice to be back,” Kris-Ar replied, walking towards the back of her ship to disembark.

“I can understand that, if I were away from Arcadia as long as you were from here I would be happy to get home.”

“Well, I missed my family more than Home. It is going to be nice to see them again.”

“Well it’s good that you can see them again, I’m assuming that your husband will be waiting for you?”

“No he won’t…he was killed trying to rescue our daughter from the Oppressors.”

“Oh my God…I’m so sorry Kris-Ar, I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

“Don’t worry about it Liza, you didn’t know about him. I have mostly moved on by now, but I will never forget them. That is why I hope we can join your people in destroying the Oppressors.”

Liza nodded, not wanting to point out to Kris-Ar that the Confederacy hadn’t fought the Vaggari for years. So she just kept quiet and followed Kris-Ar off her ship.

Once the two women disembarked Harding and a Chiss man named Lawan greeted them. And behind the two men was a large group of Lemurians, all of them looking curiously at the Humans and Lawan.

“Is that you Kris-Ar? I’m guessing that these furless people are the Confederacy’s people?” a dark-furred Lemurian male asked, stepping forward from the main group.

“Yes they are Sres-Ar. It’s nice to see you too by the way,” Kris-Ar responded in her own language.

‘Sres-Ar’ bristled a little, before responding, “That hurt Kris-Ar, I had to make sure it was you. Besides, how was I supposed to know who these people were?”

Kris-Ar sighed, “I understand that, I just thought you would have recognized me, you are my oldest brother after all.”

“It’s the clothes Kris-Ar, they aren’t anything like what I last saw you in. I can only see your face and arms, which made it harder. And my eye’s aren’t what they used to be either.”

“Whatever brother, in any case, this is my friend Liza Fisher, the Captain of Allegiance Home, or a ‘frigate’ as they call it. The man is her second, Chris Harding. I don’t know the Chiss man’s name though,” Kris-Ar replied, pointing at Liza, Harding, and Lawan, while self-consciously looking down at the Confederacy uniform she had taken to wearing since leaving Arcadia.

“Hello, I am Sres-Ar, Captain of Carraca Home, the vessel that guided you down. It is nice to finally meet people from the Confederacy the Oppressors spoke off, and the Chiss they also spoke of,” Sres-Ar said, bowing lightly at Liza, knowing his sister didn’t make friends easily.

“It is a pleasure to meet you too, Kris-Ar told me about you on the way here. Though she didn’t tell me you had tales about the Chiss too,” Liza answered, noticing Kris-Ar stiffen slightly.

Sres-Ar raised an eyebrow in a disturbingly human gesture, “You speak our language? And Kris-Ar never listened to those tales; all she ever wanted was to meet someone from the fabled Confederacy. If she became friends with you so easily it looks like she succeeded.”

Liza stole a sidelong glimpse at her friend, and saw her blushing heavily in the Lemurian way, and figured she had left that detail out of their talks.

“That makes sense, as to how we know your language…Kris-Ar taught me over the month we spent repairing the ships. I don’t know all the words, but with help from this translator I can get by in it.”

“Translator? That little piece of metal can translate our language?”

“Yes it can, but can we head inside a building now, I would like to start talks about an alliance. And it’s not exactly comfortable out here.”

“Yes we can, bring Kris-Ar along too, she can tell us more about your people.”

*************
Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Cestus

3 months BBY
*************

A solitary ship floated in space around the border world of Cestus. The UCRS Deception-A was named after the ill-fated Phoenix class cruiser that had first encountered the Vaggari. Since Cestus was on the border of Vaggari space, it had been decided to name their first cruiser after that famous ship. Thus the flagship of the Cestus Defense Fleet was named after an old United Earth warship.

That was beside the point though, as the old ship was outbound towards a distress call from a small Chiss ship that had been carrying diplomats to Cestus. Oddly though it was from the side of the border that was neither Confederacy nor Vaggari territory. In fact the area was un-explored…which made the situation highly suspicious.

“What’s our ETA to the Chiss ship?” the Captain Hans Wolf asked.

“About 10 minutes sir, do you want shields raised when we do drop out?” the tac officer asked back.

“Yes, we are too close to Vaggari space to risk not keeping our shield up. Plus we don’t know who controls the space we are already in.”

“Okay sir, we will be ready for anything.”

Wolf nodded and walked around the bridge making sure his old ship was functioning as well as it could. As a first-gen Arcadia class, the Deception-A was a very old ship, and hadn’t had any significant upgrades since the Clone Wars were being waged in the Galaxy at large. Cestus was lucky to even have such an old ship though; the planet was a poor world that still hadn’t fully recovered from the Chiss/Confederacy Wars. So there was a large anti-Chiss sentiment on the planet, aside from in the Cestus navy, where the men and women realized that the Chiss they knew were not the Chiss of their father’s time.

“We’re dropping out in 5…4…3…2…1…” the tac officer said, before the Deception shook from a heavy blow to it’s shields.

“What was that?!” Wolf yelled, as he struggled to his feet.

“We hit something sir…scanning…it was the Chiss ship sir! What was left of it anyway, something destroyed it.”

“Any sign of other ships?”

“None in the immediate area…but it might be a good idea to just tractor in the wreckage and head back to Cestus, whoever did this can’t be far away.”

“Of course, get that ship onboard, we need to protect our planet first and foremost.”

Once the Chiss vessel was aboard, the Deception headed back towards its base on Cestus.

*************
Epsilon Eridani System

Sol Confederacy Territory

Unknown Regions

Planet: Home (Epsilon Eridani 4)

Capital: Baalkpan
*************

“So, let me get this right…you had no idea we even existed until Kris-Ar found you? And we are ‘right next door’ to use your phrase?” Sres-Ar asked Liza.

“Yeah, I have no idea why we never came here…we have known about this system having planets for centuries. Plus you are the first race we have met outside of Lawan’s people,” Liza answered, sipping a Lemurian drink.

“Really? I wish you had come, the Oppressors might never have taken over.”

“I doubt that Sres-Ar. From what your sister told me the Vaggari came here hundreds of years ago. Our people only found them one hundred years ago. So we might have been able to liberate you, but no more than that.”

“Well, no point in concentrating on the past is there? We need to move on and work out an agreement between our people.”

“Yes we do. So, my first question is simple, how many people do you have, and do you control this whole planet?”

“We have millions of our people spread across the planet. But I don’t know the exact numbers. The Oppressors spread us around, where before we just lived around this area. They also wiped out our rivals, but that was far before my time.”

“Hmm…that is odd, I thought they just enslaved your people and didn’t do anything good for you?”

“That is what happened. The only favor they did was killing off the Ancient Enemy. And no, the tales didn’t give a real name for them,” Kris-Ar answered, speaking for the first time.

“Okay then, my next question is simple enough too, are the Vaggari ships you captured the only ones you have or are you building your own?” Liza asked.

“At the moment only the Oppressor Homes are being used. We haven’t managed to build our own. It is hoped that your technology will help us build our own,” Sres-Ar answered.

Liza nodded, “That makes sense, honestly I’m surprised you have even kept those ships running. That being said…my final question for today is rather simple, do you want to join the Confederacy or just stay as an ally?”

Sres-Ar frowned, “That is something that isn’t as simple as you say. I will need to bring that to our leaders and they will discuss it. Until then you can explore the town as much as you desire.”

The Lemurian then left, leaving a bemused Liza and Kris-Ar behind.

“Your brother isn’t very easy to talk to is he? “ Liza asked.

“No, he never has been. I’m not sure why, but he just doesn’t like to talk much,” Kris-Ar answered, somewhat sadly.

“I’m sorry for you. But on another subject…did you really just ignore the Chiss stories?”

“Umm…yes? When I was younger I was wrapped up in the tales of the valiant Confederacy, and didn’t pay attention to the others.”

“Really? Another question, how did your people even really figure out about us? You never told me that beyond the Vaggari talking about their war with us.”

“We don’t know for sure, the tales are from a long time ago. But from what I personally know, it seemed that some of our people broke into the Oppressor’s computers and read about their war with you. From there it became the stories that were passed down to our children. And I will say this…your people lived up to the stories.”

“Why thank you Kris-Ar. Care to give me a tour of the city?”

“Sure, I’m sure you will love it Liza.”

And with that the two women left, picking up Harding and Lawan on the way out.

*****************
Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Cestus
*************

“Any luck on finding out who attacked the ship?” Wolf asked one of the researchers on the space dock.

“None so far Captain. Whoever did it uses a type of weapon we aren’t familiar with. It wasn’t a mass driver, a charric, or a turbolaser. All I can tell you is that the weapon was powerful, and it disabled the ship,” the engineer answered.

“What do you mean disabled it? The thing was a wreck when we found it.”

“That is the thing sir…we aren’t sure about this ourselves. It is almost completely destroyed, but most of the damage isn’t from weapons fire. It almost looks like the ship was torn apart in a hanger. Most of the weapons and technology was removed, not destroyed. Plus there was no bodies, almost like the crew was taken out.”

“That is weird. Even the Vaggari don’t just leave a ship out in space after they capture the crew, they absorb it into their own fleet. Do the Chiss have any enemies other than the Vaggari we don’t know about?”

“You’re asking the wrong person sir, I am just studying the tech, not figuring out who attacked them.”

Wolf nodded and headed back to his ship…he needed to report this to Earth.
************
Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Planet: Earth
************

“This has been quite an exciting couple of months hasn’t it?” Brandt asked one of his advisors.

“Yes it has Mr. President,” the man replied.

“Contact Neras, we need to let him know about the ship. And maybe he can shed some light on who attacked it.”

“Yes sir, I’ll get right on that.”

A few minutes later a hologram of the Chiss leader appeared on the holopanel on Brandt’s desk.

“You called Jason? Did something happen to the Eridani mission?” the Chiss man asked, tiredly rubbing his eyes, he had obviously only recently been woken up.

“Sorry to wake you Neras, but I have some bad news. The ship carrying your diplomats to Cestus was found destroyed in deep space. There was no sign of the crew and the ship was looted.”

Neras frowned at that, “Who attacked it? The Vaggari? Cestus is near their territory isn’t it?”

Brandt shook his head, “No such luck old friend. The Deception’s Captain said the weapons damage didn’t match Vaggari weapons. Or any other weapon we know of for that matter. Not one of our MAC’s, not one of your charric’s, and not an Imperial turbolaser. We were hoping you might know more about who could have attacked them.”

“That depends, where were they attacked exactly? Can you send me a map of the area…I confess to not being very well versed in your outlier territory.”

“Here you are Neras. Any idea about who did it?”

“No…all I know is that a race lives in that area who are even more xenophobic than we were. I don’t even know the name of them, but the military should.”

“Well let me know as soon as you find out. Goodbye for now Neras, I’ll let you get back to sleep.”
__________________________________________

And there it was...such as it is. Let me know what you think so I can improve.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well here is the next chapter. This one is shorter than I would like, but it is mostly the first real battle scene in this story. That has always (in my opinion) been my weakest point, but I will let you all decide on that. Not much else to say, other than please let me know if I did this well, since battles are something I want to improve if possible.
***********************
Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Orbit of Planet Cestus

3 months BBY
***************

“This is more ships than I’ve seen in a while…” Wolf said, a little awed by the amount of ships sent to Cestus.

“It is impressive sir, apparently they are taking what happened to the Chiss very seriously,” Wolf’s XO said.

The ships they were talking about made up the Confederacy’s entire 4th fleet. There was the flagship Ontario, a Missouri class battleship, several Arcadia class cruisers, a dozen Hyperion class destroyers, and twenty-four Cestus class frigates. Then there was a small Chiss fleet, sent to recover their ship.

“Message from the Ontario sir. They want us to bring over the Chiss ship,” the Communication officer said.

“Okay, Ensign bring us closer to the flagship so we can drop the ship into their tractor beam,” Wolf ordered.

The helmsman nodded and brought the Deception over to the much larger Ontario. Once the cruiser was underneath the battleship, it dropped the ruined Chiss vessel out of its hanger, letting the Ontario’s tractor beam pull it into its larger hanger. With that done, the Deception moved back into its place over Cestus, along with the smaller Terra class frigates of the Cestus Fleet covering it…even though those ships should have been retired decades ago.

“The Ontario reports that they have the vessel…and the Chiss are sending over a party to get into its databanks right now.”

“Good, let me know if they contact us again…I need to lie down, all this excitement is getting to me.”

The crew laughed lightly at that, Wolf wasn’t exactly young anymore, so they couldn’t blame him.

**************
Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Planet: Earth

St. Louis, Former state of Missouri

A few days later
***************

“Well, any news from Eridani or Cestus?” Brandt asked his Navy advisors.

“The talks on Eridani are going well, it seems like the Lemurian’s are almost ready to join us. Though they seem somewhat less willing to join the Chiss,” the resident diplomat of the group answered.

“Hmm…okay then, what about Cestus? Have they found out about who attacked the Chiss?”

“Not really, all we can tell is that they used a type of ship that we aren’t familiar with. And the Chiss still haven’t told us who that territory belongs to. Also, the commander of the 4th fleet wants to head out and try and find who attacked the Chiss.”

“Will the Chiss fleet go with them? I don’t want to send one of our fleets into an area we haven’t explored without people who know it well.”

“The Chiss are willing to go along. But they won’t say how far, so it will be a gamble either way.”

“Okay then, send a message to our fleet, we need to find out who is out there. And also send a message to Eridani, we need Fisher to wrap things up there, we can’t afford to leave Arcadia without it’s newest ship for much longer.”

“Yes sir!”
**************
Space around the Epsilon Indi system

Unknown Race’s territory

Unknown Regions
*************

Another day, another unexplored system…that was the thought running through the heads of everyone in the Fourth Fleet, considering they had been exploring the area for a week now.

“Anything worth reporting?” Alexi Nikolayev, the Commander of the Fourth Fleet asked his crew.

“A few stellar anomalies, a nebula…and a comet. So nothing really sir,” one of the Ensigns answered.

“Oh joy…I’m beginning to see why we didn’t settle out here, there is nothing worth using.”

“I can agree with that sir. So where to next?”

“The nearest star system. Maybe we will actually find something this time.”

With that, the combined Confederacy/Chiss fleet jumped into another of the numerous star systems in the area…but this one wasn’t empty. As soon as the fleet dropped out of hyperspace they were in the middle of a large group of odd-looking ships. The largest ones resembled eggs, but they had small craft buzzing around that looked almost like pyramids.

“Well looks like we found them. Raise shields and attempt to hail them, we might have found them, but it might be another race like the Lemurians,” Nikolayev ordered.

“Attention unidentified ships, this is the Sol Confederacy ship Ontario, identify yourselves,” the Communication officer sent out, using the new translator they had been issued.

It turned out they didn’t need the translator though, as a voice came over the comm systems in perfect Galactic Basic, “This is the Rolak of the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, you are ordered to surrender your vessel and prepare for boarding. If you try to fight we will attack.”

Alexi raised an eyebrow, “Well that went well…do our Chiss friends know who these ‘Ssi-Ruuvi’ are?”

“No, at least not this fleet. Do you want to charge the MAC sir?”

“Yes, but send another message to the Ssi-Ruuvi, ‘We don’t surrender to anyone. Either back off, or we will open fire’.”

The Ensign sighed at his hotheaded Captain, before relaying the message.

“You were warned. Now you will have to fight the invincible Ssi-Ruuvi!”

With that message, a barrage of fire came from the large egg-shaped vessels, along with a swarm of the smaller pyramid vessels. The angry red fire flashed against the Ontario’s shields, damaging but not dropping them.

“Return fire! Target the large ships, and ignore the smaller ones for now!” Alexi called out, as his ships bridge shook slightly from the unrelenting fire.

“Yes sir!” the crew shouted back, twin tongues of fire lashing out from the Ontario’s bow as its powerful MAC’s fired at the largest Ssi-Ruuvi ship.

The egg-shaped vessel shook as the heavy shells hit its shields, but they held, if only barely. It’s return fire knocked out the shields on one of the frigates as it weaved desperately to avoid the fire. It shook heavily, but the small ships shields weren’t powerful enough to take the barrage, and it broke apart, almost in slow motion. That is before it’s reactor was breached, the explosion taking out numerous Ssi-Ruuvi fighters, but also damaging the shields of it’s companion vessels. The remaining frigates and destroyers spread out, trying to envelop the smaller Ssi-Ruuvi fleet.

“We lost the Reach sir! The Archangel and Republic took heavy damage from the blast and are falling back!”

“Send in the Hyperion to fill their place! We need to take down those enemy cruisers!”

With that order, a large wedge shaped destroyer moved into the destroyed frigates debris fields, its shields flaring slightly as they pushed aside wreckage. Tongues of blue fire belched from the Hyperion’s turbolaser batteries, vaporizing several of the smaller Ssi-Ruuvi fighters. The Chiss fleet moved in to cover the Ontario, firing blue charric beams to complement the second MAC volley, the combined fire blasting apart one of the smaller Ssi-Ruuvi cruisers. But a large volley of red fire from the remaining ships blasted apart the already damaged Archangel and Republic as the twin frigates tried to retreat.

“We lost the Archangel and Republic! The Chiss fleet is trying to fill their place!” the tac officer yelled.

“Darn it! Concentrate fire on the largest enemy ship!” Alexi yelled, while the Ontario shook from enemy fire.

The order went out to the rest of the fleet, all the weapons from MAC’s to turbolasers to charric’s fired on the Rolak, the large cruiser shaking heavily, as it’s shields failed from the combined fire. The egg-shaped vessel was soon pockmarked with holes, before the damage blew it apart. That led to a curious effect as the ‘fighters’ stopped moving, seemingly without any coordination. But they soon regrouped and started to kamikaze the smaller Confederacy/Chiss ships. The hundreds of impacts coupled with vengeful fire from the remaining Ssi-Ruuvi cruisers wrecked several of the smaller ships, leaving the destroyers and cruisers vulnerable to fire form the Ssi-Ruuvi.

“More of our frigates have been lost sir! We only have a handful left, we can’t take much more of this sir!!”

“All ships, fire on the cruisers! We can’t let them beat us!”

With those words, the fragmented Confederacy/Chiss formation consolidated and fired every weapon on board, including the missiles they had been saving, those weapons blowing apart the few remaining fighters. They then turned to the enemy cruisers, firing their weapons on the ships. Several ships on both sides took horrendous damage, but in the end the superior numbers on the Alliance side took apart the Ssi-Ruuvi ships, leaving a large debris field.

“The last of their ships is down sir. But our fleet took severe damage.”

“Send in damage reports, we need to consolidate our forces in case they have more ships nearby,” Alexi ordered, looking at the remnants of his fleet, the Ontario hadn’t taken any damage, but one of the cruisers was floating around leaking fire, with a couple of the destroyers in a similar shape. Couple that with the loss of a dozen frigates, and the fleet was in a sorry shape, with the Chiss not much better off, leaving only about half the combined fleet in a combat ready shape.

“We got a message off to Cestus sir. They are readying the shipyards to receive our ships for repairs. We can head out as soon as you give the order,” one of the Ensigns reported.

“Good, send a message to the fleet…oh no…” Alexi replied, before an even larger force of Ssi-Ruuvi ships jumped in, surrounding the already damaged fleet…

To be continued…
********************

[Skywalker_T-65]

Okay then...I meant to have a chapter out today, but I hit another spate of writers block. So I have a small request...what do you all think I should do with this war? Like I said, combat is my weak point, so any help at all would be appreciated. That being said, hopefully I can get something worthy of posting with or without help (though I would like to have other opinions on this war).

[Skywalker_T-65]

AN: Well here is the chapter. I manged to barely fight past the block and work this up, but since I didn't get any ideas from readers I can't guarantee it will be something you all like. That being said, it is another battle one for most of the chapter, with a couple of interludes. Hopefully more people review, but who knows. By the way, I'm going to start a poll in here, I'll put the choices at the end of the chapter, along with a note at the top of the first one.
____________________________________________________________________

******
Unnamed Star System

Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium

Unknown Regions

Confederacy 4th Fleet
*******

“How many enemy ships are there?” Alexi asked nervously.

“Thirty ships sir…including 10 cruisers,” an Ensign answered.

“And how many of our ships report that they are ready?”

“The Ontario, four cruisers, seven destroyers, and ten frigates. And the Chiss only have five of their ships left to help.”

“Okay, send a message to the rest of the fleet Ensign, tell them to mov…” Alexi was cut off however as a truly massive broadside came from the Ssi-Ruuvi ships and battered the Ontario.

“Our primary shield is down! And the Korolev reports severe damage!” one of the sensor operators called out…somewhat unnecessarily, since anyone looking out a viewport could see the Korolev bleeding fire, the cruiser’s shields having been knocked out earlier in the battle.

“Transfer power to shields and engines! Only use the MACs to fire back, we can’t fight this many ships! Tell the Korolev to move behind us, we will use our shield to protect them!” Alexi yelled, the adrenaline pumping through his body making him almost relapse into his native Russian…and leaving what he did say less than proper English.

The Ensign nodded and sent off the message, leading to the flaming cruiser moving behind the massive Missouri class battleship. And it wasn’t a moment to soon, as another barrage of angry red fire came from the Ssi-Ruuvi ships, obliterating one of the Chiss ships and a Confederacy frigate. The combined fleet returned fire, the heavy shells and blue turbolaser/charric fire stabbing into the shields of the smaller Ssi-Ruuvi ships. It was a futile attack though, as none of the Allied ships had enough power to commit to their weapons. At most they were able to weaken the enemy shields, not drop them.

And yet again, the return fire concentrated on one or two ships, battering down their shields and damaging the ships. Another Chiss ship died, while a Sol destroyer took severe damage. But instead of coming back, the ship launched forward, flying straight at the largest Ssi-Ruuvi vessel, the egg shaped cruiser desperately firing all of its weapons.

“What are they doing?! Call back the Hyperion now!” Alexi called out, watching as the valiant warship dived into the heart of the enemy fleet.

“They can’t sir…the ship is already too badly damaged. The only response we got is this: ‘Our ship is too damaged to come back Admiral. Don’t worry, all my men are with me on this, don’t let our sacrifice be in vain, fight your way out!’

With that last transmission, the severely damaged Hyperion gave one last push of its engines; it’s dark blue armor being blasted off by Ssi-Ruuvi fire. The valiant destroyer then collided with the Ssi-Ruuvi cruiser; the impact draining the enemy ships shields, and allowing the now blunt bow of the Confederacy vessel to impale the cruiser. The destroyer’s remaining momentum carried it deeper into the Ssi-Ruuvi ship, starting a slow and graceful dance of death between the ships. That is until the flaming wreck that was the Hyperion finally detonated, the explosion taking the cruiser with it, and disorienting the other enemy ships. The blinding flash of light silhouetted the crew of the Ontario, all of the men and women wearing identical looks of dismay.

“Get the fleet moving. We have to use the opening the Hyperion gave us,” Alexi said quietly, his voice hoarse from all of his earlier yelling and grief at the death of his comrades.

“Yes sir: ‘All Allied vessels, push through the gap the Hyperion left. Put all power to shields and engines and only fire if necessary.’

The various commanders nodded, and the fleet reformed into an arrowhead formation, charging the disoriented Ssi-Ruuvi fleet. The damaged ships were struggling to keep up though, so Alexi ordered his battleship back to cover the smaller ships, joining the heavily damaged Korolev in shepherding the frigates and destroyers along. The massive bulk of the Ontario inevitably drew the most fire from the vengeful alien ships, but its shields protected the smaller ships behind it. After battering their way through the enemy lines, most of the Confederacy/Chiss fleet jumped into hyperspace and safety, but the Ontario was last, and it cost the ship, a lucky Ssi-Ruuvi shot finally battering down the shields, allowing a storm of red fire to blow chunks of armor off the flagship. Thankfully none of the shots hit the hyperdrive, so the ship was able to jump, its crew saluting their fallen comrades, even the Chiss ones. It left behind a triumphant Ssi-Ruuvi fleet, and a massive debris field from the ill-fated ships of the Fourth Fleet.
*****
Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Orbit of Planet Cestus
*****

“Oh my God…what happened to them?” Wolf asked, in shock at the sad state of the combined fleet.

“I don’t know sir, but whoever they fought did a number on them, I don’t think our shipyards can handle all of those ships,” his XO answered.

As the two men looked on, the small Terra’s of the Cestus fleet dodged around the heavily damaged Ontario, guiding the battle-scarred battleship and its fleet into the docks. All of the ships were showing some sort of damage, not a single ship from the smallest Chiss escorts to the mighty Ontario had escaped the battle unscathed. Several of the ships looked like they were barely intact, the Korolev especially, the cruiser having several massive craters in it’s armor, along with a couple places where it was shot clean through.

“Message from the Ontario sir, they are requesting a meeting with the President,” the comm officer of the Deception relayed.

“Relay the message to the President’s Mansion.”

“Yes sir, relaying the message now. The Mansion reports that they received the message.”

“Good, let the Ontario know that they can send a shuttle down.”
******
Sol System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Earth Orbit, main shipyards

A day later
*******

“The Fourth Fleet has arrived sir,” a young crewman said.

“Direct them to the open refit docks, they need them more than the other ships,” the Commander said.

“Yes sir…wait, the Ontario is missing,” the crewman said.

“Of course it is, they are being repaired at Cestus along with the Korolev. We only have the overflow since Cestus can’t repair them all.”

“Makes sense.”

As the two men watched, every remaining ship in the Fourth Fleet docked for repairs, some of them barely able to keep going. It even looked like a couple of them might need to be scrapped. But what really mattered was what was missing…half of the fleet, all destroyed by the Ssi-Ruuvi. Anyone who didn’t have a heart of steel had been in mourning all day since they had found out what happened to the fleet. Not since the Chiss War’s had so many brave men and women been lost at once…and this time it was to help the Chiss. Because of that large anti-Chiss riots had broken out among the more xenophobic members of the population, in most cases led by the families of the dead crewman. Thankfully they hadn’t gotten too large to handle, since most of the population realized the Chiss lost just as much people, relatively speaking.

“Is the Fourth Fleet here?” a familiar voice said behind the two men.

“Mr. President! Yes sir the fleet has arrived,” the Commander said, quickly snapping off a salute at Brandt.

“No need to be so formal Commander. From what I understand the Ontario is still at Cestus with one of the cruisers correct? Can you send a message to them to send them here or Arcadia as soon as they are repaired enough to move? We have better facilities and it will be quicker to get them back to the front that way,” Brandt said.

“Yes sir, the Ontario and Korolev are still at Cestus. We can send that message easily enough, but Cestus is fully capable of repairing them there. I do have one question myself sir…are we going to go to war with these ‘Ssi-Ruuvi’ people? I have a son and daughter in the Hyperion Navy and I worry about them you see.”

“I know Cestus can handle it, but we need the ships faster than they can repair them. As for the war…I haven’t asked Congress yet, but I doubt they will deny the need for one. If you need to get a message to Hyperion I might be able to pull some strings though.”

“Oh there’s no need for the Mr. President. I don’t want you to take your own time to help me, I’ll get a message there myself.”

“Trust me, it’s not a problem Commander, I served in the Army myself so I can understand why you want to send the message, and will help as I can. Keep me updated on the Fourth Fleet, and I’ll get you your message,” Brandt said, before walking back towards his shuttle.

“He’s unusually nice for a President. Did you vote for him?” the crewman asked.

“No I didn’t actually, but I’m wishing I had now…” the Commander muttered back, before turning back to his work.
******
Epsilon Eridani System

Sol Confederacy Territory

Unknown Regions

Planet: Home (Eridani IV)
*****

“Well Sres-Ar, have your leaders decided yet?” Liza asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

“Yes, they have reached a decision now. We will gladly join your Confederacy, provided you help us build new Homes and don’t use us like the Oppressors did,” Sres-Ar answered.

“That’s easy enough to do. Are you going to start sending your ships to Sol to be repaired like we did with Kris-Ar’s?”

“Yes, we will start with the ‘frigates’ as you call them. We need to keep the larger Homes here for now.”

“Okay then, I need to go send a message to Earth and let them know about this. If you’ll excuse me,” Liza said, before standing up and leaving to head back to her ship that was lazily floating in the ocean.

Liza ran into Kris-Ar on the way to the ship, and the two friends were talking about everything from the weather to their ships soon enough. But before they could reach the ship Harding came running up, obviously extremely worried about something.

“Commander! Kris-Ar!! I have some bad news!” the anxious Lieutenant yelled.

“Slow down Harding. What is it that is so important?” Liza asked.

“It’s the Fourth Fleet ma’am. They went to explore the area around Cestus and got nearly wiped out along with a small Chiss fleet.”

“WHAT!!! How could anyone other than the Empire do that?”

“I don’t know ma’am, but whoever these ‘Ssi-Ruuvi’ are they are powerful. We have been ordered to wrap up here and head back to Arcadia immediately to bolster defenses there. The 2nd fleet is sending a destroyer here to take our place and keep the Lemurians safe.”

“Okay, well Kris-Ar, I guess this is goodbye.”

“No it isn’t Liza, I am coming too. I know that Seraaca is old, but we will help defend your planet, it is the least we can do,” Kris-Ar said, running off to her own ship.

“Well, I’m not going to complain about the help. Come on Lieutenant we need to move.”
*****
Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Cestus
*****

“Unidentified ships at the edge of the system sir. And there are a lot of them,” the Deceptions sensor operator called out.

“Move us out of orbit Ensign, we need to intercept them and see if they are Ssi-Ruuvi ships. Bring two of the Terra’s with us, but keep the rest back to defend the Ontario and Korolev,” Wolf ordered, as his old cruiser groaned slightly before heading off towards the enemy ships.

It didn’t take long to reach visual range…and Wolf’s heart skipped a beat at what he saw. It was a truly massive fleet of Ssi-Ruuvi ships, dozens of warships and even more transports. One of their cruisers moved forward to fight the Deception, but the rest of the ships made another hyperjump…right to the orbit of Cestus!

“Move us back, we can’t let them get to the other ships!” Wolf ordered, before a barrage of fire from the last cruiser shook his ship.

“We can’t sir, not with that cruiser there!”

“Fire the MAC and turbolasers, we have to take that ship down!”

With that order, the crew started to get to work, firing every weapon on their old ship. All the hits registered on the Ssi-Ruuvi ship, which turned and fled, the crew not wanting to risk a battle with a larger enemy ship so far from a consecrated world. Wolf breathed a sigh of relief knowing what those ships had done to the Fourth Fleet he didn’t want to fight one alone. But nonetheless he turned his cruiser around and went charging back at Cestus, where the Terra’s he had left behind were barely hanging on against the large fleet attacking them. And dozens of shuttles were leaving the Ssi-Ruuvi ships, carrying an invasion force to the planet below.

The Deception fired long-range MAC barrages, knocking some of the Ssi-Ruuvi ships around, but Cestus’ defenders were all old ships, the only modern ships in the area being the Ssi-Ruuvi ships and the damaged Ontario and Korolev. Thus, none of their fire really damaged the enemy ships, just annoyed them. So thus the Ssi-Ruuvi ships swatted the smaller Terra’s like flies, leaving only the Deception with it’s two escorts to cover the damaged Fourth Fleet vessels. It was with this in mind that Wolf received a message from the surface:

“Captain Wolf, leave this system now. Take the Ontario and Korolev with you, and bring more ships back. You can’t handle them, let us handle it from here,” the Cestus President sent from his besieged Mansion.

“But sir…we can’t just leave you and our people to these aliens!” Wolf protested.

“That wasn’t a request Captain, it was an order. Escort the Fourth Fleet vessels out of here and leave now. It’s too late for me anyway, they have already reached me,” the President shot back, the faint sounds of blaster fire mixing with another weapon as doors were burst apart in the Mansion.

“Yes sir, good luck,” Wolf said, saluting his leader.

“Good luck to you too Captain. Don’t let this be in vain,” the President replied, pressing a button on his desk right as his door burst down. Anyone from orbit could see what that button had done, as a massive fireball consumed the Mansion and everyone around it.

Wolf continued his salute for a few more seconds, before turning around and getting his ship moving, it and its frigate escorts leading the newer Fourth Fleet vessels out of the system, leaving the burning planet behind…but vowing to come back and beat the Ssi-Ruuvi away.
___________________________________

AN: Okay then, here is the poll I mentioned above:

Choice 1: Confederacy/Chiss join the Empire and work to reform from the inside, helping handle the Warlords and keep Empire more intact when Palpy dies, though they let Rebels join in, and eventually form the Republic (yes Palpy will die regardless).

Choice 2: Confederacy stays neutral but supplies the Rebels covertly.

Choice 3: Confederacy stays completely neutral, helping no one and just biding their time.

Choice 4: Confederacy proper stays neutral, but some planets use their own fleets to help Rebels.

Obviously this poll is what will happen to our friends on Earth in the actual OT era. If you vote can you leave a reason why you picked that choice so I can work with it better?

[Skywalker_T-65]

AN: Well...here is the next chapter. This one took longer since it is just one large battle scene, and combat is my weak point (as I've said before). This one is ground combat though, so it may or may not be better. To me, I can't tell, to you...well if anyone cares enough to let me know, review. On with the chapter!
___________________________________

Epsilon Indi System

Sol Confederacy

Unknown Regions

Cestus, 2nd Army Division Headquarters

*************
“Fire mission, grid 24.5, wind from the southwest…fire!” a gun commander called out, as his massive M-89 155mm howitzer fired at a concentration of Ssi-Ruuvi infantry. The sound of the howitzer firing was drowned out in the noise of a dozen other guns, all firing at a large group of Ssi-Ruuvi infantry, who seemed to lack any semblance of tactics other than charging straight at the 2nd Division lines.

“I still don’t see why we need these guns…couldn’t the Navy handle this?” a young private asked from his station at the barracks.

“Your in the Army son! Don’t even think of relying on those Navy wimps! Now get back to your job!” a passing Seargent yelled.

“Yes sir!” the private yelled back, before turning to his friend, “That didn’t answer my question at all…why do we still have such obsolete weapons?”

“You think I know? My guess would be the brass wants us as independent of the Navy as possible. Besides, would you rather we didn’t have them when the Navy has to leave us alone?” his friend said.

“Good point.”

While the two men were having their discussion, a group of high-ranking officers were meeting in the building they were guarding.

“How are things up at the front?” Jean Louis, the head of the Cestus Air Force asked.

“Well enough, the Ssi-Ruuvi have less brains than the average Vaggari commander, and that’s saying something. So far the only inroads they have made are areas where are men are stretched too thin and the artillery can’t reach. The First Division is moving up to plug those holes as we speak,” James Wilkinson, head of the Cestus Army answered.

“My artillery is covering their approach. Those lizards don’t even know what is hitting them!” General Cain of the Second Division added.

“Do we have any more intel on them?” Louis asked.

“Only that there seems to be two different castes of soldiers. The main force seems to be made up of a smaller species, while the commanders are larger and seem to be extremely paranoid. But Species A makes up for it in shear ferocity and dedication. No matter how many of them we kill they keep coming,” Wilkinson answered.

“Then we will just keep killing them. I don’t care how much it takes, these ‘dinosaurs’ are not taking our planet!” Cain yelled, slamming his hand on the table.

“That’s the attitude we need! Tell me General Louis, are your planes ready for strikes yet?” Wilkinson asked, turning to the Air Force officer.

“Of course they are sir. Just give us a target and we will cream them,” Louis answered confidently.

“Launch them in support of the First Division, they are going to be the main punch in our counterattack. Don’t let the Ssi-Ruuvi get any closer to Corona.”

**********
Cestus

Frontline outside of Corona

First Division forward observer post
************

“That is a lot of dino’s…” a private commented.

“Don’t let that worry you, just aim and fire, and for the love of all that is good and right don’t miss!” a Corporal said, setting an example and hitting a ‘Species A’ soldier in the face with his blaster rifle.

“I know that…” the private said under his breath before hefting his own blaster and hitting a couple of enemy infantry.

The two men were members of a four-man squad who had been calling in strikes from the Second Divisions’ artillery, until a group of SA infantry had ambushed them and forced the group back to their post. They had been in a running battle ever since, taking down dozens of the seemingly never-ending enemy troops. But they had received word that help was on the way, and it was announced by the scream of aircraft engines passing overhead. A group of FA-50 Spearhead fighters flew by, dropping a swath of fuel-air bombs on the unfortunate Ssi-Ruuvi infantry. The massive explosions took out a large chunk of the attacking force, leading to the small Confederacy force to cheer as their enemy reeled from the strike.

“Ha! Take that you space monsters!” an overly excited private yelled, jumping up and getting a shot to his face for his troubles.

“And that is why you don’t jump up like that! Stay down men, let them come to us!” the Corporal yelled, only popping his head up for a second to lob a grenade at the rushing SA infantry.

The blast from the grenade disoriented the enemy formation, allowing the now three-man Confederacy squad to fire their blasters on the enemy. While they were doing that, a large crack announced the presence of a nearby sniper, his fifty-cal gauss rifle taking down one of the ‘Species B’ commanders. That more than anything else led to a rout of the Ssi-Ruuvi infantry, allowing a counterattack by the fresh men and women of the First Division, and their battle-weary comrades in the Third, to charge and force the Ssi-Ruuvi troops back. It was a similar situation all along the line, as the Cestus Air Force opened up a hole in the ‘dino’s’ formation. But while the troops charged forward, a barrage of red blasts came from orbit and impacted on Corona, obliterating the town in a massive fireball, along with a large chunk of the First Division.

“NO!!! Where is the Navy?!” the Corporal yelled, before a Ssi-Ruuvi shot killed him, along with his fellow soldiers.

*********
2nd Division Headquarters

Outside Jarva, Capital of Cestus
**********

“Darn it! Those stupid lizards took out Corona!” Wilkinson yelled, punching a hole clean through the thin staff table.

“General calm down, your hurting yourself!” one of the staffers shouted, trying to get a better look at his commanders hand.

“Get away from me! Where are the Fourth and Fifth Divisions? We need to send them forward!”

“They are too busy covering their own sectors sir. But the Third Armored Division is coming up on what’s left of Corona now.”

“Then send them in! And for the love of God get the turbolasers up and running and keep those lizard ships back!”

With that order, one hundred M-70 Hawkins tanks flew forward on their repulsorlifts, skirting the edge of the large crater that had once been Corona. As they got closer to the front, they came across shell-shocked remnants of the First Division, walking aimlessly along.

“Hey! All of you men get back to your posts! Do you want this to happen to the rest of Cestus?!” the lead tank Commander shouted down.

“Of course not sir!” one of the more lucid soldiers replied, trying to gather up as many survivors as he could. While they were doing that, the tankers started to hear blaster fire ahead of them as the still mostly intact Third Infantry Division fought on. As soon as the tanks reached the front, they split into a line formation and fired off their main blaster cannons, along with their secondary concussion missiles. The combined effect was a large hole ripped into the only recently consolidated Ssi-Ruuvi lines. That, coupled with a barrage of blue turbolaser fire from Jarvis holding the capital ships back from using their own weapons meant that the lightly armed infantry was horribly outclassed. Again they broke and ran, since the first barrage had wiped out a large group of their Species B commanders.

The large tanks flew forward, with exultant infantry following behind them, blasting any unfortunate lizard in their path. The Ssi-Ruuvi obviously weren’t used to the metal monstrosities blowing up their tightly packed formations. For all their formidable physical attributes, the Ssi-Ruuvi just didn’t have the firepower to handle tanks designed to fight other tanks. And it didn’t help that the Second Division was constantly lobbing artillery shells at them, fencing the lizards in for the tanks and infantry to take down at their leisure. And while the ground battle was going on, the CAF was sending fighters after the dino shuttles, taking out the ground forces supply chains. But soon enough the Ssi-Ruuvi tried sending down their pyramid shaped fighters to blast the Confederacy fighters and bombers. But the ground fire plucked them from the sky seemingly without trouble. The fighters just didn’t function as well in an atmosphere, unlike their enemies who were designed for it.

“Talk about a turkey shoot! They didn’t know what hit them!” one of the tank drivers shouted.

“Don’t get too cocky. They still have those ships in orbit.”

“I know that sir, but our turbolasers are holding them ba…”

Before the man could finish a large red blast came down and took out a dozen Hawkins tanks. The angry blue fire from the Confederacy weapons around Jarvis fired back, keeping the Ssi-Ruuvi from getting another shot off. That allowed the much more cautious armored group to stop and dig in, since they didn’t want to get to a point where the planetary turbolasers couldn’t cover them anymore. The Ssi-Ruuvi thought this was a sign of the Confederacy assault running out of steam, so they sent another attack wave in. But they were massacred against the Confederacy line. After that aborted attack, the enemies went back to a relatively stable line.

***********
Marshalling Point

Jarva
***********

“The Third Division has pushed the lizards back! We just might win this without the Navy!” a random soldier yelled.

“Don’t think that you moron! We can’t stop their ships can we?” General Louis yelled, trying to keep pace with the developing situation.

“But we are pushing them back sir!”

“And they still control the space around Cestus! Until the Navy arrives we are isolated!”

“But…”

“Shut up soldier!” Louis yelled, his frayed temper finally snapping.

The soldier quickly complied, before moving off to join the rest of his squad. Louis just sighed before moving off himself to try and marshal the rest of his Air Force. He reached an airfield soon enough, the facility bustiling with men and women running around rearming and refueling fighters and bombers. But it was a controlled chaos, the Cestus Air Force being the best-drilled force on the planet. As Louis looked on, his men and women launched another wave of forces at the Ssi-Ruuvi formations in the distance. The General smiled at that…right as an angry red blast came from orbit and obliterated the airfield.
****

“What was that?!” Wilkinson yelled.

“The airbase was just hit! The Ssi-Ruuvi snuck a ship past our cannons!” a younger man called out.

“Take that ship down!”

With that order, all the turbolasers on Cestus that had a line-of-sight on the enemy ship opened fire, blasting the Ssi-Ruuvi frigate apart, the explosion illuminating the darkening sky. As the airbase burned in the distance, the Confederacy ground forces launched another attack, dislodging the Ssi-Ruuvi forces from their positions and giving the Cestus forces some breathing room.

“The 6th division has finished forming up sir, do you want to send them to relieve the Third?” a comm officer asked.

“Yes…yes of course. Make sure they know what they are going up against,” Wilkinson answered, in something of a daze after realizing that his friend Louis had been killed at the airbase, probably never even knowing what hit him.

The comm officer sadly nodded, before relaying the message. All that went through the headquarters staffs heads was this…how many more people had to die before the Navy arrived?
__________________________

Well there was the chapter. Like I said, please let me know what you think. Oh, and in case you didn't notice, the Confederacy didn't fall victim to the military amnesia that permeates other Sci-fi armies (like the Feddies). They still have armor, artillery, and air forces. As for the poll...what only one vote so far? I need more than that if possible. Hopefully I can have another chapter up soon.