The Rebel Faction

Abram Holf decended the ramp slowly with his two guards front of him. He could see ash falling all around him and looked down towards his arm. Some had already gathered on it and he had just stepped onto the landing platform. Abram wiped the ash away and slowly raised his head again towards the delegation that stood to meet him.

With a warm smile Abram approached the four membered group and watched as his guards moved out of the way before he could reach out towards the head Mustafarian. He took the beings large three fingered hand and shook it down once. As he did Abram bowed and came within centimeters of touching the others hand. He bent back upright and looked up at the large beings head, letting go of the Mustafarian's hand before addressing the male.

"Governer Ull'mar'nan, I am Abram Holf. I am here to represent Stellar Enterprises."

The tall, but thin, Mustafarian craned his neck a little in a slight bow. He looked down at the man before him and just wanted to get this meeting over with. The Mustafarian, like all others, didn't care an aweful lot about politics or other matters of the galaxy. He only cared about his people and mining the resources disolved inside the lava.

"Mr.Holf, it iz a plezure to recieve you on Muztafar." The being said with a heavy Basic accent. He male turned towards the facility enterance and the others of the group moved aside. Mar'nan motioned with his long hand towards the doorway and held an expressionless face.

"Pleze come thiz way. We have preparad a room for thiz meeting of ourz."

Abram smiled and stepped towards the landing platforms exit. As he did the Mustafarian governer moved to his side slowly as did the other members of the group. Slowly they walked across the platform and into the old facility. All around them steam from the magma flow rose up and into the sky. Abram could feel the sweat running down over your forhead and back slowly, making him feel really uncomforable. He liked warm climate as much as the next person, but this was just too much for him.

The facility was as degraded inside as out. Running overhead were decade old pipes with corrosion all over them. Some were patched up and others were broken and had been sealed off. The narrow corridor was barely wide enough to fit both the Governer and himself, but still somehow they managed to not bump into each other. While looking around Abram noticed that these Mustafarians were really hard to read.

Their faces were bare and emotionless, while their walk was fluid and slow. The towering being almost glided through the hallway with a slow long walk. His arms moved quickly from front to back, swaying along with the fluid walk as if the Mustafarian wasn't in control of them. As the Governer walked he didn't seem to look anywhere, but ahead of them, staring towards the end of the hallway.

After a few different turns they finally arrived at the small office in which they would meet. They Mustafarians had no need for offices, they were an invention of outsiders and had no perpose in Mustafarian society. However, being that they did business with the rest of the galaxy it was decided that an office would be useful. It seemed to make delegates from other planets more at home and more comfortable than talking outside.

As it was, the office was plainly furnished and was just as old as the rest of the facility. Abram guessed it had been used by the owner of this complex and was now being used by the Mustafarians. After the Governer moved into the room, he motioned Abram to sit in one of the old chairs.

"Pleze, sit." Mar'nan said as he moved around the small desk and sat down in another old chair that was build for a species much smaller then himself.

The chair groaned and creeked as the Mustafarian sat into it slowly. Abram was afraid the chair would break under the strain, but to his luck it did not. After the male was seated Abram took a seat as well and looked at the being in front of him. Before they could start a door at the side of the room opened slowly and a short Mustafarian stepped into the room. She was one of the other sentine Mustafarian species on the planet.

In her hands was an old slightly warped metallic tray. Upon this tray was a small pitcher and two glasses. All contained a clear liquid that slowly moved as the tray was carried towards the table. The liquid was something rare on this volcano planet they were now on. It was water and was had in limited amounts on this planet.

The female Mustafarian set the tray down and gently bowed towards him and the Governer before leaving the room. When she did, Ull'mar'nan turned to Abram and took one of the glasses in his large hand.

"A drink to our negotiationz?" He said slowly.

It had been almost two days since Abram's meeting with the Mustafar governer and still no word had gotten to him on what their decission would be. As he wondered around the reather close quarters of the shuttle that had brought him to this planet, he couldn't help but think that such a long decission time wasn't a good sign. In his mind the first meeting seemed to have gone well. Abram hopped to have established some trust between them that could be expanded later on if this deal progressed further.

Upon returning to the shuttle, Abram had sent a progress report to Stellar Enterprises and was told to carry on with the mission. He was also informed that should the Mustafarians agree to the Stellar Enterprises deal, ships were already standing by to deliver personel and repair parts for the Mustafarian facilities. There were also cargos of foods and medical supplies being loaded and would be availible should they be requested. The corporation had a great interest in this planet and many resources would be devoted to building up its capabilies to flurish as a mining planet.

Until they could be summened a deal would have to be reached between the two parts and so here Abram was, waiting and trying to keep from staying bored. He was not a man who liked to wait and bored fairly quickly. Abram was a man of action and negotiations. His life was all about traveling from place to place and helping to establish large contracts and deals for his employer. Years ago, before Stellar Enterprises, he had been fresh out of diplomatic school and working as an assistant for Ambassador Omulania. He could still remember that day when the ambassador came down with a sickness the day before a big trade agreement was supposed to be signed. With no one else availible all the work went to Abram. He was so many different feelings that day, but once he entered that large office and the trade talks began, Abram knew this was what he was ment to do. As if he was naturally born for this line of work, Abram quickly secured the trust of the other deligation and got them to come together and realize the trade agreement was good for all the parties involved.

After a few years of government work, Abram desided to go into the private sector since his planet's goverment still refused to grant him premission to take on tougher assignment. Their lack of faith in this relativally young diplomate led to his being hired by Stellar Enterprises in their search for people capable of securing deals among tough compatition. From the day he was hired, Abram had never looked back. It was the best decission he had made and now here he was, visiting countless planets in the hope of procuring agreements with them.

The representative smiled to himself as he sat in one of the chairs while the memories of past moved through his mind. His eyes moved over the news articles that had been downloaded onto his personal datapad from the holonet. He always liked to be informed about the happenings around the galaxy and so he read the news daily. Leaning over Abram lifted up the cup of warm caf sitting on a nearby table and took a sip while reading. There was really nothing of too much interest going on in the news today, however. Just more of the same reports of planets getting treatened or attacked. The only interesting piece was the report of a possible famine on a planet called Rutan. Perhaps Stellar Enterprises could help them out if it proved to be true.

Before he could think about the matter further, one of the bodyguards stood up and looked out the side viewport. The man turned towards Abram and buttoned up his suit slowly.

"Seems the delegation had returned sir. They request your presence."

Abram took a deep breath and stood up. He hoped they had good news for him since he was not in the mood to blow this large agreement. Stellar Enterprises had already organized a fleet of vessels and placed them on stand by and Abram didn't want those credits to have been spent for nothing. The man reach over and pulled his suit coat from around the back of the seat and quickly put it on. After doing up the buttons Abram moved into the fresher to check his appearance. Once satisfied that he looked presentable, Abram smiled and walked towards the ramp of the shuttle.

Outside the ship he was surprised to see not only Governer Ull'mar'nan, but also three other Mustafarian males. Each one wore long robes and almost touched the metallic floor of the landing pad. The three new males all had robes of different colors and different crests stitched to each ones right chest. Abram's eyes slowly glanced over them all and he made an assumption that these were the elders and tribe leaders the Governer had told him about.

Abram Holf quickly stepped in front of the group and cordually bowed towards them. His assumption was quickly proven correct, though, when the Governer and the others bowed back in return and the Governer introduced each of the males to Abram.

"We have dezcussed the deal prezented for Mustafar. The elderz believe that truzt zhould be firzt eztablized between uz before the deal could be finalized. They remeber how otherz have tricked them in the pazt and wiz for thiz to never happen again." The Governer explained.

As these words reached Abram's ears he knew that the deal was not getting turned down, but it might still not happen. He was starting to give up some hope when the Mustafarian continued.

"However, Mustafar iz in need of zupplies and our factoriez are becoming unuzable. Becauze of thiz fact, the elderz have agreed to grant Ztellar Enterprizez a limited deal for the time being. They had zaid that after zome time of working together they will review thiz deal and dezide if they wiz to join your Enterprizes or not. Iz thiz an aczeptable propozal to you?" Ull'mar'nan stated and turned towards Abram as the others waited and said nothing.

With a smile and a light nod Abram replied, "Yes, of course. A partial agreement is indeed acceptable Governer. Stellar Enterprises wants nothing more than to become a valuable friend and partner to Mustafar. As a sign of good will between us and in light of this agreement to show Stellar Enterprises commitment, I have been instructed to inform you that repair operations can commance immediatly. There are ships awaiting with engineers and repair suppies as well as medical and food assistance. All I would require from you is the clearance for them to arrive and land on Mustafar as well to proceed with the pairs."

The Governer turned towards the elders and Abram saw them bow in acknowledgment towards Ull'mar'nan. Once this exchange between the Mustafarians was completed, Governer Ull'mar'nan looked back towards Holf's and bowed a little.

"The Elderz have agreed to thiz. You may call in your zhipz. I will let the peoplez and workz know of their arrival."

Melnarno Olerna walked along the durasteel landing platform and slowly looked around, watching the activity all around him. It seemed to never end, every hour another frieghter would land and the whole process of unloaded would begin again. The freighter's cargo hatch would open and the instant it came to rest against the metallic surface of the landing pad, droids would move aboard and start off loading the cargo. Once a freighter was unloaded of all cargo it would either be loaded with refined metal ore from the refinery or just take off in order to allow another to land.

During the past two and a half weeks this whole procedure had been mostly perfected. Thanks to the effort and organization that had been put forth by Melnarno cargo was being unloaded or loaded in record time. Each freighters landing was scheduled so that groups of droids would always be standing by and awaiting their arrival. Special storage areas had been designated before hand so that cargo could be quickly taken off the freighters and set aside to be processed before finalling being taken to the necessary locations.

He was watching the movement of these droids as they carried crates of cargo from a light freighter into a staging area for the meantime. This area was divided in two with half getting stacked as the other side was being emptied by other droids or live personel. After cargo got unloaded and placed into the first sections of the staging area, it was scanned by a Stellar Enterprises employ that worked under him. That data was matched to the cargo manifest and once it was confirmed moved into the second part of the area. From this area it was then taken to wherever the cargo was bound for.

Over this past few weeks activity around the planet had never ceased. As promised personel arrived daily and parts for the multitude of outdated facilities came in hourly. Thousands of tons of cargo had already arrived and been distributed around the planet. It was instantly being put to good use by technicians and engineers, which got to work right away in updating the refining and processing facilities around Mustafar.

The facility in which the first exchange had taken place between Mustafar and Stellar Enterprises was now crawling with workers and droids. Its refinery had been one of the first sections to have been upgraded with new hardware. This facility could now extract almost twice as much material from the magma harvest as it had in the past. The whole process had also been speed up with the use of new droid units for the intermediate steps. Of course droids could have been used for the whole process, but that would have taken the Mustafarians out of the loop and that was unacceptable for the planetary inhabitants.

As hoped, the Mustafarians were quite surprised at the effort put forth by Stellar Enterprises to help out their society. They were greatful for all the new equipment which made their work easier, but most of all safer to conduct. It also impressed them how a few upgrades could increase their gains. The facility was far from becoming all up to date, but it was slowly getting there. Much of the inside would have to be replace and fully repainted, as will the outside. The whole collapsed section would have to be rebuilt from scratch as well. There was much work to be done after the many years of neglect.

The Stellar Enterprises operation on the planet was not just about the facilities either. Helping out the populous of Mustafar was another priority. Melnarno had been ordered to provide the Mustafarians with any assistance they required when he was appointed the leader of the corporate effort on Mustadar.

With the company's blessing he had sent people out to the many different tribes around the planet. There his people interviewed the inhabitants and inquired about supplies they might need. To spread good will and help out the people these requests were then forwarded to Melnarno. Most of the requests were for medication or food and water and were quickly fullfilled if the supplies were avaliable. If they were not, the supplies would be requested from Headquarters and sent down with the next shippment.

The man stood still for a moment and glanced down at the chrono on his wrist. One of his teams was actually do back any moment now. They were delivering supplies to an isolated pocket of Mustafarians only two kilometers away. Melnarno looked out to the west in the directions where his people were supposed to be. At that moment a huge pillar of grey matter shot up into the sky, billowing out of the volcano. Erruptions were not uncommon on this planet, but that one seemed to be near the place his team had went to.

From the corner of his eye he could see a group of Mustafarians running towards each other and congrigating at the edge of the landing pad. Melnarno turn and jogged towards them just as his comm beeped. He quickly pulled it out and was rewarded with the bad news that the team he had sent out was underneath that volcano. They had reported that the ground was now unstable and many families needed to be evacuated, too many for their small speeder.

Upon his order, a medic rushed from the facility behind him, flanked by two pilots. "Take this freighter and go get those people out on the double!"

The two men and one woman didn't even stop as they shouted, "Yes sir!" and quickly boarded the freighter sitting on the landing pad. It had been readied for liftoff, but that would now have to wait.

As the freighter lifted off and quickly turned towards the volcano Melnarno reached the group of Mustafarians. These were now looking into the distance, knowing they could do nothing to help their fellow Mustafarians. Melnarno reached them and looked into everyones face to reasure them all.

"Don't worry, we'll get them all out, I promise."

"Where will you bring them?" Responded one of the males finally, still looking into the distance.

"Here would be best. We have the medical facilities all up and running now, it would be the safest place for them."

The male nodded and bowed gently before turning and running away from the landing pad towards the tribe habitate near the facility. Melnarno didn't know why the Mustafarian had run away like that, but he didn't have time to think about it. He was more concerned with the safety of his people and with getting everyone out of the village out of harms way.

Looking back at the volcano he could already see the lava flowing down over the sides and through cracks that seemed to have appeared out of no where. It looked as if the mountain was being split in half slowly. The smoke was abscuring most of the view now, but the bright orange magma could still be readily seen through it, flowing down like river of death and destruction.

Standing there at the edge of the platform, Melnarno ran his hand through his hair and hoped that everything was alright. It was at that very moment the whole volcano shook and exploded out. What had once been a massive natural structure was now pieces of rock and superheated lava blasting into all directions. Ash and smoke filled the sky and moved out from the epicenter of the explosion.

Nothing could be seen through this cloud of debris and Melnarno's heart completely sank as he watched the destruction before him. He started to fear the worse when all of the sudden a small object flew through the cloud and raced towards them. As the craft got closer it could be seen that it was the very same freighter that had been sent out. It was all blacked now and trailing a plume of smoke, but seemed to be intant all in all. Melnarno sighed in relief and pulled out his comm link to order personel to stand by for casualities.

As the freighter settled in for a landing medical droids were already waiting and a team was awaiting to rush inside and carry the injured into the medical facility. These people moved into the ship as soon as the ramp came down and in moments were pulling hover stretchers out of the cargo hold. Melnarno couldn't see what was happening, but there seemed to be at least five stretchers that got pulled out. These were immediatly surrounded with the medical droids which checked for vital signs and tried to assign the patients by severity of injuries.

After the injured were carried away the other Mustafarians started to emerge from the hold and gather outside the freighter. Some rushed off after the stretchers and were admitted into the medical facility so that they could be near their family. Along with the natives came out the medic that had been sent on the mission. On his arms was a member of Stellar Enterprises, limping out with the help of the medic.

"How is everything?" Melnarno asked as he ran towards the medic to help out. Moving his arm under the armpit of the man from the other side.

"Jake here got hit with some debris and fell. He broke his leg, but nothing to serious. Some of the natives have burns rangeing from first to third degree. Other have cuts and smoke inhilation, but should be fine. It's a good thing we got there when we did." Replied the medic.

Melnarno nodded and looked around. "Holzman, why don't you get those prefab shelters up and put them into the bulk freighter's cargo bay. Set up a little place for this people to live until we can relocate them. Get them some food and water as well as clothes. I want them taken care of."

He said this to one of the man on the landing pad and watched the person run off to carry out the orders. Looking at the man hanging onto him, he smiled. "Lets get you into medical and get that leg set. I need you out there delivering those supplies." He laughed a little along with both the medic and pilot on his arm before turning towards the platform exit.

Sitting on the small bridge of the Steadfast class Gunship, the Captain looked around at the display screen that almost completely surrounded it. Each screen was now displaying images from holocams situated on the outside of the ship's hull. Every activity within the gunship's vicinity could be seen on the displays and monitored. Its extensive sensor arrays scanned as far as they could away from the ship.

This ship had been one of the two gunships that had entered the system some months ago on a convoy escort mission. From that time it had been permanently stationed within the system to enhance the security of the whole region. To properly utilize its sensors the gunship had moved away from the two big gas giants that held Mustafar between them.

Now that activity within the systems had increased many fold, security was more necessary than every before. Freighter convoys were now moving to and from Mustafar on an hourly basis and still increasing. The planet's industrial output was now many times what it had been before with all the new and upgraded manufacturing plants. Stellar Enterprises has helped the planet emerge as a major producer of metals for the company. Along with these industrial metals, Stellar Enterprises has brought Mustafar into the business of precious metal exporting. Many such rare metal kinds were found inside the rivers of magma and were providing extra income for the company.

The growth of Mustafar was not limited to the planet's surface, however. In space a massive new shipyard was being constructed so that Stellar Enterprises could better meet the demands of its costumers. The proximity of this yard to a large source of ore also cut down production costs and increased profits. Already the build sections of the shipyard has produced frigate sized ships which were quickly sold on the open market. Many more ships would soon start production and as of this moment one such large framework was already being produced. The frame being that for a Stellar Class Star Cruiser.

With all this money spent to industrialize the planet and the space around it, it was no wonder that many defensive measures had been taken as well. Many automated defense platforms floated around the shipyards and a massive Gladiator class Defense Station was in the process of getting fully completed. A small defense fleet of ships also existed in system to offer protection and a large number of fighters constantly patrolled all hyperspace entrance points into the system.

It was near one of such fighter patrols that a large ellipsoid ship exited hyperspace and powered up its drives to slowly move towards the planet. Almost instantly the fighters veered away from the ship and quickly took up positions along its rear and flanks. While being droid fighters, the group as a whole was under the control two pilots who were safely inside the Steadfast gunship. That ship too immediately registered the vessel and checked its computers for possible scheduled appearances of ships with that transponder and description. In a quick reply the computer indicated that indeed a single ship has been scheduled for arrival and was to receive priority.

"Smarts this is the Steadfast Gunship Diligent. For security reasons please state why you are here."

Once stated the computers compared Smarts voice patterns that to recorded from his call to Stellar Enterprises. Upon a match the ship was permitted to close on Mustafar and was guided by the gunship and fighters to that it wouldn't get too close to the gas giants. As the ship closed on the shipyard, other vessels took over the guide duty and let the Diligent go back out on patrols. Heavy tractor beams reached out and gently took hold of the Smarts to softly move him into one of the large dry docks that had been cleared for his arrival.

"Smarts, this is chief mechanic Pelsok, please state what repairs you would like completed. We have been told to accommodate you completely. There are also some men here from Stellar Enterprises Intelligence that would like to ask you about the encounter you had. They would like to come on board and speak with you."

The Chief was an older gray haired man that supervised all construction and repair projects that went on at the Mustafar shipyards. He was an experienced man that for the past forty years has done nothing, but work at shipyards and repair facilities to build a very impressive resume. However, it was not only this resume that got him this job with Stellar Enterprises it was the skill he showed at doing his work and also leading and instructing the men around it. Anyone could pick up tools and go to work, but only a few could instruct and properly teach others to do the same. Coordination of teams of men was very important on construction sites and usually meant the difference between finishing a project on time and in high quality condition.

The Chief was now charged with overseeing the repairs on Smarts and watched his teams do their job while standing on the small bridge of his personal shuttle. This shuttle floated at the edge of each construction or repair job to observe and instruct the teams that worked on the docked ships. With it, the Chief could also get close to the work and monitor the progress much better than from some office far away. He also loved being among the action and this gave him that chance.

As he stood there looking out the viewport at one of the teams repairing the Core Ship's engine block, he was amazed that something like this still existed. This was the first time in all his years on the job that he had seen a ship such as this one. It presented him and his group of people with a challenge and they welcomed it with open arms and heavy tool belts. With no real repair manuals in existence for ship designs this old, everything had to be done by ear. This was mostly the reason why the repairs were going a little slow. He wanted everything done right the first time and told his teams to take their time. It would not be good to have this ship break down some days from now and be stuck floating in space because one of this men or women forgot something.

His old, but well trained eyes, noticed some movement along the ellipsoid hull and his head turned to see what it was. The movement had actually come from a small group of repair droids which floated towards one of the scarred and punctured sections of the outer hull. Behind them, in tow, floated an automated cargo hauler that contained numerous sections of armor plating in many different sizes. As the droids approached a section that needed repairs, they scanned it thoroughly and measured it for proper fitment. With some of the many arms they would pick out plates that closely matched what was needed and proceeded to customize them with plasma cutters before binding them to the hull.

For the binding, the droids used molecular bonders, making the armor plates molecularly bond with the still existing armor around them. This made these sections even stronger and also make them look identical to the older plates. Problems were found on some of the older adjacent armor plates. Microfractures had been identified in some of the armor, probably from the force of turbolaser impacts against nearby hull sections. These fractures meant that the armor had a much higher chance of breaking during combat or ever just the stress of space travel and so for safety concerns these old sections of hull were replaced as well.

Once the engine replacing was complete, Smarts was asked to fire up these new thrusters and evaluate their performance. Small adjustments had to be made and Smarts detected that one of the engines was receiving only 80% of its required fuel injection. The error was noted by the repair team as well and valves were quickly adjusted to increase the flow. Finally the engines seemed in working order and the means could move on to other jobs.

The repairs were not the only activities happening in the vicinity that Smarts could monitor. Along with the movement of freighters to and from the planet, a large Mon Calamari Star Cruiser slowly move into area near the shipyard and floated there as fighters moved around it. Behind it two squadrons of never before seen fighter closed with the MC-80b cruiser and slowly started to move into its large hangers. These fighters were large and seemed to have a hammerhead styled nose. Two Steadfast class gunships and 2 Hellfire Frigates joined these ships within some minutes as well to create a small task force of ships.

"Smarts, this is Agent Hersh, we spoke earlier. I would like to inform you that all repairs are almost complete and you should be ready to go on your way within the hour. Also Stellar Enterprises would like you to know that four point 5 million credits have been transfered into an account for you services. The account number and code is being transmitted with this message. You may use this account at anytime. If have any problems or requests do not hesitate to contact us. Again we thank you for your prompt information." Came a message from the agent that had spoken with Smarts some time before.