The Rebel Faction

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Aboard the Judicator... Capricia<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->



The sounds of bulk heads collapsing, being pulled outward wailed throughout the room that Leia and the soldiers were in as they realized the very real fear of what was happening on the other side of the blastdoors might happen to their room.

"Mathias! What the frell are you doing cooped up in that room?" came the Captain's shout over the comm system (a bit scratchy).

"Waiting for you to stop throwing us around like children's toys.." Mathias bellowed back..

"Bah!"

And soldiers scattered from an area as the floor started to move. A durasteel panel lifted up revealing an engineer.

"Use that service tunnel to get to the shuttle bay, I am not sure how long we can keep it together.. Make for the planet and organize.."

"The ship?"

"You let me worry about the ship, you worry about getting your people to the surface.. Your troops as well young lady.."
The Captain turned his attention to Leia, as if noticing her for the first time.

"Good Luck.." Mathias grumbled.

"To us all..."

Mathias turned to the soldiers... "Well, you heard that man! Down the service tunnel to the hanger.."

He turned to Leia, "I don't suppose your Jedi-ness could help us poor soldiers find our way to the hanger could you?

He turned to the Engineer, "Unless you can show us the way?"

The engineer stammered, "I..I have to reinforce that blastdoor or no one is going anywhere but space.."

"Point..damn you.." Mathias mumbled and turned back to Leia, "Well, looks like we are in your capable hands Mistress."

"Form up!" he yelled, "Group leaders watch your people and do not lose this woman!" (pointing to Leia).


*********


Tyscio and some fellow crewmembers had forced doors open and began resealing them as they made their way into the ship and up a level.

"Hanger bay is the most logical place the soldiers will go but damage is already extensive.. We won't make it in time," a crewman was saying.

"I've got to get to the surface.." Tyscio said, looking around, trying to mentally map the ship.

"Escape pods.." another crewman said.

"What?" the first crewman exclaimed. "In this mess? He'll be lucky if he even gets close to the planet.."

"I'll take the chance.. where?" Tyscio suddenly asked, not exactly thrilled about that idea but seeing no alternative..

The crewman took a fallen plating and drew a small map, "There should be some here... on this deck.."

"Thanks," Tyscio said gratefully taking the homemade map.

"Thanks for picking me up back there.." a weak voice called (the injured person Tyscio had picked up).

Tyscio smiled, "You just get that knee looked at and invite me to your anniversary."

The man smiled, "Deal.."


And Tyscio was off...

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Capricia<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->



The fleet was breaking up and drifting back, using the space they were giving the invaders to reassess their damage and numbers.

Things didn't look good.

Most of their ships were barely alive, limping on partial maneuvering power, some of the bigger ships weaponless using their hulls to provide cover and refueling points for the Caprician fighters...


Tyscio Zier moved his head away from an attending Medic as the losses scrolled down his monitor.


"How is the Home Fleet?" he asked, as the medic fussed with a cut above his eye.


"Beaten badly and angered that they were ordered to take cover in our fleet."


Zier grunted, "They wanted to be the heroes holding the line, not that I blame them."

Then he turned to his Executive Officer, "Status of Vinda Corporation's Fleet?"


He checked the sensor logs, "Getting the stuffing pounded out of them...but they are remarkably holding.."


"Have you seen Scipio Arien's file on this Mr. Vinda?"


"Haven't had time, Sir."


"The man is an enigma. He's rarely seen in public, almost a mystery to even his own employees except those closest to him and he runs one of the most lucrative ventures in the corporate sector."

Zier leaned forward a bit and waived the medic away. "What is a man like that doing here?"


"Perhaps our interests are his interests right now."


Zier looked approvingly at his Exec. "The man does seem like the type to be several steps ahead of others..." Then he sighed, "But the man is there when it counts for us.."

He grinned ruefully, "I do seem to have this bad habit of questioning the motives of those that are attempting to help us. Take that Jedi for example.."


"Sir! It's.. it's the Judicator! They are taking a pounding!"


"Speak of the devils.." Tyscio murmured. "Message the Vinda Corporation Fleet and make sure their ships do not get between the invaders and the planet. Don't want them to get caught in Gomorran's wrath."

"Assuming it works.."

"That's what I like about you," he told his Exec. "Your positive thinking."




******


Tyscio Korban was running down an empty hall as braces began to fall, shaken loose by the hits the Judicator was taking.


A hand shot out and he stopped himself in midstride stealing a glance into a side room, finding it to be the escape pod accessway.

He punched the emergency release button and a hatch swung open. Grasping an overhead handle, he swung himself inside and closed the hatch.


"All units evac NOW!!" came the Captain's desperate shout over the comm and Tyscio slammed the jettison button which ejected his pod out from under the Judicator.


The pod entered the fray a helpless observer to the massacre going on outside..



*****


Mathias and Leia needed no further prompting as they entered their transports and the lead ship began to lift up moving toward the squarish opening of the hanger and out into space.

The others soon followed suite..


..the transport near Leia's was hit by a passing coralskipper fighter and it shattered into pieces.


"Damn, that was close.." muttered Mathias noticing his troops grab onto overhead handles, swallowing their fear.


Several other coralskippers shot into the hanger, breaking through the fallen shields of the Judicator and exploded against the far hanger wall...rendering that part of the ship useless..

Many crewmen, staying behind to make sure the transports got off, did not have the time to react and were engulfed as the fuel containers and piping exploded...



*****


Tyscio Zier aboard the Tribune watched with eyes wide as the pieces of the Judicator were exploding outward, the fires not being put out (surprisingly) by the vacuum.


The ship began to list to it's side..


*****


The Yuuzhan Vong ships turned their attention to the planet once seeing the defending fleet move around.

They were not surprised at the cowardly move of the infidels and soon, thousands of smaller landing craft were seen leaving the massive invader capital ships.

Victory was a scent they smelled.


****


"Leantre, Now." Gomorran Kay ordered, seeing the sky darken with points of enemy craft.


"Release camouflage nets and target!" the aging Leader of Clan Leantre shouted.


Hundreds of turbolasers suddenly became visible and their collected hum (as the main batteries charged) filled the air.


"Fire!"


And the Caprician sky was filled with deadly lights..

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Capricia<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->


The Judicator began to roll over on it's side as the orientation thrusters began to fail..

Fires raged throughout the bottom of the ship, from the hanger to the thin strip comprising it's side.

The Captain held onto a panel, his knuckles white with strain.

"..that last blast got us.." a voice was saying.

"..I think we are dead.."

"If we blow up, the transports will be caught in our blast radius and burn up!" another officer yelled.

"No one is blowing up without my express permission!!" the Captain bellowed interrupting the panicked conversation.

"Sir, the fire is out of control! Environment controls are smashed.."

"Enough talk, crewman.." He turned to the bleeding comm officer, "Get me shipwide speaker."

"You're on Captain."

"This is your Captain. All personnel are instructed to retreat to the higher levels... You have 5 minutes to reach deck 10. Good luck."

"Sir?"


"Yes soldier?"


"Not everyone will make it to deck 10 in 5 minutes. Sir the fire is only up to deck 8."


"I know, soldier. I know.."

"Sir.. Vinda Corporation is extending their lines!!"

The Captain turned to the flickering scanning station and grinned to another crewman. "Not something one normally expects from 'corporate people'. Their leader probably has Caprician blood in him.."

"5 minutes sir."

"Drake?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Decompress all levels under deck 10 and shut us down.."

"Aye sir... decompressing."


Panels suddenly were blown outward and blastdoors opened as the vacuum of space rushed into the burning decks. Deck 9 suddenly opened to space sucking out those unlucky enough not to make it to deck 10 quickly enough.

The burning fires stretched outward from deck 8 in an attempt to find oxygen to continue despite the vacuum, but only found the silent coldness of space on deck 9.

With nothing left to fan the spark.... the fires died and the Judicator's power systems went offline..and the mighty vessel rolled on it's back...silent.


The transports moved quickly to the extended line.. the dragnet that Vinda Corp vessels were providing. Having reached the other side of the line, the transports flashed a salute to the Nostromo's commander and continued toward the planet.


The rather large descending arc of the dropships took them away from the Antioch front, where the defending turbolasers were chewing up space and invaders alike.


"Touchdown in 1 minute!" a pilot shouted and Mathias grunted. Turning to Leia, "I haven't set foot on Capricia in over 6 years. I wonder how it's changed?"

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> The search for Cuzzko...<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->




"This area is off the local charts.." an officer mentioned as holographic projections of the nearby systems were displayed in front of Herridian.

"The records indicate that the invasion route took originated from that area..."

"Well Sir, mind you, according to the invasion account, Itala's forces entered the Elrood system reinforced by ships from the Hoth system."

"Hoth? Please tell me that we do not have to go to that miserable place.."

"Been there?"

"No.. but I've heard stories.."

The officer laughed, "It is cold Sir. But to answer your question, we won't have to go there. The place was nothing more than a stop off for the main assault on the Jedi Temple."

Herridian whistled to himself, "So there were Jedi there.."

"Yes sir. Took guts to smash it but then, Itala's a legend at that and he had overwhelming forces since the Hoth Campaign was over."


"Yes..it's easy to be brave when you've got overwhelming forces behind you.." another bridge officer scoffed.

"So, Cuzzko would be?"

"Here sir...<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> If<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> those records are right. It's hard and this Marzullo writing is a bugger to translate."


"What of our Caprician artifacts?"


"Dating puts the structure at an extreme age.."

"How old?"


"Sir, the dating machine must be off... The machine gave it a date way before the first Clannus Prime's existence.."


Herridian sighed, "Something tells me our history is missing a few chapters."

"Sir, if this is correct then it's missing more than a few.."

"How old?"


"Over 100,000 years..."


Herrdian shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "That's a long time.."

"Yes sir, and I cannot explain the recording or the resemblence to Tyscio Korban."


"Has any of the recording or the writings been translated?"


"They are working on it.."


"Entering System!" came a shout and all eyes turned to the forward port as realspace focused in.


"Power shutdown! NOW!" the scanning officer yelled and instinctively hands went to the power switches.


The Avatar was drifting ..


"Prett?" Herridian asked bewildered and the crewman looked frightened.


He whispered, "Mines!"

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Aboard the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Blaze of Glory<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->... Minos..<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->



The monitor went off and Scipio suddenly felt the giant ship come to life as it's mighty engines roared defiantly.


<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Without Advanced Helm control, this thing will be a bugger to control..<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, Scipio thought as she led Achinta away from the hall and into the massive engineering room.



*****


Adalric had wasted no time with foolish dealings with adolescent women. He floated over to the communications station, his mind racing with possibilities that would keep them all alive for the next 30 minutes..

"Get the rest of the Caprician warships on the comm. system." He turned to another officer and yelled over commotion, "MAKE SURE ALL CRITICAL STATIONS ARE TIED INTO THE EXTERNAL COMM SYSTEM!!"

Men and women rushed to carry out his orders as fast as he bellowed them.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> The activity would keep them warm...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, his mind's practical side noted.


"Let those ships be our eyes! Let them target our guns.." He was explaining as, suddenly, the bridge was alive with chatter as each gunner was talking to his or her counterpart on a Carpician cruiser guiding their targeting and shots..



<!--EZCODE CENTER START--><!--EZCODE CENTER END-->


The bow of the Super Star Destroyer slowly turned toward the planet and the enemy positions....and deadly laser fire from the long range weapons lanced out..

"We have no real targeting.." a soldier complained..

"Easy soldier.. We only need to fire in their direction at extreme long range. It provides an incentive for them to keep their distance until we are ready.." the Blaze's master informed.


Corralskippers came closer, dodging the laserfire that spewed from the tiny points on the Blaze, tiny blackholes forming to absorb the stray shots that came their way..

"Here they come!" an officer said, looking out a port.



<!--EZCODE CENTER START--><!--EZCODE CENTER END-->


The Blaze of Glory's engines increased power output which caused several braces to drop from the ceiling.. Achinta had picked up Scipio in an effort to move her out of the way..

"There's too much power going through the system! With the bottleneck, there's no compensation happening!!! It's shaking the ship apart!!" an engineer yelled.


"He's going to rip the bottleneck apart!!" Scipio shouted as the hum of the engines drowned everything out ...

The deck was vibrating wildly and some engineers fell to their knees.


Amazingly, Achinta stayed on his feet and Scipio gripped his arm for balance.


The Corralskippers had found their range and soon plasma of their own began to strike the ship.




**


"Direct hit!" an officer on the bridge shouted..


"Keep the power coming!!" Adalric shouted over the vibration of metal as computers sparked all around.


"We are going to blow ourselv...." a monitor fell, striking the crewman into unconsciousness.


<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Just as well...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> Adalric thought as he looked at his time piece..


The larger enemy cruiser began to move closer, noting the ineffectiveness of the Blaze's shots. The Caprician ships tried to insert themselves against the larger enemy vessel but it simply shook off their blows and continued straight toward the Super Star Destroyer.


"It's .. coming for us!" another crewman shouted as he glanced out the bridge window.


Adalric merely stared straight ahead at the oval shaped vessel and quietly said, "Increase engine output.."

The officer sucked it up and pressed some of the few working systems to coax more out of the giant ship.


Adalric floated to his command chair and gripped the armrests with both hands and situated himself right over it.


"Hull stressing!! Breaches on 4 decks!"


Adalric glanced at the monitor..



<!--EZCODE CENTER START--><!--EZCODE CENTER END-->


..and it was as if a wall had been removed..


Suddenly the vibration was becoming less and less as previously dark stations suddenly came back online..


Capricians cheered on their respective ships as they witnessed rows upon rows of lights suddenly flicker on, their radiance shining out of the ports...section by section...from the aft to the bow..

The previously inactive gun ports of the Blaze of Glory began to glow red.


"The bottleneck's been repaired!" the Engineer gasped.


The engines took on a more normal hum.


As gravity claimed the occupants of the bridge, Adalric slid easily into his command chair and suddenly, the BAC system holographic projection appeared in front of him.



"CORE?" he spoke, as if to the ceiling.


<!--EZCODE HTML START--> <font color="red">"REINITIALIZING.."</font><!--EZCODE HTML END-->



Cronus grinned, "Not yet. Target that monstrosity before me and fire!"



<!--EZCODE HTML START--> <font color="red">"COMPLYING"</font><!--EZCODE HTML END-->



All forward weaponry was trained on the alien cruiser and a massive, concentrated volley emerged..


..so massive, that it shattered completely the bow of the oval shaped cruiser, splitting it.


The Cruisers on the flanking positions took advantage of the opening and poured their own weapons into the fissure that the Blaze had created.


The explosion was tremendous as debris washed against the newly recharged shields of the Blaze of Glory.


Adalric squinted his eyes and the Super Star Destroyer went through the inferno of plasma, his ship maintaining a continuous fire.


The explosion's shockwave buffeted against the Caprician Cruisers draining their shields. The wave, though, was more damaging to the unprotected corralskipper fighters.


When the plasma finally spread enough, all existence of the large Yuuzhan Vong vessel being wiped from space, the tiny shreds of Adalric's Command faced a Minos covered in some weird orange cloud.


"Arm proton torpedoes and fire.." he rasped out.

And the balls of light shot out into the cloud and exploded. The shockwaves from the individual torpedoes spread the cloud causing pockets killing any creature caught.

Suddenly all the ships were firing their torpedoes and the once hazy cloud now looked as if holes of space had been punched through it.


As the targeting computers of CORE took over, the explosions became that much more efficient as gaps big enough for their fleet were now torn through the cloud.



***


"Not very good defensively.." Scipio murmured, as the crowd in engineering watched a monitor of the battle, referring to the orange cloudlike mist that the enemy had put around Minos.


"Perhaps defense was not the cloud's purpose.." an technician volunteered.


"Hmm..." was Scipio's only reply as she touched her personal communication's device.


"All Caprician Honorguards meet me in the secondary shuttle bay. We need to check out the planet."


She turned an eye to Achinta, "Coming?"



***


The once dark orange cloud had been reduced to mere whisps as what was left of the Taskforce entered orbit.


Strangly, there were no other enemy ships in the area, that last cruiser seemingly left to defend ..what?


Even the space larvae seemed to die quickly when the torpedoes were used.


What was left of the corralskipper force was keeping it's distance, but was not enough to give Adalric even a hint of apprehension.


"Where did they all go?" someone asked.


"Ready landing forces--"


"Sir, the Capricians have already launched.."


Adalric sighed as he noted the transports pulling away from the Blaze.. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> No doubt Ambassador Arien's group.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->



******



Minos was a small planetoid and only housed the domelike structures of the mining camp near a cliff side.


Everyone disembarked from the transports dressed in full spacegear.


"Doesn't look like the structure itself suffered decompression damage.." a soldier to Scipio's left said.


"The dome seems made of a very tough transparasteel or something similar."


"Cut the chatter and watch for invader activitiy..." Scipio ordered as Achinta had placed a hand on her shoulder pointing her to what seemed like a hatch of some kind.


Achinta opened the hatch cautiously and as soon as the team was in, they heard the sounds of the room pressurizing and then the wall opposite the hatchway slid open.


The rooms were bare....


strangly bare..


No equipment, no wires.. no tables.. no lightfixtures...


A soldier checked his instrument readings, "The air is breathable.. no sign of life.." and he removed his helmet, and cautiously inhaled.

Soon the rest of the team removed their helmets.


The mining colony had a very warm, humid musty smell.


"Bloody hot in here.." one soldier commented, and they held their basters at the ready.


The small troop went from room to room, finding the same empty look to it.


"Where the hell did they put everything??"


"Ambassador? I am reading extreme heat coming from an interior room!"


Scipio looked at him, "Which way? Ok.. be careful people!" and they began to descend down a flight of side stairs to another level.


"Sweet Clannus Prime! Is there a fire down here?" the soldier with the scanner asked.


"The temperature has definitely risen.." Achinta commented.


Scipio threw him a sideways glance, a bead of sweat starting to drip down her cheek. "You think?"


"Coming from that room!" an officer shouted.


And the soldiers ran to a pair of blastdoors. "It's locked.."


"Allow me.." Achinta offered and stepped forward to work the control's wires and soon the doors began to separate.


A searing heat shot out as well as screams.... the most inhuman screams Scipio had ever heard.


The sight was truly horrid as machinery off all sorts had been broken, smashed, and thrown in to a massive pile.

Covering the machines was some strange alien acid that was extremely flammable and over that, dangling on wires and hooks, fashioned out of old equipment were the writhing bodies of the colony's captured adults... most already burned beyond recognition..


..while a few screamed at the tearing pain... their eyes already sightless, their hands cut beyond recognition.


A soldier raised his rifle and Scipio nodded.


Shots rang out and soon the fires burned in silence...


Tears began to stream from Scipio's face as turned from the scene. "Is there anyone alive here?" she cried to the soldier with the instrument.


He just slowly shook his head and said nothing, mournfully throwing down the portable scanner.


<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> They were all dead...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->