The Rebel Faction

Griff observed the meeting with a blad expression. Outwardly, he was uninteresting. His server uniform was tailored exactly to him, and was adorned with several gold embelms and other decorations. In his hand he held a silver platter with several different choices of food and drink. He slowly made his way around the party area, on his prearranged patrol route.

Dozens of other highly trained Black Hand agents did the same. These were no Hapans, but Griff's personal special forces unit. Most of them had served in the various Sovereignty wars, and most of them with elite units.

They were well suited to this type of mission. They had been doing it for years.

At the slightest hint of trouble, they would drop their cover, and enter into instant action. All of them were on the highest of alerts.

A slight tingling sensation awoke Griff's concentration. A miniscule communications tranceiver was alerting him.

"What is it?" He asked in a low voice.

"This is Amos. Patrol Three has not reported in on time."

Amos was a veteran of the Battle of Bespin, when the Sovereignty attacked Cloud City, which was then under Imperial control. He was one of Griff's best agents.

"Is that normal?" Griff knew such a question was stupid. He had had soldiers imprisoned for not following orders to the letter, and the Regency forces on Dreena were the cream of the crop. They would never be late.

Unless something had happened...

"Check it out. Go to full alert, have the Steel Resolve scan with infared. Order Observer Squadron to Three's last known location. Be ready with a full assault team. Find them, Amos."

"On the way."

Amos clicked off, and Griff touched his jacket, where a highly advanced holdout blaster rested safely.

He had a bad feeling...


***


"Dreena Four-Two-Seven this is Observer Leader, we have arrived at Three's last known point."

The heavily modified Lambada-class shuttle, followed by a squadron of escort fighters slowed to a halt, and hovered over the small section of hillside that Patrol 3 had reported from last. The shuttle formerly had been assigned as a transport craft, shuttling high-ranking passengers to and from ships. However, it now looked nothing like it's former self.

The inside had been completely ripped up and redesigned, and had been retrofitted with every type of sensor and communication's equipment known to the galaxy. The Crown Prince had spent a fortune turning the ship into a mobile sensor and observation platform, and now it turned those formidable assets onto the small hillside...

"Scanning..." The command officer said, mostly to himself. It was his job to monitor the readouts, and scan the tergeted area.

"Dreena Four-Two-Seven this is Observer Leader... we have an object on our boards, but I'm not sure what it is. It could be lifesigns, but it is almost too big."

"Continue your search." Amos, operating under the handle Dreena 427, said.

"I may have something, here sir. As I said, it's too big to be a lifesign... or at least one lifesign. It may be several. Suggest that a ground force converge on this location, we may have visitors..."

"Acknowledged."


***

"Dreena Four-two-nine, the nerf is out of the corral."

Griff instantly set his platter down and drew his blaster pistol. Everywhere, waiters and servers were doing the same. Their previous fake smiles erased as they degenerated into their Black Hand personas.

Chatter among the delegates began to arise as Griff and his forces moved out and toward the hillside. They made a quick stop at their shuttle and placed their helmets on their heads. They were equipped with infared and other sensors, and also sported a full-face shield. They were now unrecognizable as they moved toward the hill where Observer Sqaudron could be seen patrolling.

"Kill anything that is not ours." Griff spoke.

Southern Continent, Dreena

So the war begins...

The battle had erupted into a full-scale conflict as Atlas-class shuttles rained down from the fleets above to the planets surface, carrying with them a vast array of repulsor tanks, troop transports, and heavy artillery. They landed quickly with surgical precision quickly dropping there cargos and returning back to the safety of the skies. As the smoke cleared, it had become evident that Lucian's body had disappeared leaving behind a trail of disrupted mud and terrain leading toward the thick, yet tiny forest nestled against a small foothill on the tiny island. Cover fire from the hills had rained down on the open clearing as the smoldering shuttle continued to burn, and then explode as troops dove for cover.

The Crown Prince had made the fatal error of assuming that Dreena was a safe planet, being unoccupied and having only tiny pockets of land resting against the vast oceans that dominated it's surface. Fortunately, he was a man of wealth and power, and loved to flaunt it. Thousands of honor guards had accompanied him to the planet, and hundreds of warships loomed in the skies above, some under his personal control and others the remnants of fleets left to the nobles who now lay dead in the metallic pre-fabricated structure in the distance.

As the cover fire continued, Miy'Til fighters began to sweep the area, launching precision strikes into the heart of the forest and hills at the areas unoccupied by Relephon forces. As thick grey smoke plumed in the distance, Relephon forces quickly zoned in on the Crown Prince, cutting the agent off from his escape into the woods.

They had him surrounded.

Snipers picked off Relephon troops one by one as they entered the forest, only to give away there positions with each shot fired. As a second wave of Miy'Til fighters screamed past in the skies above, providing cover fire for the troops entering the forests, Snipers found themselves having to expose there positions, or be killed by the massive influx of troops.

"Colonel," a younger Relephon soldier yelled. "Take two teams and secure those two positions in the hills. We've got this mother fucker pinned down! He's not going anywhere."

The Colonel raised his hands as two large groups of men followed him into the heat of the battle, charging the hills where the enemy fire had so obviously been coming from. Behind him in the distance, the snap-crack of tree bark brought with them a loud crash-thud as heavy artiller and repulsor tanks moved into position to bombard the hillsidesm clearing a path for the men to take the hills. Miy'Til fighters provided all the cover fire they needed.

"Somebody get the goddamn Director out here!"

"Grenade! Get down!"

Two soldiers tackled the Colonel to the ground as the grenade erupted into a ball of fire and smoke beside them.

"Get the fuck off of me goddamn it! What's our status?"

"We've taken heavy casualties, but now that we know what we're dealing with, we believe they're taking casualties as well. Captain Thalis in orbit assures us that no one is getting in, and no one is getting out. Operation Black Widow took place about twenty minutes ago. Our main concern is that he has the Crown Prince," the young officer pointed as his words grew progressively louder to counter the growing noise of blaster fire and heavy artillery in the distance "somewhere near that burned out region. We've got the entire area surrounded. Occasionally the agent holding him fires off a few rounds, so we know he's out there somewhere. Our teams have uncovered several coffin-like meteor shaped capsules that we believe these teams landed on the planet with. Intel reports that they're simular to those rumored to be used by Commonwealth SpecOps. Sir," the officer grimaced "We're going to have to assume that the Crown Prince is dead until we confirm otherwise....."

"Mother Fucker..."

“It is for that reason that I, Crown Prince Lucian D'alaetos, have dispatched a series of political envoys throughout the cluster as well as to the Commonwealth. Each of the 63 worlds of the Hapes Cluster, as well as a diplomat from the Commonwealth has been invited to the Capital of the Relephon Moons, Celestia, for a regional summit to discuss the issues that have arisen of recent. As worlds throughout the cluster continue to separate from the Monarchy, conflict and clusterial destabilization is imminent. As peaceful leaders, each planet is invited to send a diplomat to discuss a rational and responsible unification of the Hapes Cluster, on one form or another.”


One Day Previous


“You’re not actually thinking of sending an envoy, are you?” Cygnus asked, raising his eyebrow good humouredly.

“I wasn’t,” Dakkon admitted, “And from what we’ve discovered...Representative D’alaetos wasn’t planning on making it easy for me if I had been. The meeting is on Dreena, not Celestia, a fact that Lucian went to great lengths to keep me from discovering.”

“Which you discovered anyway,” Cygnus noted.

“Hapans are loyal to the Crown,” Dakkon smiled, looking up from the datapads he had been pouring over to look at the Watcher before him, “And no matter how silver-forked Representative D’alaetos’s tongue is, there are always loyalists.”

“And loyalists make for good informants.”

“Exactly. For example, a…” Dakkon paused to glance back down at the datapad, “Former Captain Jonathon Wells of the Relephon Fleet. He’s been feeding us steady information about the increasingly radical changes in power in the Relephon leadership from Celestia until all sources from the Relephon system stopped transmitting. In his last transmission, the one that got cut off, he mentioned something about a Director…a Director X. The rest of the name was cut off.

It’s our guess that the Relephons blocked off the entire system, and from your report it looks like they have enough manpower to pull it off. You got out just in time.”

“Thank the Crown for small blessings,” Cygnus muttered.

“I’m flattered,” Dakkon smiled coyly, “Now, where were we? Ah yes, Dreena.”

“Location of the summit hosted by Lucian D’alaetos,” Cygnus processed the information out loud, as if testing the sound.

“Ah, but I’m afraid it’s so much more than that,” the Crown Prince slowly rose from his chair. The true throne of Hapes, Cygnus mused, “If Relephon’s denouncement of the Commonwealth was the calm before the storm, Dreena is the first crescendo of lightning.”

Dakkon turned away from his guest to look out upon the Fountain Palace, and the gardens far below. He held a drink lightly in his hand, half gone.

“The Relephon Fleet has made its presence strong over Dreena,” Dakkon said at length, sighing, “From the information we’re gathering, it seems as if Relephon plans to annex it.”

“There is not much there of value,” Cygnus mused, “It is uninhabited, and not exactly key to the Cluster.”

“True,” Dakkon admitted, half turning to cast a glance back at the man partially shrouded by the shadow of the room, “But what it represents is of value. I don’t care what Representative D’alaetos says, Relephon is not content to a peacefully independent civilization. Lucian wants the Cluster. Or at least enough of it…too much of it. And if what you believe-”

“Suspect,” Cygnus cut in, and then, “Beg pardon, my liege.”

Dakkon nodded.

“If what you suspect,” he continued, “is true, if they are aided by an outside entity, then that means a foreign power is making a bid for the Cluster. And that…I will not have. I will not allow that, under any circumstances.”

“Relephon would argue you already have,” Cygnus countered, silently preparing himself for the backlash.

“Mind your place!” Dakkon growled, “The Commonwealth is in the best interest of the Consortium! And if they truly believe otherwise, these Relephon are twice as hypocritical and ignorant for trading one foreign power for another!”

“I am a Watcher, your highness,” Cygnus said without a hint of emotion in his voice, “My duty, first and foremost, is to watch and comment. I do not infer; I do not show bias; I do not deceive those I work for. Countless decisions vital to the evolution of the Consortium have been made based the Watchers’ non-partisan counsel.”

“And do not lecture me on Hapan history!” Dakkon retorted, tightening his grip around the drink he held, “I am well aware of all of this, Thirty Four. And I…understand your intentions. Forgive me, rebuilding a government in place for generations from the ground up can take a lot out of a man.”

“Understood, my liege,” Cygnus cocked his head to the side, “And this isn’t all.”

“No…no it isn’t. You are perceptive to the last,” Dakkon shook his head, “No, there is something else. Something that…complicates things.”

“There always is.”

“In their infinite wisdom, the BIA recommended to the Commonwealth Navy that special forces be dispatched to Dreena prior to the summit in order to monitor the event and…if necessary…pacify the Representative.”

Cygnus grunted.

“That isn’t all,” Dakkon continued, “Lucian moved the date up a day, probably to throw me off one last time. The special forces will be arriving during the summit. It’s too late to recall them, and their standing orders in this contingency is to proceed with the mission as best as possible.”

“So where does that leave us?” Cygnus asked bluntly.

“Still crashing the party, of course,” Dakkon grinned, “We will be sending an envoy to Dreena, with a heavy military escort, to ‘show Consortium superiority’. The diplomatic team will be headed by Ambassador Jonas C’aelis.”

“You will not be attending personally?” Cygnus asked.

“My attention is required elsewhere, unfortunately,” Dakkon smiled, “Do not fear. They will be in good hands. I believe Ambassador C’aelis’s assistant Mister Derrik Sorn will be present.”

Dakkon winked, and Cygnus smiled grimly. They discussed much more than evening, and Cygnus left the Crown Prince’s office at last, returning to his temporary quarters to pack what little belongings he had.

Yes, the “diplomacy” would be in good hands.

After all, he was Derrik Sorn. At least, tomorrow he was.


Present Day


“Premature hyperspace reversion!” the call pierced the precise silence of the Sword of Hapes Battleship the Gladiator. They had been pulled out by the Relephon interdictors.

The Gladiator was not exactly well suited as a diplomatic vessel. It was a ship of war, armed to the teeth. And the majority of the escort fleet was exactly the same. From Darkstars to Nova Cruisers to Battle Dragons to Lorell Gunships, every available off duty Hapan vessel of war had been rounded up to form an impressive armada of obvious intent.

Captain Artemis Ashanti was the commanding officer of the Gladiator, and as such in direct command of the “escort fleet”. The diplomatic envoy was on board a small frigate within the heart of the fleet, and well protected. The fleet automatically and quickly formed into a standard formation, making no hostile moves but with obvious display of strength.

They were late. It had been the Crown Prince’s wishes that they make a late arrival, in order to lull the attendees into a false sense of security. Little did Dakkon know that on the planet the only remaining attendees were Lucian D’alaetos, who was unconscious and in the hands of Commonwealth special forces.

“Send the transmission,” Ashanti ordered.

“Aye, sir!” came the response.

The voice of Ambassador Jonas C’aelis was sent on all open channels.

“Attention fellow Hapans. I am Ambassador Jonas C’aelis, representative of the formal Hapan Consortium. I come to you not only as a representative of the Consortium, but of the Commonwealth as well. We are responding to Representative Lucian D’alaetos’s request for a diplomatic summit. We apologize for our late arrival, we had been informed the summit was to take place on Celestia. I assure you our attentions here are benign, and I hope you will allow us audience. Please respond.”

The message was sent, the pieces had been moved.

The first crescendo of lightning had sounded on the planet below.

Dreena System

Chaos.

The word itself could barely describe the mess that had broken out on the surface, and in orbit. As news of the assassination of several prominent Cluster nobles reached there fleets, a sence of fear and panic ensued for what seemed like a lifetime. But the rumors of the assassinations had been strategicly planted throughout the enemy fleets by Relephon operatives. It was the rumors of the Crown Prince D'alaetos' own death that troubled Captain Ulrich, of the Interdictor-class Battlecruiser Corvinus.

He observed the communications amongst the vast collection of fleets in the system with concern. Many of the fleet commanders had already restored order to there fleets, and were dedicating starfighter support on the ground to take out the enemy positions. However, there was one thing that the Relephon military had not counted on, and that was the fact that Lucian D'alaetos had been captured, and potentially killed by what had been confirmed (via dead and captured snipers on the surface) to be a Commonwealth special operations force.

"Captain Ulrich, Captain Thalis has informed us that all of the Noble fleets have agreed to fight under Relephon command hence forth. We all await your orders sir."

Ulrich nodded his head, but deep down pondered if they had done the right thing. The Heritage Fleet, as it had been known throughout history, was now under the sole command of Prince Lucian D'alaetos, who at this point could potentially be dead. If he was, Captain Ulrich pondered, what would happen? Insurrection amongst the fleets? Mutiny? Would the impending Civil War in the cluster end, or be made worse?

"Captain, incoming warships at bearing seven mark seven four. Hapan ships. Our gravity wells have pulled them out of hyperspace. We're picking up a transmission from the lead ship."

Dakkon. Captain Ulrich's thoughts preceeded his own action. He turned in his command chair and listened intently to the transmission. As he did, the small out-system fleet had begun to move into position to securely close the system off to the intrusion.

“Attention fellow Hapans. I am Ambassador Jonas C’aelis, representative of the formal Hapan Consortium. I come to you not only as a representative of the Consortium, but of the Commonwealth as well. We are responding to Representative Lucian D’alaetos’s request for a diplomatic summit. We apologize for our late arrival, we had been informed the summit was to take place on Celestia. I assure you our attentions here are benign, and I hope you will allow us audience. Please respond.”

The Captain looked at the communications officer and nodded his head. His voice was calm and collected, but certainly held no enthusiam in it.

"Ambassador C'aelis, welcome to the Dreena System. Unfortunately the system us currently under martial lock-down. It seems your luck has paid off. A small band of Commonwealth Special Forces has assassinated the members of the Summit, including we believe, the Crown Prince D'alaetos." The Captain paused for a moment, noting that the Ambassador had proclaimed himself a representative of the Consortium, and the Commonwealth. Flicking his wrist, the first officer nodded his head and ordered several squadrons of Miy'Til fighters to form a defensive position amongst the small fleet, one of four positioned in the out-system.

"As you claim to be a representative of the Commonwealth, perhaps you could explain this little incident not only to myself, but to the galactic community? Our forces on the ground have confirmed with one hundred percent positivity that the forces on the surface are of the Commonwealth."

Delete. Wrong name.