The Rebel Faction

Space above Trandosha: Bloodfang

“Sir the Sovereign is releasing it’s fighter squadrons. Too many to count…”

“Looks like we really stirred up this ant’s nest.” Tiosk chuckled. “Let’s do what we can to even up the odds for our friends here.”

The Bloodfang pulled out slightly from behind the Sovereign, her turrets blazing. A large swarm of enemy fighters started attacking her, her gunners hard pressed to pick them. Fortunately, fighter weapons weren’t as powerful as a capital ships and the reflecting armor held out very well against them.

“Sir the Gold Squadron has managed to break open one of the hanger doors. Shuttles are landing.”

“Good, that’s our cue to haul jets. Let’s move away from the Sovereign, but stay behind her. I don’t feel like having our ass lit on fire by her turbo lasers.”

“Sir! We got two destroyers heading our way!”

“Oh wonderful…” Tiosk muttered. With their shields still down and the armor already having taken a beating, they didn’t have much in the way of defense now. “Well lads, looks like our good fortune may be about to run out, but that doesn’t mean we won’t give up without a fight. Put this girl into cosmic overdrive lads! Let’s go right between them and pepper their sides like we did to those ships over Tissuss!”

The Bloodfang zipped between the two destroyers, turrets blazing and doing damage. However, these two ships seemed to have heard of this particular trick and managed to do quite a bit of damage to her in turn, resulting in most of the extra armor being blown off and leaving the Bloodfang quite vulnerable.

“I don’t think we’ll survive another run like that sir…” One of his officers said. “Quite of few of our turrets were destroyed and the extra armor is now next to useless. Shields aren’t back up yet either and Number three engine is down.”

“Then we take advantage of the fact they have to turn around before pursuing us. Let’s get as big of a head start as we can. If we are lucky…they’ll be eating our hyperdust.”

“Seems we pissed off the T’Doshok Admiral sir.” The comm. officer said. “He just sent out a broadcast for all ships to destroy us…”

“Now that’s just gnardly…” Tiosk grumbled darkly, noting on the radar several blips were already heading their way….

Trandosha: Council of Elders

“You’re…you’re just making that up!” Hyossk hissed. “Speaker-Above-All has always had more power!”

With a snort Shissa typed a couple of commands on the panel in front of her. Blazing to life was a holographic image of the page of T’Doshok Law that dealt with the Council of Elders, specifically on the Speaker-Above-All. Hyossk’s jaw dropped open in shock.

“There it is as clear as day Hyossk.” Shissa said calmly. “What say you?”

Space over Trandosha: Bloodfang

“There seems to be some confusion on the battlefield sir.”

“I can see that.” Tiosk said as he studied the radar on the his personal panel. “Some of them don’t seem to know who to fight right now, thanks to that Republic ship. Our dear Admiral still screaming to wipe us off the face of the galaxy I take it?”

“Aye sir. Though the Republic Ship has diverted and or delayed a good number of the enemy ships, there are still a handful coming at us and they are closing fast.”

Tiosk gritted his teeth. “We will reach the hyperspace point before they get into firing range?” He asked.

The sensor officer did a couple of quick calculations. “Negative sir…not in our present condition.”

“So basically we need a miracle to make it out alive.” Tiosk sighed. Though he and his crew weren’t expecting to survive anyway, it was still a downer.

“Doesn’t look like we are getting our miracle today sir…two more ships just arrived on the battlefield: right in front of us.”

Tiosk shook his head, knowing this had to be the end. “Well lads…it’s been an honor. This Captain has run out of tricks.”

“One moment sir.” The comm. officer said, his hand pressing against his ear piece. “Those ships are hailing us….it’s the two ships you convinced to leave a couple battles ago…they’ve defected!”

There was a loud cheer and Tiosk could only smile as their two new allies slid past them to fend off the two pursuing ships.

Blackblade

“Sir, the Hollow Tooth and Sharp Sword has returned, but are aiding the Bloodfang.”

“Not that surprised to hear that.” The Vice Admiral said.

“Vice Admiral, we are being hailed by the Sovereign.”

The Vice Admiral sighed and motioned for him to patch it through.

~Vice Admiral..~ The growling voice of the Fleet Admiral hissed. ~Why have you not engaged the enemy?~

“I will sir…once I am sure who the enemy is.” He replied casually.

~Who the enemy is!?~ The Admiral practically screamed. ~Are you blind!? Go after the Bloodfang! That’s an order Vice Admiral!~

“I think…not….sir.” He hissed, then clicked off the comm. before the Admiral could retaliate.

“What are your orders sir?” The comm. officer said nervously.

“Open a broad channel, I want to address the entire fleet.”

“But sir…only the Admiral has that authority unless he is absent.”

“Something tells me the Admiral position will be open very soon Lieutenant. Open the Channel.”

“Aye sir.”

“This is Vice Admiral Balik of the Blackblade and I command all of you to stand down.”

A very pissed Admiral was suddenly heard over the line. ~You are NOT to stand down! Balik! How dare you not only disobey a direct order but have a galls to undermine my authority as well!~

Balik ignored him. “Listen to me. Do you not see what is going on here? How many T’Doshok have died during this whole mess? We are destroying ourselves from within, weakening our race to the point where we would become easy pickings for any other race looking for conquest. As Naosha has suggested, we have more enemies then friends, enemies that would gladly sit idly by will we do their work for them and then come in and mop up.
Naosha was right my friends. Our worse enemy is ourselves, our pride and arrogance is slowly devouring us. If we are to continue to survive as a race we must end this nonsense and adapt to the times and evolve into a better race for all.”

~Oh it will end alright Balik….~ The Admiral said with a malicious growl. ~When you and your new ‘friends’ our wiped off the face of the galaxy!~

“Sir, the Sovereign is moving….she’s turning right at us.”

Balik growled. “Maneuver the ship so that we have a clear shot at the bridge with our main gun…”

“Sir with the weaponry on that ship we won’t likely last long enough to get in range to even make the shot…”

“So be it.”

Bloodfang

Just then the little signal clip Tiosk was given started to beep. “Oh man…looks like they are in position.” He muttered as he got on the broad channel. “If you value your lives I suggest you get as far away from the Sovereign as possible.”

~Huh? Why?~ Replied the Captain of the Hollow Tooth.

“Let me put it this way…when that baby goes she’ll not only likely vaporize any ship in the immediate area but send out the mother of all EMP waves. So move your asses!”

Blackblade

“Sir a lot of ships have turned about and are leaving. I suggest we do too.”

Balik looked out the view screen and at the Sovereign which was baring down on them, it’s massive bulk quickly filling the screen area. Just then, there seemed to be an explosion on her rear and the whole ship started listing to one side.

“Oh shit…GET US OUT OF HERE!”

Trandosha: Council of Elders

“You are all fools.” Hyossk hissed. “Each and every one of you! Just you wait…with the Sovereign under my control I will not only wipe out the Separatist but all of my opposition!”

There was a sudden large rumble and the ground shook a moment, knocking a couple of Counselors off their feet.

“What the hell was that?” Nitakk asked.

Shissa quickly accessed the radio news feed and patched it through to the audio system in the chamber. After a moment, the newscaster announced: As you many of you felt and heard a few minutes ago there was a large explosion in the sky. We have no definite details at this time but it seems the large ship that has been dominating our skyline for the past few days has exploded.

“What Sovereign?” Shissa asked, smirking.

Hyossk looked both stunned and lost. He mumbled incoherently for a moment before screaming. “You are all against me! All of you! I will prove to you who is in charge here!” He lifted his blaster and pointed it wildly at each of them. “Once you are all gone I will rebuild the Council, screw that…I’ll rule Trandosha myself. And you won’t be able to stop me!”

“Hyossk! Wait!” Shissa cried as he squeezed the trigger, but it was too late. Hyossk had forgotten about the force field that protected each of them and his shot ricochet off his own field and struck him instead. The maddened Councilor crumpled, never to get up again. For a few moments, the other Councilors could only blink in shock.

“Well…” One of them finally said to break the silence. “That was a…unique way of solving the problem…”

Trandosha: Council of Elders

The side effect of the Sovereign’s explosion had knocked Asri off her feet and she was only just getting to her senses when she heard what had happened: the guard she was chasing managing to slip away in the confusion. Growling in frustration she turned to just leave the building when she saw a familiar face.

“Boy kid…you look pretty messed up.” She said to Kysh as she approached him.

“I had a bad fall.” Kysh explained. “Aren’t you supposed to be pestering Besk?”

Asri smiled slyly. “Besk will no longer harm anyone kid. May his soul suffer for his crimes in life.”

Kysh smiled, then coughed violently. Her motherly instincts kicking in, Asri caught him as he collapsed. “You really shouldn’t be moving around…” She said.

“No choice…” Kysh said weakly. “Because of our treatment by the Sykir my sister and I are not likely to survive the day. We wanted to do as much as we can to help the Separatists…”

“Not to survive the day? Not if I can help it.” Asri hissed. “Where’s your sister?”

“In the vent shaft…that leads to the main Council chamber…”

With a nod, Asri picked him up and ran to the hallway out side of the Council chamber: she suddenly realized this was where that one guard saw her and he had been looking curiously into a vent grate before she showed up. Taking that as a hunch, she beelined for that particular vent. There, deep inside the vent, was another Trandoshan child: she looked worse off then Kysh did. “Oh great…how am I going to get her out of there?”

Sewers

Even underground the side effects of the Sovereign exploding was felt.

“What the heck was that?” One of the warriors said.

“Not positive…but I have a feeling a certain big ass ship no longer exists.” Rissonik said softly with a faint smile, looking at the ceiling.

“Oh good…we can leave this smelly place.” Another warrior said, who then nearly had a heart attack when the eye stalk of a dagboga poked out of the sewage to take a look at him.

Everyone had a good chuckle at that, save the warrior of course. Then a Keshir came tearing into the room, nearly knocking the warrior into the sewage in the process.

“Whoa there kid. What’s got your butt on fire?” Rissonik said.

“Sha’tor….” The Keshir said, panting. “The word on the street is that Hyossk is dead.”

Rissonik’s eyes widened. He knew Shissa was debating on arranging for a couple of Councilor’s deaths, but he wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon, let alone it be Hyossk himself. “How?” He asked.

“Accidentally killed himself while stupidly trying to kill the other Councilors in the main chamber is the confirmed news.” The Keshir explained. “They say he went mad just before doing so.”

“Hmm…it appears Councilor Shissa’s plan of questioning his actions worked far better then expected.”

“Rissonik does this mean this is finally over?” One of the supporters asked.

“At the very least it is a big step toward that goal my friend. Now Russis can take over in his father’s place, send word to the safe house that is concealing him.”

“At once Sha’tor.” The Keshir said with a bow, then dashed off again.

“We must exercise caution still.” Rissonik said to the rest of the group. “Just because Shissa was able to get the rest of the Council to turn against Hyossk doesn’t mean they will be fully willing to support our goals. We must feel the waters first.”

Space above Trandosha: Bloodfang

“Damage report?” Tiosk asked after the shockwave had passed them over.

“We were fortunate to be on the very edge of the effective range of the EMP wave Captain. No major systems malfunctions.” The comm. Officer said. “Hollow Tooth and Sharpsword have reported only a few system shut downs due to the EMP wave. No word on the Blackblade however, she seems dead in the water.”

“Not surprised…she was the closest ship to the Sovereign. Lets pull along side of her to see if we need to do a rescue.”

“Sir…if she did we have no shuttles to provide such a service. Plus we do not know how the rest of the Fleet will react now that the Admiral has been…blown up.”

“We will ask the Hollow Tooth and Sharp Sword to provide the shuttles.” Tiosk said. “As far as the rest of the Fleet…I doubt they will want to try anything with the Wookiees here in force now.”

“Wookiees…what Wookiees?”

Tiosk chuckled. “You’re sensor screen must be on the blitz lad, there’s a large number of ships by the moon Sykkh. The Triton is leading them.”

“The Triton…but how can it be possible for that ship to be repaired so soon…let alone mass a Fleet of it’s own?”

Tiosk shrugged. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned…never underestimate a Wookiee.”

Trandosha: Council of Elders

It took a bit of work, but Asri managed to get the girl out of the vent. Now the problem was to get them to a hospital. Not only will carrying two children be taxing at the very least, but her coloration will no doubt cause problems in on itself. Knowing she had no time to debate it, she coaxed Kysh onto her back and carried the girl in her arms as she ran as fast as she could. She managed to make it out of the building, but found her way blocked by a couple of spear welding warriors, who quickly pointed their weapons at her.

“Don’t know what you did to those kids…” One of the hissed. “But we aren’t going to let you harm them any more Akisi.”

“I didn’t do anything to them.” Asri protested. “I am trying to get them to medical help.”

“The word of an Akisi is next to worthless.” The other warrior said. “Put the kids down.”

Asri groaned, trying to think of a way out of this mess. They weren’t normal building guards from what she could tell, in fact, now that she studied them more closely, they were K’Satikur: one had a tattoo of the Clan symbol. She remembered something then, something that may be her only chance to convince them. To make it even more convincing, she spoke their language. “Yea get te boliovo mo.” She pleaded, in Clan Dialect. “I wus tho eno thut wurnod yea ef tho Sovereign.”

Both warriors were so shocked the took a step back. “H…how did you know our Clan Dialect.”

“My father was a K’Satikur.” Asri explained, quickly adding. “Who he was is not important, for he is dead now.”

“That’s for the Sha’tor to decide.” The first warrior said, more calmly. “And he is the only one that can confirm your claim or not, so you will come with us to see him.”

“He had sent us out to find that girl you are carrying.” The other added. “What happened to her?”

“I don’t know.” Asri said honestly. “I just know that if we don’t stop get both of them to a hospital they’ll die.”

“Very well then, we’ll escort you to ensure they are taken care of. Then you will come with us to see our Sha’tor.”

“Fair enough.” Asri said as one of them sheathed his weapon and took Kysh off her back.

Trandosha space: Blackblade

Balik opened his eyes to discover he had the mother of all headaches and felt the warm tickle of blood down one side of his head. The impact of the shockwave had knocked him out of his command chair and rendered him unconscious: looking around the now dark bridge he could see he wasn’t the only one that was knocked out: a few of the rest of the crew were only just rousing as he was. Sniffing the air he found it a bit stale, meaning life-support was knocked offline and out of the view screen he could see the sleek shape of another Rynok destroyer which looked quite beat up: he couldn’t tell off hand which ship it was.

“Damage report.” He commanded, albeit a little shakily.

“Most of our major systems, including life-support, have been knocked off line. It’s a wonder the artificial gravity hasn’t been knocked offline as well.”

“I can live without gravity.” Balik said, pulling himself up to his feet. “However we can’t live without air. Get that life-support system back online.”

“I believe the repair crew is already on that sir, but with the comm links down I cannot confirm from here, nor can I confirm any of the elevators are currently working.”

Just then the lights came back on and the low hum of the main engines coming back online could be heard. “That was fast.” One of the bridge crew said.

“Either that or we were unconscious for longer then we thought.” Balik said as he sat back down in his chair. “What’s the status of the Fleet?”

“Comm and sensors are still down sir, so I do not…”

“The remaining Fleet is in a bit of a disarray.” A voice interrupted. Balik whipped around to see Tiosk standing causally in the door. “Both due to what happened here and on the surface.”

“How did you get in here?” Balik asked, a little unnerved by the Separatists presence.

“It’s rather easy since your ship was completely disabled by the EMP wave.” Tiosk explained with a faint smile. “Since I knew your crew would most likely be knocked out of their senses I took the liberty to have some engineers from a couple of allied ships come over and help get you back up. Besides, I didn’t want someone to take the opportunity to knock off our new Admiral while he was taking a forced power nap.”

Balik narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t promote me just yet Tiosk.” He said. “In case you didn’t remember…I defected just before the Admiral met his untimely end, the rest of the Fleet may not accept me.”

Tiosk shrugged. “Point there, but as I said there’s a lot of confusion at the moment. While you were napping, we got word Hyossk is dead.”

The Vice Admiral blinked in shock. “Wha…”

“Old fool ended up killing himself attempting to kill off the other Councilors from what I heard.” Tiosk said with a chuckle, then turned dead serious. “We don’t have much control over what happens on the surface, but we do up here. We need someone to take control of the Fleet before the other Captains decide to start taking things into their own hands. The last thing we need is for a bunch of power hungry youths to start blasting each other in a rush to take control.”

Balik was about to say something, but his sensor officer interrupted by jumping back with a loud started yelp. “What’s wrong?” Balik asked.

“Sensor’s just came back up sir…” The shaken officer said. “And there’s Wookiee ships every where…”

“WHAT!?”

Tiosk quickly placed a firm hand on the startled Balik before he could make any rushed orders. “They are on our side.” He said firmly. “In fact some of those Wookiee’s are helping your engineers get this ship back on line right now.”

Balik looked understandably shocked. “Why are they helping us?”

“They are helping us because they believe in Naosha’s dream.” Tiosk explained. “And want our two species to work together. At least…these particular Wookiees.”

As if on cue, Tiosk’s mobile comm unit buzzed. “What is it?” He said after pressing a button on a control pad that activated the micromic he was wearing.

~Sir we are picking up a large number of hyperspace signals. ETA 30 mins. Preliminary IDs confirm they are Wookiee ships.~ He heard his comm officer say in the mini head phone in his ear hole.

Tiosk frowned. “Why don’t I like the sound of that? See if you can get in touch with the RedClaw and have them get back over here with Naosha. I have a feeling we may need her politician skills very soon.”

~Aye sir. You do realize the chances of them making it back here in time is next to impossible…~

“Yes I do, but we got to at least try.”

~Aye sir.~

Tiosk released the button and sighed. “Well I better get back to my ship. Something tells me we things are going to get very heated and tense.”

“What’s going on?” Balik asked.

“Another group of Wookiee ships is on the way, one I am almost positive won’t be friendly.” Tiosk explained. “The Wook that is in charge of the group here is not in good standing with his own people from what I heard.”

“So this is likely just between them. Why should we get involved?”

Tiosk gave him a look. “These Wookiees just risked their hides to help us when we have given them nothing but grief for the most part for generations. You tell me if we need to get involved.” Without waiting for him to answer, Tiosk turned and left, leaving Balik to make a difficult decision on his own.

Tissuss Orbit: RedClaw

“Are you sure this was from the Bloodfang?” Naosha asked.

“Quite positive.” Rista said. “I recognized the comm. lad that gave me the message and he didn’t sound like he was under duress. The problem though is that our hyperdrive decided to go out the moment we exited hyperspace. The engineers are working hard to get it back online, but from the sound of things we won’t have time to fix it and get you back there in time.”

“Very well then.” Naosha said with a sigh. “I’ll track down my daughter and ask her to take me in her ship, since it wouldn’t be feasible to transfer me to the Fanggore when she has a ship with hyperdrive abilities.”

“She should be in her room, at least that’s where she and Silliss said they were going.”

Naosha raised a brow. “Those two in the same room? Gods I hope we won’t be…interrupting…anything.”

Rista chuckled. “Tell you what. I’ll buzz them via intercom and tell her to meet you in the hanger. Both her ships are in hanger 3.”

“Thank you. I’ll head there now.”

***

She could only imagine this before, laying in the arms of someone you loved, enveloped in his warm embrace. Varcanna remembered when she used to be jealous of Trazu and his lifemate Tzosha, fearing she would never experience what he was. Now that the situation was reversed, she felt a little guilty and wondered if her brother would ever experience love again. As long as the K’Satizitus has that hold over him…no… She thought bitterly. There was nothing she could do to help her brother now though, so she pushed those negative thoughts away and forced herself to relax and enjoy the moment. Letting Silliss’ gentle caresses send little shivers up her spine…

~Varcanna. This is the Captain. Are you there?~

With a sigh Varcanna sat up, Silliss moaning in disappointment behind her, and pushed button the device by the bed. “Yeah I am here. What’s up mam?”

~There’s been an urgent request for your mother to return to Trandosha space as soon as possible from the Bloodfang. I don’t have any details other then that I am afraid. What I do know is that our hyperdrive is out for the count right now, thus the quickest way to get her back is using one of your ships. I told Naosha you would meet her in the hanger.~

“Must be something political that’s about to go down from the sound of it.” Varcanna said. “Good to hear the Bloodfang is still around.” She glanced back to see Silliss’ sigh of relief. “I’ll be down shortly.”

“I take it you want me to watch the kids?” Silliss said with a mild sigh, looking over at the four Trandoshan shaped lumps on the second bed.

“Please do.” Varcanna said, touching his nose with hers. She felt pleasant little shivers when Silliss leaned forward and licked her neck tenderly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I hope so.” Silliss said softly with a mischievous smile. “Things were just starting to get interesting in here.”

Trandosha: Council of Elders

Things in the main chamber were quiet while the body of Hyossk was carefully removed and remained so for a few more minutes. The remaining Councilors were at a bit of a loss, unsure what to do now: even Shissa was clueless, for Hyossk suddenly dying like this was not in her mental list of possibilities today.

“So now we are two Councilor’s short.” One of the other Councilors said finally, breaking the silence.

“Only until we locate Russis and have him assume his fathers position.” Shissa said.

“But he’s a rumored Separatist.” The other Councilor countered. “Who are still a matter to take care of.”

“Have you learned nothing from all this?” Shissa said. “At this stage it would be in our best interests to seriously take into consideration Nasoha’s suggestions.”

“We are in a bad state right now.” Nitakk added. “Our Fleet is badly depleted and last I heard the Fleet Admiral was on the Sovereign, which just blew up. This likely means the position of Fleet Admiral is open. Since Vice Admiral Balik was no doubt in the area when that thing went up it is questionable if he is still alive to take the position, meaning there are no doubt squabbles going on right now between the remaining officers in a bid to take those coveted positions.”

“In other words, we need to patch up the holes in our hierarchy first before making any serious moves.” One of the other Councilor’s conceded. “Makes sense to have some order before making any other decisions.”

“Well there is one I think we all can agree to make right now.” Shissa said. “Lift the Marshall Law status from our planet.”

“But that would allow the Separatist to continue their propaganda!” The first Councilor protested.

“The Sepatatists have done no harm to no one save for when defending themselves.” Shissa countered. “No doubt by now they have heard of Hyossk’s demise and adjust themselves accordingly, since it was he they were against most of all.”

“Adjust as in demand Naosha have her position back…”

“Well Hyossk was the one that ousted her.”

“You mean you agree with them!?”

“I agree only so far as that we need to seriously consider our position in the galaxy as a whole. The New Order, for instance, is constantly expanding it’s borders and it will be only a matter of time before they come here and turn us into slaves.”

“The Empire didn’t make us slaves last time they came to power. In fact we allied with them willingly and helped them.”

“But what did we get in return?” Shissa countered. “The New Order, like the Old Empire, only considers humans worthy of status and rights. The only other races that achieved any status with them are those that resemble them strongly and even those are extremely rare exceptions. The rest are nothing but tools, pawns to be used, abused and pushed to the side, if not destroyed, when their usefulness has run out: we might as well have been slaves.”

There were a few nervous glances. “So what should we do?” One Councilor spoke up.

“First we must fix the more immediate problems with our own people, fix as much damage Hyossk has done as we can. To do that we need Russis to assume his father’s position.” There were nods around the room, albeit some were somewhat hesitant. “Then we should reinstate Naosha to her position and listen to her ideas with an open mind. Granted it will be impossible to agree to go with all of her ideas, but I am sure a compromise can be reached.”

“That remains to be seen Shissa.” Another Councilor said. “I remember one of the suggestions Nasoha proposed…which was basically to give up hunting completely. Too many people will not go for that.”

“I do not know Naosha’s thought process, but I believe she was thinking more along the lines of changing what we hunt not to stop hunting completely. But that is something to discuss in the near future. We need to work from the top of the list, not the bottom: fixing the gaps in our leadership chain is top priority.”

Hospital

Asri hated the stares she was getting, feeling the daggers their eyes were no doubt stabbing into her back. Probably the only reason the hospital staff hadn’t called security on her was because of the two warriors and the kids she was with. Still, she felt very uncomfortable as the two warriors had Kysh and his sister admitted.

Finally one of them walked back to her and led her out of the place.

“My partner will stay with the kids to ensure no further harm comes to them.” He explained.

“Good. Those poor kids have been through a lot from the looks of things. I hope they make it.”

“Kids are resilient little pests.” The warrior said with a chuckle. “I’m sure they will be fine.” He then turned serious. “Let us make haste. Sha’tor Rissonik will want to know about the fate of those two.”

Asri nodded and followed him into an alley, where to her surprise and disgust he removed a sewer hold cover and jumped in.

“No I don’t like this either.” He said when he noted Asri’s expression. “But with Hyossk now dead, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Council lifted the Marshall Law order which would mean we should be able to return to the surface.”

“Hyossk’s dead?” Asri said, pleasantly surprised as she hesitantly climbed down, pulling the sewer cover back into place.

“Yes. I’m surprised you haven’t heard by now considering you were in the building at the time.”

“I was too busy avoiding and chasing guards and helping injured kids.” Asri said with a faint chuckle.

Space above Trandosha: Bloodfang

“Sir, the Wookiee Fleet will be arriving in 10 minutes.”

“I see. Any word from Naosha?” Tiosk said as he sat in his command chair.

“Aye sir. She should be arriving in the area on the Gory Teeth in 20 minutes.”

“Crap. That means we’ll be on our own in terms of keeping people from blasting each other for 10 minutes. Why isn’t the RedClaw itself coming?”

“From what they told us their hyperdrive died the moment they arrived at Tissuss. Must have been more badly damaged from the fight with the pirates then we thought.”

“And the Fanggore will stay by her side knowing those two.” Tiosk sighed. “What’s the status on the remaining T’Doshok Fleet?”

“Still in a bit of disarray sir, but it sounds like Balik is taking control of the situation. Hold on sir…” The comm. officer put a hand over the earphone. “Sir the Blackblade is hailing us.”

“Open a channel then.” After the officer nodded to go ahead Tiosk said. “This is Captain Tiosk of the Bloodfang. What’s up Admiral?”

~I told you not to promote me just yet Tiosk.~ Balik’s slightly annoyed voice replied. ~But never mind about that for the moment. I want you to get all your Wookiee friends in one spot, they are more likely to listen to you then me.~

“I can do that. They will be suspicious of your intentions though, sir.” Tiosk had to force himself to give Balik the proper respect for his rank, considering he had been slacking on that habit for a while now. “To be honest I can’t help but be weary of your request as well.”

~Understandable Tiosk. It is a risk I am taking, but I am ordering our ships to form a physical barrier between these Wookiees and the ones that are soon to arrive. It’s to show that we mean them no ill intent, for now, and that we are not going to let this arriving batch of Wookiees bring them harm.~

“That is risky Admiral. The other Wookiees may see it as us having captured them and act accordingly. You also are assuming they treat traitors the same way we do.”

~I am aware of that Tiosk, but what else can we do? From the sheer number of ships we detected that are coming there is no way we would win a battle against them in our current state. If we are to survive this day we need to have a non-violent solution and this is the only thing I can think of.~

“Better then nothing I suppose. I will make the request to the Wookiees to do as you suggested. I can’t make any promises.”

~Understood, Balik out.~

“Got a line open to the Triton sir, but it seems their Captain isn’t available.”

“What a time for Tzhali to disappear again.” Tiosk grumbled. “Is whoever in charge on the line?”

“Aye sir.”

“Good enough.” Tiosk got on the line and explained the situation to the Triton’s second-in-command.

~Why?~ The Wookiee responded. ~Forgive me Tiosk but that sounds awfully suspicious. It would be hard to believe the rest of the Trandoshan Fleet defected. It’s a miracle they didn’t start shooting at us by now.~

Probably due to the confusion that resulted from events that happened in the last hour or so. Tiosk thought but kept that to himself. “I understand your concerns, had them myself to be honest, but you likely already know the rest of your Fleet is on it’s way here and not likely to pat you on the back and tell you ‘good job’ either. You probably know of what their intentions are better then me, but what better way to show that my people are willing to change their ways by showing your Fleet we won’t let them harm you?”