The Rebel Faction

:: Even though it was hours later, Keck was still fuming about the argument he had with Fitzgerald. The two had never seen eye on how an assault should be carried out. Sometimes Keck wondered if Fitzgerald disagreed with him for the sake of disagreeing. But none-the-less, it was over now, and that’s all that mattered to Keck at the moment. He was sure Jhoff would make the final decision, and neither Keck nor Fitzgerald would be happy about it. ::

:: Keck paced the command bridge of the Revenge, as if he were a howlrunner on the hunt. His glanced down at the men in the pit, each was doing his assigned job with pure focus. He could hear the clicking of keys from data entry, and the small side conversations of the officers. Keck did an about face when he approached the end of the command deck to begin his journey again. He turned around to see a lieutenant walking towards him. The lieutenant was several inches shorter than the Admiral and quite a few years younger. ::

Keck: What is it lieutenant?

Lieutenant: Sir, Grand Admiral Jhoff request that you report to his quarter immediately. He says it is pertinent to our next mission.

:: Without responding to the lieutenant, Keck made his way to the bridge’s turbolift. ::

**********

:: Minutes later, Keck was in Jhoff’s quarter, and already in a heated discussion with his superior. Keck was standing at the head of Jhoff’s desk, and Jhoff was spun around so Keck could only see his reflection in the transparisteel. ::

Keck: But Sir, are you sure it is best to take sides?

Jhoff: I am. But they will soon realize that we are not on anyone’s side and that we are they for our advancement only, not theirs.

Keck: As you wish Sir... Which Division will I have under my command for this mission?

Jhoff: I am giving you control over Division Three for the time being. And Admiral, I’d like you to know that Admiral Fitzgerald has been relieved of his duties, permanently.

Keck: That is most unfortunate to hear, sir.

Jhoff: He was a thorn in our sides, and would’ve held us back if he remained.

Keck: Has there been a replacement chosen yet?

Jhoff: No, none yet. There will be one by the time you return from Anobis. That is all Admiral, dismissed.

:: Almost mechanically, Keck snapped to attention, and about faced, and left the room. As Keck left Jhoff’s quarters, he mentally ran through the list ships that were available to him. The Revenge was one of the ships that he could use. There was also a Victory-Class Star Destroyer, with a full complement of ground assault vehicles, which would become very useful. There were a few other ships that wouldn’t add much to the assault, but could prove to be helpful in the long run. Keck made his way to the bridge to rally the fleet and prepare for their departure. ::

5 Days Later…

:: After 5 days of constant meetings and confirming the plans, Division Three of Shadow Armada was ready to move. Keck sat comfortable in his command chair on the Revenge’s bridge. With the finalization of their tactics, a weight had been taken off of Keck’s shoulders. Everything around him was running like chrono-work. The hum of the ship was soothing, and the air tasted the sweetest it had in weeks to him. ::

:: In the meeting, Jhoff, Keck and the commanders of the other ships had determined that there would be little to no naval resistance from the Anobis colonist. From what intelligence had dug up is that the mining caves and farming lands were littered with thermal detonators and would pose a great threat to ground troops. The explosives would also be likely to cause minor damage to All Terrain Assault Transport walkers, and possible destroy several All Terrain Scout Transport walkers. But they all viewed those as insignificant losses for what they were going to gain. ::

:: Keck’s musing was broken by a call from the crew pit. ::

Ensign: High Admiral, an incoming transmission for you from the Conqueror.

Keck: Thank you. I’ll take it in the Officer’s Conference Room.

Ensign: Aye sir.

:: Keck stood up from his chair and tugged on his uniform to straightened the wrinkles out of it. He walked past the Holonet transceiver and into the Officer’s Conference Room. He locked to door to make sure there would be not interruption to his conversation. As he sat down at the head of the long, polished metal table, the image of Line Captain Rosteck Julpa appeared at the center of the table. ::

:: Rosteck had served with Keck in the Old Republic Navy and ended up with the Shadow Armada when Keck had offered him the job. The two had been in many battles together, and it showed on Rostek’s face more so than Keck’s. Rosteck was a man well into his middle age, his face was wrinkled and acquiring a leathery look about it. His granite gray eyes could instill fear into the hearts of the enlisted men, but offer wisdom and guidance to the officer cadets. ::

Keck: What is it Rosteck?

Julpa: Marcus, is everything all right over there? We’re 15 minutes behind schedule.

Keck: (chuckling) Rosteck, you were always a stickler for staying a schedule. Everything is fine over here, our technicians were performing some last minute stress tests on our walkers.

Julpa: (slightly annoyed) Couldn’t that have waited until we made the jump to hyperspace?

Keck: Would you have liked to arrive at Anobis and realize you have inferior pieces of machinery in you assault force?

Julpa: Hmm... (thinking pause) I suppose you’re correct. I’ll have my technicians do the same. Give us a half hour.

Keck: Half hour granted. Contact us when you’re ready.

Julpa: Aye sir.

:: The image of Julpa faded and Keck left the Conference Room to return to the bridge. ::

45 minutes later…

:: Keck checked his chrono again. It had been close to fifty minutes since he’d signed off with Julpa. His concern was growing by the second. Finally, after another 5 minutes, Keck’s patients had reached its limit. He shouted to the communications officer as walked back to the Holonet transceiver. ::

Keck: Lieutenant, get me the Conqueror immediately.

Lieutenant: Aye sir.

:: Keck straighten his jacket as he prepared to unleash an ion cloud of fury on Julpa for putting them farther behind schedule than intended. As Julpa’s face came into, he began to speak, but was abruptly cut off by Keck. ::

Keck: (below shouting) Julpa, what is taking so long? You’ve been granted close to twice as much time as originally planned.

Julpa: There were imperfections found in the footpads of four of our AT-ATs, sir.

Keck: (with an edge) When were they discovered?

Julpa: About 10 minutes ago, sir.

:: Keck’s eyes practically leapt out of his head as he heard the words leave Julpa’s mouth. Keck ended the transmission, not wanted to waste his time shouting at Julpa for his ignorance. He stepped off the transceiver pad and began to walk off to the turbolift. Before getting on the lift, Keck turned to the lieutenant. ::

Keck: Inform the division that we will be delayed a week. That is all.

:: Keck huffed off before the lieutenant could give him an affirmative. Keck could see Julpa meeting with Grand Admiral Jhoff soon, very soon. ::

4 Days Later…

:: Keck stood on the floor of the Revenge’s hanger, overseeing the final stress tests on the new batch of AT-ATs. For the last week, Keck had been allowed to unwind while the replacement vehicles were constructed. A week hadn’t been long enough. Never the less, it was crunch time now. A technician walked over to Keck, with a datapad in hand, and a smile on his face. As he drew closer, the technician extended his arm and began to speak. ::

Technician: Sir, you’ll be glad know that the walkers passed all stress tests, with points to spare, I might add.

:: Keck gave a critical eye to data read outs. He finally nodded his head, pleased with the results. He handed the datapad back to the technician. ::

Keck: Excellent. Ships these over to the Conqueror and have them report to us when they’re ready.

:: The technician gave Keck a salute, for affirmation, Keck lazily returned the salute. The technician walked off, shouting to his men to load up the AT-ATs and prepare for departure. Keck left the hanger and returned to the bridge. Nothing was going to deal his assault this time. In the silence of his turbolift ride, Keck went over the timetable mentally. If everything worked correctly, the whole assault would be over in one week’s time. Keck arrived at the bridge, just as he finished reviewing the timetable, on last time. ::

:: When Keck stepped off the bridge, he could feel the crew’s anticipation. For most, this was their first really naval mission. As for the minority of the crewmembers, they were feeding off the eagerness of the others. The energy on the bridge pleased Keck, it showed his crew’s dedication to the Shadow Armada’s cause. As Keck made his way to the command deck, a crewmember noticed his presence, and immediately called the bridge to attention. ::

Ensign: High Admiral on the bridge!

:: Everyone stopped his respective tasks and conversations to salute Keck. Ever though everyone had stopped, the energy remained. Keck kept walking forward, to the communications station, while everyone was held at attention. ::

Keck: (softly) Carry on, men.

:: The energy level jumped as the crew became animated again. Keck looked down in the crew pit at the communications officer. ::

Lieutenant: Sir, the Conqueror has reported the AT-ATs are loaded and they are ready.

Keck: Open a channel to all ships lieutenant.

Lieutenant: Aye sir... Ready Admiral.

Keck: Ships of Shadow Armada, Division Three, report in and prepare for the jump to hyperspace.

Commander Miklon: The Conqueror, reporting in.

Voice One: Dread Four, reporting in.

Voice Two: Dread Five, reporting in.

Voice Three: Dread Six, reporting in.

Voice Four: Escort Carrier One, reporting in.

Voice Five: Escort Carrier Two, reporting in.

Keck: Make the jump to hyperspace on my mark... now.

:: Keck looked forward as the division made its jump. The points of light that the stars produced elongated in to lines, and then were over taken by the colors of hyperspace. ::

:: Keck checked his chrono again. 10 seconds from exiting hyperspace. He silently mouthed the remaining time; six… five… four… three… two… one… zero. He looked out the viewports to see the familiar black of space. The only predominate object in the viewports was the Anobis system. From their approach vector, Keck could see the whole system. Even with a class M1 sun, Anobis was the only inhabitable planet in the system. With a visual lock on Anobis, Keck headed for the hanger. ::

:: The whole of the fleet was ordered to stay in orbit of Anobis nearest neighbor while Keck when to Anobis, to “negotiate”. Keck piloted one of the Lambda-Class Shuttles himself. He was confident that he wouldn’t need to worry about being shot down. Even at full thrust, the trip was just over an hour. Keck passed the time by reviewing the latest intelligence reports. It was apparent that the miners were running behind in the armament race. As of late, the gunner smugglers had been selling more to the farmers. This puzzled Keck, where were the farmers getting their financial backing? As of yet, spy could see nothing that would indicate it was a person from off planet, but they couldn’t dispute it was on planer either. Keck put this in the back of mind, it was more important that he concentrate on atmospheric entry. ::

:: Keck and Harfin sat aboard the shuttle, talking over the vitals of the attack. Harfin mention of fifteen other mining townships, out of thirty-three, that would be interested in joining the assault. Keck showed great interest in the others joining. The more, the merrier. From what Keck could tell, Harfin had great influence in the mining communities, and Keck would have no problem making Harfin his political puppet. ::

:: The two men talked at great length, well into the dead of night. Keck negotiated with great eloquence, and got everything he had come for. Once the farmers had been suppressed, the miner would allow for the Shadow Armada to construct orbital shipyard and an on planet construction yard. In return, the Shadow Armada would protect Anobis from outside invaders and open up the miners to galactic trade. Little was Harfin aware, but Anobis wasn’t well known throughout the galaxy as he thought it was. It was still considered a backwater planet to most, which was exactly the reason Jhoff wanted it to host industrial facilities. ::

:: Keck allowed Harfin five days to inform the other townships leaders of the plans. Keck was confident that the others would follow blindly. If Keck knew anything about the people of the expansion regions, they were nerfs; give them a herder and they’ll follow you to the ends of the galaxy. Keck estimated the time it would take to complete the operation would be about four days. There were about thirty-six farming settlements, and Keck had enough assault vehicles to capture nine of those settlements a day, maybe even ten or eleven per day. ::

:: Keck returned to the fleet in orbit for the five days allotted to Harfin. Those days consisted of constant meetings, with the generals, creating a detailed timetable. The head strategist worked it our so twelve settlements could be taken a day. Intelligence agents assisted by providing detail topographical and political maps of Anobis, which proved to be very insightful. The borders of settlements were clearly defined, and the settlements weren’t dispersed as thought to be. The Old Republic had plans for nearly one hundred other settlements, but obviously Palpatine deemed Anobis as worthless, and let the colonists fend for themselves. Apparently, Palpatine didn’t see the mining and earning potential Anobis held. Fortunate, Jhoff took note of this, and was going to have Keck exploit it. ::

Anobis Assault: Day 4

:: Harfin’s updates continued regularly throughout days two and three of the assaults. They were beyond ahead of schedule by day four. On the final day of assaults, only five more settlements would need to be suppressed. As figurehead of Anobis’s miners, he had his power well cemented in place now. Keck was certain that within two weeks after the assaults ended, Harfin could be eliminated. Construction of facilities to secure the Armada’s power had already begun. Today, Keck was going to contact Grand Admiral Jhoff, to deliver an update and request droid construction teams to begin constructing the Armada’s production facilities. ::

:: Getting through the many transmission passwords and encryptions often irritated Keck. Jhoff was somewhat paranoid as it was, but more so during assaults. After an hour of work, Keck finally accessed the private communications channel to reach Jhoff. He assumed Jhoff was on his new flagship, Merciless, judging from the background, but he couldn’t be sure. ::

Jhoff: What do you have to report Keck?

Keck: Anobis will be under our total control within the next standard day. I have recruited, if you will, one of the miners into our ranks. Right now, he is overseeing the assaults. He holds power over all the mining communities, which is why I have him playing a large role in the assaults. But I assume you’ll want someone appoint someone within the Armada’s rank to deal with planetary control of Anobis. :: Jhoff gave a slight nod. :: So I have our intelligence agents preparing an assassination for two weeks from tomorrow.

Jhoff: That’s excellent to hear Admiral. Droid constructions crews will be arriving tomorrow. Fitzgerald’s replacement will be established as planetary governor of Anobis. You will return as soon as native political juggernut is killed and the new planetary governor is in place.

Two weeks later…

:: General Harfin sat quietly in his office on Anobis, finishing up the reports on the assaults that had been completed weeks earlier. Losses had been minimal, the only lost manpower, nothing big. A snap broke the silence, making Harfin jump slightly. He told himself it was just the durasteel expanding, and thought nothing of it. He got up from his desk to transmit the reports to the orbiting warships. With a sigh, he pressed the button sending them on their way. As he turned around to return to his desk, he heard another snap. This time the snap was accompanied by the sound of blaster fire. Harfin never saw the origin of the shot, or where it hit him. Harfin feel on to his knees and was dead before his head hit the floor. ::