The Rebel Faction

There was little to see from that distance in the Jutraal system. They could make out the shapes of several ships, but then again there was no way to ID them without getting closer.

Jutraal stood peacefully however.

The two invisible warships continued their rounds, their swift sublight drives bringing them easily within spitting distance of Jutraal proper.

On the sensor boards, however, there was not a single blip. Well, aside from the metal monstrosities that were the Empire's shipyards.

"Right. What are we picking up?"

There was a pause as the sensor officer took a second look at his screen and shook his head.

"Not a thing. Just those," he indicated the shipyards.

"What about the ships we detected earlier?" The man just shook his head.

"The system is empty, Captain."

As the ships refused to move forward they noticed then that a squadron of TIEs was already en route toward them.

Meanwhile a salvo of blue ionic blasts were coming straight at them.

The Silencer XP-1 shuddered as the first of the ion blasts wracked across her hull. Only a few - they were not the target this afternoon. That honour fell to the larger Warrior Gunship.

"Liutenant, are Jutraalian warships firing on us?" The Captain asked, looking out the viewports as the larger ship took another blast.

"I believe they are, Captain."

There was a brief smile.

"Shields up, weapons online. Shut down all nonessential systems and boost power to the shields. They can't see us - yet - let's let them think they've got ut."

The ship shuddered as it appeared. Or rather, the cloaked dropped and revealed... nothing.

"Captain, sensors pick up a Star Destroyer, incoming vector. They're set for capture mode."

"Very good."

The ships shuddered again, more powerfully this time, as the tractor beams locked on and began to draw the Gunships into the hanger bay of the enemy craft.

"Prepare a reception party for the Jutraalians, then."

"Captain! Jutraalian troops are firing on us!"

There was a series of curses, and then, "Fire."

The last wash of ion fire had shut down half a dozen or more of the ship's systems, leaving her nearly immobilized. But the missile tubes were linked seperately, and had been defended, figurutively speaking, very well. They were, after all, the only offensive punch the ships really had.

The Gunship, inside the hanger bay of the Star Destroyer, lanced out with one bank of missiles. These warheads spread through the area, smashing bulkheads and elevators and starting a thousand fires around the bay.

Damage control teams would be quick to respond. But now there was a Gunship inside, laser turrets tracking now, if somewhat sluggishly, as alarms began to blast.

"Restart iniated. We should be back to full power in a matter of minutes."

"Very good. Make sure to point those laser cannons forward, and set them to stutter fire. That should keep the Jutraalians from attempting to get in."

The Captain watched in grim satisfaction as the Jutraalian soldiers fell. Not every missile had detonated, a few had fizzled out, circuits shot by the ion bombardment.

But the ones that did go off blew into the ship's hull, and the concussions they produced echoed through the bay, causing anyone outside the ship to collapse, some clutching at their eardrums that had been burst by the explosions, others unmoving.

"The racks are reloaded?" The Captain asked calmly, looking to the ship's XO.

"Aye, Captain. We've checked these ones, too. The warheads are all live."

A nod.

"And the top-side launcher, and the lasers?"

"The launcher is just coming online, the turbolasers are going through their start-up serquene now."

She nodded thougtfully.

"Fire two, then."

"Fire two, Captain."

The ship was silent a moment, and then another series of missiles shot from their racks and into the hanger bay. Two or three missiles detonated in a corner where TIE Fighter fuel cells had been stored, and the subsequent explosion rocked the Star Destroyer. The Gunship moved a little, scraping the steel floor of the hanger bay.

The heavy ordnance launcher had by now begun to track, searching for a target of note. It found it in the way of the ship's armoury, and two proton torpedoes on jets of blue flame shot across the hanger bay and detonated there, shattering that bulkhead and detonating a store of warheads that were to be loaded aboard starfighters.

"Prepare the ship for takeoff. And alert Commenor. The Jutraalians seem to have started a war."

The Twilight continued to fire, laser cannons keeping enemy soldiers pinned down, missiles detonating on an irregular basis against targets of oppertunity.