On the planet Hurok, precisely twenty four hours after the meeting with the commander....
Mobus stood on the deck of the mon calamari cruiser
Harbinger, and gazed out at the stars surronding the planet. The taskforce had been called together in orbit over this world in preparation for their first and most important mission. Provided nothing went wrong, the military victory should be assured, and the stock market should begin it's process of healing. Already stocks were jetting up in the proper places thanks to the fleet manuevers, and parades displayed in front of the now security minded public. The taskforce consisted of the type ninety cruiser
Harbringer, which was the flagship of the taskforce, along with the Defender class star destroyer
Defender, the last ship of a powerful variety built by the former New Republic, and the two Tholatin class Star Destroyers,
Memory of Tholatin, and
Vondariach. The fleet boasted full crew complements, and full complement of starfighters, shuttles, and troops, not quite yet veterans, but at least up to the status level of novices thanks to all the previous drills and fleet manuevers. The fleet was currently holding orbit in diamond formation, with the fleet flagship in the lead, followed by the
Defender, with the other two Tholatin class ships in flanking positions. Mobus was preparing to take a shuttle down to the surface for one last meeting with the commander, and to discuss the battle plan with him, and also pick up the telecast crew that was coming along with them to telecast the battle back for the viewers. Mobus knew this last was a risky supposition, but felt it was needed to ensure fleet stability, and to assure the viewers that no attoricities were being comitted in the battle proper.
Sometime later, Mobus had landed on the planet, and was proceeding to the office of the commander. Once he had reached the office he chimed in the door bell and waited. He was not long in coming in, for the commander had been expecting him after all. They walked into the somewhat lush quarters of the commander, and came to what obviously was the dining quarters. Laid out on a table was a buffet of foods. The command glanced up to Mobus and smiled. "Mobus, welcome to my home. Come now, although I know you are anxious to carry on with this operation, you must be famished. Here, I have some Purkey Pot Roast, and some Dravy dressing, served up with some Golden Brown Discuits, finally with some sweet Dea to go with it all." beckoned the commander. "Good, it was been awhile since I have eaten. Thank you very much for your hospitality commander, I accept." said Mobus. With that the two Azguardians sat down and began to eat. Mobus selected a fine piece of Purkey, and poured some Dravy over it, and then selected a Discuit as a side, finally filling up a fine quartz glass with sweet iced Dea. Taking a sip of the Dea, Mobus relaxed, and sighed. The Commander looked up from his meal, and used a nipkin to wipe some food frothing around his lips. He smirked at the tired Mobus, and went back to his meal. Mobus began to wander with his thoughts, back home to his wife, and his children. It had been a couple of days since he had been away from them now, and would be at least another two weeks before he could see them again, because he would be away and involved in this military engagement, and the stock market reaction to it. He gradually pushed these thoughts out of his mind, and managed to finish his meal. It took him about an hour to do so, whereas at home he normally gobbeled up his food within five minutes. The commander had finished eating some time ago, and was patiently waiting for Mobus to finish. Seeing the counselor was done, the commander signaled for the cleaning droids to come. When their dished had been carted away, the commander pressed a button under the table. The top wooden section of the table splintered, and revealed a holotable beneath it.
"Now," began the commander, "The military target, as provided by you, is the planet of Loriare, which is located on the end of the Wild Space arm, near our homeworld cluster. The target is a world full of rich potential resources, and is in fact inhabited by humans that first came to the planet as miners to exploit these valuable resources. As of the start of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the population of the planet was about twenty five million people, mostly humans. As the invasion climaxed, the number soared to thirty five million as a result of refugees. But now the world is controlled by a renegade group of pirates who had enslaved or slaughtered much of the population. The pirates have begun a massive military upgrade, selling the planet's rare resources collected via slave labour of the remaining planet's population in exchange for military hardware. The most recent transaction took place recently as the pirates made their biggest purchase yet, buying one old Imperial Strike class cruisers, formerly heading to the scrap yards. The cruiser we believe has been refitted and is now the pirate's flagship. The rest of their fleet consists of some thirty ships, consisting mainly of picket ships or corvettes refitted for raiding duty. There are also some old escort frigates serving under their banner as well, most of them having fled the New Republic during the Yuuzhan Vong incursion into our galaxy. The ships are mostly in orbit over the planet, although some are sometimes out on patrol or raiding missions away from the planet proper. Our battle plan is to engage and eliminate the enemy fleet, mostly by disabling the vessels, we want to cause as minimal casualties on both sides as possible. Then we will negotiate the planet to join with us. Even if it doesn't, we will still supply with relief supplies needed to help along with the rebuilding of the planet, and the restoration of it's freedom, peace, and tranquility."
"Very good commander. The battle plan is hereby approved by me, and thus the council. Now, let us depart on our mission to the planet of Loraire. The ships will leave in one hour's time. We have that long to finish final plans, and to take the taskforce up to full readiness. Let's get moving." said Mobus.
Ten hours later, over the planet of Loraire.....
Shock Ou of the Zharingen pirate gang looked up from his evening meal. Today he was feasting on roasted carrion bird, one of several birds that were captured on a hutt supply ship in a raid executed by the modified picket ship
Nice Fury. The ship was an old IPV systems corvette, modified with addition laser cannons, and some troops with a docking collar. The ship had captured in addition to the birds a small hold full of ryll spice from Ryloth, not the best haul, not as rare as glitterstim, but rare enough for their purposes. The Ryll will be sold in a upcoming purchase to help by six old TIE fighters to help form a squadron that will serve on their brand new flagship, an old Imperial Strike cruiser. Recently having finished refitting, the ship now had some twenty turbolaser batteries, and twenty ion cannons, a very formidable ship as strong as the victory star destroyers of old. When they had first established this base as their new area of operations, Ou had been worried about inteference from the Galatic Coalition, which was based out of some weird hidden planets somewhere nearby. But as long as they have been active, Ou was no longer worried about it. The recent war between the Coalition, and the New Order convinced him of the weakness and inability of their military, being defeated decisively in several battles that reduced the overall size of their empire. Ou was now completley sure of their safety from the threat of the Coalition. That thought lasted about as long as it took for him to scoop the last bit of roasted carrion into his mouth. Then it was shattered by alarms ringing througout the bridge. Four large ships, presumably warships, had exited from hyperspace, and were on an approach vector to the planet. Ou ran into the war room, as he was captian of this ship, the escort frigate
Lavisar. There he saw what the threats were all about. One of the ships was instantly identified as a mon calamari war cruiser. Another was soon identified as a defender class star destroyer, a class of fearsome warship that Ou had thought were all wiped out from the New Republic in either the war with the Yuuzhang Vong, or the subsiquent wars with the Empire. In another few minutes of scouring the databases, the last two were identified as Tholatin class Star Destroyers, ships known to exist only within the spheres of the New Galatic Coalition, or the Black Dragon Empire, and Ou doubted the later would be all the way out here. His suspicions were confirmed when Coalition markings were found on the vessels. ID's also came up, and confirmed them as Coalition warships. Finally, a message came in from the largest of the ships, a mon calamari type ninety cruiser, identified as the
Harbringer.The message was from a man named Mobus, and warned of terrible destruction and carnage should the pirates stay to fight.
Having just finally assembled their new fleet, and not wanting to be crushed, the pirates decided to accept the words and warnings of Mobus, and leave the system. However, a few dissenters thought otherwise, and stayed behind to combat the New Galatic Coalition warships. One of those people was capitan Ou, who doubted the Coalitioners had the guts to take on his ships. He stayed behind with two old modified escort frigates, and one modified IPV systems picket craft, modified, the
Nice Fury. He ordered his starfighters to deploy for battle, some three incomplete squadrons of X-wings, and one complete squadron of TIE Interceptors. The starfighters streaked out of the hangar bays, and prepared to go to war with the enemy invaders. Ou quickly came up with a simple and straightford battle plan. All of his ships and starfighters would engage the Defender type destroyer, the vessel identified as having the weakest shields, and hull strengths. If they could destroy this vessel, the enemy troops might loose the stomach for the fight, and either flee, or better yet, mutiny against their commanders. He ordered his TIE Fighters and corvette to protect the other vessels from enemy threats while they converged upon and destroyed the enemy star destroyer. The fleet began to move forward, and Captian Ou realized that he may have just ordered his ships, and his men to their destruction and deaths......
On board the Harbringer
Conselour Mobus took a backseat to the events now happening as the commander leapt into action in order to deal with the enemy fleet. Starfighters were deployed to act as a screen for the capital ships, which would use thier ion cannons to first disable the enemy ships, and then would send in troops aboard shuttles to capture the enemy ships and their crews. The enemy starfighters would be taken out, but their starfighters were ordered to let any enemy who tried to flee to escape, and to try for disabling hits instead of precise kills. The less enemy pilots died, the better it would be for all. Mobus already had ideas of how to deal with the captured pirates and ships. Any naughty pirates would be sent to prison for about five to ten years depending on the crimes they comitted, while these ships with the good pirates would be recomissioned as part of a defense force to help protect the planet from future pirate raids. But that was in the future. For right now came the matter of the engagement. Mobus patiently waiting for the shooting to begin......
