The Rebel Faction

Pegasus-class Star Destroyer Audacieuse, Karkaris System


The silver wedge plowed into realspace among the Karkis system. It's bright blue sun illuminated the star-studded void with an eerie cyan light. Just after the Kashan-built star destroyer entered the system, a smattering of smaller KDI built vessels reverted into realspace. Most of them were the tried and true Seraphs, but there were a few other oddball designs which very rarely had been seen out of the Fyre Sola system. On the bridge of the Confederation's former flagship, Captain Léandre Judicaël surveyed the emerging Kashan war fleet's appearance. The Steadfast and the Queen of the Colonies both listed a bit further to the port than he would have liked at a glance, but closer inspection of the data on his command chair indicated they were in acceptable margins of error per Confederate navy regulations. The commoner rubbed his chin. We used to be so much more precise back in the day. But I suppose back then, we were more reliant on technology and precise navigation back then than we are now. Still, maybe I 'll have to see if we can come up with some micro-jump practices while we're here...


“Captain Judicaël?”


The kashan man turned around to face two humans. Unlike the rest of the room's occupants, neither was dressed in Confederate naval blacks, but instead sported upscale civilian attire. Their only indication of their association with the government were a pair of golden Unitas pinned on their torsos. The shorter one, a middle-aged female with short cut red-gold hair, stepped forward towards the captain.


“Ambassador,” noted Léandre, with a curt nod, “how may I be of service?”


“Our guards tell us we are in system now. Is everything all right so far?”


He spared a quick glance at his command console, “Sensor have picked up some older warships orbiting the world, including a few older ones of CIS make, likely relics from when Karkaris was a member of the old Confederacy. Transponders say they are part of their local defense forces, but there are about a dozen bulk cruisers here as well. Nothing we can't handle, but it suggests there are some other players here as well. Perhaps some people more of your nature, Mr. Finnbar.”


The leaner gentleman behind sighed, “I do hope we're not too late to the bidding game.”


“I hope so too, if the rumors are to be believed,” agreed Ambasador Aidan.


“You mean the intelligence,” suggested the kashan man.


“Which I think is as good as rumors.”


“I see Ambassador,” noted Judicaël, turning his head to the side to glance out of the viewport, “but evidently the Councilors do not agree with your assessment.”


“Now now,” chided Mr. Finnbar, “if you two keep at it at this rate, I won't be able to effectively conduct my business. Captain, I'd appreciate it if you would have the hangar ready my transport down to the surface.”


Léandre nodded and began scrolling through the CSIS data on his holo-screens, “Interesting. Mr. Finnbar, Ambassador, just so you both are aware, but there appears to be a Jedi on the world below. One who also has an interest in your acquisition...”
 

As they walked towards the resort, the two Confederates eyed the sun's rays glanced off of the transparasteel facade of the complex. Suddenly, the glass in front of them shattered as a pair of speeders burst through the windows. Instinctively Ambassador Aidan clutched Finnbar, who half-fell to the ground. The pair tumbled as the whines of blaster fire pierced the air. Under the cover fire of his comrades, one of the cloaked humanoids in the wavespeeders tossed a multitude of cylinders at the gaping hole they had just inflicted on the resort. As the bombs clattered onto the duracrete patio, the Confederates saw a series of brief lights wildly flash on the grenades before they detonated into a swirling mixture of gases. Blaster fire streaming from inside the building slackened to a halt. The confederates both heard an unusual snap-hiss pop out from the building before a brown-robed alien wielding a green saber emerged from the noxious cloud of gases. The Aqualish Jedi casually sprinted towards the pursued, occasionally stopping to parry a blaster bolt back at its senders. One of the gun pods on the Enlightened Hope opened fire, lashing out at rapidly disappearing speeders. A column of smoke rose up from one of the speeders before the vehicle disappeared past the horizon and into the setting sun.


“What have they done,” whispered Aidan, scrambling to her feet, “Mister Finnbar, I'm so sorry. I didn't tell our people to shoot...”


Finnbar slowly got onto his own feet, “There's little we can do about it now. The gunner probably thought that he was aiding the Jedi there, a force for good. Let us just hope that the Jedi is one of their allies...”


“Are any of you hurt?” called out the Jedi, striding towards the confederates.


“Not I,” stated Finnbar plainly, glancing at the woman, “Ambassador?”


The red-haired woman shook her head, “Nothing serious.”


The wide-lidded eyes of the Jedi knight closed half-way as he eyed their Unitas pins, “You are the Confederates.”


“We are,” acknowledged Aidan, combing through her disheveled hair, “Jedi Knight Garmov, I presume? It is an honor to meet you...”


Glancing at the sunset, the Jedi flipped a switch on the hilt of his saber, deactivating it's luminous blade. The alien eyed the two of them curiously. Aidan half-expected to feel some sort of presence probing her mind, yet she felt nothing abnormal. A pair of Karkarodons clad in blue blast vests and wielding some sort of blaster rifle adapted to their webbed hands ran towards them. Even more terrifying in real life. The shark-headed humanoids turned their beady eyes to the Jedi.


“Did they escape?”


“Some of them did,” replied the Jedi, “the Confederates here shot one of the wavespeeders with a laser cannon on their transport. It is likely damaged. I imagine it couldn't have gone very far. I will organize a search party to find and detain the intruders, if your captain will allow it.”


“That won't be necessary,” growled a new voice, belonging to an approaching Karkarodon with a set of jagged scars running across his massive neck, “my people will handle it, Jedi. Ambassador Aidan, Mr. Finnbar, I see that you have arrived. You came just in time to see the whelps escape, the yellow-livered excuses of Karkarodons scamper off with it.”


Finnbar frowned, “Scamper off with what?”


“The process for how we make the Hydroid Medusas,” cursed the alien, “but we will find them. And when we do...well, none of you would think it polite to say in public as to what I and the Council will do to them...”


“Or perhaps to even think,” said the Jedi with a brief flutter of his eyelids, “I wish to talk with the two of you Confederates tonight before the auction tomorrow...”


“There will no auction yet, “grunted Tamson, waving his warriors to head back to the building, “nor will there be until the data is recovered or ensured to be destroyed. It would not be fair to the other bidders. Confederates, I wish to ask a favor of you, on behalf of our people's council.”


“What can we do for you, Chief Tamson?”


“Your warriors in space can ensure that no-one leaves this world with the plans. I will petition the council, they will give you the legal standing to search all starships attempting to leave the world. The data they copied, they stole, it cannot remain with them.”


The Jedi squinted his eyes, “You intend to give the Confederates the first of your latest batch in return, don't you? You cannot do this, Chief.”


“Did I give you permission to enter my mind, Jedi? Am I one to seek permission from you with what I will do with my world's treasures.”


“I did not,” replied the Aqualish, “but I already know you well enough to know that you are honorable and fair in your own way. But perhaps mistaken in the severity of your actions.”


“Do not preach to me, Jedi,” growled the karkarodon, “if Chief Willa did not honor you so much in the council, I would allow your presence here.”


“Let's not get too judgmental or hasty here,” suggested the red-haired ambassador, “None of us here want to see those weapons spread into the wrong hands.”


“Beings,” corrected the Jedi, “but I suppose you are right, in a certain sort of way. We must rout and fight the evil as best as we are able to at the present time. I will join your hunt tomorrow, Chief Tamson, if you will allow me. I apologize if I have offended you. I only want what is best for the peoples of the galaxy, including your own, Chief.”


The karkarodon grimaced, “We shall see, Jedi.”
 

Poseidon-class Walker Trident Two, Northern Hemisphere, Karkaris


Sergeant Riggs felt their giant saucer plunge through the night sky towards the world below, it's undersides burning white-hot under the friction. The repulsorlift's kicked in right before it splashed into the sea and sank towards the bottom. She fidgeted with the command console of the roughly crab-shaped vehicle. Flipping through various screens until she reached the desired camera that she wished to peer out of. She immediately frowned. Ugh. It's pitch black despite the sun still being up...Fiddling with the controls a little longer, she reached some sort of night vision mode that allowed her to watch their descent to the depths of Karkaris. Various fish and other sea-going creatures swam around her; many fled the strange object with its flashing running lights, yet some drew near the lights, including a colorful school of fish which pecked at the opaque glass-like material which covered the walker's entry pod. They soon left as the walker sank deeper into the sea. She felt them stop falling, yet it barely seemed noticeable. She glanced at another crewmember's screen, which noted that the deflector shields had successfully recalibrated to help the Poseidon withstand the crushing depths of the waters. The man looked at her expectantly.


“We're going to get eaten. I just know it. There's going to be a big fish, and then a bigger fish...”


Riggs spared a glance at the private, “And you were doing so well too. I'm going to be very tempted to toss you out the upper hatch just so you can confirm something's going to eat you at this rate. Ain't no use complaining about it now, you're here. Let's go people.”


One of the astromech droids tootled and released the outer covering of the disposable pod. The eight-legged walker strode onto the sea bed floor, it's legs stirring up minute clouds of fine sand into the water that almost went half-way up the walker's legs. Riggs briefly smiled. And nothing's wrong yet.


“Go ahead Saah, start our search grid. The rest of you, sensors, now. I'll keep an eye on things closer to home. Let's see if we can't find ourselves a terrorist base.”


“What about the processing plant?”


“You were want to check out that old place?” questioned Riggs, “you know fine, let's check out it since it isn't too far away, but don't expect much from an old, wrecked fishery station.”


“Yes sergeant, by the regs.”


Trident Two slowly scurried across the seabed floor, deftly climbing over small ridges and plowing its way through fields of sea weed. All the time, Sergeant Rigg's and her crew monitored the sensors of their transport. Sonar showed little save for schools of fish flashing by them or larger sea creatures drifting around the strange vehicle, trying to determine if it was a predator or prey. One of the largest fish any of them had ever seen rammed the side of the walker's dorsal hull. A series of quick light blaster bursts from the leg-mounted weapons lashed out at the fish and drove it away. Finally, the Confederate vehicle stumbled through some sort of a grove of some sort of kelp-related plants to the entrance of a great chasm which split the sea floor asunder.


“There it is,” murmured Riggs, pointing out a shadowy globe resting at the highest precipice in the underwater trench.


The walker crouched down and scuttled towards the abandoned fishery station. Strands and sections of metal mesh lay skewered across the floor, corroding away or spurting growths of colonizing organisms among them. Few fish traveled near the station, preferring to slither through the chasm beneath it or high above. Riggs checked the vehicle's DER's for any sort of energy signatures, but there was only a faint one, suggesting that most of the station remained unoccupied. The walker cautiously crept up the side of the slope.


“Shouldn't we be going where the fish are?”


Riggs shook her head, “We'll scare them off, and that'll make anyone in there suspicious about what's disturbing the wildlife. So it's best that we try to stay away from the wildlife in this case, I think. Since we're so low to the seaboard, it'll be hard to get a positive location because we'll blend in with the seaboard on their pings, especially if we keep our movement slow. We just have to be careful to try and keep our noise down.”


Nearly an hour passed before the walker finally reached the decrepit building, yet nothing had attacked them yet, nor were their any signs of occupation in the underwater complex. A blue-skinned multopo from New Hesiode banged his webbed hand on the cabin's door. Riggs stepped up and opened it up the alien. Lieutenant Icel stared at the human sergeant with his wide eyes.


“My troops and I are going to take a little swim to investigate this place, sergeant.”


“Yes sir. Would you like us to remain here, or should we explore the rest of the area.”


“Go explore it, but come back right to this very spot in a half hour.”


“Yes sir.”


Nodding, the multopo exited the room, allowing Sergeant Riggs to batten down the hatches. Once she had ascertained that both hatches had properly sealed, she pulled a pair of mechanical levers, allowing the troops inside the twin cargo holds of the vehicle to exit via the upper hatches into the oceans. She glanced at the dozens of multopos swimming into the decrepit station wielding sonic blasters and carrying bandoliers full of supplies and explosives. There they go, and here we come...
 

Poseidon-class Walker Trident Two, Northern Hemisphere, Karkaris


The walker clambered up the sea shelf towards the light shining above them. Minutes later, the vehicle had marched up the slope far enough that the vehicle was no longer submerged. Trident Two began its march onto the beach among a flurry of blaster bolts and war cries. Riggs spared a look below as hundreds of Chief Tamson's warriors surfaced from the water with the genetically enhanced Multopos of New Hesiode. Brief bursts of blaster fire echoed out from the rocky atoll at the Confederate soldiers. The dozens of light-repeating blasters on top of the walker's legs lashed out at the defender's positon, driving them back. Suddenly more heavy fire errupted from the tallest parts of the atoll. She winced as heavy laser fire tore at the vehicle's shields, which rippled with shades of blue to light greens. Since Trident Two had been equipped with a heat-dispersion secondardy shield, the damage had not been too intensive despite its high volume. More heavy weapons opened up from across the island. A battery of medium ion cannons opposite of the pillbox began to target the walkers, but Trident Three, equipped with an ion-resistant photon scatterind module, clambered forward to block the fire from hitting the other more vulnerable walkers. She winced. I'd say it's safe to say that someone was able to tip them off that we were coming...must have been that Jedi Knight. She shook her head form the thoughts to hear Private Elad screaming about incoming shell fire. Trident One, with its anti-concussion field activated, walked forward to soak oup the projectile fire better than the other walkers.


“We get the pillbox with the laser batteries,” decided Riggs.


The crab-like walker scrambled through the sandy dunes, wrecking havoc into the defender's lines by scrambling over the impromptu barriers raised by the rebels and drenching the immediate air around the walker with blaster fire. The walker's ball-mounted homing laser swathed through the more dense pockets of karkarodon fighters, incinerating them where they stood in their foxholes. A few opposing soldiers launched missiles at the walker, but Trident Two's light repeating blasters soon cut the missiles down in a torrent of blaster fire. The walker lurched forward into the stream of fire from the fortification. An ancient AAT emerged from the branches and fire at the vehicle at nearly point-blank range. The Poseidon promptly swung forward one of its massive claws, grasped the repulsorlift vehicle and drag it partway into the air before beginning to burn it away with a plasma jet. The tank's crew scrambled to get out, prompting Riggs to cease the plasma jet's operation. Despite the newly created hole in the tank, Riggs decided to spare the rest of the craft's destruction, and instead had the claw promptly discard it to the side of the walker.


A quartet of STAPs emerged from the trees, harassing the vehicle with a storm of blaster fire. They skittered around the walker, only ceasing their attack when the homing laser began to carefully destroy the armored vehicles with short bursts of energy. As the rebel vehicles retreated, the pillbox renewed its attack on the Confederate walker. Yet the vehicle still clambered forward towards the pillbox, its shielding slowly burning up under the concentrated attack. But then the walker had reached the pillox. Its claws grasped the barrels of the bunker's weaponry and forcefully rended them inoperable, while the homing laser began to bore away into the thick duracrete to provide a new entrance for the dozens of battle droids in the walker's holds. The walker had soon burried its way into the bunker and lowered its ramps, unleashing dozens of C1 battle droids directly into the bunker itself. Across the atoll, the walkers subdued the static defenses and released their complements of infantry onto the isalnd itself. Within hours, the rebels' base had fallen to the combined forces of the Confederation and Chief Tamson.