The Rebel Faction

An hour or so later, Frakutsk turned off the datapad and reflected on what he had just read. Apparently, this Asteroid Belt was home to a mildly reclusive insectoid species called Verpine. They were most renowned for their skills with technology and their method of communication.

According the the briefing, they communicated with eachother through radiowaves that were recieved through their antennae. These radiowaves could reach any and all of the Verpine, which allowed each one of them to speak with complete authority about the opinion of all the others.

Frakutsk nodded slightly and pushed open the cockpit of his spaceship to get out and make preperations for his journey. Unfortunatly, it was quite dark. Leaving would have to wait until tommorow.



It was the next day, and Frakutsk had made complete preperations and was now ready to depart for the Roche asteroid belt, which wasn't actually very far away. Unfortunatly, he still only had his malfunctioning spaceship to get him there.

Frakutsk shrugged and hopped into his personal ship. At least it worked, that was all that was needed. The sleek, silver body of the spaceship glinted in the sunlight as the ship took off at an amazing speed out of the planet's atmosphere.

And, just as the ship was about to enter space, it stopped. Frakutsk slouched and tapped his fingers boredly on the controls.

The rest of the journey proceeded similerly. Frakutsk constantly had to calculate and recalculate the astrogation, but, eventually, not, of course, without pestering from TARGET, he made it.

The coordinates in his briefing pointed to a medium-sized rock with a medium-sized ship on it. When he landed on the asteroid (not alltogether gracefully), two Mon-Calamarians, one young and one old, and an Azgaurd came to greet him.

"Ah, you have arrived!" said the young Mon-Calamarian happily.

"We've been having trouble finding these instects..." said the Azgaurd, getting right to the point.

The Mon-Calamarians shot the Azgaurd glares, but said nothing, waiting for Frakutsk to reply.

"Yesa..." said Frakutsk, nodding, "Mesa been told dat."

One Mon-Calamarian, the older one, spoke in a business-like tone, "Right", he said, the casual nature of the important greeting obviously desturbing him slightly, "I have detected radio-waves in these asteroids, but am unable to identify precisely which asteroid they are coming from. We are unable to communicate with the species through radio-waves due to a sort of language barrier."

This was interesting, since the Verpine were not at all reclusive enough not to speak galactic basic. In fact, they had been valued engineers for quite some time, though lately, Frakutsk had not seen very many at all. Most likely, they were unable to translate galactic basic into Verpine radio-waves, and the Mon-Calamarian was unable to translate Verpine radio-waves into galactic basic.

"I keep telling him-" began the young Mon-Calamarian, but the older one interrupted him.

"Rakebaz has been foolishly insisting that they probably inhabit some particular Asteroid for some reason. What he does not realize is that the chances of him finding one of the few asteroids on which the Verpine reside are very small indeed."

Frakutsk, not convinced, looked up. A smaller asteroid was flying toward a bigger one, but something deflected it away before it collided.

Frakutsk pointed, "Mesa be thinkin' they probly be inhabbitin' thatsa one."

The older Mon-Calamarian looked up and grunted, "Very well... We will meet there". He turned Around and, grumbling, went back to the ship.

Frakutsk definately heard him say to Rakebaz as they went off, "The Minister is more qualified to make such observations than you, young Rakebaz."

Several grasshopper-like beings were crowded around a large computer, surveying it with deep concentration.

The room was absolutely silent, though the green faces of the insectoids were quite expressive. Though they were incapable of frowning, their large eyes showed a concentrated concern.

Well, what is it?

This was the message that one of the Verpine broad casted with her sleek antennae.

It could just be space debris

Responded the Verpine next to her, understanding that she was concerned about the very slight signiture that was further away. She nodded and kept observing it.

That, however, is not space debris.

Sent a bigger Verpine, and the others around him nodded as they shifted their attention to the two approaching smaller vessles.

The wisened Xxikk suspects that they are foreign diplomats, and most others seem to agree that he is probably correct.

Contributed the fourth Verpine, who was the smallest of them and very smooth-skinned.

They all seemed to phase out for a moment as they discussed this matter with all other Verpine in the system.

Our fellows on the asteroid that the diplomats are approaching agree that they should welcome these foreigners in and see what they have to say. They are doing so now.

Sent the eldest and fifth of the Verpine who had gathered around the sensory computer. The others all nodded their approval.


The Verpine had spread to most of the large asteroids across the belt. The Coalition's data, which Dangar, the elder Mon Calamari, had refered to, was out of date.


Yudel, the Azgaurd, flew the Excellence, the diplomatic vessle that he and the Mon Calamari had come upon, to the Asteroid which Rakebaz had located. He trasmitted standard Coalition landing codes out of habit, and, to his suprise, they were received and returned with a docking procedure. Yudel followed the procedure and landed in a large crater on the barren asteroid.

A few minutes later, Yudel, Frakutsk, Rakebaz, and Wurden, the older Mon Calamri, were led silently into a room larger than most on the asteroid.

In the center of the room was a large, oval table with four chairs on one side. On the opposite side were four Verpine stood deep in conversation. As Frakutsk and the diplomats entered, one of the Verpine seemed to notice them and what must have been a friendly look spread across his face.

"Ah, Hello, the Verpine greet the Coalition's respresentatives."

The Verpine's voice lacked pitch of any sort, and therefore did not sound alltogether friendly. At first, Frakutsk was suprised both that the Verpine talked and that he knew they were from the Coalition. However, he responded politely regardless.

"Andsa da Coalition's representatives greet desa wise verpine."

Frakutsk did not actually know details of the diplomatic mission, for he had been assigned to help the diplomats make contact, not to conduct an entire operation. However, greatly to Frakutsk's releif, Wurden continued Frakutsk's greeting as the diplomats took the seats that were offered to them.

"We bring a gift that you will most undoubtedly find most useful"

Wurden handed a datapad to the Verpine closest to him and waited for the Verpine to review it. Wurden expected the Verpine to take at least a few moments to figure out what the Data-pad spoke of. But, instead, the Verpine showed it to his fellows, who seemed to understand instantly and were very interested.

The Verpine, however, were not a race to be easily impressed. And, after just a moment's pause, a different Verpine spoke.

"This gift is most generous and interesting. We do have a feeling, however, that there is more to your visit than this gift."

The Verpine, of course, was correct. Wurden had another datapad which contained the proposal to the Verpine to join the Coalition.

Frakutsk did not exactly like the way that this meeting was proceeding. The Verpine were, apparently, very direct in nature, and Frakutsk was worried that if the diplomatic team responded with the same directness, they would seem rude. After all, thought Frakutsk, this race has been living alone and happy for many years. Why would they want to give up their peaceful neutrality now?

Rakebaz was looking at Wurden, who was obviously troubled. He could either insist that further business could wait until later, which would be odd given the breifness of their meeting so far. Or, he could offer the Verpine the proposal right away, which, he feared, would be offensive.

Finnally, Wurden made up his mind and spoke.

"As you very well know, the New Galactic Coalition is an alliance of worlds with their own customs and government. An alliance built to preserve freedom and equality. The Coalition wishes to extend an offer to the Verpine."

The short speech sounded completely normal in the Mon Calamari dialect after the eerie Verpine had spoken. Frakutsk, of course, worried that the reverse was true to the Verpine's ears. The entire meeting had a distinct air of awkwardness about it.

Wurden handed the datapad to the Verpine, who again seemed to understand more quickly than normal. He gave a significant but anomalous look to his fellows.

"We will require time to consider this proposal."

Said a Verpine, simply. One of the grasshopper-like sentients led the diplomatic party back to their ship.

Frakutsk was concerned. Hopefully, it was a very generous gift that the Mon Calamari gave the Verpine, because, from Frakutsk's perspecitve, the chances of Roche joining the Coalition were very slim indeed.

"Sir?" Said Rakebaz, hesitantly.

Wurden responded, preocupied, "What?"

"We're... getting something over the comlink."

Wurden suddenly snapped to attention, "What?!"

Rakebaz just motioned to the communicator as Wurden quickly walked over and played the communication.

"Under Imperial Directive 644, signed this morning by his Lordship the Emperor Daemon Hyfe, the Roche Asteroid Field is henceforth under the protection of the New Order. All traffic in the sector hearby be subject to Imperial Rules of Passage.

"Failure to follow Imperial directives may result in the use of force."

Rakebaz had a look of utter horror on his face as the communication finished. "Those filthy, imperial..."

But he was interupted as Wurden signled with the ship's comm for Frakutsk to come over as soon as possible. It was no more than a few moments before the Jedi was there.

Frakutsk had already heard the communication, and as he entered, he stated the obvious, "Theysa can't do dat!"

Wurden, who was looking informationo over on a datapad, nodded, "Indeed, the Roche asteroid system has declared itself a neutral system, and the Coalition will protect it as such under foreign relations article 63."

Rakebaz pointed at the communicator again, "Uh, something else is coming in, Sir."

"Well, play it."

The toneless voice of a verpine sounded, "The Verpine of the Roche asteroid system greet the New Order, and regret that there seems to have been a mistake. The Roche asteroid system is inhabited by the neutral Verpine and will not be subject to unwanted foreign protection or Rules of Passage."

Rakebaz smirked, "You tell 'em."

Meanwhile, the verpine, well aware of the abilities and motives of The New Order, readied defences across the asteroid belt for deployment, after the usual hesitance to risk damaging their beautiful machinery. They did not, however, remotely want to fight.

In the control room of the ship, Frakutsk sat with his eyes closed. He allowed the force to flow through him, examining it as it did. After a few very long moments of meditation, Frakutsk reached out into the force, sensing for the Imperials.

There was still a definate group of people in space, waiting patiently for the moment to arise when it was best for them to take action. This was all Frakutsk needed to know.

Sighing, Frakutsk took out a holo-map and looked at the Roche system. It didn't take him more than a few moments to figure out that Roche was in the middle of an imortant Imperial supply line. Did the Central Intelligence Bureau know about this?

As minister of Peace, it was Frakutsk's job to negotiate Rights of Passage, peace treaties, that sort of thing. Frakutsk wondered if he would be overstepping his bounds to offer the Imperial's passage through the Roche system. No, probably not, he reasoned. After all, it was a very sensable course of action.

Frakutsk then wondered what the Imperial's reaction would be. Would they be content to continue using their supply line unimpaired? That woulden't be like them. It would become a question authority or pride. They would want complete control of the Roche asteroid system simply to prove their Imperial authority.

Nevertheless, it coulden't hurt to offer, could it? Frakutsk thought not. Something else, some other plan, would need to be devised. But this devising would need the cooperation of the Verpine... or something. Woulden't it?

Frakutsk considered, if the Verpine agreed to join the Coalition, and the Coalition offered passage to the Imperials, then what would the Imperials do? Frakutsk nodded to himself. Yes, the Imperial's only course of action would be to attack the Roche system and start a full scale war! They could continue using their supply line unhindered, and therefore would have nothing to complain about since the Roche asteroid belt would be as much a member of the Coalition as Mon Calamari, or Cerea, or any system.

Frakutsk flipped on the comm and punched a few buttone before speaking.

"Thesa New Order should know thatsa the Galactic Coalition grants full Rights of Passage in the Roche Asteroid System to the New Order as stated in the Galactic Coalition policy included with this transmission. Newsa Order vessles maysa pass though as theysa wish unhindered."

The only thing now remaining was for the Verpine to agree to the Galactic Coalition's offer. The Verpine needed to be smart, and Frakutsk knew that they were.