*...After watching Montague leave, Vinda turned to look at the beast in front of him...and sighed slightly...*

"...just me and you then..."

*..A small lurch forward indicated that the ship had just entered Hyperspace, with a small step forward to steady himself Vinda gestured for the Creature to join him on the Bridge...*

(On all fours Par Khai followed the coporote henchman. He sniffed the air as he walked, mumbling to himself in a language Seth didn't comprehend.)

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Four Days later...<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->





*...Vinda made his way to the bridge, he was glad to have had the rest , a comms alert had warned that the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Nostromo<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> had just come out of Hyperspace...Vinda checked his chrono...and winced slightly...*

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> ..this "expedition" is starting to get time-consuming...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

*..As he Walked onto the bridge, the doors slid aside, and the noise of the command centre once again filled his ears...Vinda was starting to get weary of it....
Looking up he caught sight of Omar, looking slightly uncomfortable as the Massassi warrior was already there next to him, observing over his shoulder...
Omar noticed Vinda, and looked more relieved because of it...bowing a little, he spoke, somewhat subdued...*

"we have arrived quite a bit outside the Hoth system, sir.."

*..Vinda nodded sharply, and took his seat...Glancing over to the Massassi , Vinda spoke...*

"...what do you have in mind?..."

With the twenty Dreadnaughts just finishing completion, Rear Admiral Vislek was quite pleased with his miniature fleet. The crews around him jokingly called it the "Wannabe Katana Fleet", and he would often smile at the bright hearted humor. Amidst the asteroid belt there, the last two Dreadnaughts finished their tests and drew themselves back toward the shipyard, awaiting the several fighters which would be loaded onto the Rogue Imperial capital ships.

Though it was an older model, the Dreadnaughts proved to be quite well done at space superiority rolls, especially against other old craft such as the Victory Star Destroyer. Smaller craft, like that of the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial cache, were also targets prey of the Dreadnaughts ulterior might. Of course it was quite obvious a Dreadnaught, or even five, could not hold its own against an Imperial Star Destroyer or the more modern craft about. Sadly, Vislek had never been around the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> big<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> warships before, and only had he seen the smaller warcraft stationed at the not quite so important bases. Like Pier 104 on Yaga Minor, or Eagle Eye Station's few Carrack Cruisers. Once or twice he'd had the priveladge of seeing a Victory Star Destroyer, but never in action, and never had he seen ships of that caliber for more than a moment.

However now that had all changed as the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Imperial<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->-Class Star Destroyer <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Liberi<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> lingered itself past the shipyard. It was a beautiful sight to see, truly showing the majesty and glory that the Rogue Empire portrayed. He felt as if it was a priveladge to stare upon the great, wedged warship, and indeed in a way...it was. The <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Liberi<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> had been named after the man who took Hoth Four over for the Rogue Empire, Chris Liberi, who had found his fate in a black hole after a tragic attempt of fleeing from the New Alliance.

"Sir," reported Lieutenant Commander Wilkins. Vislek spun on his heels to the man standing at attention and nodded. "As per the emperor's request, we have loaded the assault transports and some of the Dreadnaughts with cloning cylinders and the required clones that were requested."

"Including that of Admiral Wyldan?" Vislek wondered, hoping that in a way they could ressurect the slain admiral.

"Aye sir, we have his clone aboard too."

He peered back out into the blackness of space, expecting to see nothing but the asteroid belt and twinkling stars as usual. However, his sensors proved otherwise. There was a small bleeping of a Code Blue alarm, meaning there were potential hostiles in the area. The <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Liberi<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> had been positioned at Hoth after the Phantom Pirate attack, to keep out any others who tried to steal the precious cloning technology and ended up slaying the Snake clone in the process.

"We'll be alright," he said to himself, stroking his wedding ring. "What kind of ships are we expecting?"

"We don't know yet sir," responded Lt. Commander Wilkins after speaking to one of the helmsmen. "The asteroid belt is blocking any clean sensor readouts."

"I see...get ready and bring the fighters into a close perimeter."

If someone wanted a fight...a fight they'd get.

"Activate the Gencore," he suddenly demanded. It was built there shortly after the pirate attack to keep out any who tried to entered the base there. A good forty thousand soldiers were allocated there as well. The shield was then activated...and any who tried to enter the base on Hoth would have quite the time. Of course...there was no need to panic...what if it was just a smuggler fleeing from Rogue Imperial forces? Still...that chance couldn't be taken.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> ... 2 Hours later...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->


*..Vinda sat on the bridge and observed onscreen, it was impossible from this distance to tell the difference between the planet and the stars that surrounded it...Vinda raised his hand , a signal for Omar....*

"is everything set?..."

"..Yes sir waiting for your word..."

*..Vinda flicked open the comms, and alerted the Massassi, he responded in kind indicating his readiness..*

"..whats our status in regards to their defensive capabilities?..."

*Omar shifted slightly, as he read off of the data-screen...*

"...we cannot get a reading, and...in all likelyhood,vice versa, there appears to be interference blocking readings to our long range scanners...plus we're both too far out of range anyway.."

*Vinda nodded listening...*

"..good, how about the pod?..is it prepared?.."

"...yes sir, all identity markings have been removed, its untraceable..."

*Vinda paused in thought for a moment, then turned to face Omar, his voice calm....*

"..launch..."


*One simple command initiated the chain of events...

The unmarked Escape Pod was launched from its moorings for the direction of Hoth....

...and Vinda-Corp's small band of Ships lurched away in the opposite direction of the pod, into Hyperspace,

and disappeared in an instant...*

The Dreadnaughts, who had been on alert, seemed to cease their actions of hostility as the abnormal blips on the radar curved away. But then..what if they were those Vong creatures that Rashnak and Siather had reported?

"We cannot go down on alert, put us on yellow!" cried Visalek, and the persons were quick to comply. The turbo lasers had been fully powered, and the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Liberi<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> wedged itself in front of the asteroid field.

There was a short and brief comms relay. "Attention, we have a meteorite inbound for Hoth, repeat, inbound inbound. They are closing at one one three decimal four six, no, make that seven."

"What is it?" Visalek wondered as he watched it move swiftly through the field of debris and space rock. <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Is it Vong or otherwise?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

"Sir it could just be a meteorite, let's let it go," one of the helmsman said, and immediately Visalek turned with an icey glare.

"You FOOL!" he roared angrily. "A meteorite is what cost the rebellion the Battle of Hoth! I will not suffer for your stupidity, aim at that pod and fire as fast as you can and as accurate as you can...get soldiers on high alert on the ground, and see if you can't get some TIE Defenders inbound."

"A-A-Aye sir," the helmsman said. Immediately...the TIEs were off, and turbo lasers smeered straight forward at the pod from nearly every craft in the area.


OOC Gimme' one good damn reason it ain't it.

(The pod immediatly was breached. The gases inside ignited instantly and the pod exploded, the excriment contained inside bruning rapidly in a brillant corusca of fire.)
(Par Khai couldn't see it, but he imagined that the Rogue Imperial forces celebrated in the destruction of a Vinda Corporation escape pod.)
(During the large barage of fire, Par Khai had smoothly piloted his Dinafet Cruiser to the back of the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Liberi<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> and magnetized his lower hull. He had deactivated the physical cloak... it was not nescessary, as this particular place, however he would be sure to turn it on once the Dreadnaughts began rotation. His sensor jamming suite was active and running, as well as his weapons systems charged, albeit lightly. The ship emitted no sound and little heat... what was visible was obscured by the sensor jamming bubble aurrounding his ship. He would wait until the ship passed the mine field, and should they show any signs of other intentions, they would be seperated from their rapt embrace, and the cloaked cruiser would drift in on the wake of one of the Dreadnaughts.)
(Which reminded him, they were going to turn. He activated the cloak and dissapeared into the night.)

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Hyperspace<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> ...En Route to Capricia...<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->




*..Vinda rubbed his eyes, as they were beginning to get sore, he watched the stars fly past the view-port of his ready-room...they had been travelling for four days straight, and that was just from the slight "detour" the party had encountered...loosening his tie slightly, he sighed as he checked his Chrono...*

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> ...Time....never enough time....<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

*..After hearing about Ahnk's demise, Vinda had been thinking about his own mortality, about which he was all too aware of..
..he stared absently into the streaks letting himself go...

...as if slipping into a trance...he closed his eyes and sunk back into his chair....reaching out into the force....the only way he knew how...

..he exhaled loudly as he felt it coarse through him, like a wave...

and a cluster of images flashed before him...
His brow furrowed, as what he saw disturbed him..

..an unidentified planet ,no , planets!, under attack...

...explosions, screams of terror...

...A figure with two heads...

... an apparition of Ahnk, standing in a blaze of fire...

...the face of a Caprician...

Vinda gasped silently, and opened his eyes, as the images faded as quickly as they arrived...
Getting up from his chair, Vinda opened a small drawer in his desk, and took out a small bottle of Scotch...filling a glass, Vinda sipped it slowly as he considered about the significance of what he had just experienced....
A comms alert bought him out of his thoughts, it was Omar...*

"...Go ahead..."

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "..Sir, just to inform you , we are making good progress, we should be catching up with the Core fleet in no time at all..."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

*..Vinda sat back down as he listened to Omar...*

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "..also, we have recieved the transmitted data from the pod we launched towards Hoth..."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

(Vinda's ears seemed to prick up)

"ahh, excellent, have you reviewed the data?..."

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "...yes Sir, they did exactly what we expected..the pod was destroyed..."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

*Vinda paused for a moment in thought before continuing...*

"..of course ...was there any chance they intercepted the data?..."

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> "..Not a chance Sir, the data shows they didn't even scan it!, besides even if they had done, it was heavily encrypted , it would make no sense to them.."<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

*Vinda smiled a little...*

"..Good, create some duplicate copies, it might shed some light on their defenses...should we ever need it...
.... you never know Omar....you never know...."

*Vinda de-activated the comms, and relaxed into his chair...and continued to watch the universe fly by outside....*



<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> ...lets hope we won't....<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

The entire fleet was oblivious to the oncoming pod. It was being piloted by a ressurected Massassi, and if it somehow reached the planet....they would have some serious issues. But none of them knew that as the cloaked Dinafet made its way from the asteroid field toward the planet. With a mixture of hundreds of mines and several thousand asteroids, it was quite a difficulty trying to stay on course even for a human, it must have been nearly impossible for this poor Massassi.

Impossible it was, as due to his lack of complete Human intelligance, it was unable to stay directly on course, and bumped into one of the asteroids. This sent small sparks and chunks of matter soaring through the space, and the mines were immediately activated. Hundreds of red laser blasts tore left and right, some scoring hits on the cloaked Dinafet, others just crushing asteroids.

The Dreadnaughts were immediately reactivated, and seeing nothing...turned on the gamma radiation sensors...they had a good general idea of where the Massassi was now.