The Clawcraft's strange TIE Interceptor-like form lined up perfectly with Daren's sights, the target indicator turning green indicating a clear shot. Grabbing down on the trigger of his yokestick, the XJ X-Wing suddenly pummeled the Chiss Clawcraft with with red, fleeting laser fire. The craft should have exploded, it should have tore into flames and been the end. But it was as if the Chiss could sense his movements, almist Jedi-like. The chiss dropped suddenly, spiraling downward in a perfect corkscrew. The pilot somehow manage to dodge a full wave of laserfire, approximately twelve well aimed shots.

And these are just the grunts!

Rogue Two swiftlyp ulled to Daren's starboard, watching for the next wave of hsotiles. So far the Rogues could only claim two Chiss kills. One by Daren obviously, the other by the now dead Lt. Wyker, or Rogue Seven.

"Two, you doing alright?" Daren asked, keeping his eyes on the battle.

"Roger One," Two responded.

"Attention all Rogues, this is OsSec Command, we are moving into full retreat, prepare to move with us," came the long expected call from the Ossus Military Structure. Even with the way the battle was turning, Daren felt appaled by the inherint lack of courage in the Parliment. He and Gash had survived Dantooine...could they not brave this? Daren flipped on open channels.

"Negative Command, we're fighting to the end," he replied. This seemed to send a shiver up Two's spine, but more out of excitement than fear.

"Neg that Major Treveland, order the withdrawl or relieve your command to Commander Rylteld. We cannot spare so many X-Wings."

The latter of the statement literally appaled the Rogue Squadron leader, and he buit hsard down on his lip. What about the pilots? What about the lives inside the X-Wings?

"With all due respect Command, go to hell," Daren yelled, and closed frequency to the Parliment. Did they have no pride? Would htey not rather fight to the end than tuck tail and run from their own capital? Something was wrong, Master Jiren would never order a retreat from his own capital for the sake of a few credits.

"You did the right thing sir," said Six, breaking the "silence".

"I hope so. Ok Rogue group fall into formation and let's give some fire support to the big ships."

"Here they come!" cried out Rogue Twelve. Daren gazed forward and noticed the sudden wave of Clawcraft pouring onto the XJ X-Wings. A lump formed in the Major's throat as he gazed at the picture of Raven wedged into his HUD. I love you Raven!

Then the two lines met with great ferocity. Green and red lasers tore into each other, srhjapnel flying out of control as Clawcraft and X-Wings alike split apart and flew away in mass. Daren refused to die, he had to see Raven again, and for every one of these Chiss @#%$ he killed, it was closer and closer he got to seeing her.

"I survived Dantooine, I will survive this!" he screamed as one of his torpedos ended the life of yet another Chiss and his fighter.

The OsSec speeder flew across the abandoned street, swerving to avoid the rubble and flaming debris littering it's path. Once, it had looked like the four-wheeled "automobiles" Gash had read about while studying ancient human cultures; now, it was a beast of a thing. It's roof had been torn off by the hasty soldiers who had refitted it, and the back window removed. The back seats had also been torn away, leaving an area for five soldiers to sit in--with full cover--while being transported. A single laser-minicannon had been welded onto the back of the speeder, close enough to the torn-apart cockpit to be manner from inside the small craft. N'iktal Jiren now controlled that weapon.

The squad Gash had been placed under was commanded by N'iktal, and consisted of a new set of troops; one Rodian, one Twi'Lek, two humans, and two Wookiees. Plus, of course, the two Asthentians, Gash and N'iktal. They made their way through the safe zone, a two-hundred meter pocket to the west of the headquarters, south of the Ossan Parliament Palace.

'Kriffing unbelievable...' Muttered N'iktal, cigarra hanging from the corner of his mouth. 'This all used to be cityscape. Now, it looks--'

"Like it did when I came here for the first time, a year and a half ago." Finished Gash, sitting a foot behind N'iktal in the hollowed-out passenger area. "Imagine how unbelievable this is for me, having built this place."

N'iktal glanced down at the sensor scope on his minicannon. 'Yeah.' He said, and a tense silence fell over the troops in the speeder. The Rodian and the Twi'Lek in the front of the craft, began to slow the speeder from it's breakneck pace.

The eventual destination of N'iktal's squad was supposed to be the battle to the west of the Ossan Parliament Palace, and the intact building therein with the active commlink. Gash had to contact Tellien; he had to. If any of them wanted to have a place to call home when the war was over, the Rogue Jedi Order fleet had to pull out.

But Gash hadn't thought they'd be slowing down. The Twi'Lek pushed open the door of the now-stopped speeder, jumping out and walking over to where Gash and the rest of the squad sat.

"Something wrong, Private?"

'Not with us, sir. But we just got a communique from headquarters--it seems that Arrix Stryker and the men retreating from the front lines of the Orilcia defensive have been ambushed by Chiss.'

N'iktal glanced warily at Gash, before asking, 'How many?'

'Around three hundred men, sir. They're pinned down.'

The younger Jiren pulled the cigarra out of his mouth, taking a moment to think, staring at his combat boots. After a moment, he looked up again. 'Your call, Gash.'

"Let's get them. The battle to the west isn't going anywhere."

The whine of a blaster errupted in the distance, and the left side--the side against which Gash was sitting--of the speeder errupted in flames. They were taking fire. A few more bolts danced across the ground around them. "Move it!"

'Yes sir!'

"N'iktal, fire-"

But the man had already begun to return the blaster fire with laser fire of his own. A barrage of laser blasts errupted from the minicannon as he turned it around to point it into the ruined building from where the blast had come.

And with a roar, the speeder set off towards Arrix's three hundred men.

"Mr Spret,

We have received some interesting reports from the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Redoubtable<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, the Armadia-class Thrustship we sent to investigate Ossus.They followed procedure and deployed an operative to the ground.He reported back severe fighting on the ground between Jedi....and blue-skinned warriors.It appears your claims were truthful and correct.The Council of Castes and I will now convene to discuss our actions.You are dismissed."

Yzan bowed respectively and spun on his heel and walked out.He simply couldn't beleive his luck.Hopefully, the Council of Castes and the Viceroy will agree with him that somthing must be done in the face of this new threat.He smiled slightly to himself on the way out.


_________________________________

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Council of Castes Chamber<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.

"Unfortunately, we must agree with Mr Spret that the Chiss are on the move.Although our sources on Csilla, the Chiss homeworld, have reported that the Chiss look down on offensive preemptory strikes.In short, it is odd that they would be attacking Ossus."

Counciler Greth spoked up. "And what of the Jedi?"

Jian glared at him coldly for a second before replying.

"It is their world.History suggests that Ossus may be the actually homeworld or spawnworld of the Jedi.Their order may have been created there.Therefore they are fighting to defend it.One in particular, Gash Jiren, the leader of the Rogue Jedi Order."

Greth looked skeptical. "Jiren is fighting personally?"

"According to Spret he is"

Counciler Yanth raised a hand. "So what will we do? devote our forces away from our spawnworld, help the vallant Rogue Jedi? the Chiss may attempt to strike at us."

Greth was quick to back up Yanth. "I vote no to help the Jedi"

Yanth voiced no as well.

At the end of the Votes it was 6 in favor of helping, and 6 not in favor.It was up to Jian to break the tie.

"It is my opinion as a military leader that somtimes first-strike acts could turn the tide of a potential war.Therefore I say it is our duty to eliminate an enemy that could turn on us.

I vote in favor of assisting the Jedi"

Yanth and Greth scowled as the meeting was rounded up.

Somehow, Jian throught, this was not over.

Ossus- Just outside Orilcia, Capital City, Tayrel District.


The Hapes Prince's swoop zoomed across the landscape at top speed. His two top aids howling across the lands at matching speeds. Kile Hannad, new trusted aid, and Kir Kanos, another aid and trusted guard pulled to his sides..

One blur of black, and twin crimson shadows mirroring it..

Kile Hannad yelled over the comm. "Coming up on the battle sir."

"I am aware, Hannad. Thank you, however. Ready for evasive action, we have walkers ahead."

After both former Imperial Royal Guards messaged their affirmative answers the after burners were thrown into action, the swoops jumping forward.

As the three approached the battle line, the began some of the most stylish swoop flying one could have ever seen. Narrowly avoiding being lanced by piercing hot bolts of hard light energy. AT-AT's streaming attacking beams towards them, ground troops also firing upon them.

Slavatio never put much stock in the force, up until he met one of his life-long friends some years back. Now, now he was trained in it.. using it as an ally. Even still, perhaps this time he had gotten himself into more trouble than he could manage to find his way out of.

Finally, and not without a sigh of relief, the three found their way into a less fighting dense part of the destroyed city. Locking their sensors, and also his own force power onto a specific person, they traveled at top speeds to intercept.

"Do we have comm yet?"

"I believe so, sir."

Tapping his mounted comm, he attempted to make contact.

"Gash... Gash Jiren.. you out there?"

"Barely--and that much depends on who's asking." Came the reply.

"Slavatio Isolder.. we are closing on your position."

"Isolder? Yeah. I'm out here. Heading to the east of the Ossan Parliament Palace--the center of Orilcia City to provide assistance to our comrades. Either get out, or get ready to fight, Isolder."

Making their way at top speed, the swoops did indeed close on the position of Gash Jiren. As they neared, Slavatio and his men flipped off of their swoops, Slavatio instantly drawing forth twin heavy modified repeater blasters, and his men drawing each a guardsman's glaive.

"Jiren... I am Slavatio.. my men and I are here to provide assistance, since we seemed to be trapped in the middle here anyway, as our ship was destroyed in orbit."

Chaos reigned in the battlefield.

Thirteen seconds before they fully entered the fray--a street, about nine-hundred meters long, with broken down buildings on both sides--a barrage of blue laserfire was shunted at Gash's speeder, the blasts glancing off the sides and front of the vehicle. Above, and all around, laser blasts poured down from the second stories of the broken buildings around, with scattered red bursts responding from the Rogue Jedi Order troops caught in the street.

The buildings on both sides of the street had, at one point, been large skyscrapers, which meant that enough large debris had fallen to provide sufficient cover for the RJO soldiers--miniature trenches. The speeder shook, it's integrity falling even as N'iktal returned as much fire as he could with the minicannon. From the looks of the the return fire, the minicannon was the largest weapon that RJO had--besides their own will and desparation.

With an erruption that shook Gash to the core, the front of the speeder--the portion which housed the engine--exploded into flames, tossing flaming metal debris in all directions. The speeder continued forward with it's momentum, slowly turning to the left. The soldiers held on tight, Gash calming his nerves with the Force. In an instant, the world began to spin, as the craft lurched over, the open top of the vehicle spilling Gash and the other's onto the debris-littered pavement below. The craft slid a few more meters before stopping.

Gash ground to a halt on the duracrete, immediately glancing about him. Blue blaster bolts poured in, bursting the road around him into flames. He stood, hand grasping his lightsaber, igniting the saphire blade. Around him, N'iktal and the others got to their feet more slowly, returning the fire pouring in at them. On all sides, the dead and wounded lay, with their comrades fighting on.

The lightsaber in Gash's hand darted towards his left leg, bending upwards and deflecting a blaster bolt back to it's origin. He reversed his momentum, swinging the saber around to block a shot high, then at his chest, then low again. N'iktal rushed toward him, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the fallen speeder. There, the forward viewport was stained with crimson blood. The two knelt beside the speeder, covered from the fire pouring in on one side. The other soldiers who had ridden with them joined the Asthentian pair.

'Privates Becka'nilek and Treeo are still in the speeder!' Shouted N'iktal over the din of incoming fire, raising his blaster and shooting back. 'Gash! Can you cut them out?'

"I can try!" Shouted back Gash, crab-walking his way over to the speeder. It was turned on it's side, so the roof faced him. Gingerly, he thrust his lightsaber into the durasteel surface, pulling it in a square pattern to cut a full-sized opening in the speeder. With a cough and a sputter, the Twi'Lek, Becka'nilek, crawled from the thing.

'Thank you, sir!' He said. He was covered in blood, but the relatively few cuts on his body meant that it was not his own.

Gash grimaced. "Treeo?"

'Dead, sir. A blaster bolt got him before we crashed.'

N'iktal crawled over, nodding. 'Alright!' He shouted, blue blaster bolts still pouring in from all sides. 'We have to get to cover!' He pointed fifty meters away, where two huge pieces of debris had fallen to create a makeshift, triangular shelter, from which numerous read blaster bolts were pouring. 'Gash! Help me move Jiilanhacca!'

The two glanced over to the Wookiee, who's leg was covered in blood--either injured in the crash, or from the enemy fire since. Neither would have been surprising. Gash got under one furry arm, while N'iktal got under the other, and they hoisted him to his feet with a Wookiee wail of protest.

"Move it!" Shouted Gash. The group sprinted toward the fallen duracrete slabs, the trench formed approximately ten meters tall. Fire danced all around them, Gash using his one free hand to deflect several blaster bolts with his lightsaber. When they reached the fallen debris, they dropped to their hands and knees, crawling into the three-foot high hole.

Inside, the scene was dubious, at best. Several wounded soldiers lay in the darkness of the shelter, the rest manning the small openings in the rock to fire out. None stood--the shelter was barely high enough to allow an ewok to stand, nevermind a taller being. The roar of blaster bolts errupting on the shelter and all around it was barely decreased.

Several of the blaster-toting soldiers turned toward him, quickly saluting and turning away when they realized who he was. At the largest opening on the opposite side of the way they'd come in, was Arrix Stryker, shouting hurried orders. Gash crawled over, shutting his lightsaber off and glancing out the massive opening. Ten or twelve soldiers had their blasters pointed out of it, firing upwards. In the distance, further down the street, three Swoop vehicles flew into view, traversing the street quickly enough to evade enemy fire.

"Arrix!" Shouted Gash, yet still above the roar of blaster discharge. "What's the situation?"

<font color=gray>Arrix Stryker stood there, amidst the chaos and anarchy. He was shouting orders, returning fire, and making decisions at the same time. He had a bandage on his wrist and one on his forehead. As soon as Gash spoke, Arrix recognized him.</font>

"Arrix! What's the situation?"

<font color=gray>Arrix quickly ran over to the Rogue Jedi Master and one time leader of the RJO Navy. Dodging the laser bolts and wounded men. He gave a quick salute and spoke before Gash could tell him not to salute him anymore.</font>

"The situation? We more than half of the men wounded, fifty dead. We have, at an estimate, thirty Chiss up in the second stories of skyscrapers. That may not be much but we can't hit them with all of that debris covering them as they attack. We've been lucky to hold out for this long. In other words, we've got no chance unless we get some men up in those buildings."

<font color=gray>Arrix had been plotting to do that for quite some time, but he decided he would wait until Gash got here. Partly because he wasn't sure Gash would approve. And partly because if Gash did approve, he would want to be with the men in the buildings.</font>

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> N'zoth<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> A storm was gathering.But unlike most storms,which are comprised of wind,dirt and debris, this one was made entirly of durasteel.Cold hard ships of steel...ready to complete their mission<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.

"Is the fleet ready?"

"Yes sir.We are ready to go into hyperspace."

"Excellent.Enter hyperspace...now"

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> The stars claimed the Yevethan Fleet, only to give them up hours later.

___________________________________________

Ossus

The Yevethan Fleet exited hyperspace just outside of the Ossus system.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

The bridge of theChimera II was filled with none of the bustle a vessel in combat should have been enduring. Thrawn sat silently in his command chair, his assistants quietly flipping through files on datacards or performing other such menial tasks. Nothing suggested that the ship was in the midst of a massive battle, except the combat outside the viewports.

Thrawn simply sat, passive, smiling. The Rogue Jedi Order ships were retreating; approximately half the enemy vessels remained intact. Mostly the larger ships. A large percentage of the smaller vessels lay as dead waste now orbitting Ossus' twin stars. They would be back; of that, the Grand Admiral was confident. The commander of their fleet was not in charge--this much Thrawn was certain of, for he himself had recieved the film recounting Jiren's ejection from his own faction--and this commander would likely not disobey orders. As Thrawn had stated earlier, the Ossans favoured planning above all other things, and the orders of the Rogue Order Fleet had clearly been to stand their ground.

While, on the ground, chaos reigned. The impenitrable line of siege craft blocked entrance in and out of the city; a decision which would be questioned by the military council which ruled the Chiss Imperium. Thrawn cared not.

Now, in that ground battle in Orilcia, reason, plan, and tactics had been stripped away from the Ossan defenders. They fought only with instinct and animosity--with their most basic intellects.

And by seeing what lay at the core of the Rogue Jedi Order psyche, Thrawn would know what it was he would face when he assaulted a prepared, ready enemy.

Yes... Thrawn thought, How sad it would be for Admiral Jiren to learn that the battle in which he fights so vehemently is nothing more than a charade; a controlled experiment. It will end when it needs to. None will escape Orilcia. Thrawn's thought processes slowed, and the smile on his blue face broadened. And how sad it will be for the Empire to learn of their own unfortunate losses in this mission...

One of the communications officers broke the silence of the bridge. 'Sir, we have... a lot of contacts at the edge of the system... I'm not sure I recognize their transponder signals.'

"They're not allies, I assume."

'None we know about.'

"Then we will treat them as enemies. If they jumped in to the edge of the system, they are tentative and unsure; yet if they entered the system with so many vessels, they know there is a battle here."

'I'm not sure I follow your thinking, sir.' Spoke Captain Heirel. 'That's a fair assumption, but how does it apply to actual tactics?'

"Because, Heirel. These are not allies that the Ossan commander summoned. These are simply those somehow caught in the struggle; perhaps they learned of my leading this strike. It doesn't matter. Send several vessels with communications scrambling technology at approximately the center point between the Rogue Jedi Order fleet and this new group. Have them jam all comm channels in that area. Two unco-ordinated enemies are far less difficult to defeat than one."

'Yes, sir.'

"Following that, send several Claw Star Destroyers to fire on them. Keep them far away from the Rogue ships."

'Done.'

The captain of the Advanced Thrustship Jian was standing on turned to him.

"Sir we have several enemy contacts breaking off and moving to intercept.ETA...2 minutes"

"Excellent.And the dropships?"

"Cloaked and ready."

"Good.Engage the enemy"

The Yevethan fleet spead out into the Beta formation.WIth the smaller thrustships out in front and the larger Advanced Thrustships behind.

The enemy ships were unsusual to say the least.They looked like the Chiss Clawcraft...but had a Star Destroyer frame.

Now those same ships were engaging the Yevetha.

Very Odd indeed.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Corran's little group in the battlefield was holding there own but slowly numbers began to press against them. SUddenly off to his right a speeder exploded. Then he saw it. A lightsaber flash. That was when Corran realized that he'd been concentrating too much on the battle and not on the force. When he opened himself up to the force it was like a rush of cool air. That was whren he sensed them. Gash and Arrix. Gash had just gotten here in the speeder Corran decided and Arrix must have already been here.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
"Move off to the right to that group of soldiers. Master Jiren another jedi are there." he yelled
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Slowly a portion of his troops began to move over to where COrran pointed dragging along the wounded while the rest of the troops layed down a covering fire. But it wasn't enough there was to many wounded and Corran's skill with TK was nil. Then he saw the blaster bolts flying around in the air. Reaching deep into the force Corran prepared to call on a force power that he was unusually gifted with besides matters of the mind. He was going to try to absorb the energy of one of the blaster bolts. THis was a much larger scale that any other energy absorbation he's tried before but Corran was sure it would work. He saw his target a blaster bolt that would go right beside him. Tentavily he reached out a hand to intercept the bolt. When the bolt struck his hand corran winced from the pain that he was sure he was about to receive. But it never hurt. Corran had absorbed the energy succesfully! Quickly he grabbed a hold of the remaining wounded and floated them a foot in the air. Then he ran towards the rest of his troops and followed them over to Gash's and Arrix's troops. When he got there he neatly deposited his wounded with the rest of the wounded and ran over to where Gash and Arrix appeared to be in conversation. Slightly out of breath when he reached them he managed to stand up straight and salute them.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->
"Corran Horn here. I have 15 troops and 20 wounded. My troops are already spread out among your troops and my wounded are with your wounded. What are your orders?"