Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche, Genon

Across the Confederation, the industry continued its inexorable march to defensive power. The Abhean yards were putting the finishing touches on the new Star Defender Swiftguard. Genon and Saleucami were raising the first legions of the Confederation’s new Clone Army. The quartet of primary factory worlds built swarms of starfighters, throngs of armored vehicles, and vast armies of battle droids. Gears of industry rotating for a single purpose: ultimate defensive power within a galaxy of strife. Maintaining a calm in the eye of the storm. And nowhere was this uneasy build-up best exemplified then at the incognito capitol world of the Contegorian Confederation: Genon.

A mammoth warship hung suspended over the mottled green and white world. A variety of Confederation starships ranging from Nebula-class Star Destroyers to the ubiquitous Shadowcasters arrayed themselves around the Revanche, forming a formidable screen around the flagship. Several hundred kilometers for the mass of vessels, Genon’s primary space station kept its geosynchrous orbit around Brandenburg; its repair yards reserving several vessels, its massive electromagnetic gun powered up to fire at the blink of an eye. Expansive energy sheaths, generated by the planetary shield generators, coalesced around the planet, and on the jungle surface, Protector-class Flak Towers vigilantly trained their weapons to the sky. In the heart of the Confederation Proper, it was easy to feel secure among the amassed forces rallied and lead by the Confederation’s military elite.

“Atten-hut!” bellowed a sergeant.

A squad of black-clad Kirkanian marines snapped to attention around the entrance to the Rear-Admiral’s quarters. Corise snapped his hand in what could have been a sloppy salute or wave to an unseen acquaintance. The Kashan man pulled out a silver cylinder from his tunic’s breast pocket and inserted it into a socket built in the door. It mutedly pinged: the doors slid open. The younger Lucerne ripped the rank cylinder from the door, and stepped into his argent quarters.

“Back again?” asked the Supreme Commander, blinking in surprise, “Three visits in one week?”

The woman wryly smiled. “Corise, there is much to deal with. You should know this better than most.”

He shrugged, walking over to the cabin’s wet bar. “They say ignorance is bliss. And right about now, I wish I could be ignorant. But what is it that brings you here?”

“Several ships registered to Confederation planets have been disappearing within the Mytaranor Sector. They’re small and civilian, but it could dampen trade within that region if the situation continues to escalate.”

Corise pulled out a crystal glass and a bourbon-coloured bottle from the marble cabinet. Mytaranor Sector. So directly to our West, coreward towards Coruscant. Let’s see, the area is most known as being the home of the Wookiees and Trandoshans. And…the Mytaranorian Slave Council. Slavers and pirates have some reign within the area. A brutally effective pirate gang could explain their disappearance. And it would be the most likely explanation given the lack of Imperial presence within the area… He popped the cork of the bottle of Cambrian Wine. Pivoting to face the Pro-Consul, he raised an empty glass.

“Care for some wine, madam?”

Christina frowned. “No, not exactly. I believe you’ve ranted before about officers drinking. Speaking of which, why exactly are you drinking now?”

He glanced at his chrono. “Because roughly twenty minutes ago, I relinquished command of the Fleet to Commodore Anarion, the Army to Field Marshal Trutzig, CSIS and Special Forces to Director Howe, and so forth. I’m on a week’s leave of absence for personal reasons.”

“Personal reasons?” questioned the brunette, arching an eyebrow.

“A short vacation,” explained the officer quietly, “it has been awhile since I have taken one.”

“Where to?”

“Dorounna; Alma’s resort moon,” stated Lucerne, “but for the sake of time, what would you have me do about those ship’s disappearance? You must realize that the Mytandor Sector is out of our jurisdiction. Any intrusion there would have political ramifications.”

“If concern for our citizen’s welfare and property doesn’t motivate us, political practicality must. At the very least, we must appear to be doing something even if it internationally impossible to do anything.”

Corise finished pouring his drink. “We launch a small pirate-hunting expedition to hunt and catch the pirates. It would appease the public. Best case we eliminate the source of the ships’ disappearance, worse case we eliminate some unwanted criminals.”

She frowned. “Wouldn’t that operation be outside of our jurisdiction?”

“It would be,” admitted the younger Lucerne, “but if pirates are the source of our disappearances, they’re likely attacking other people within the area. So we team up with a local authority in the area that does have international jurisdiction to hunt them down. Do we have any connections within the area?”

“Maybe,” replied the woman, “when we were in the Coalition, there was a group called Serendivus that operated in the area. I thought about approaching the early on during our time because of their proximity to us, but I never got the chance to meet any of their people.”

“Well,” mused Corise, “It could not hurt to try and get a contact with them. Even if just for intelligence reasons.”

She nodded. “What do you want me to say to them if we do establish contact?”

He shrugged. “Explain our situation to them. And ask for their help and permission in dealing with this…quandary. If possible, a joint task force combining our might and their intimate knowledge of the area would be ideal. The pirates wouldn’t be able to hide, nor would they be able to outgun the fleet.”

“And do you know that?”

“How many ships can outgun the Revanche? We could probably eliminate their entire fleet with this ship. Besides, it couldn’t hurt to establish an impression on Serendivus.”

She nodded. “I’ll get to it first thing once I get back to surface.”

Serendivus Flagship Cynax, temporary patrol duty along Kashyyyk/Confed border

Her ship moved gracefully across space; chasing a pirate destroyer that had crossed into Kashyyyk space and opened fire on their patrol fleet.

"They're stupid," one officer said as their battleship opened fire with four of its straffer turrets. Their beams easily cut through the destroyers shields, causing massive internal damage to the engineering section.

"Stupid they may be, but gutsy all the same," the ships XO said as relayed the orders being given by Lavality, who was standing at the forefront of the bridge.

Outside space was filled with enemy fighter craft that were effortlessly engaging her Reten fighters. She also saw the tale tall signs of four cloaked Sparrow Crescents that were engaging the destroyer utilizing the weapons they could fire while cloaked.

"Ma'am, shields are down," the sensor officer said. Lavality already knew that as she saw the effect just a few seconds before her officer said it.

Boarding pods from the fleets four marine frigates latched onto the massive destroyers, the marines aboard said pods began to cut through the hull and into the ship.

She watched as the destroyers navigator struggled to keep the ship moving, but then a few minutes later all resistance ceased as the destroyers engined died out, it's turbolaser batteries stopped firing.

Lavality could hear various combat chatter over her headset, most of it was stuff she wanted to hear, some was not:

~Bridge secured~
~... two dead... one crital~
~Fire control center is secured, four arrested~
~Found slave trade, seem's they are carrying documents of some kind as well, was a bloody mess getting here though, got eight dead and four critical~
~Fighter bays secured, found something the Grand Admiral might be interested in~

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, not wanting to hear anymore she informed her XO that she was heading to her quarters. She was feeling light headed as she walked into her quarters and collasped onto her bed. "Ever since that treatment back on Trandosha, I've been feeling lightheaded since..." she said.

In her mind she heard Kasyyyk say something. That's because the medicine is still coursing through your veins, it'll be a few before you'll be back in tip-top shape, Kasyyyk said. Just take it easy,

"psh.. easy for you to say.." Lavality grumbled as she got up and popped in two headache pills before heading back to the bridge.

What she saw was something that she was always amzed with. It was the reason she formed the elite guard, everyone knew what they were doing, she saw the marine transports ferrying marine's to and from the disabled destroyer.

She saw two nebulon-b medical frigates standing by to receive the injured, and she knew there had been a lot considering the number of shuttles constantly docking and undocking with both the destroyer and frigate.

However, she was also aware of fighting going on inside the destroyer as she could faintly hear the combat chatter coming from her headset that she had set down on her command chair.

"Let's just hope nothing more happens," Lavality said to her XO, who agreed. "I'd much rather inspect this ship and it's cargo, it's been heavily modified to carry more cargo than it was originally intended, according to the colonal in charge of the boarding party," the XO said.

"It's a pirate destroyer, old by our standards, wouldn't put up much of a fight against any of the newer hardware in this day and age, but the girls still fast," she said and then corrected herself. "Well, was fast I guess," she smiled.

"All enemy fighters have either been tractored into the carriers for arrest and interrogation, or destroyed," her communications officer said. Lavality nodded and watched as her fighter pilots took up various fighter patrol routes around the fleet.

She continued to watch, wondering if perhaps there was more to this than what meets the eye.

Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche, Kashyyyk System

Five lighter coloured starships emerged from the dark realm of hyperspace to flash into the Kashyyyk System. The lead ship was wedge-shaped, with a cluster of globous bulbs rising from the otherwise angular hull: the Interdictor Mk II Constellation. Several hundred meters directly behind was the Trojan, the Nebula-class Star Destroyer whose reputation continually rose within the fleet. Directly astern of that heavy cruiser was the battleship Revanche. Weapons blisters bulged across the organic-looking hull, all of them currently powered down, but clearly dangerous. On either side of the Confederation flagship drifted a Nebula-class Star Destroyer clad in the colours of the Confederation’s elite White Fleet. Around this squadron of vessels, flocks of Confederate stealth fighters fanned out about the ship, keeping vigilant watch about their home ships. They were in friendly territory, but one never knew what could occur, whether beneficial or detrimental.

Rear-Admiral stared out of the starry viewport, noting the celestial bodies of the Kashyyyk System. It was an unusual system to him, for there relatively few bodies within the system, but nearly all of them were inhabited. Towards the system’s sun, the younger Lucerne could make out a tiny prinprick of light: the lush, verdant world of Kashayyyk, known throughout the galaxy as the homeworld of the Wookiees. Closer to the Confederate squadron was Trandosha, homeworld of the Trandoshans. It was significantly closer, and with his naked eye, the Kashan man could peer through the planet’s atmosphere and pick out the continents from the cerulean sea. The Kashan man turned about to newly promoted Captain Fyre.

“We appear to have all arrived as planned,” stated Corise evenly.

An amused grin crept over Fyre’s face. “Really? I hadn’t noticed. But really, it all looks so pretty. So why are we here?”

Corise’s face wrinkled into a frown. “You didn’t read the briefing?”

“I did,” contended the younger man, “but usually we’re somewhere that’s less than paradise, say Jabiim or Valinor. That or we doing some boring talks…or too busy fighting to notice the beauty of the place.”

Lucerne blinked. “I have found that most places have their own type of beauty, their own type of feel. Even Jabiim has its high points. And you should be thankful that we’re not fighting…yet.”

“These means were negiogating with the natives? Wookiees right? That’s like going to arm-wrestling match. At least that will be entertaining…”

The Rear-Admiral remorsefully shook his head at the immature officer. “Try not to be too ignorant, captain. The Trandoshans also inhabit the system; a very tough and hardy species. I’m rather glad we’re not fighting against them, but joining them to fight against a common enemy.”

Fyre shrugged. “Suit yourself, but where exactly is this enemy?”

“Serendivius supposedly intercepted some of their ships which tried to raid the system. I doubt they’ll show up here again, but our best bet is to contact Serendivius themselves. They are in system. Communications, see if you can get me a holo-link with the Serendivus commanding officer in this system. I believe her name is Grand Admiral Lavality.”

“Yes sir.”

Lavality had just finished reading over a progress report given to her by the marine commander when her comm. unit buzzed. She placed the report aside and pressed a green button. "Yes? What is it bridge?" she spoke into the unit and released the bottom.

~Ma'am, sensor outpost three has picked up a splattering of ships on the system edge. They appear to be Confed, there's an unknown ship design amongst them though but from what we are told it's big.. we are also getting a communications request from this unknown ship, shall I patch it through?~ Communications said, the officer on the other end sounded professional, not a single ounce of nervousness or panic was in her voice.

Lavality blinked and stared out the window. It'd been awhile since she had seen anyone other than her allies, in fact, she hadn't even seen Rob Steller whom Merendez had talked to some time ago about construction to be done on the moon that orbited Trandosha.

She stared back at the comm. unit, then back outside. "How's are our defense fleets acting?"

~There is none, because they are outside the Kashyyyk and Trandoshan defense fleet's sensor range they can't see them, only our sensor outposts can, but I would bet that if they did see them they'd be worried...~ Communications said.

"I'd be worried to... I've heard of Confed technology, while we surpass them in cloaking capability... that's about it... hm... I don't want them to be aware of our sensor outposts that are present in the asteroid fields and nebulas so have them run silent," she ordered and got up from her chair.

She walked over to a coat rack and retrieved her admiral's coat. She quickly removed her Jedi robe and changed into something more appropriate for first contact situations. Once done she replaced the normal, plain, coat with the admiral's one and walked over to her chair.

A holo-cam floated off her desk and into the air. For several second's it stayed there before a bulb lit up.

She keyed in a sequence on a small pad before her computer displayed the transmission, she then opened it and spoke. "This is Grand Admiral Lavality of the Elite Temporal Guard assigned to temporary patrol of the Kashyyyk system. Please state your name and business," she said, she intentionally didn't mention her last name.

As she waited for a response the door to her office opened and a marine walked in and handed her another report. She clicked a button, which made it so she wouldn't transmite. "Hmmm... weapons.. armor... that's nothing new.." she said and continued to flip through the slate. She then got to the part that she assumed was the reason why the marine was partially grinning. "Slave Trade, no surprise there... but presence of unknown, possibly, confed technology?" her eyebrow arched slightly when she read that. She assumed that the one who had written the report was just assuming it was Confederation Technology since the ship was near Confed space.

"This has to be a coincidence if it is confed..." she spoke her thoughts a loud.

"Ma'am?" The marine confusingly asked.

"It's nothing, you may leave," she said. The marine saluted and left her office, she grumbled and placed the report down, "I'll have to deal with this after I figure out what the Confederation is doing here, I just hope they don't have evil intents..." she sighed and continued to wait.

Outside her office, beyond the viewport, Reten fighters flew combat space patrols; most of the pilots had been alerted to the arrival of the Confederation fleet and were taking extra precautions to make sure nothing unexpected happened.

Around the captured destroyer the speed at which it was being searched increased, its transports full of marines moved at a quicker pace, the arrest of the crew had been hastened.

Cyan haze from the lights beat down on the bridge crew, suffusing their every action in shades of electric blue. A subdued chatter broke out across the room as lower-ranking crewmen quietly worked at their stations. Some picked up sensor information and comparing it to their computerized charts. Others analyzed it. Comm specialists tuned some of the Revanche’s subspace transceivers to listen in on local communications. In the eye of this dull storm of activity, one man sat, waiting.

"This is Grand Admiral Lavality of the Elite Temporal Guard assigned to temporary patrol of the Kashyyyk system. Please state your name and business."

Corise tilted his head slightly downward as he heard the response. Odd. Pro-Consul Thorn said she had sent a message through the holo-net to them about our arrival. Perhaps it got lost or is taking a while to bounce through the network. Or one of the transmitter satellites is down. He sighed. Well, this will be…interesting. He cleared his throat and leaned in towards the holo-camera.

“This is Rear-Admiral Corise Lucerne, Supreme Commanding Officer of the Contegorian Confederation Military,” stated the Kashan officer precisely, “Pro-Consul Christina Thorn had sent a message to your…people about our arrival. Perhaps you will be able to retrieve that in your communication’s log. Put succinctly, we are seeking a gang of criminals who have attacked civilian shipping registered to our member planets. According to our records, they have been disappearing in this sector of space. We request permission from your government to search the surrounding space to find and eliminate these criminals and to rescue our crew and ships.”

He leaned back in his seat, awaiting the inevitable Serendivus response.

Lavality listened to the response and glanced to her left. A message? she thought as she went and pulled up the communications logs.

She scuried through the logs until she came across the message. No wonder I never received it.. half the message is corrupted.. she read what she could from the message and nodded.

One thing she was thankful about this alliance was that she had the voice of the governments, but only in regards to the space around thier worlds. She didn't have permission to grant Confed the rights to search the planets themselves, however she was thankful that they hadn't asked that or else she'd have quite a problem on her hands in convincing both governments to allow that type of a search.

"I understand you're request Rear-Admiral Corise Lucerne," she said over comms. "You have permission to search this sector of space and the surrounding planets, be aware that approuching either planet is forbidden, and that landing is equally not allowed without explicite permission from either government. At current my fleet is engaged in searching a pirate destroyer," she said and took a breath before continuing.

"It's possible this destroyer was used by this gang you speak of, as it was spotted entering this system via Confed Borders, we have found numerious prisoners and slaves on board. Because we lack any details on you're military we are unable to determine who is Confed and who isn't," she said and tapped a button.

"I'm sending you the coordinates of my fleets location," she was tempted to request that they come in with weapons offline but she knew better than that considering her own ships had their fully charged and ready in the event the pirates came back for their destroyer.

As she awaited thier response, she sent a message to her fleet informing the captains to keep their gunnery crews calm. She didn't want to risk a confrontation, plus she was still worried about the 'unknown' ship that was picked up.

"I'm going to have to yell at the intelligence division, they have no problems picking up on new Imperial and Coalition tech... but it seem's to me that in regards to Confederate technology they apperently have a very good counter intelligence division.." she said, sounding rather impressed. She clasped her hands and continued to wait, she kept a firm posture.

"Could you give me a minute or so to confer with my officers? Thank you kindly."

Corise tapped a button on his command chair, muting the noise of the Revanche's bridge to the Serendivus officer.

"A criminal destroyer coming from our border?" questioned the Kashan man incredously, "do we have any reports of one?"

"Negative sir," replied his communication's officer gravely, "it could be appeared to have come from us. Our borders don't quite touch with those of Serendivus. There's a no-man's land...er...space between us. That's probably where it come from."

Corise nodded. "And neither of us has apparently been keeping tabs on that area very well. Next chance we get, I want the sensor net periphery extended to include some of that area."

"Yes sir."

"Inform Captain Valeska that her ship will shortly be jumping over to rendezvous with the Serendivus fleet. She is to find out all she can about that pirate ship and work in concert with their fleet if any threat presents itself. Inform her about anything else she might need to know about."

"Aye sir."

The younger Lucerne turned back to face the holo-camera. He tapped the button again, unmuting his voice to the distant leader. His sapphire blue eyes stared at the alien.

"One of my ships, the CCS Trojan under Captain Valeska will be arriving shortly at the coordinates you have presented to us. If you will, we would like to inspect the pirate destroyer to gather any clues about it. If there is any Confederation technology or personnel onboard, she will be able to identify them for you. If there is, it wasn't authorized by the Confederation. My fleet will currently stand at the coordinates I'm transmitting to you pending the results of our inquiry. As well, if the pirates do show up again, we can trap them here with our Interdictor. Does that seem agreeable, Admiral?"

She smiled and nodded, "it is Admiral, I look forward to working with your officer, she'll have access to all cargo we've seized from the pirate destroyer as well," she said and unclasped her hands. I wonder if those ships we have in the dockyard are their's? Lavality wondered. Recalling that a few days ago one of her patrol fleets intercepted a rather large convoy entering the system, most of the ships were of unknown design, they hadn't done anything to those ships yet as they didn't looked to be of normal pirate origin.

Tapping a button to mute the audio and image she turned to her side. "Once that officer is here and done with her inspection, I might have to take her to the dockyard to see if any of those ships we've captured are Confederate..." she said.

She got up from her chair and walked over to the window. Staring out at her fleet she let out a sigh, "this is going to be an interesting day...."

Nebula-class Star Destroyer Trojan

"All right, everyone stay sharp," ordered the dark-haired woman, "for all we know this could be a test or a trap."

A series of acknowledgements reverberated throughout the bridge of the argent-clad star destroyer. While the Trojan was somewhat smaller than many ships of line fielded by the galactic powers, she was just as powerful in terms of weapons and defences. She even managed to cram in an Imperator's fighter wing into her slender hull despite being three-fourth's of the Imperial ship's size. Combined with a relatively cheap pricetag, the ships had all but supplanted the highly advanced Pegasus-class Star Destroyer as the main ships of line. She flashed into realspace, her white hull piercing into the dark space like a dagger.

"Report!"

"No-one is shooting at us. Everything looks clear. There is a cluster of ships where the coordinated indicate."

"Very good," stated the formery gunnery instructor, "Helm, take us to rendezvous with their ships, and particularly towards that captured destroyer."

"Aye ma'am."

"Sensors, record everything you can get here. And passive sensors only. We don't need them to know that we're somewhat snooping on them."

"Yes ma'am."

She paced towards the bridge viewport, eying the rapidly approaching pirate destroyer.

"See if you can arrange for one of our shuttles to land on that thing. I'll be going to meet them..."

"Ma'am, sensors are picking up a new contact," Cynas's sensor officer said to Lavality. After her communications with the Admiral for the Confederate, she had gone to the bridge to await the arrival of the officer he had sent.

"Good, permit them to join us under our defensive web," Lavality said, hands clasped over her chest. She watched the ship via the sensor grid, "interesting design, utilize covert scans. I want information on it, but I don't want them to be aware we are scanning," she ordered.

Two of her officers nodded and jumped to the task. "You realize that there is a strong chace they might scan us to right?" her XO said he glanced at the sensor contact before turning back to Lavality.

"Let them," she said. She got up from her chair and looked at her communications officer, "I want to talk to her before she begins her investigation, so send a request to their communications for her to meet on my ship," Lavality ordered and began for the door.

"Uhh.. ma'am.. you realize our hull is matte black right? The only thing that is making sure even be seen are our running lights and various hanger bays, but other than that where invisible to the naked eye," her communications officer asked nervously.

The young admiral smiled. "In that case, if your worried they'll ruin the paint job, send them a precise docking path, and engage the docking drones," she said and then left the bridge.

She walked down the corridor until she came to the main briefing room. The table had two sets of vase's each full of flowers. She had the normal, back aching chairs removed and replaced with something a bit more comfortable, well, except her own chair which 'was' already comfortable to begin with.

Having made the changes, she took a seat and waited for the officer to join her. "I wonder how she'll react to a teenage admiral," she grinned.