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[Khyron Overmind]

The Admiral was seated all the way back in his chair, while the agile Storm was taking him to the edge of the system where the MoD and the 1AF Fleets were assembling for their newest campaign. He started his detachment of the last hours and started to focus on the mission to come. He had met with his senior officers and they had assembled a plan in order to locate the "hostiles", as they were known right now. Calling them Imperials would not be appropriate, and calling them the enemy would mean that they had declared war, which they had not.

(OOC: Will continue later... Personnel of the aforementioned Fleets, feel free to post here and link your posts with the storyline)

[Khyron Overmind]

The flight to rendez-vous with the Fleets was short, as the shuttles agile engines were able to catch up with the departing Fleet without any problems. The Fleets were able to jump closer to the capital planet, but they had chosen to move to the edge of the system in order to spread themselves into attack formation when they were out of the view for most observers. Besides, the farther from the planet they jumped, the more difficult would be for someone to take a reading on their hyperdrive signatures and try to track their destination. Not that it mattered if they succeeding at it, as they were not making the direct route and the Fleets would separate into Lines and take different approach routes to their final destination.

[Khyron Overmind]

The shuttle arrived to the rendez-vous point and the pilot, Commander Tavros, slowed it down to enter the hangar bay. Moments later, the repulsor-lifts put the shuttle on the tarmac, while the ramp was lowered down. The Admiral walked down the ramp to meet with a senior officer.

"Sir, Admiral Sarriak is waiting for you in the bridge."

"Thanks. I will meet him there momentarily."

Once in the bridge, they greeted each other. It seemed like they were going into battle once more. They had shared many adventures in the past and they were confident in the abilities of the other one in order to bring this expedition to a full success.

Admiral Sarriak gave him the recent updates. All ships were ready. There had been minor glitches with the supplies for some ships, but the loadmasters managed to divert surplus cargo from other ships to the affected ones and every ship was able to depart with their full load.

Both Fleets, the MoD and the 1AF, were in total comm blackout. No message was to be sent from any of the ships without the approval of the respective captain.

The countdown for the departure finally reached zero and the ships started the jump to hyperspace. The first one to jump was the Avenger, leading the deployment, as usual. While the last one was the Belerofonte. From the Belerofonte's bridge, the show of watching two Fleets jump to hyperspace was priceless.

Once the jump was completed, there were several hours until the first reversion to normal space in order to change courses and split. However, only the captain of each ship knew the final destination: Lashbone in the Abrion Sector. That was the last place where the hostiles had appeared. And that was the natural point for the start of the chase. However, the Fleets were not going to show up in the Sector, but they were to remain outside it, gathering information, undetected. A smaller unit would go into the planet to search for clues. It was evident that the hostiles had some sort of ground intel, as the analysis of the attack performed by the Military Analysis Department had shown.

[Khyron Overmind]

They had scheduled a meeting with the Wing COs in the pilots' briefing room 1. They would go into some of the details of the patrols they were to take once they exited hyperspace in their final destination. Well, final destination for the trip that was, as it would really be the starting point for the chase.

MAD suspected that the hostiles had established a base in the Outer Rim, somewhere outside the detection networks that the IR had established for its borders. The previous searches since the MOD Gala had shown nothing so far, but then again, the searches were not conducted on a massive way, but just with limited resources in order not to bring this issue to the public eye. However, with the attack in Lashbone, everthing was out in the open. Granted, it would probably take a while for the Core worlds to get the news, but eventually they would.

Bringing two Fleets the size of the MOD and the 1AF was giving them a very good chance to find them. It would be a long job but both men were confident that they would be able to reduce any impact on the IR planets and their citizens.

[Khyron Overmind]

Lieutenant (jg) Johnson was resting on his bed, one of the twenty four of the room. Being a new adition to the Avenger Fighter complement kept him on the edge. He had been a graduated pilot for slightly over a year now and he had proven his superiors that he had the right stuff to be one of the best pilots. That is why he had been granted a promotion and a transfer to the Avenger. That itself was one of the highest recognitions a fighter pilot could receive. The Avenger Fighter Complement was composed by an elite group of pilots, collected from the different units of the Imperial Republic Navy.

Despite the fact that he was a top pilot, he was the rookie to this group of veteran pilots, who were stationed in the Avenger for more than six months, at least. That meant that he had to train harder than all of them in order to catch up. Even though he was tired, he could not sleep at all. He had been transfered to the Avenger a week ago, and he was already on his first deployment with the MOD Fleet.

There were a lot of rumors about the nature of the mission, from the dullest ones, to the most amazing tales of approaching adventures. But as far as he was concerned, nobody knew the real details of the mission. Probably it would take a while until they all find out. No matter what, Johnson was sure that was something big. Otherwise there would be no comm blackout.

[Jenna Deirdre]

Jenna gave the bottom of her tunic a tug, forcing the wrinkles out. Tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, she entered one of the dormitories assigned to the Avenger pilots. Here, she spotted one of the newer members of the Wing, one Lieutenant Johnson. She walked up to him, and sat down on the bed next to his.
"Hey there, Johnson." She nodded to him. "I'm Lieutenant Deirdre, although you could call me Jenna. It's easier than mangling my surname."
"Hello, there." He replied briefly, taking a glance over at her. What he saw was typical for a Navy officer. Olive Drab uniform, hair tightly bound, medium-athletic build. What caught his eye, however, was the thin gold braid interwoven with silver trailing from her right epaulet to the top centre of her right chest pocket, signifying that she was not only a pilot, but a squadron CO.
"Ma...Ma`am." He spluttered as he started to rise.
"No need to get up." Jenna told him, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him from rising and making a scene. "I'm pretty lax about regs, at least amongst pilots. As I said, I'm Jenna Deirdre, CO of Wolf Squadron, one of seven such squadrons attached to the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing. There are seven squadrons of fighters onboard the Avenger: Striker, commanded by Cmdr. Halcyon, Bane, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Bey`wulff, Talon, commanded by Lt. Moore, Pulsar, commanded by Lt. Sandwalker, Nova, commanded by Lt. Derr, Diamond, commanded by Lt. McGreggor, and Wolf, commanded by yours truly. Any questions? No? Good. Duty rosters are posted in each squad bay every week. Squad bays are basically the squadron homes, where the pilots of each squadron rests and socializes. They're also where your CO's brief you on missions, and other necessary items. As my squadron just came off CAP duty, you will be facing Wolf in the simulators tomorrow at 0850, along with the rest of the transfer pilots. Controls in the simulator respond the same as they do in a standard Falcon. Basic scenario is the flight designated 'Alpha' is flying heavy intercept for a convoy of civilian transports when a flight of bogies, designation 'Kappa', jumps the convoy. Roles will be revealed tomorrow in the sim room, deck twenty-seven. Any questions?"
Jenna paused, and took a breath as the young man processed all the information she'd just thrown at him.

[Khyron Overmind]

(OOC: Jenna, Johnson is not squadron CO, he is a plain pilot. There are a total of 18 squadrons in the Avenger, among Fighters, Bombers and Scouts. Johnson is a member of Predator squadron, commander by Lt Commander Roman. I will post my reply according to that, considering you are aware of that info)

"Man, does she speaks fast" he wondered himself.

"Tomorrow, deck twenty-seven, sim room. Got it ma'am"

He paused a little bit, and then started talking again.

"Ma'am - he was not used to call a superior officer by her name yet - how is it to be onboard the Avenger? Is it as exciting as they say?"

[Jenna Deirdre]

((OOC: Didn't know about the squadrons, but I never said he was a CO. Yours truly is a way of saying "myself" in an egotistical way.))
Jenna almost laughed at the young man's insistance on calling her ma'am. Definitely new, she thought.
"Life onboard Avenger is pretty good. Honestly, it's kind of like being assigned to any other ship in the fleet, other than we have the honor of being the flagship for Admiral OVERMIND. My advice is just to take things as they seem. Sometimes things are blue-milk runs, other times it's like flying a brick. Don't get me wrong though, this has been one of the, did I say has been? I meant to say is one of the best times in my life. Especially considering...well, I suppose you don't need to know that. It's good. You'd better grab some rack time while you can, you'll need it tomorrow. 0800, deck twenty seven, don't be late."
With a smile and a nod, Jenna got up, and left the young man to his thoughts.
Hopefully, she thought, he's better than average. She needed a good challenge.

[Khyron Overmind]

"Yes ma'am, I will be there" said Johnson as she left the room. He had had few contacts with the squadron COs other than his so far. He went back to bed and tried to follow the advice he just received. However it was difficult to finally get some sleep. He was leaving on the flagship of the Imperial Republic Navy, on a secret mission that nobody yet knew what it was about, but no doubt would bring a lot of excitement for the crews. Thinking about the future combats and the possibility to show that he was as good as the rest of the pilots, he finally fell asleep.

[Khyron Overmind]

Lieutenant (jg) Johnson woke up even before the alarm went off. He watched it and noticed that he still had 20 minutes before the time he needed to be up. As most in his room were still sleeping, he decided to take the time to get himself a long refreshing shower. Then shaved in no hurry, donned his uniform and head for the mess hall.

Breakfast was very good, as usually all the food in the Navy was. It was one of the advantages of having chosen the Navy over the Army: food was always good.

[Khyron Overmind]

He had taken a seat with his squadron mates. The XO was also there, but they told him that the CO had been called to a meeting. He saw Lieutenant Deirdre on the other side of the room, but she was engaged in coversation with a different group of people.

There were more people in the room than just the pilots. There were crewers of the Avenger, plus several members of the support staff for the Avenger Fighter Wing. Being the largest type of ship in the Imperial Republic Navy, the Avenger carried a lot of people. However, the large degree of automatization resulted in a lower crew compared to the previous generation of ships.

The breakfast was over now and the pilots headed for the sim rooms. There were several practices scheduled for the day and a lot of sweating to do. As all the pilots, he was already wearing his flight suit. "And here we go again" he thought as he left the mess hall.

[Jenna Deirdre]

Jenna was up earlier than usual, even by her standards. Perhaps it was nervousness about facing members of her wing in the sim.
No, she decided, that wasn't it. It was something else, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Oh, well. Best to not dwell on it right now.
She went through her morning routine quickly, and briefly debated starting on her new pet project, construction of her own personal droid, but she decided not to, remembering how she got when she started working on some thing mechanical. Instead, she went to the pilots mess hall for morning chow. While she was there, she socialized a little with her fellow pilots, but was unable to shake off the feeling of impending doom looming over her. She sighed as she stared into the cup of caf held in her hand, trying to forget.

Pain. Suffering. People screaming as blaster bolts shredded their bodies. Droids marching into the caves that were supposed to be their refuge. Children crying out as their parents, people she had sworn to help and had instead betrayed them, were slaughtered without mercy.
Jenna awoke from her revere with a start. It had been some years since she had been troubled by her past. Unfortunately, it decided to make a comeback.

Why now? She thought, glancing at the chrono. Spast! I gotta be there in five minutes.

Hastily, she grabbed her uniform jacket and cap and dashed out the door, pulling both on as she walked quickly towards the nearest turbolift. Unfortunately, the shaft had been taken out of service for routine maintenance, and the next closest one would be fifty metres away, and would put her out on the wrong side of the ship for the sim room. There was, however, an access shaft right next to the lift for use of maintenance personnel. She keyed in her access code and proceeded to climb the ladder up the seven decks to deck twenty-seven. After exiting the shaft and resecuring it, she touched up her hair and entered the sim room. As expected, the rest of her flight was already there, and Predator squadron was hot on her heels.
As soon as all the pilots were seated, the officer in charge of the simulation made his way to the podium to proceed with the briefing.

“Alright, listen up. Today’s scenario is a red v. blue scenario. Alpha wing is flying heavy intercept for a civilian convoy of refugees traveling from the Abrion sector to the Outer Rim Sector A-5. However, owing to a large field of gravitonic disturbances in the Outer Rim A-4b system, the convoy has dropped out of hyperspace to pass through the system via sublight. Kappa has already taken up ambush positions in an asteroid field that lays directly on the convoys’ projected path. Roles will be determined by a coin flip. Lieutenant Winnry, you call it.”

“Heads.” She called as the briefing officer flipped the triangular credit in the air.

“Tails. Lieutenant Johnson, since wolf lost the coin toss, your choice of roles.”

[Khyron Overmind]

Very far from there, the ISD Advocatus was jumping out of hyperspace. The captain of the ship was a senior officer, already in his early 50s. He was wearing the standard uniform of the Imperial Navy. He looked down from the command bridge to the bridge pit crew. He was proud of them and he knew they have been more than properly trained and to increase his odds, the enemy at hand was notably inferior.

He had been tasked to raid an arriving convoy and he had taken one more ISD plus 3 VSDs. The might of his small flotilla was more than enough to seize the convoy and all the supplies it was carrying. They had returned to a different Galaxy, very different to the one they had left behind, and it was now their task to reconquer it and see that the old might of the Empire returned.

With that thought in mind, he prepared to the upcoming battle. "Squirmish" he corrected himself, as it could hardly be considered a battle.

[Khyron Overmind]

This particular route had been in use for the past weeks and the Advocatus had been monitoring their passes. The escort was light as the convoy was not that important. However, for the Advocatus and its flotilla, they were carrying very important supplies: food. The main Fleet had been almost starving, but before making a full scale offensive, food supplies were in need. The captain was aware that their own supplies would last for a couple of weeks, tops, but the convoy in front of him carried enough food to feed ten times their number for at least a couple of months. If raids continue to be as successful as this one, they would be completely replenish in four more weeks.

"Launch the fighters and fire warning shots."

The order was executed immediately and the convoy realized they were under attack.

[Khyron Overmind]

The convoy was escorted by two frigates which launched all fighters at once. While the attacking force had the superiority in term of numbers, the convoy defenders had the advantage in terms of technology and firepower. Nevertheless, the convoy's fighters were launched in a desperate atempt to buy time for the convoy to have a couple more minutes to jump to hyperspace.

The attacking fighters accelerated to maximum speed and fell from all directions over the two squadrons of the convoy. TIE Fighters and TIE Incerceptors fell over EID Eagles and EID Falcons, nearly overwhelming them. The shields of the latter kept them intact enough to began their own evaside maneuvers and deploy themselves by pairs.

The choreography of fighters as well as the laser shots and explosions were amazing. Lines of almost continuos light were projected in every possible direction. Explosions all over the space meant that some of the Eagles and Falcons were unable to face that many enemy fighters.

Less than five minutes later, all the convoy's fighters had been destroyed. However, their sacrifice had not been in vain. Four freighters out of twelve were able to escape.

[Khyron Overmind]

The Advocatus and her small flotilla closed in on the disabled freighters. Her captain was monitoring the progress of their assault troops. He expected some resistance from the freighters' crew, but he knew that ultimately they would surrender. Freighters normally did not carry a large crew, but even if it was a large crew, they were no match for his Stormtroopers.

He remembered his days as a young officer in the Navy, when he had participated in the assault of enemy ship as part of the boarding party. The Stormtroopers did most of the job and he was in the second line, waiting for the Stormtroopers to seize control of the ship's mains systems so he could start making the assessment of the ship's status and initiate the procedures to take control of the rest of the ship. Now, it was a new generation of officers.

He had been in the briefing when the Admiral had informed the senior officers of the situation of the Galaxy and what had happened with the Empire while they were gone. Of course, there were a lot of holes in the story and most of it had been concluded from the facts at hand, but there was a idea of why and where they were at war now.

"A new enemy" he thought. "It seems that they never get tired of trying to conquer the Galaxy" he said to himself.

[Khyron Overmind]

"Indeed sir" - said his Executive Officer.

He turned to one side and checked the status report from the assault parties. Their progress had been consistent and it was just a matter of minutes before they were able to seize control of the freighters. The Frigates were another matter. They were giving a fight of their own, but it would not stop the inevitable: the Imperial Forces would succeed in their goal.

"Sir, do we treat the prisioners as usual?"

"Yes, bring them onboard the Advocatus for interrogation. Commander Dolor will be glad to "interview" them" he said laughing.

***********************************

Back in the freighter Tesla, despite being civilians, the crew was decided to make a last stand in the engine room. They barricaded themselves in there, and locked all exits out of the room. Soon, the fight ended all over the ship, but they had been quick in rerouting the control to the engine room and they kept it there. Therefore, the Stormtroopers would need to storm the place.

[Khyron Overmind]

The lead officer of the Stormtroopers squad was overseeing the progress in trying to melt a hole in the blast doors. Inside the Engine Room, the crewers were watching the small sparks that started to pour into the floor. Every minute that passed, more and more sparks joined the flow. Soon, there was a constant flow that started to take the figure of a small door.

Finally, the shape was completed. The crewers prepared themselves for the worst. They were not going to surrender. That had been their promise and they intended to keep it. As soon as the Stormtroopers started to enter the room, the crewers welcomed them with blaster fire.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to put a stop to the troopers. Their full-body armor with anti-blaster protection was a significant help and managed to absorb several of the shots. Moments later, enough of them had crossed through the door so they could make a lot of damage with their firing.

Several crewers were injured, and when their mates were trying to make them take cover again, they were also shot. In a mater of minutes, only one crewer remained uninjured. He realized he was the last line of defense, all his mates lying on the floor dead or dying. He knew what to do and he did it.

He pushed the botton of the small detonator that was covered behind their barricade. The explosives had been rigged to the core of the power source of the freighter and the explosion was so strong that half the freighter disappeared.

[Khyron Overmind]

The explosion sent a massive wave all around the place, sending large pieces of debris in all directions. The explosive wave reached the Advocatus and hit her in full force before the inertial dampeners could compensate them.

"What the hell happened?" roared the captain.

"One of the freighters just exploded sir" managed to answer the Executive Officer when he regained his foot and was able to check the reports.

"Are all the other freighters secured?"

"Yes sir, this was the last one resisting. It seems that the crew decided to blow the freighter up to avoid being captured."

"What a shame we lost one, but we still got the other seven. Casualties reports?"

"We lost 100 Stormtroopers sir."

"Then they will have to pay for that. Once interrogation is done, tell Commander Dolor to jettison the prisioners."

"Will do sir."

[Khyron Overmind]

Not very far from there, Lashbone in the Abrion Sector, the joint Fleets dropped out of hyperspace in the very edge of the system. Their arrival had been masked by the exterior planets, so that the long range sensors could not pick them up. All the ships assembled into a very tight formation in order to keep their cover.

One of the support ships was deployed to enter the system and gather updated information on the recent events. The ship made a micro jump out of the system and then made a second inbound jump and arrived to the regular approach vectors to the main planet. The cover story was a short scheduled stop to leave some special cargo and then continue its journey. No need to make it more complicated and by special, it could mean that they were carrying from fasteners and hydrospanners to exotic oranges: real "special" cargo was not advertised as special. In this case, the special load comprised a container of seeds to help the restauration of plantations along the planet's surface, after the attacks of the ISDs not too long ago.

It was not too long before the ship had been cleared to land on the surface and not long before the unloading procedure started. Everything was being done according to regulations. However, the crew had started a very special work of linking to the news networks and gather all the information they were needing. That is how they found out about the very recent attack on a convoy by a small flotilla of ISDs. The secrecy of their arrival and departure was needed in order to keep their presence in the system hidden. They were suspecting that the hostiles had insiders information about the defenses. Otherwise, how would they had known where to hit in order to maximize damage.

It would be some time before the news of the attack would reach Coruscant, but way before that, the support ship was on its way out of the system. "Out" meaning a jump out and a jump back to the edge of the system.

[Khyron Overmind]

The ship had returned with the information they wanted. Aside from a brief contact with the local authorities, no particular trace of its trip had been made. The ship had entered the system with valid registration codes. However, those codes were not linked to the Military, as they were set under a different ownership. Precautions that the MoD Fleet had taken long ago for secrecy in case of need.

Once the captain of the ship had sent his report to the Avenger, the Fleet was in motion again. This time, they had a lead on the recent activities of the hostiles. Even more by the fact that some ships had escaped from the assault. The full briefing of such crews would still take some time and would reach the Avenger using back channels, but they already knew the most relevant things: their last location and the approximate composition of their forces. Of course, the last would probably refer to the group that attacked the convoy and not to the total extend to their forces. Based on the information he had recovered from the old Imperial databases and his personal knowledge of the backstage moves in the Imperial Navy, Admiral OVERMIND could ascertain that the hostiles had 200 ISDs plus support ships.

*******************************************************************

In the pilots' briefing room, Lieutenant (jg) Johnson was receiving the last update on his following mission. They were to patrol the area in their EID Falcons while other squadrons and the capital ships perfomed scans in the region. The briefing ended moments later and all the pilots took their gear and headed to the hangars.

[Khyron Overmind]

Lieutenant Johnson arrived to the hangar bay and proceeded to the location of his fighter. He checked the last maintenance and inspection record to check the status of his equipment. Satisfied that everything was reported as normal, he put the log back and started the walk-around inspection. In order to do so, he stood in front of his fighter and looked carefully at it in order to find out if anything was out of place and to check if all the security strips had been removed.

He then started to walk around the fighter, following a counter-clockwise direction. He checked the access points, wing gloves, leading edges, wing-tips, trailing edges, engine mountings, weapons, etc. He walked slowly, passing his hand over the smooth and shiny surface of the fighter. He tried to move the movable parts of his fighters to see if they fit perfectly and were tightly secured. Satisfied that the walk-around was ok, he entered the cockpit.

Once seated, he put on his helmet and secured it to his head. Then, he put the seat-belts and tightened them. No need to put them too tight since the fighter had inertial dampeners, but there was always the possibility of them failing in a combat and if the pilot was not properly secured, he could bounce all around the cockpit.

He then proceeded to start all the fighter's systems and when they all reported green, he finally fired up the engines. By the time he was done, all his mates in the squadron had their engines running and the squadron was ready to fly. Using their repulsorlifts, they left the hangar and accelerated to get to their assigned positions for the mission.

[Khyron Overmind]

His fighter followed that of his wingman. He was flying position 12 in his squadron, which was expected since he was the newbie. He was not kidding himself, this was a combat mission despite the fact that it was very unlikely that hey would encounter any enemy fighters. However, precaution dictated that they were ready for the worst-case scenario.

The mission was short though, the scout ships picked what they needed in less than 10 minutes. Just to be sure that they were not missing anything, they continued their patrol for another hour. It seemed that one of the freighters got just the amount of damage to alter his hyperdrive signature and leave more trailings that what a normal ship would. That was enough to give them an initial vector to start looking for the hostiles that attacked the convoy.

*******************************************************************

Back onboard the Avenger, Rear Admiral Sarriak had the information about the possible destinations the damaged ship could have taken, based on the vectors they had found. He reviewed it with Admiral OVERMIND. Since there were several dozens of possible destinations, and that just considering inhabited worlds. By expanding the search to inhabited worlds, the targets turned to around 100. But of course, they could have dropped in the middle of nowhere in order to change directions. Therefore, they decided to split the Fleets into Lines in order to cover more ground and faster.

They were actually very lucky to have that lead. The time period between the attack and their arrival had been more than enough to fade all the trailings of the hostiles. However, the damaged hyperdrive engine was still picked up in the background. And that was good news, enough to report them to the Palace. More exactly, to the Empress alone.

The Admiral went to his quarters and started the recording device.

"Your Majesty, we have a lead on the location of the hostiles. It is not a solid lead, but at least it is a start. I will split the Fleets into Lines in order to cover more ground on a faster pace. We will continue with our comm blackout, but in case you need to contact me, you can reach me on this channel for the next 20 minutes. OVERMIND out."

He encrypted the transmission in order for the Empress alone to decrypt it and hear it. He waited to see if there was any contact from her.

[Khyron Overmind]

Layha inserted a key code and quickly tapped in a message to the Admiral. –Do what needs to be done. When the location is discovered make sure you alerting me immediately Admiral. Proceed as planned and I will wait to hear from you on the other side.

The message came just minutes after he had sent his. He decided not to reply, as there was really no point in doing that.

He just gave the orders and both Fleets split by Lines. The orders were to keep the comm blackout unless they find out anything of relevance for their mission. If they had found nothing within a week, they were to meet at pre-assigned coordinates in order to plan their next move.

[Khyron Overmind]

The Avenger took his Line and jumped to his appointed destination. The general mood of the crewers was very high. They were doing something, they were taking the action to the hostiles. The hostiles had made a lot of damage in their orbital bombardment in Lashbone. Many helpless civilians were murdered without being given a chance. It was now the time to pay them back.

The only problem was that their task was literally trying to find the needle in the haystack. They had a lead on the possible direction the ships that had attacked the convoy could have taken. But there was no certainty. Despite that, the crewers were confident that they would be able to track them down.

[Corran Halcyon]

LT. Commander Halcyon was in his office when a light blinked on his control board. "Well we're in hyperspace, now" he thought to himself. "How could 200 ISD could just appear out of no where." "No where" that was the main word. "We have no idea were these guys are."

Changing his mind to the topic at hand. "Let's see here." Looking over the squadron lists. He noticed that there was a new name on the list. Johnson, in the Predator Squadron. He notice that LT. (jg) Johnson was scheduled for a training exercise today. Commander Halcyon looked over his personal profile. "Should be interesting to see what this kids got."

[Khyron Overmind]

Lieutenant (jg) Johnson was on his way to the sim room once more. He was good but, as the newbie of Predator squadron, he had a lot to catch up. The pilots flying aboard the Avenger were the best in the entire Navy and they were proud of being so. As a result, they took the job of making newbies to catch up with them very seriously. After his first sim session, Johnson realized that even if he was considered as an outstanding pilot where he came from, he was nothing more than a regular pilot in his current environment.

He jumped into the appropiate pod, one the ressembled an EID Falcon. Once the canopy was closed and the monitores were turned on, it was like being in the real fighter. He completed the power up sequence and was shortly after "flying" out of the Avenger with his squadron. They took some distance and jumped out of the system as they were tracking a distress signal. When they arrived to their destination, they saw that flying would be complicated, since they had jumped into a small asteroid field. The signal was distorted because of the components of the asteroids, so they would have to spread themselves in order to pinpoint the origin of the signal. However, that was a move that left them somehow unprotected. Therefore, they divided into pairs. While one of them was tracking the signal, the other one watched their six.

It was a tactic that did pay off, as all of a sudden, several fighters appeared out of nowhere and started chasing them. The attacks were so fast that 5 fighters were down within a minute of the engagement. Now they were outnumbered two to one and their situation was becoming critical. The enemies had planted concusion grenades on the asteroids and they used those to knock down 3 more fighters. Down to a total of four fighters was a desperate situation. He and his wingman took turns at being in the lead and being the escort. The lead was chasing the enemy fighters while the escort played interference and tried to deflect the shots by overpowering his rear shields. Taking turns, they managed to destroy two enemy fighters before Johnson's partner was destroyed. He hit the throttle and got the hell out of there and headed to the remaining pair of fighters.

He managed to join them and together, they tried to negotiate their way out of the asteroid field. Unfortunately, Johnson's fighter was destroyed before he was clear of the field. As the monitors turned to black, he realized that he was sweating a lot, product of the intense moments he had just lived.

When the canopy was open, he was positively sure he would be the laughing stone of his squadron, not being able to survive the mission. His CO approached him and told him:

"It is ok kid, nobody makes this scenario on their first try. I have to say that you lasted more than we expected. We were expecting you to be shot when the number came down to half the squadron. Do not worry, you will be in top shape very soon."

"Thank you sir, I will do my best" was all that Johnson could say in return.

************************************************************

Back in the bridge, Admirals OVERMIND and Sarriak were monitoring the progress of their trip. They still had several hours on the jump before they returned to normal space. Satisfied with the progress, Admiral OVERMIND returned to his office and asked his aide to call for Lieutenant Commander Halcyon.

[Corran Halcyon]

While Commader. Halcyon was at his desk, there came a knock on his door. "Enter" Standing there was Sargent Largent, the flight crew chief.
"Sir, I hate to disturb you, but some of the fighters in your squad seem to have problem with there sublight drives."

"sigh" "Ok, will they be operational by the time we exit hyperspace?"

"Yes sir, we are working as fast as we can."

"Good. Have you been able to identify the problem?"

"No sir, we are working on that now."

"Thank You Sargent. I want the reports on what you find on my desk, ASAP. Dismissed"

"Yes sir."

Sargent Largent walked out of the office. "If it's not one thing it's another." the Commander said outloud.

================================
Shortly after Sargent Largent left Commander Halcyons message bord beeped.

"Yes"

"Commander Halcyon, Admiral OVERMIND would like to see you."[/b

]"Tell the Admiral I will be right there"

Commander Halcyon went to the refesher station to get cleaned up.

A few minutes later he was at the Admiral's office.
[b]"You asked to see me Sir?"

Edited by Corran Halcyon, 22 October 2007 - 10:09 PM.

[Khyron Overmind]

"Yes Commander, please have a seat."

As the Commander took the seat, the Admiral continued.

"As you are aware, we are facing a very difficult task. We have to find a fleet of 200 ISDs plus support and escort ships. And we need to do that fast in order to prevent further damage to the Imperial Republic. What happen in Lashbone is just the beginning of what might happen."

"What happened in Togoria will be a playdate compared to what lies ahead of us. I am confident that the training that the members of the Avenger fighter wing have received is more than adequate to give them the edge and the advantage over the enemy, but we can never be too careful. Make sure that our personnel takes every spare moment to hit the simulators and get as much training as they can. Pay special attention to this Johnson guy. His record shows that he promises a lot, but there is little time for him to catch up as he should."

He turned in the screen by his desk and showed the Commander the stats and record of Johnson.

"I think you have not talked to him yet, so it is probably too early to ask you for your opinion on him, but his previous commanding officer speaks highly of him. Talk to him whenever you can and then let me know what you think of him."

"Also, this deployment may last even longer than we anticipated, if we do not find the hostiles soon. Is there anything your Wing needs?"

[Corran Halcyon]

"Yes Sir. I will talk to him." "With my Wing there seems to be a sublight engine failure, but Sarget Largent is the best one to fix those things, so I have great confidence in him to fix it. I will let you know what the problem is when I do."

Edited by Corran Halcyon, 22 October 2007 - 11:50 PM.

[Khyron Overmind]

"Sublight engine problem? That is odd indeed. These fighters are new, both in design and in manufacturing, so there should not be problems. Take a look at that and file a report as soon as you have located the origin of the problem please."

"Now, moving to other issues, do you have any new tactics you would like to discuss for when the engage the enemy?"

[Corran Halcyon]

"I'll get you those reports as soon as I can." Commander Halcyon said. "Tactics. Hmmm. 200 star destroyers, plus the fighters they hold. That's a lot of ships. We would need to get in behind then and throw them off guard, with a decoy. I don't have our fleet information to make any good tactical plans. If you could send them to my computer that would be great."

Edited by Corran Halcyon, 24 October 2007 - 07:03 PM.

[Khyron Overmind]

"I will transfer the files to your datapad. However, we are no direct match to them. The MoD Fleet plus the 1AF, if united, they can face them with certain limitations. The whole IR Navy can take them, of course, but we can not mobilize all the Navy and leave the systems unprotected. That is why we were deployed, to find them so we can launch an attack with our Assault Fleets. Until then, they need to protect our vulnerable systems."

"Since we only dispose with one Line of the MoD Fleet, we are largely outnumbered. So, we need to play that one safely."