Into the Chaos -- Author's note.

Welcome to my story 'Into the Chaos'. A Sci-fi story that just happens to take place in the Star Wars universe just after the Great Galactic War, almost 4000 years before the events of the movies. To the fans of Star Wars, it's about the same time as Star Wars: The Old Republic video game is happening. However, I have placed the story in the Unknown Regions, far away from most galactic events, so do not expect to see any of the characters from the video game in this story. It also means, that

You do not have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy the story!

And

You do not have to know anything about Star Wars to understand what is happening!

The rest, even the Chiss race that the main character belongs to, will be explained at the story unfolds.

That is why I have placed it in the 'Sci-Fi & Fantasy' section and not 'Celebrities & Fan Fiction'.

So why write in that universe at all, you might ask. Because I like Star Wars, it gives me a background to write from and with all the sourcebooks for the Roleplaying games, it frees me from having to invent everything myself.

Fans of Star Wars will notice that ship sizes may differ from the ones on Wookieepedia. That is because I use the sizes described in the West End Games sourcebooks, as they (IMHO) tend to make more sense that the newer ones.

Disclaimer I do not own or hold any rights to any star wars licenses, including the star ships used in this story.

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :) but I have discovered that the sheer length of what I write tend to scare them away.

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 1 -- The Alpha Viga situation

Space Station Crystal, Ciroal. Chiss Ascendancy. Year 1 ATC/ 3652 BBY

"The leader who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and good service for his sovereign,

is the jewel of the realm."

From the Holy Book of War

It was always fun to visit a ship I haven't been on before and this time I had a summons to come to the CEDF (Chiss Expansionary Defence Force) Frigate Phoenix 'to meet the Captain at my earliest convenience', which in Navy speak means 'Right Now!' when you're a young officer.

The captain turned out to be Prard'ora'nuruodo aka Captain Doran, whom I've worked with on several occasions before and knew as a solid officer.

Captain Doran was studying some files when I came in and gestured that I should take a seat. "Hello, Lieutenant Commander. Sorry to mess up your assignment, but we need you."

I saluted and sat down. "Nice to see you too, sir. And yes, people keep telling me that I'm needed, but I haven't gotten any hard info yet. Where're we going if I might ask?"

He grimaced. "Alpha Viga in Sector F."

I blinked. Sector F was at the galactic south to the Chiss Ascendency and far away from the core systems. There were very few inhabitable planets in the area and those who were inhabitable were in general a lot worse than a lot of other planets closer to us. In short, most Chiss regarded Sector F as something to avoid. "Sorry, sir, but what are we doing in that forsaken place?"

"Mining Ultrachrome." Replied Doran with a slight shrug. "But according to the latest reports, there are Hostiles there too."

I nodded. There're always hostiles around when I go on a mission. Otherwise, they would send an investigator and not the navy. "What kind of Hostiles are we talking about this time?"

"We don't know yet." said Doran simply and turned the viewing screen so I could see a picture of a humanoid clad in a menacing looking battle armor, that reminded me of the style of armor used by the Sith.

Doran confirmed that a moment later by saying: "We got this picture from the single patrol craft that managed to get away and we think the leaders are renegade Sith."

I didn't need any explanation as to why I was the one out of thousands of junior officers called into this. The Force, which we called 'the Sight' isn't strong in our race, and we have never had that many Force-sensitive people among us.

Strangely, our Force abilities normally diminishes as we grew older and by the time, we have reached our teens, it normally disappeared. Consequently, almost all Chiss force users are children and for some unknown reason almost all of them are girls.

It was those young girls that acted as navigators for the fleet, when they were in areas we didn't know well and it was due to their ability, that we had been able to find new planets to live on. It was for that reason, that that those Force-using navigators were called ozyly-esehembo in the Chiss language. In basic it translated into Skywalkers.

It was also one of our best kept secrets. Normally only high ranking civilian and military officers were told of their existence. Even in the navy, only senior bridge officers knew about them, while the rest was simply told, that it was the captain's daughter.

I'm an exception to that. Not only am I male, but I wasn't that strong in the Third Sight, as the ability to sense the future and use it for navigation was called. I can navigate three or four jumps at a time, but most of the female ozyly-esehembo exceled in it and could map a route spanning dozens of jumps. On the positive side, when my fellow ozyly-esehembo started to lose their powers, mine grew stronger, especially with Telekinesis. A Force power or talent that was so rare among my race, that we don't even have an official name for it, though it has been called the Fourth Sight by some.

Due to my abilities, I was selected for special training and taken to a secret location somewhere in the Outer Rim, where I joined a small group called the Praetorians and spent the better part of the next ten years being instructed in the Je'daii code, Force skills, Chromesword- and Lightfoil combat, when I wasn't being trained as a naval officer.

Most of the instruction was done by Master Brin, who was one of the few persons left in the universe, who taught the ancient tradition of Je'daii. According to legend, that tradition had started a long time ago, when an ancient Jedi found an even older Je'daii Holocron and started to study it, eventually resulting in him organizing his own teaching.

Knowing that this teaching wouldn't sit well with neither the Jedi or the Sith, he left the galactic core and eventually ended up in the Chiss Ascendancy, where he traded protection in return for teaching his knowledge to a few force-sensitive youngsters. These youngsters grew up to teach other youngsters and these taught the next generation. As time went on, these force users created what was known in the Chiss Ascendancy as Praetorians. A small organization, that protected the Chiss from Force Users.

However, that also meant, that whenever there was a problem relating to the Force, like the Sith, the job went to me or one of the few others that had gotten the training and apparently, they were busy elsewhere at the moment.

"How is the situation there, Captain? Any troops? Ships?"

Captain Doran shook his head. "Too few. It's quiet area and so there's only the usual security detachment." He tapped the view screen. "As far as spaceships goes, the refinery was guarded by two patrol crafts, but one of them was hunted down and destroyed by a Sith Fury-class interceptor, while the other patrol craft ship entered hyperspace to get away and warn us." He sighed. "Don't expect any reinforcement, before we can confirm what kind of Sith we're dealing with. The planet isn't vital enough to risk angering the Sith Empire by sending a fleet."

I nodded at that. Even out here, it was known that after the Empire had forced a peace with the Republic, called the Treaty of Coruscant, some of the Sith Lords had been so dissatisfied, that that they had retreated, along with their forces, into what they called the Unknown Regions of space.

Unfortunately, it was the exact region we were in and the arrival of a Sith force could seriously upset the balance in the region around us, as the scale of the Galactic War was so big, that even a small portion of the fleets engaged in it was vastly bigger than any of the local defence fleets.

Captain Doran saw my nod and continued. "So, to sum it up: Our orders are to go to Alpha Viga, access the situation, deal with the opposition there without upsetting the Empire and make sure the Ultrachrome mines continues to function."

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Said Doran with a nod. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do."

Standing up, I saluted and left.

Phoenix had departed from Space Station Crystal, while Captain Doran and I were talking, so I took a tour of the ship. As a Frigate, Phoenix was only two hundred and forty meters long with a crew of around eighty, making it one of the smallest capital Navy ships I've ever been on.

They had still managed to cram in a hangar with twelve Talon Interceptors, a shuttle and two landing crafts into it and there was room for ten squads of Navy troops... or Space Marines as they're called. I smiled to myself as I recalled one evening, where a rather good-looking sergeant had tried to convince me that the word 'marine' meant "My Ass Ride in Navy Equipment."

It wasn't totally wrong, since Navy troopers was part of the navy and not the army, but I doubted it was right either and I spent the next few hours getting to know both them and the pilots.

Besides the pilots for the Talon Interceptors and dropships, there were ten squads of ten Space Marines along with their leader, Lieutenant Hess'Iga'Nuruodo (Sigan). All of them was fresh from the Chiss Academy on their first tour and while that would have been a worry for most, I didn't mind. Having been through some of the same training myself, I knew the troops were up to the task and could handle most things if they felt they were looked out for by their superiors.

In this case, that would be me, so I spent some time with them, doing a few inspections, while making sure they understood that I did it for their own sake.

After that, I walked down to the mess to get something to eat.

The only people there was four female troopers from the Space Marine detachment, so I ordered food and was about to over to their table when somebody said, "LC!"

I turned around and saw a two-meter-tall woman with long black hair and shoulders almost as wide as mine. It was Sergeant-Major Kadasy'ak'ishalla, or Yaki for short, from 4th detachment, and not only was she an extremely capable soldier, but she was also an extremely good looking, well-formed, and sexy woman.

I chuckled and flipped a lazy wave to her. "Hey, Sergeant-Major. Nice to see you too."

Without answering, Yaki shook her head as she held up and hand and then pointed at her collar, where a single silver line denoted the rank of Lieutenant, second grade, which meant that she had chosen to go to officers' school and graduated it, since last we saw each other.

"Ohhh... Sorry, Lieutenant Yaki, and congratulations by the way."

"Thank you." She grinned her usual wide grin and came over to me. "I see that you didn't grow any taller since last time. Don't they have some hormones you can use?"

"Nope. They told me that you stole the whole shipment."

We shook hands. Lieutenant Yaki was a member, and now leader, of 4th detachment. A detachment consisting purely of tall females in black power armor that was known as the Black Dragons. We'd been in several hot spots together as well as several bars and even a few beds.

I looked around. "Does that mean that the Black Dragons are here?"

"Only four squad of us along with some green-ass newbies." She showed her teeth in a smile. "Come, let's go get some breakfast."

A bit relived I follow the tall woman to the table. With marines as though, experienced, and well-trained as the Black Dragons here, the assignment might be a little easier that I first expected.

After we had talked a bit about 'Old days' and the current assignment while we ate our food, Yaki had to go, and I decided it was time to work. So, I went down to my quarters to take a closer look at Alpha Viga, the Ultrachrome mine and the area around it.

Knowledge is always good to have, especially when there were Hostiles in the area, and it didn't take long to determine, that the mining complex wouldn't last long against a determined assault, so I identified the key points of the area and started to lay plans on how to use them if case of trouble.

I was almost finished when Yaki came to visit me to go over the plans of the complex and possible problems due to the terrain and lay-out of the facility.

We even managed to keep it serious until we were done, but as I was getting a cup of tea for both of us, Yaki leaned back as looked at me. "So, Thalen... No life-partner yet?"

I shook my head, as I placed the cups on the serving tray next to her chair. "No, nothing that permanent." I chuckled. "Or even anything close to that. Training takes a lot of time."

"Oh, poor you." She grimaced. "If I didn't think that you most likely asked for additional training yourself, I would feel sorry for you."

"Yeah, right." I sat in the chair again. "What about you?"

Yaki shook her head, making her dark curls wave. "Same, but more due to missions, than training. Thankfully, most of our missions have been peaceful." Her lips parted in a smile. "Nothing to get the blood boil, so to speak."

That made me chuckle. For some odd reason, Yaki always became aroused after having been in danger. It had to be something life affirming about it, but I didn't know exactly what it was. I also didn't care. Especially not since I had been in the receiving end of her arousal several times and enjoying every second of it.

Her smile widened. "Since we're both here and have time to kill, what about some sex?"

It wasn't exactly an elegant pick-up line used in a bar, but it was according to regulations, as there could be no doubt about the meaning of that kind of suggestions. She couldn't just be very suggestive, as a superior officer wasn't allowed initiate an intimate relationship with someone under his or her command. There was a whole bunch of other regulations about it as well, but as Yaki wasn't strictly under my command until we boarded the dropships, these didn't come into play here. Still, it was always better to be on the safe side, when it came to navy regulations.

"Sounds like an excellent idea."

We stood at the same time and without hesitation I reached out to drag her into my arms before I leaned up to kiss her. At nearly two meters in height, Yaki is taller than me by almost ten centimetres, so I had to lean up, while she bent her head to lean down.

Our lips parted the moment they met and for the first minutes we embraced and kisses, becoming accustomed to each other again. Placing my hands on her firm but, I pulled her closer, as our tongues entwined. Sparks shot down my spine as our bodies pressed against each other, her breasts going flat against my chest... or rather as flat as big and firm breasts can get.

She wasn't idle, as she was removing my clothes a piece at a time, but when she couldn't reach more from our current position, she eased off, gasping. "Good to know that you haven't forgotten how to kiss. Now, get naked."

"I missed you too." I told her with a grin. Yaki wasn't normally that demanding, but it seemed like it had been a while since she had gotten anything and while I knew that the all-female regiment did have some fun between them, it had never seemed to quench Yaki's thirst completely.

I undressed, watching her as she took off the t-shirt, revealing the black standard issue bra underneath. Normally a rather ordinary sight, but on Yaki it looked sexy as the fabric struggled to keep her large breasts from bursting free.

She took a step back. "Sit down on the chair." The smile returned. "Please."

Surrendering, I sat down in the chair.

Yaki knelt before me, taking my stiff cock into her hands and massaged it lightly, while looking into my eyes as she slowly lowered her head until she could reach out with her tongue and trace a circle around the head of my cock.

Still looking at me, Yaki sucked the head into her mouth, letting the slick lips slide over the head while playing on the tip with her tongue.

A moan escaped my lips. It had been a while since I had been with a woman and if she kept that up for long it wasn't going to take long before I erupted in her mouth.

"Too good!" I gasped as shivers ran down my spine.

She smiled and let my dick slip from her mouth. "You're usually good for more than one shot."

That was true, but I didn't have time to come up with an answer, before she lowered her mouth again, resuming her effort to make me come, bringing her hands into play. It was a lethal combination, with lots of tongue, a flow of spit, and her hand massaging the base of my shaft had just the right mix of firmness and speed, while the other hand gently caressed my balls.

"Shiiiit!" I moaned, leaning my head back in the chair, as the shivers in my body intensified.

Yaki chuckled, but the chuckle was cut short by my pulsing dick erupting in her mouth, sending stream after stream down her throat. She swallowed it all, moaning with excitement.

With the orgasm still buzzing in my body, I stood up and glanced at my computer screen. We had left Chiss-space a couple of hours ago, leaving me free to use force powers, something that was highly illegal inside the Chiss Ascendency.

Diving into the Force, I reached out and took hold of Yaki, lifting her from the deck and used the force to take off her clothes, revealing her big round breasts, with their hard purple nipples.

"Unfair." Complained Yaki.

"Liar." I told her with a grin. "You love it."

She had once told me, that my ability to use the force was a great turn-on, since it made me one of the few persons strong enough to hold her and this time was no different, as I could almost the lust emanating from her.

"True," she admitted, "But it's still unfair."

While she was talking, I placed her on the bed and spread her legs. I needed a little time to recover, and I had just the right plan on how to spend that time.

Yaki stopped complaining when I kissed my way up her soft inner thighs, pausing from time to time to lick or bite a little as I travelled upwards towards her groin, but instead of a direct attack, I switched to the other led, doing the same with that one, and causing Yaki to moan. "Oh, com'on. Use that long tongue of yours."

Reaching my goal, I dragged my wet tongue over her swollen lips, licking them as sloppily as possible, making them wet, before I let the tip of my tongue dance all the way from top to bottom between them. As Yaki had said, I do indeed have a long tongue, and I used it to dive in between her wet lips, licking the entrance to her vagina.

"Ohhh yesss." Yaki moaned and then gasped as my tongue travelled to her clitoris, where I licked from side to side a few times, before going down again. She tasted just as good as I remembered, and I wanted more of the sweet tasting juice.

I released her and she immediately raised her legs even more, give me easier access to her.

Moving slow but steady, I teased her, alternating between long, slow licks and firmer, more probing darts of the tongue. Spreading her pussy wide open with my fingers, I placed my mouth over the entrance and worked my tongue inside her.

"Yes!" Yaki hissed as I licked the inner walls of her pussy, every lick making her moan as they pushed her towards an orgasm. Finally, I felt her G-spot as a small rough patch against the tip of my tongue and licked it, moving the tongue in small circles on top of it.

I kept it up, enjoying every lick, until Yaki stiffened and let out a low howl, that increased in intensity as she came, pleasure ripping through her body and making her muscles undulate in waves. The muscles of her pussy contracted, pushing my tongue out of her body. Since she was so turned up, I moved upwards, using my tongue to push the hood of her clitoris out of the way, leaving the little sensitive organ bare.

Holding my head still, I sucked it into my mouth and held it between my lips while I inserted two fingers into her still spasming pussy. Curling my fingers I found her G-spot again and massaged it, but at the same time, I licked her clitoris as hard and fast as I could.

The orgasm that followed was epic, as Yaki cried out, shaking hard as her body spasmed uncontrollably, her pussy contracting around my finger and a flood of juice squirted out of her pussy. Unlike my tongue, my fingers weren't pushed out of her, and I continued to lick and finger her until she started to close her legs.

Moving my head away, I removed my fingers from her, smiling to myself when she let out a sigh and looked at me with eyes that was glazed over with the grogginess of recent pleasure. "Fuck, I almost forgot how good you are at that."

"Well, I'm happy to refresh your memory."

"Yes, I can see that." Yaki said with a shiver as she looked at my cock. The taste and scent of her had its effect and I was rock hard again. "I need you inside me... now."

With a nod, I leaned in to kiss her legs, before moving upwards over the soft skin, licking first her flat stomach and then those spectacular breasts. Soft and firm at the same time, I buried my head in them, teasing the nipples with light bites and hard licks.

"Oh yes." Yaki mumbled and moved her hips, catching my dick between the wet lips of her pussy.

One of the advantages with both her height and the position we were in, was that just by bending my back, I could enter her while enjoying her breasts. I did exactly that, pushing myself into her and making her groan with delight.

I began sliding in and out of her moist tightness, while my lips played with her stiff nipples. As the other times we had been together, she was tight but so wet that my strokes created an easy and wonderful friction.

I enjoyed her like that for a while, but then I straightened, leaving her breasts, and kissed her instead. Yaki threw her arms around my back to pull me as close as she could get me, mashing my chest against her breasts, as she kissed me back, making small noises of pleasure into my mouth every time I buried my dick in her.

It was fantastic and despite my recent orgasm, I could feel the beginning tendrils of another one starting in my spine.

Yaki tore her mouth away from mine, groaning "Fuck, you're making me come again!"

As a response, I slammed my dick into her a few times and kissed her neck as she convulsed and came again, her body suddenly rigid against mine as she arched her back, overtaken by pleasure.

I fucked her slowly through the orgasm, but almost as soon as it had faded, a set of strong hands grabbed my head. Looking into my eyes, Yaki hissed, "Fuck me hard! I want to feel you come!"

I didn't even bother to nod, but increased the rhythm and the power slightly, pushing easily in and out of her slippery pussy, as Yaki wrapped her long legs around me.

"Yes!"

It was too soon to come for my taste, but Yaki obviously needed it, so I began fucking her hard and fast, wallowing in the feel of her against my body and around my dick as I slammed into her with increasing ferocity, helped by Yaki's hips that rose to meet every stroke.

I could feel that familiar surge in my balls and as Yaki's pussy started to contract I couldn't hold it back. With a long moan, I erupted in her, the feeling so intense that the room swam before my eyes. The feeling of me coming in her sent her over the edge as well, the pleasure causing her arms to trash against the mattress, while her hips jerked as I emptied myself in her.

None of us had the energy to kiss, so I pulled out and lay down beside her, panting for air.

For a while, we just lay there, enjoying the feeling in our bodies, and for my part another assurance, that sex was one of the best things in the world.

Master Brin once told me that the Jedi was so afraid of emotions, that most of them lived in celibacy. Clearly, they've forgotten how to embrace life and actually live it. Not to mention the fact, that the sheer joy of giving another person pleasure, while receiving pleasure at the same time, should make it painfully obvious for anybody, that balancing between chaos and harmony is the way the universe works.

"That was awesome." Said Yaki with a happy sigh and stretched, before giving me a soft kiss. "But I'm seriously tired now. Can I sleep here?"

"Of cause."

With a smile, she turned to her side, placed an arm over me and relaxed. So did I and a moment later we were both asleep.

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Arrival and ground combat

"Conform to the enemy's tactics until a favourable opportunity offers;

then come forth and engage in a battle that shall prove decisive."

From the Holy Book of War

I woke as the alarm went off, followed by a message on the intercom, "Attention! We have reached Alpha Viga. All troops please rapport to their duty stations."

Beside me Yaki snapped awake instantly with a "Damn!"

I nodded and moved aside so she could jump out of the bed and then spent the next twenty seconds admiring her well-shaped and well-trained blue body as she jumped into the clothes. Then she sent me a grin and sprinted down to her crew.

Chuckling to myself, I walked over to the equipment locker. I needed to get armed and armored as well, preferably before we got to Yellow alert.

My armor was a modified combat jump suit, which covered most of the body, giving a great deal of protection without hindering the movements of the wearer too much, and the matching helmet had both a built-in Comm-link and air filters.

A utility belt was next and then I took my Tyrant TX-31 from the shelf and holstered it by one side.

The standard sidearm of both the army and the fleet, it was also my favourite ranged weapon, though as all charric weapons, the range wasn't great.

Mostly because unlike blasters, charric weapons used microwaves to deal damage and these tended to pick up particles when used in an atmosphere, which limited their range. On the bonus side, it pretty much slammed through ceramic and polymer armors as if they weren't there and, since it was a maser, there was a good chance of giving anyone in metal armor an electric shock strong enough to stun them or knock them out.

Our use of charric weapons was exactly the reason why we were on Alpha Viga, as ultracrome was a key component in all maser weapons... at least those we made.

Unlike the troopers, naval officers didn't use the Scimitar main battle rifle. Made with the same charric technology as the sidearm, it had a better range than the sidearm, though it was comparable to the blaster carbine and not the blaster rifle.

It wasn't something that bothered me normally, but there's an old military proverb, saying "If the enemy is within range... So are you!"

However, that wasn't true when one side are armed with blasters and the other side with charric weapons, so Yaki and I had calculated that into the preliminary battleplans. If it came to a direct confrontation, we should retreat into an area, where their superior range would be negated by buildings or terrain, after which the harder hitting charric weapons would be an advantage.

The next thing I attached to the belt was my lightfoil. Both the Sith and the Jedi used lightsabres, which was essentially two-handed weapons, but the ancient master who had created the Praetorians of the Chiss Ascendency had preferred a slightly smaller, faster and more elegant form of fighting.

Consequently, many of the Praetorians through the ages had used a smaller version of the lightsabre, called a lightfoil, especially those in the Navy, where melee combat was a rarity. It also had the added benefit, that the combat style was similar to using a vibrorapier, the traditional weapon of an officer in the Navy and the one weapon all officers were taught to use.

All done, I took my helmet under one arm and walked down to the hangar, just in time to hear the intercom saying. "All landing personnel, please board the landing crafts. Launch in ten minutes. ETA on dust down is 25 minutes. Be advised that we have problems with the scanners. The huge amount of minerals on the planet seems to interfere with the readings."

The hangar was almost empty, as there were only the two dropships in there, but that I had expected. The twelve Talon Interceptors had been deployed to make a protective perimeter around the Frigate, while trying to determine where the pirate craft was located.

The Black Dragons Space Marines had already boarded their dropship, but were in a waiting position, as they normally get dropped when the enemy has been located. A heavy weapon squad in power armor doesn't make for good scouts or forward recon. However, two of regular (newbie) squads were there, standing ready to board the landing craft.

They looked sharp, every little piece of equipment was in the right place according to regulations and their battle armor and equipment was brand new.

Lieutenant Sigan saluted when he saw me and turned to the troopers. "You heard the order. Move!"

As soon as we were strapped in, the intercom crackled to life. "Greetings, passengers. We just got the order to move as soon as possible, so please stay seated."

I leaned back to get an update in the situation on the commlink in the helmet and got it as the dropship was moving out of the hangar. They had lost communication with the security forces that protected the mining complex and the scanner showed energy discharges, possibly weapon fire.

I calmly informed the troops about the situation and had just finished, when the commlink activated again. Closing the public channel, I answered. "Lieutenant Commander Thalen here. What's up?"

"Bad news, LC." Said the voice of Phoenix' tactical officer, Junior Lieutenant Felm'eistri'nurudo (Meistrin) "The primary power transformer in the complex have just gone off the grid and the secondary can barely keep the complex going. You'll have to go over there." She paused for a moment, before continuing. "We got interference on the scanners due to the ultrachrome, so you'll have to have your eyes open down there. Phoenix out."

The turbulence showed that we were entering the atmosphere of the planet. On the bright side, at least there was an atmosphere, and we could even breathe in it.

I accessed the tactical computer, called up the ground plan of the mining complex and got hold of the pilot. "We have a slight change of plans. Go in low and take us down at coordinates 32, 76."

"Roger that, LC." Came the answer back, as Lt. Sigan loudly said, "Two minutes to landing!"

I called up the blueprints of the complex again, wondering what could have gone wrong with the power. To cut off the primary power without blowing up the building was an impressive feat, since it was guarded with automatic defences as well as guards. However, the backup was still working and was most likely the next target.

"One minute to landing!"

Something kept nagging me, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Touchdown!! Get ready, Troops."

It was like our information was flawed in some way.

The doors opened and the sergeant shouted, "Go! Go! Go!", making the troops hurry to get out and there was a bump as the Armored Personal Carrier (APC) unloaded automatically.

I got up and ran out along with the rest.

Suddenly it struck me. When the Phoenix scanned anything, it took the waves 1 minute to reach the planet and one minute to get back. Then it took perhaps 10 seconds to evaluate the information and another minute before the radio message reached us.

In short there was a 3-minute delay from the Phoenix started their scan, until we got the info due to the distance the waves had to travel. More importantly, if they had cut of the power supply five minutes ago and made their way towards the secondary power supply, they would be right about HERE now.

I whirled towards lieutenant Sigan. "Take cover! NOW!"

Unfortunately, Sigan hesitated just a second too long and hit the ground screaming as an energy beam hit his arm. The armor took most of the energy, but the arm was still badly mangled..

The troopers dived towards the nearest cover as I took cover behind a wall while slapping a medpac on Sigans shoulder, as I felt the calm of battle settle over me.

Called Bicit vzeat in my language, it's the opposite of what most other humanoids feel when they enter combat, where they become agitated to the point of going into state of rage. That's not a condition known to the Chiss. Instead, we become calmer, more focused as emotions are drained from us and we do what makes sense.

Using my intercom, I contacted the pilot. "Get away. We'll need the dropship later."

There was a "Yes, sir" as the dropship took off.

I called up the tactical display in my helmet and studied it for a moment, before looking at the second in command, Junior Lieutenant Hizz'sez'esu (Seze). "Seze, get group 1 to give fire cover to the east. Group 2 got the west and group 4 got the south."

"On it, sir!"

The sound of a large charric weapon being fired told me that group 3, who manned the APC, had used its support weapon and a moment later, a window on the upper part of a nearby building blew out, as the heavy charric took out a room with a Hostile in it.

Other troopers started to return the fire. As far as I could see there weren't many hostiles shooting, but that...

My Force sense suddenly started to tingle as a person appeared a good distance away from our position and I immediately cloaked myself from detection. No need to give my presence away.

A moment later, I was even more satisfied with my decision to cloak as the person activated a red lightsabre, most likely to be able to defend against blaster fire. The person didn't advance but lifted a hand and I heard cursing over the commlink, as the APC was lifted into the air like a toy lifted by an invisible hand.

Looking around, I discovered that almost every trooper was looking at the flying APC, instead of looking at the perimeter.

Not really a surprise, as seeing The Force in action for the first time was awe-inspiring and there was no doubt that it was the first time, they had seen it as using the Force within the Chiss Ascendancy were highly illegal.

After having heard about the chaos the Sith and the Jedi manage to make with their never-ending conflicts, I couldn't blame them.

Fortunately, Alpha Viga wasn't inside the Ascendancy, so I could do as I pleased.

"Focus on the enemy." I ordered, causing them to snap into action.

"Ilana." I said, directed at the squad's sniper. "Take that joker out. Now!"

"Yes, sir." The young woman quickly returned her attention to the Sith. Behind her, the APC flipped in the air, turning it upside down.

Despite the situation, I snorted. Unless I missed my guess, that Sith was about to get a rude lesson in physics and charric weapons: While lightsabres, in the hands of a skilled user, were indeed able to parry energy attacks, like blaster fire, trying to deflect a charric weapon was something else. The microwave-based maser carried much more kinetic energy than a blaster and only some of the lightsabres had the right frequency to deflect a maser. Even so there was a good chance that the maser would kick it out of your hands.

The sniper rifle discharged two times and suddenly the APC fell towards the ground.

Reaching out with The Force, I caught it a moment later and gently turned it over, before placing it back on the ground.

Glancing over, I saw the caped figure on the ground. It no longer had a head. "Good work, Ilana."

"Thank you, sir."

"Corporal, check the men in the APC." I ordered and looked at the long-distance Comm-link operator. "Comm, inform Phoenix that we got Sith down here and might need support."

A fast movement at the corner of my eyes caught my attention. It was one more Sith, coming at our position with a speed that was clearly augmented by the Force, as he moved so fast that he was a streak in the air.

I don't know much about the Sith, but I do know that they're usually guided by their feelings and this one had clearly left his brain somewhere safe, because charging into someone who had just killed his comrade, wasn't really bright. Then again, as a society build on strength, intelligence wasn't the strongest suit of the lower ranking Sith and it wasn't until their 'survival of the fittest' strategy had run for a while and the dumbest of them had been eliminated, that intelligence became a real factor.

He stopped right beside the sniper, lightsabre slashing for the kill, only to be stopped as I parried the blow with my lightfoil. I had expected him to be somewhat surprised, but without missing a beat, he adapted to the new situation and I suddenly found myself in a lightsabre versus lightfoil duel. That haven't been my plan and to make it even worse, the Sith quickly proved that while my technique might be better, the sheer force he could put behind his strikes due to his two-handed grip on the lightsabre made his strikes very hard to parry.

I dodged yet another powerful swing of the lightsabre, but instead trying to counterattack as I had done the other times, I used the Force to send the Sith flying backwards, landing with a tumble on the tarmac.

Then I simply ordered "Fire!"

Half a dozen glittering blue flashes of charric beams raced towards the Sith.

He managed to block the first few, but then the energy from the masers sent the lightsabre flying and the rest hit the Sith' metal armor, causing a massive electrical discharge for about two seconds, before he blew up.

Taking a deep breath, I activated the comm. "Excellent job, Troops."

I pondered what to do next, as I used the Force to recall the fallen Sith' lightsabre to my hand. Not only would it prove their presence here, but in the remote case that more Sith were around, I wasn't about to leave weapons on the ground for them to use.

Their level of skill also left me wondering. In every tale about the Sith I had ever heard, they were powerful Force-users and yet the two we had just met, haven't impressed me. At least not when it came to Force skills, as the last Sith had shown that despite my years of training, I still lacked experience in lightsabre combat. Then again, even Sith had to start somewhere, and it was entirely possible, that these two had been lowly apprentices.

With a glance, I confirmed that the first Sith was still there.

"Second Squad. Take the APC and flush the enemy out of that building, while the rest cover you. Comm, tell the dropship to come get us."

"Yes Sir!"

Reaching out with the Force, I dragged the fallen Siths into our position, while the APC took off.

The sound of weapon discharge told me, that the troops were giving cover for the APC, but the sound of a larger weapon suddenly mixed with the rest. Looking up, I noticed a heavy blaster on a tripod, shooting at the APC, so I drew the lightfoil and threw it. It ignited as it left my hand and hit the heavy blaster, cutting it in two before returning to me.

Then I used the Force to drag the two smugglers manning the weapon down from the small building they had used as a weapon platform.

I walked closer, lightfoil at the ready, but after I had parried the first few laser shots, they didn't even try to enter melee combat or run away. They simply surrendered.

I arrived back at our position with the two prisoners as the APC group had returned and to their credit, they had already loaded the wounded and unconscious Lieutenant Sigan into the back of it along with two other wounded troopers.

Leaving the practical details to the troopers, I had a chat with the prisoners, using the Force to make them more likely to reveal vital details and to ensure them that everything would turn out for the better.

That proved to be an exceptional good idea and I had the Comm operator connect me with the Phoenix right away. As usual, I got hold of the tactical officer. "Lieutenant Meistrin, two prisoners just informed me that the pirates have no less than three warships. The main ship is a cruiser with a dozen starfighters, but I don't know the exact class of cruiser. I do know that it's commanded by a Sith, who goes by the name of Lord Mahaw. The other ships are a Fury-class Imperial interceptor and a modified D5-Mantis Patrol Craft. I'm not familiar with the D5, but both patrol crafts and Interceptors are bad news. In addition, they have a modified freighter to haul the goods, most likely a Dynamic class. On the bright side, only a few of the crew are Imperials. The rest are pirates."

To Junior Lieutenant Meistrin's credit, she didn't curse one single time. At least not out loud. Patrol ships were usually smallish ships, around 30 meters long, and well-armed and armoured for their size, while Interceptors were tad larger and faster, but just as well equipped as a patrol ship. The only drawback was that since they were made to take down smaller ships, they usually sported dual or heavy lasers and not turbolasers.

The Phoenix might be a capital ship, but as a Frigate it was the smallest class in the entire navy and the cruiser alone would be a hard fight. Add two minor war ships and a freighter to it and the scenario became a nightmare.

I continued. "According to the prisoners, the ships are hidden in the ultrachrome refining facility four clicks southeast of here."

Which meant that not only were the enemy ships close to impossible to find with a scanner, the presence of our own people also made an orbital bombardment or attack out of the question.

On the bright side, if they were invisible to the scanners, they had to be powered down, which meant, that we had time to get our collected asses out of the system and call in some reinforcement.

Lieutenant Meistrin interrupted my thoughts. "Pardon me, Commander, but the cruiser just came out of hiding from behind the second moon and our Talon Interceptors are being attacked by Sith Starfighters. I'll get back to you later. Phoenix out."

Thoughtful, I leaned back against the wall. Even if the Phoenix managed to win the fight, and it had to since it couldn't outrun a cruiser, chances were, that it would be too damaged to enter hyperspace, which again meant that we would be stuck here for a long time.

Even worse, if the Sith came out victorious, they would have the high ground and we would have to hide. A notorious hard job, with a Sith force user over our heads.

Also, the other ships might be powered down for now, but as soon as the battle above us started, they would power up and join the battle, spelling defeat for us.

Plans and options ran through my mind as I watched the dropship land and the APC being loaded into it, while the troopers kept a tight perimeter.

There was only one way out of this and that was to ensure that the space-battle continued to be a one-on-one battle. As far as I had read, Sith Interceptors, or starfighters as the Sith called them, didn't have any shields and as ours did, they should have a good chance of winning that part of the battle, after which they could help the Phoenix.

Taking a decision, I pushed away from the wall. "Comm, get me the Black Dragons in the Commlink. Pilot, we're about to do something so stupid it might even work, so buckle up, coz this is going to be a bumpy ride!"

"Yes, sir."

Five minutes later, the ground zipped past us, as the dropship flew so low, that we were between the buildings and not above them.

Since Lieutenant Sigan was still out, I had taken the seat behind the pilots, enabling me to see what was going on.

The pilot muttered something to himself, as the dropships left wing clipped the top on an antenna, he clearly hadn't seen. On the other hand, even if he had seen it, he wouldn't have had time to react. Knowing that we weren't far from our destination, I chuckled. "No harm done. You're doing fine."

He didn't have time to answer, but his shoulders became a little less tense, so I looked at the monitor showing the rear view. The Black Dragons dropship was trailing us perfectly.

"There they are..." said the co-pilot and checked his read-out. "Two of them are running power-up cycles, but none of them are hot yet."

Nodding, I quickly looked at the scene. The three ships were parked in a triangle in an open area between taller buildings, with the pirates camping between them. Roughly the same size, the Mantis and the Fury almost couldn't be more different in regard to design. The Fury was flat, angular and wide, with two wing-like prongs that stretched out to double the length of the main hull. Normally, Sith ships are with predominantly black, with crimson accents, but this one was dark red.

The Mantis was tall, with a narrow, elongated fuselage with a swept-back, tapered profile and smooth, curving lines, and a matte grey colour scheme, but the most noteworthy detail of its design was the retractable weapon foils that was folded up on each side of the craft.

"Execute the plan."

The pilot took a deep breath and nodded.

On the ground, I could see pirates running towards their ships as the two dropships came screaming into view. A few of them of them tried to shoot, but the blaster bolts bounced of the shield like gentle rain. The return fire from the gunners didn't as it ripped through several heavy weapons that had been set up as a perimeter guard. More a military tactic than a pirate. Even more surprising was the number of bodies on the ground. As far as I could see, there were a lot more bodies than our attack could account for.

That was a concern for later I decided. "Land now."

With a short nod, the pilot expertly landed the dropship right on the Fury-class Imperial interceptor. The repulsorlift engines lifted the dropships just enough to kept it from damaging the Fury, but there was still a screech of metal against metal as the cargo door opened and the APC drover out onto the hull.

I nodded to myself. The Fury class was a sturdy ship, but even the sturdiest ship would have trouble take off with a dropship on top of it, which of cause was the plan.

A little further away, I could see the Black Dragons dropship land on the Mantis, causing the patrol ship to sag and cramming the landing gear into the ground, as the cargo door opened, and the Black Dragons jumped onto the hull, while the APC's side-gun gave supportive fire.

There wasn't any time to waste, so I got out of the seat, ran to the troop compartment and out on the hull of the Fury.

Several of the pirates on the ground were shooting in our direction, but the blaster bolts were easily parried and a moment later a trooper shot one of them, causing the rest to take cover. Not that it helped them since they were caught in a crossfire between my two squads on one side and the Black Dragons on the other side.

Ignoring them, I jumped down from the back end of the ship, using the Force to land safely on the ground in front of the open access-ramp to the Fury, which completely took the two guards there by surprise, as they were busy trying to shoot at the Black Dragons on the other ship. The lightfoil made glowing arches in the air as I took them out.

A group of three armed pirates appeared from within the ship. I reached out with the Force and sent them flying over my head and onto the ground between the ships before I ventured inside.

Finding a hatch leading to the top didn't take long, and soon I had a group, as well as one of the pilots from the dropship, along with me, as we headed towards the control room.

I had expected tough resistance, but the majority of the crew was already dead and most of them looked like their heads had been blown off... from the inside.

For a second, I pondered what had happened, but then realized that the dead crew must have been slaves, with an explosive device set into them to prevent them from running away. Those devices must have been keyed to the vital signs of the Sith and when the masters died, so did many of the slaves, as their devices activated. As far as I could see, there were no officers among the exploded persons, which indicated that the higher-ranking slaves were keyed to another circuit.

Most likely the main ship or the Sith commanding it.

It also meant that they would do anything in their power to prevent us from winning, because loosing would mean death.

I activated the comm. "Lieutenant Yaki. Do you have a signal interrupter on your dropship?"

"What, sir?" came the stunned response back, but then she said. "Yes, sir. Standard Issue, but..."

"Activate it now." I interrupted. "Set it to cycle through as many frequencies as possible and block the active ones, except our commlinks."

"Yes, sir."

We were almost at the cockpit, when there were several muted explosions and a moment later the Comm link activated. "Sir, the pirates just blew up!"

"Good. Secure the ships and see if you can find our people. They might have been taken as slaves. Also, some of the pirates might still be alive, so don't let your guard down." I changed channel. "Pilots, I want the APC into the dropship and both dropships on the ground ASAP. I'm sending them out to tell our people that they're safe for now."

"Yes, sir!"

I nodded to myself. The whole operation had gone way more painless than I had expected, but we weren't in the clear yet. If the cruiser won the battle above us, getting away would not be an easy task.

Old as they were, both the Fury and the Mantis were fine ships as far as I remembered from the datasheets, but compared to a cruiser, they were outgunned. On the bright side, most pirated modified their ships to take down large freighters, so there was a possibility, that these ships had greater firepower than I assumed.

Looking at the locked cockpit door in front of me, I ignited the lightfoil and stepped back. "Ready?"

The pilot nodded and lifted his sidearm. "Ready, sir."

Extending my free hand towards the lock, I focused on the Force and a moment later, a stream of purple lightning left the palm of my hand, hit the lock and both fried and overloaded the electronics.

There was a 'click', as the lock disengaged and then the doors opened.

The troopers rushed inside, weapons at the ready. That turned out to be unnecessary: The cockpit only contained four dead and headless bodies. It was a mess, but it was better than being shot at.

Activating the commlink again, I said. "The Fury is ours. Progress report."

The ship rocked as the dropship lifted off and at the same time, I heard Yaki say. "The Mantis is ours, Commander, and we'll get to the freighter in a moment. We can see moment in the cockpit, so whatever you did, didn't affect them."

"Roger. Have the dropships cover them with their heavy weapons, but don't shoot. Some of our people might be in there."

I pondered the situation for a moment. For all intent and purpose, this fight was over. Without ships, the rest of the renegades were easy picking, and the freighter didn't have a chance against two warships. "Comm, tell the Phoenix, that the enemy isn't going to get reinforcement from down here."

"Yes, sir!" came the enthusiastic reply.

Closing the commlink again, I looked at the gunner's station. As far as I remembered from the datafiles, the Fury-class had two dual laser turrets, one on each wingtip, but not only had these been upgraded to light turbolasers, the schematics showed a forward-facing Ion-cannon as well as a point-defence laser cannon turret on each side, for added protection.

Walking over to communications, I took of my helmet and looked at the labels, which were thankfully written in basic.

I pressed the one named freighter and a moment later a beautiful human woman appeared on the view screen. To my surprise, she was scantily dressed, reviling way more flesh and curves than any other uniform I had ever seen before and the dress only enhanced the fact, that she was nicely built. She also had fiery red hair that looked like it was sat in a ponytail and for a moment I didn't say anything as I took the unusual sight in. It was the first time I had ever seen anybody with red hair.

Unless I missed my guess, which was based on the limited knowledge I had about Sith society, female slaves to male masters were often forced to wear revealing clothes and were taken whenever their master chose to. However, if the woman on the view screen was a slave, that begged the question why she haven't blown up with the rest of them. Still, she did wear the insignia of a captain, so I had to assume that she was one.

I got hold of myself and switched to Basic, the most spoken language in the universe. "Captain, I'm Lieutenant Commander Thalen. Two warships and a couple of dropships are aiming at your ship. Please surrender you ship, before more blood has to be spilled."

"I'm Captain Samko." Her eyes glanced to one side for a moment, before they returned to me. "What will happen to my crew, if we surrender, Lieutenant Commander Thalen?"

Since it was a good question, I pondered that for a moment. The penalty for being a pirate was usually prison, unless evidence showed that they had murdered people, in which case the penalty was death. On the other hand, as slaves, the crew at the freighter haven't had a choice and that changed at many of the laws involved.

"Have you or your crew been involved in murdering our citizens?"

Captain Samko shook her head. "No, we're only here to haul any loot, though I have to say, that we have about twenty-five of your people in the cargo area right now." She smiled humourlessly. "So please warn your people not to be trigger happy."

With slavery being widespread in the Sith Empire, that didn't surprise me. To pirates, people was just another merchandise to sell on the black marked.

"You're slaves yourselves, right?"

She nodded shortly, so I continued. "Who's your master and what countermeasures have been used to keep you from running away?"

"Lord Mahaw." She hesitated. "He's commanding the warship you must know about by now. We have lost the signal to him, but this ship has a built-in signal replicator for situations like this and as long as we're in the ship, we're safe."

"Very well, Captain. Here's the deal. If you surrender and you have done nothing here but petty theft under the command of your master, I'll not only have the explosive device removed, so you're free, I'll also let you go free and have you transported to the nearest star port of your choice."

To my surprise, she shook her head. "Sorry, Commander, but the device cannot be removed. It has been placed there with The Force and is powered by our own lifeforce. Even your best techs can't do anything about it."

Now there was a statement, that didn't make sense. There was no reason for a Sith to go to those lengths for a simple crew on a relatively old freighter. Both of which could be easily replaced.

It was far more likely, that the Sith had done nothing of the kind, but persuaded Captain Samko and her crew, that he had.

I ignited the lightfoil and held it up so she could see it, since most people tend to associate lightfoils and light sabres with force-users, despite that there was nothing to keep ordinary people from using them. Force users were just better at it. "I'm fairly sure, I can make it happen. Will you allow me to try?"

She looked dumbstruck for a moment, but there was a slight smile when she finally nodded. "Indeed, I will, Lieutenant Commander Thalen."

"I'll come to your ship now."

"You will be most welcome, sir."

"Thalen out."

I closed the view screen and turned around. "I'll go to the freighter. Prepare both ships for take-off and check that the dropship didn't make any permanent damage. And fix that door."

"Yes Sir!"

As I walked down the corridor again, I asked the computer to give me a quick update on humans. They were the most numerous species in the galaxy and as such there were classes on the naval academy devoted to them, but it had been years since I attended those classes and I wanted to make sure that I haven't forgotten anything or stepped on any racial taboos.

A moment later the computer said. "Humans exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Their appearances vary drastically from one individual to the next, with skin tones ranging from the darkest ebony to the fairest ivory, though they don't come red, blue, or green. Eyes come in a kaleidoscope of colours, while hair textures and shades are equally diverse. Their bodies display a remarkable resilience, able to thrive in a multitude of environments, from scorching deserts to icy tundras. They're known for their astonishing adaptability, both physically and culturally, and as such, the Human race doesn't have any general taboos, but rather localized ones, depending on the culture and religion they grew up in."

I snorted to myself. That didn't tell me anything I couldn't remember, so I would just have to go with the flow on this one.

Walking out of the Fury-class ship, I contacted Lieutenant Yaki, explained the situation, and had her meet me at the freighter. No reason to go alone into a potential enemy ship.

Just to be on the safe side, I used a moment to concentrate on feeling the flow of the Force around me, but everything felt normal, without the disturbances, that indicated another Force user. Then I turned my attention towards the Dynamic-class freighter and discovered that looked surprisingly streamlined for a freighter, with a tapered nose and angular wings that most likely housed the engines and various other systems.

This one had certainly seen better day, but still looked solid and the access ramp opened without a sound, revealing a clean and well-lit interior as well as Captain Samko and another human woman bearing the insignia of a pilot. The revealing clothes were gone and instead they were dressed in standard jumpsuits.

"Welcome to the Cool Cat, Lieutenant Commander." Captain Samko said...

In my commlink, I heard Yaki mumble. "Come into my house, said the spider to the fly."

... and gestured us inside. "This is Georgina Writ, my pilot."

"Thank you, Captain." I said and followed the two of them as they turned and walked further inside the ship. A shiver ran down my spine, but I suppressed it.

For millennia, the only non-Chiss my race had encountered had been races trying to conquer us if given half the chance, so we tended to be both careful and cautious when dealing with other races. Following a non-Chiss into unknown territory was one of those things that I wouldn't normally do, but this time I didn't have a choice.

Not only was it my duty to try to liberate those Chiss taken as prisoners, but we also needed some of technicians to staff the ships if we were to aid Phoenix.

Fortunately, space is huge, and I didn't doubt that Captain Doran was fighting a running battle, where the Talon Interceptors could concentrate on the enemy starfighters in an effort to eliminate those before he would try to enter combat range.

That also meant that we had time to do this, but not much.

They stopped as we reached the main hold and Captain Samko said "Sorry, Lieutenant Commander, but I have no idea how to go from here."

"One moment." I focused on her emotions, to get a better read and then asked. "Please confirm that what you told me earlier is true."

"Everything was true." She said without hesitation.

I nodded in satisfaction, as her emotions seconded that. It wasn't a fool proof way of telling if a person was lying or not, but it certainly was better than trying to read the body language of a race I had never encountered before.

"First we'll do a scan." I signalled to the Black Dragons medic, who nodded and stepped forward, holding a scanner. She ran through all settings no less than four times, while I focused on the flow of the Force within the captain.

As I had suspected, there was absolutely nothing there and I had just explained it to her, when the medic looked up from her scanned and said "Sir, she has a locator implant with a small quantity of explosives in her neck, but that's it. I can easily remove it."

"Do it." I ordered and accessed the Commlink to contact the pilots in charge of the captured spaceships. "Pilots, how're the ships coming along?"

"Ready to fly, sir!" reported the pilots back almost in unison.

"Thank you." Closing the commlink again, I waited as the Medic removed the explosive implant from Captain Samko and then asked, "Captain, as far as I know, there's a cruiser in orbit. Can you give me some details on that?"

She nodded. "Yes. It's the Dark Light. A Hammerhead-class cruiser with a compliment of twelve Sith Starfighters, six turbolasers and a bunch of laser cannons." She smiled humourlessly. "I hope you brought something bigger."

I shook my head slowly. The Hammerhead Cruiser was an old design, but it was a big and powerful ship. It wasn't a Sith design, but a large number of them had been taken by the Sith during the Great Intergalactic War and being barred from using the usual Sith ships, it made sense for a group of renegades to acquire one of these as their main ship. Especially out here in the outskirts of the galaxy, where there's people willing to sell anything as long as the prize is right.

Fortunately for us, a buyer was lucky if any given ship had just half of its original weapons, so we rarely encountered pirated with military grade ships, and I doubted the Dark Light was any different. The cost of equipping a ship with full military weapons simply wasn't worth it in cost and maintenance. At least not for a pirate whose main goal was to capture enemy ship and not to blow them away.

Suddenly the commlink crackled into life and a female voice said. "Corporal Dusho here. Sorry to interrupt, sir, but could you ask where all our people are? We've searched this area and our people are nowhere in sight."

Yaki turned towards Captain Samko. "Captain, where're our people? There should be almost five hundred people in this section of the refinery and they're nowhere to be found!"

The human looked sad. "I'm sorry, Mam. The pirates took them away yesterday."

There was silence for a moment, but then I said. "You better elaborate, Captain Samko."

She nodded and explained, that when she had arrived, the pirates had already taken this area and were busy loading people into a Heraklon-class freighter, which then took off, heading for a base in another system.

I sighed. That sounded way too likely. The Heraklon-class freighter was a big ship, about as big as a frigate, but despite its size, it was lightly armed and armored. So lightly, that the stock version didn't have any weapons at all, but considering the area we were in, it was highly unlikely that the pirates haven't equipped it with a few weapons for self-defence.

However, taking time to capture and load all those people into a freighter explained why it had taken the pirates so long to get to the refinery, as capturing the people here had clearly been the primary objective, while the ultrachrome facility had been the secondary target.

"Captain, can you give me any details on that ship?" I asked.

She nodded tiredly. "Yes, I know it quite well. It's an old piece of crap, named 'Last chance'. The hyperspace engine is rated as a rank four and it's only armed with two medium lasers. On the bright side, it can be configured to almost anything and I'm guessing that it's in passenger mode right now, which give room and life support for 450 people." She shrugged lightly. "I was the pilot on it for a while before I got this ship. Decent people there, but to make ends meet, they had to do a little smuggling on the side, and they got caught for it the same way I did."

"Any pirates onboard?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, but there's no need to. We will blow up it we leave the ship and there's a booby trap connected to the nav computer, so the ship will blow up, if we deviate from our route too much... fortunately, we haven't gotten our route yet."

I was silent, as I digested the information. This pirate group had a lot of ships, but all of them were old models. Not that unusual, as this area of space is usually the place where old ships go, when they're too run down to have much value anywhere else. On the bright side, it also meant that it was extremely unlikely, that they were part of any official Imperial force.

The news about the hyperspace generator being rank 4, was another piece of good news.

Since the hyperspace ranking basically just described how fast the ships moved in hyperspace, you could calculate travel time, by multiplying the ideal travel time, which was 1, with the hyperspace rating of the engine.

In other words, since the Phoenix had a hyperspace rating of two, it was twice as fast as the Heraklon-class freighter. If the freighter took eight days to reach a destination, the Phoenix could do it in four and that difference gave us a real possibility of arriving on the freighters destination before they did and ambush the ship, when it came out of hyperspace.

That however demanded that we won the battle against the Sith pirates' Hammerhead cruiser.

"Captain," I said. "We're going up there to save both you and our people here and I would prefer if you came along. Do you have any long-range lasers on this ship?"

"No. Turbolasers and the like are too expensive for an upstart freighter captain like me." She thought for a moment and then added. "And no armour beside the stock one for that matter."

"I see. Then I would like you to come with me."

For a moment, Captain Samko looked at me in disbelief, but then nodded. "Okay, but why?"

"I don't know if the Sith on Dark Light can use the Force to feel who're on the ships, but if he can and do that, I want you on one ship and Georgina Writ..." I nodded in the direction of the pilot "... on the other. It might not fool him, but it will make him wonder."

My commlink with Yaki switched on. "Commander, what about our people?"

"One problem at a time, Lieutenant." I replied. "Before we can save the others, we need to save ourselves."

"Yes, sir."

Switching channel, I got hold of Corporal Dusho again. "Corporal, we're going into space to assist the Phoenix. In the meantime, have the engineers look for a booby trap connected to the nav computer of the dynamic-class. If they find one, I want it removed."

"Yes, sir."

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

Going against Lord Mahaw

Alpha Viga System

"Great results, can be achieved with small forces."

From the Holy Book of War

A little while later, I was sitting in the command chair of the D5 Mantis as we took off, heading for space, while the techs familiarized themselves with the control panels in front of them. It had been a whirlwind of things done in an extremely short time, but in the end, it had all worked out.

The four-person crew of the freighter had their implants removed and detonated, while a squad of troopers freed the prisoners in the cargo hold and got the military or technical educated ones on board the ships.

Fortunately, both the Mantis and the Fury was light on crews, so that gave us just enough people to crew them both. The wounded were getting medical attention and the rest would repair the damaged freighter with the help from the freed slaves, as both the marines and the Black Dragons kept watch for any pirates.

After a quick study of the two captured ships, I had decided to take the Mantis, which in my opinion simply was a slightly better warship than the Fury-class. At least for this situation.

In fact, it was an awesome ship. Compact and rugged, it employed three retractable weapon foils with independent power supplies, which made it capable of safely deploying armament intended for larger class vessels. Consequently, the Mantis had two light turbolasers and a capital grade missile launcher mounted in the foils, as well as a hull-mounted laser and an Ion-cannon, making the Mantis as well armed as a light Frigate.

Like on the Fury, the previous owner had installed a hypertransiver and military-grade shield generator, sensors, and weapons suite, while changing the interior from a stark military looking design, to something that resembled a luxury yacht: Stylish, yet practical.

Being taller than the Fury, the designers had done a great job of utilizing the height, making room for all five crew members and the six passengers to have a cabin each, as well as a lounge, a conference room, and a small medical bay without losing much cargo space. In short, it was an almost perfect pirate vessel.

The thought of pirate vessels made me look at the tactical display as we cleared the planet's atmosphere and the sensors kicked in. The Phoenix was still there and closer than I had thought it would be, but only ten of the Talon Interceptors were still visible on the screen. On the bright side, there were only eight Sith Starfighters left.

"Comm. Contact Phoenix."

After a few moments of hesitation, the view screen lighted up, again showing Phoenix' the tactical officer, Junior Lieutenant Meistrin. "Commander Thalen!"

"Hello Lieutenant. We have liberated the two ships we spoke of earlier and are on our way to help with the cruiser."

"Thank you, LC." Lieutenant Meistrin said, using the short version of my rank. "We're in a bit of a mess here. That Hammerhead cruiser is heavily modified and it's slightly faster than the Phoenix. To make matters worse, Captain Doran is out cold after we took a hit from one of their starfighters."

Glancing at the tactical display, I thought the situation over. The cruiser was still in the planet's gravity well, so it couldn't make a hyperspace jump, but nothing prevented it from turning and make a run for it.

I called up the flight data for the cruiser and did a quick calculation. If the cruiser turned within the next five minutes, it would make it. Otherwise, our real-space velocity was fast enough to catch it before it could leave the gravity well.

On the other hand, the Phoenix was already damaged and if the cruiser captain wanted to fight, he would want to take either the Phoenix or us out before we could enter the battle. Of course, the captain of the cruiser would know that too and what happened now, would depend on his actions. Still, being Sith, I was willing to bet he would go into combat instead of running away. Especially with a ship like the Hammerhead cruiser.

On the screen, the tactical officer paused, took a breath, and then said. "Sir, now that you have your own ship, you outrank First Officer Kiran, so please accept command."

I blinked a few times. First Officer Kiran's navy rank was Lieutenant, but because I had been assigned to his ship, he had outranked me since he was the First Officer. Now, I wasn't on his ship anymore and as Lieutenant Commander, I was the highest-ranking officer and thus had command. That was the same reason why Elise Samko, was Lieutenant Samko now, instead of Captain Samko, as the title of Captain meant the commanding officer on a ship.

"Very well, Lieutenant. Stand by." I said as I marked a place on the system map. "Turn and run towards these coordinates. That's the shortest intercept route, that will keep you out of reach of the cruiser for as long as possible, until we come near enough to help you."

She nodded as the coordinates showed on the screen and ordered the helmsman to change course.

"Sir, incoming signal from the Sith cruiser! It wants to know our status." Said the comm operator, causing me to look at him. He was one of the technicians I had drafted from the Alpha Viga complex. Mostly since the Master Engineer swore that the young man was a wizard with communication systems. His name was Krott'avune'authum, but everybody called him Tavune.

Being Chiss Tavune looked to be around twenty human years and according to Master Brin, we both grew and matured mentally faster than humans. Naturally, the same applied to me and being twenty years old, most humans would assume that I was around thirty.

"Ignore it, Mister Tavune." I ordered and turned back towards the view screen. "Lieutenant Meistrin, if he follows you, we'll take him out. Otherwise, we'll let him run. It's up to him."

"Yes, sir."

Time seemed to move in slow motion, as I watched the dots on the tactical display move slowly towards each other and I could feel the tension in the cockpit rise steadily as the cruiser inched closer to the dot that was the Phoenix.

Then I noticed that both the cruiser and the Phoenix were moving across our heading, and we were approaching them from the side almost like a hoover car approaching a T-junction. It wasn't perfect, but when we caught up with them, we would be slightly behind them, with the cruiser between us and the Phoenix.

An idea struck me and made me turn towards the gunner. "Guns, just in case that Hammerhead cruiser doesn't change direction, launch a flight of missiles and aim them at the point where the Hammerhead catch up with the Phoenix."

She turned and looked at me with surprise in her eyes. "Sir, we're way out of range!"

"I know, but if the cruiser keeps this heading, they can coast in on a ballistic trajectory. It's not like they'll lose speed in space and with their heading, the missiles will catch up on them. Find a point right before the cruiser comes within range of the Phoenix and set the safety limit to that time. That should do the trick... oh and preload the cruiser's signature into the missile's sensors, so they don't go after the Phoenix or us by accident."

She blinked in surprise, but then nodded with a smile, turned towards the control panel, and started programming the missiles.

I looked at the closing dots again. This far away, the cruiser sensors wouldn't detect the launch and the missiles drive wouldn't even kick in before they entered sensor range, so the missile would continue like a small meteor and be just as hard to detect. The chances of damaging the cruiser were extremely small, but at least they could give the pilot on the cruiser a shock when the proximity alarm went off and with just a little bit of luck, we might damage their shields.

"Mister Tavune, open a link to the Fury."

I waited until the display told me that it had happened and then looked around in the cockpit. "We can't ride into battle in nameless battleships, people. Any suggestions?"

It became a game for the two crews as the time for battle grew nearer, but they finally agreed on Hunter's Gambit, while the Fury-class Interceptors' crew named it Rising Star.

"Sorry to ask, sir." Said Lieutenant Samko. "But going up against a cruiser with two patrol ships seems like a bad idea. Are you sure you can win this?"

That made me smile a bit. "That will depend on how you define 'winning'. If you mean 'taking down the enemy in a stand-up fight', the answer is no. The Hammerhead cruiser is a tough ship and if the captain knows what he is doing, he'll turn right now and come at us with all turbolasers firing, forcing us to flee or be destroyed."

"So how do we win?" She asked, sounding a bit on the edge.

"Our objective is to keep our people safe. To do that, we'll have to deliver enough damage to force him to withdraw." I nodded at the screen. "On the other hand, Mahaw is in a position where if he doesn't win, he will lose. If he retreats now or allow the Phoenix to leave the gravity well and enter hyperspace, which would allow us to do the same, he has lost three ships and most of what he came here for." I shrugged lightly. "However, I think he'll fight..."

A 'blib' from the console interrupted our conversation and told me, that it was now too late for the cruiser to turn, and he was still going after the Phoenix at full speed.

"... and he will lose." I finished.

"But how?"

Holding up a hand, I said. "Later. I need to focus."

I tuned her out and looked at the tactical display. The red dot that was the enemy was almost within range of the Phoenix.

Since we were past the point of no return, I started to give orders. First to the Talon Interceptors, who were to draw the star fighters away from the enemy cruiser. Then I told the Phoenix to turn and support us as soon as they could, while the Fury-class interceptor and my own ship went in for the cruiser.

When everybody knew their role, I closed my eyes and reached into the Force, using it to boost the skills of the people under my command.

Then I looked at the display. I just had time for one more thing. "Comm, open a line to our ships."

"All yours, sir."

"This is Lieutenant Commander Thalen. Quite frankly, I had hoped that it didn't come to this... That the captain of the pirate cruiser would turn around and run away and that we could all go home without risking more lives. That was not to be. Clearly, this captain is unfamiliar with us. Clearly, he has underestimated our skills in battle and willingness to fight for our people. In a short while, the battle will commence. Let us show that bastard how we react to people, who come into our territory and take our people prisoners, to be sold as slaves. Let's show him how real warriors fight." I paused for a moment and then added. "Good luck, People."

The timing was beautiful. Just as I finished speaking, the enemy cruiser took its first shot at the Phoenix and missed, but in almost the exact same moment, the six capital ship size missiles we had fired earlier suddenly woke up from their dormant state, sensors acquired their target, and the missiles lit their drives.

The cruiser's point-defence got two of the missiles, but the other four slammed into the cruiser in rapid succession. Three of the missiles wasted themselves against the cruiser's shields, but one hit the rear end of the cruiser and the ship must have had its shields angled towards the Phoenix, because the missile rammed directly into the hull without encountering a shield and blew up, taking one of the cruiser's ion-engines out.

On the readout, the stats on the cruiser's shields transformed as the cruiser changed the shields to cover the whole ship instead of just the front and its acceleration dropped considerably.

"Range!" the Gunner called out a little later. "Target acquired!"

"Fire!"

A moment later, the two light capital ship lasers fired at the cruiser, making its already weakened shield flare for a moment, before the shield generators overloaded and just like that, the cruiser didn't have any shields left.

"Evasive manoeuvres. Keep the distance. We don't want to get into range of his laser cannons." I told the pilot Grizz'wul'oushu (Zwul) and ordered the Talon Interceptors to attack the Sith starfighters, just as the Hammerhead cruiser fired a salvo of turbolasers fire at us. The shock from getting hit by capital missiles must have rattled the gunners, because they missed by a large margin.

The tactical display changed as the Talon Interceptors went from running way, to going on the offensive and while it didn't exactly take the Sith by surprise, the skill of the pilots must have, because in a single attack, all their star fighters had ceased to exist.

The Rising Star fired its light turbolasers again, taking out one of the cruiser's laser cannons, making debris vent into space as a laser turret exploded.

Whomever captained the hammerhead cruiser knew how to handle it, because even as the turret exploded, the ship's manoeuvre thrusters was activated and it started to roll, presenting us with undamaged armor.

The turbo lasers on the Hammerhead fired again and the Mantis rocked as the shots hit the missile foil, tore through the localized shield and ripping the foil straight off the hull.

Lieutenant Samko yelped in what sounded like surprise and fear, and one of the panels blinked an angry red.

"Status." I inquired.

"Minor damage. No hull breaches, but our missiles are gone." Reported the engineer.

"Thank you."

Losing the missile pod wasn't that big a deal, since we had already used the missiles, but as the pod had also housed one of the engines, the loss put a limit on the acceleration and top speed. In our current situation, it didn't matter much, but it was a serious reminder, that our small ships weren't really meant to go toe-to-toe with a real warship.

The gunner fired the Mantis' two light turbolasers at the cruiser again, hitting it in the front section, but the cruiser captain was still rolling the ship and the shots only damaged the armor, while the return shots came nearer the Fury than before without hitting it.

I activated the commlink to the Talon Interceptors. "Squadron 1, strafe that cruiser and aim for the forward turbolasers, but only once and then you get away. Watch out for its point defence."

There was a slight hesitation, before the Squadron leader said. "Come again, sir?"

"Strafe the cruiser." I repeated. "Go for the turbolasers."

"Yes, sir."

Talon Interceptors rarely attacked capital ships for the simple reason that they weren't equipped with missiles or Ion cannons. However, as the Hammerhead's shields were gone and, with the single exception of the hit the Mantis had taken, the gunners looking like they couldn't hit a carrier from inside the hangar, the Talon Interceptors' lasers could do a fair amount of damage and the smaller crafts could follow the roll of the hammerhead easier.

Using a complicated evasive pattern, the Talon Interceptors made their strafing run, easily dodging the sluggish anti-starfighter point defence, and two of the turbolasers exploded, crippling the cruiser even more, before they dodged away from the much larger ship.

"Well done, Squadron 1. Now stay away from the cruiser. We can't take them by surprise twice."

"Yes, sir."

As the cruiser was still moving forward, while the Phoenix had turned around and was actively breaking, the distance between them closed fast and as I watched the display, the Hammerhead cruiser entered the range of the Phoenix's forward weapons.

The difference between our light turbolasers and 'real' capital weapons was clear as four large turbolasers spewed glittering bolts of blue light towards the shieldless Sith cruiser, hitting it midships and punching a large hole in the armor. The range closed and the first salvo was followed a salvo from Phoenix' two heavy megamasers, sending even more armor plating into space. The Hammerhead cruiser might be famous for being able to take a good deal of damage and carry on, but it was taking a beating.

The light turbolasers from the Fury fired again and hit with uncanny precision right where the bridge was located according to the specs in the computer. That was followed by a turbolasers salvo from the Mantis, that hit exactly the same spot, causing a small explosion inside the cruiser.

Seeing the effect of the boost I had made with the Force, I nodded in satisfaction. This was the first time I had used in a space battle and it was good to see that it worked.

The magamasers from the Phoenix fired again and while one of them just punched at the armor, the other hit the hole from the previous attack, causing more explosions inside the hammerhead.

The cruiser's return fire was sporadic and didn't come close to hitting anything.

"Incoming emergency call from the cruiser." Said the comm operator, before we could fire again.

With the damage the cruiser had taken, there was a high possibility that they were surrendering, so I order our ships to cease fire. "On screen."

A moment later, a young man appeared on the screen, saying "Cease fire! We surrender!" as soon as he could see us.

I tilted my head a bit. He looked much too young and innocent to be a Sith or to have command of a ship that size. "Are you authorized to do that?"

"Yes! Yes!" he insisted. "Your last salvo took out the main bridge along with the Captain and Commander Mahaw! Many of the systems are down and most of our crew died along with Lord Mahaw!"

Checking the schematics, I nodded slowly. Like most larger warships, the cruiser had an auxiliary or secondary bridge, that could take over in case the main bridge took a direct hit, like the one we had just delivered on Dark Light. That made what he said entirely possible, but it just seemed a little too convenient to me, that the Sith had died like that. I had been prepared to either blow up the cruiser or go into close combat onboard the ship to get him.

The only real surprise was that Mahaw had used slaves as gunners and crew, but that again you didn't have to pay slaves or give them a share of any loot, and in the Sith way of thinking, it didn't matter if the slaves blew up if they died. The Sith would already be dead anyway.

Closing the connection, I turned the chair and looked at Lieutenant Samko, who had been watching the whole battle from a passenger chair. "What do you say, Lieutenant... Would Lord Mahaw be on the main bridge?"

"Yes." She said with certainty in her voice and her feelings matched her words. "Commanding battles are too important to be left to underlings."

I sent her a nod and turned towards the view screen again. "Very well, Lieutenant. Power down your weapons. If we detect an energy spike in the weapon or shield systems, or if you try to destroy the computers, we will blow you away."

The lieutenant nodded eagerly and gave the order to power down everything but life support.

With a nod of satisfaction, I closed the view screen. The battle was over and the cleaning up could begin, starting with finding the body of the Sith. I didn't trust he was dead until I saw it myself.

"Mister Tavune. Open an all-ships channel."

I waited until the screen showed that the commlink was open and then said. "Good work, people. The cruiser just surrendered. Initiate search and rescue for the missing Talon Interceptors and start preparations to board the cruiser. Let's hope we can go home soon."

I would have loved to send a ship to the nearest Chiss base to report what had happened, but unfortunately, Talon Interceptors didn't have hyperdrives, so that would have to wait.

I released my hold in the Force and a wave of tiredness ran through me. Using the Force had cost me a lot of energy and I needed to lay down and relax, but it would have to wait until we had finished cleaning up.

"Well, you did keep your promise." Remarked Lieutenant Samko with a smile. "They lost... but how did you know?"

Turning towards her, I said. "It all comes down to range, firing angles and firepower. At the range and coming in at only one angle, we minimized the number of turbolasers the enemy could bring to bear on us at the same time." I nodded at the display. "At any given time when we weren't in front of the Hammerhead, he could only fire at us with two turbo's, while his lasers didn't have the range to hit us. We could fire double that number and as small ships, we're harder to hit. Especially since their gunners were really bad, which is why I sent in the Talon Interceptors."

Lieutenant Samko nodded. "What other options did they have?"

Pausing for a moment, I shrugged lightly. "If Lord Mahaw had stopped pursuing the Phoenix and gone after us from the start, we would have been forced to turn and make a run for it. The light turbos in the foils of the Mantis can't shoot backwards, so in a pursuit situation, he would force us away or destroy us any time. That our missiles damaged both the cruiser's ion-drive and the shield right at the start of the combat, only made it even better for us." I paused and ended with. "The moment Lord Mahaw decided to go after the Phoenix first, he had essentially lost the battle."

She nodded slowly. "I see." She glanced past me at the instruments and coughed. "Sir... The all-ship channel is still open."

"Good thing, I wasn't sharing secrets then." I said as I looked over at Tavune, who was turning slightly purple with embarrassment as he swiftly turned off the all-ship channel.

"My fault, Mister Tavune." I said before he could say anything. "I should have told you to switch it off."

"I'll do it next time, sir." He promised.

The next few hours went with a flurry of activity.

One of the missing Talon Interceptor pilots was found alive as his ship had only suffered minor damage and the last Talon Interceptors was confirmed to have been blown up, so nobody was missing.

The surviving crew was removed from the cruiser by having them use the ships two shuttles, which were subsequently tractored to the Phoenix, where the pirates had been locked up.

The dropships brought up the Black Dragons who made a throughout search of the cruiser and, to my pleasant surprise, brought back the mangled body of a dead Sith, whose DNA matched the DNA-locks in the commander's chamber. Lieutenant Samko even identified the remains of the armor and lightsabre as belonging to Lord Mahaw.

The cruiser was flown back to Alpha Viga under its own, much reduced, powers, which would limit the area of space we had to keep an eye on, and while underway, a data technician from the Phoenix searched the database onboard the Hammerhead for information about Last Chance. The Heraklon-class freighter, that had taken our people away.

It took him a few hours, but eventually he found what we had been looking for. Not only were there the precise coordinates of the pirate base and the route to get there, but also the exact time for the departure of Last Chance.

With my background as both an ozyly-esehembo and a naval officer, I can do astrogation, but the Astrogator on the Phoenix had a faster Nav-computer, so I sent the information to him and had him do the calculations. That gave me time to look at the other information we had found, which was details about the Sith themselves and what they were looking for.

A long time ago, a Sith ship had crashed on Alpha Viga, and they believed that this ship might contain another Sith Holocron. They were also hoping to find an ancient Sith Sword, but apparently it wasn't where they thought it was and they had given up on that.

Their base was an abandoned complex on a large moon. The complex had once belonged to something called Imperial Reclamation Service, whatever that was, but now the Mahaw's Raiders used it as their base of operations since it was well hidden and hadn't been used for hundreds of years.

When there were no more decisions to be made, I gave the First Officer on the Phoenix, Lieutenant Kiran, an update of what we had discovered, before I left the command to him.

"Lieutenant Samko?"

"Yes?"

"Take the helm, Lieutenant." I looked at the pilot. "Good job, Pilot Zwul, but now you need to go get some sleep."

"Thank you, sir." Zwul said with a tired smile and stood up, so a happy looking Lieutenant Samko could sit down in the pilot's seat. It wasn't that I suddenly trusted the human Lieutenant, but she seemed like a competent officer, we were understaffed and with all the other people in the cockpit, it wasn't like she could do any damage without us noticing it.

Then I went to the luxurious captain's cabin to take a bath and get some much-needed sleep.

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

Following the trail

"If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully."

From the Holy Book of War

I had taken a quick look into the captain's cabin when we first entered the ship, but as I got ready to take the bath, it really dawned on me, how luxurious it was. At least compared to the military ships I was used to. There were even screens on the walls, that could replay whatever landscape I preferred and after a few tries, I got it to show the view outside the ship, which happened to be glorious, as the sun was rising behind Alpha Viga.

With the last owner being Sith, I took all the bed spreading off and threw it into the cleaner, before I walked into the bathroom. That way it would be clean when I came out again.

Having a private bath was a luxury I wasn't used to, and I took my time in the shower, enjoying every minute of it as the warm water ran down my body.

Then I heard the door opening and a moment later Yaki asked. "Do you want some company in there?"

"Only if you can assure me that you didn't leave the bridge unattended." I chuckled, knowing the answer as well as why she was here. Surviving difficult situations always seemed to make Yaki horny and it wasn't the first time we had unwind in this way.

"I didn't," She said, as she opened the door and stepped inside, revealing that she was already gloriously naked. I moved to the side, so she could step under the water, her wet blue skin glittering in the lights. She ran her hands through her black hair, before giving me a sexy look. "and I need you in me."

A moment later, we were in each other's arms, her breasts pressing against my chest, while my cock poked her hips.

Yaki kissed me passionately and wriggled her hips against my dick a few times, testing its hardness, while I fondled her ass.

Then she promptly turned around, placed her hands against the side of the shower as she bent over and presented her well-shaped round ass to me. "Could we skip the foreplay? I'm so turned on I just want to be fucked."

Taking a firm grip on her hips with one hand, I lined my cock up with the lips of her pussy and thrust forward, burying it her tight wet tunnel. It didn't go all the way, but close enough.

"Fuck!" she groaned and pushed back against me, getting the last of me inside her.

"Spread them more." I said and retracted my dick until only the head was inside her.

Yaki spread her long legs more, bringing her hips down to a perfect position. Taking hold of her hips with both hands, I pushed my dick into her again, getting rewarded with moans. The moans turned into groans when I moved my hands over her breasts, feeling her hard nipples against the palm of my hand, while calmly going in and out of her.

Keeping the pace, I found her hard nipple with the other hand and pinched it gently, before I squeezed them, while slammed my dick into her a few times in rapid succession. That made her yelp and groan. "Ohhh Yes! Give it to me."

With a smile, I lowered the pace again, but changed the rhythm, so that I slammed into her hard, but pulled out slowly, before I slammed into her again.

It didn't take long before she was gasping with every thrust I made, the flesh of her ass rippling each time I thrust into her. I picked up the pace, driving into her faster and faster and Yaki began yelping and squirming as her ass grinded against my pelvis and her pussy convulsed around my cock.

"FUCK!" she cried out a moment later, her body going rigid against mine and her pussy squirting and pulsing around my cock as wave after wave of pleasure ran through her. I continued to fuck her as hard as I could and to my pleasant surprise, she came again, squirting once more as she did so.

The rigidity in her body disappeared and I felt her legs go weak as they collapsed under her. Almost without thinking, I grabbed her with the force to prevent her from falling on the hard floor and slid one hand down to play with her clitoris, as I kept on fucking her.

"Oh shit!" Yaki mumbled and looked at me over her shoulder.

I smiled to her and continued to bury my dick in her. She squealed as I found my rhythm, pounding into her harder and harder, her tight pussy gripping me tightly with each stroke. The inner walls of her pussy were still pulsing from her orgasm and the way it massaged my dick felt fantastic.

Yaki must have felt the same, because she arched her back and groaned a low sound of pure pleasure, but the low sound quickly became higher as I picked up the pace again, slamming my dick into her, while my fingers danced on her clitoris.

This time, there was no words as Yaki howled, and I was suddenly happy that we were in the luxury apartment, because I was sure that if we had fucked anywhere else on the ship, everybody would have heard us.

The howl turned into a muted scream, as she started to shake all over, building up to a big orgasm, while her inner muscles clenched and released as I fucked her, squeezing, and caressing me.

It was delightful but considering that it had only been a day since we had sex last time, and that this one had started rather abruptly, I wasn't anywhere close to coming.

Not that it mattered. Seeing and feeling Yaki having an orgasm was enough for me this time.

There would be other chances for me to get off as well.

When the orgasm had faded, I gently lowered her to the floor. "Sorry, but now I really need to get some rest."

"No complaints." Said Yaki with a tired smile. "It was awesome."

I helped her to her feet. "Yes, it really was, but now it's time for a power nap."

-----------------------

When the computer woke me up a few hours later, I felt well rested, which I guessed was partly due to the fact, that the bed was one of the best I've ever slept in. The other part was that Yaki's naked body was pressed up against mine.

I enjoyed the feeling for a while but discovered the clock on the wall and gently poked Yaki. As usual she woke up fast. "Oh... 'morning."

"Good morning... and I though you would like to know, that it's almost eight o'clock."

Her eyes widened and she suddenly sat up in the bed. "Damn, my watch starts at eight!"

I grinned at her. "At least it's not the alarm."

"True," she said with a laugh and jumped out of the bed. "But I still got to run."

I still had an hour, so I watched her throw on the clothes and hurry out of the door with a smile and a quick "See you in the real world, Thalen."

Chuckling, I got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom to take a quick shower, before getting dressed. To my pleasant surprise, someone had not only used the cleaner on my clothes and jumpsuit, but there was a plate with a cold breakfast meal placed next to it.

Sitting down, I activated the comm and got hold of First Officer Kiran to get an update.

After a few pleasantries, we got down to business, but there wasn't much in the way of news. The repairs on the Phoenix were going according to plan, but it had still taken a serious hit to the bridge, making any hyperspace jump too risky until repairs were finished.

On the bright side, the damaged to the Mantis had been repaired. The foil and it's missile pod were gone forever, but the hole in the hull had been closed with armor plating, after the electronics had been closed off, so they couldn't create more damage by short circuiting other systems.

The people in the other areas of the refinery had been taken care off and the troopers had even started doing an inventory of the pirate ships cargo holds.

Captain Doran had undergone surgery and was expected to wake up later today, though he wouldn't be able to actively take command for some time.

While we were talking, I could see his facial expression change as he suddenly looked much more cheerful. "LC, the nav computer just finished the calculations and the system with the base is located three ideal hyperspace days away."

That meant, that the freighter would take twelve days to get there, while we could do it in eight days. Considering that it had left before we arrived, that still left us with a day of preparations, before we had to take off.

Kiran must have been thinking the same because he continued. "If we leave before eleven hundred tomorrow, we will arrive at the destination before the Heraklon-class freighter." The smile vanished. "Unfortunately, the Phoenix will not be ready for that."

I shrugged slightly. "No worries, Lieutenant. The Mantis and the Fury both have a rank two hyperspace rating and should be enough to stop an old freighter, so I'll just take them."

"Good luck, LC."

"Thanks. Now please excuse me, I'll go make a plan."

"Yes, sir."

I finished my breakfast and walked into the passenger's lounge. Like the rest of the ship, the passenger's lounge looked like something out of a luxury yacht with stylish dark seats, indirect lightning, furniture made of dark wood and with the same wall screens as in the bedroom.

Lieutenant Samko's watch must have been over, because she was relaxing in one of the sofas, while Yaki was sitting in one of the big chairs, reading through something on her datapad. As Yaki noticed me, she looked up with a smile. "Sleeping did you good, sir. You look almost alive now."

"Thank you, Lieutenant and yes, sleeping did good." I answered as I sat down in one of the sofas.

"And I come bringing good news. Unless Captain Doran wakes up and forbids it for some reason, we're going to the rescue." That brought a smile to her face. I continued. "If we leave tomorrow, we can catch the freighter over its destination as it leaves hyperspace."

"Oh, that's good." Said Lieutenant Samko with feeling in her voice. "Nobody should be slaves."

Yaki nodded at that and looked at me. "Sir, I've looking through some of the data from the Hammerhead cruiser and it was quite interesting." She paused for a moment. "This pirate group not only have the ships we know about, but two armed freighters more. The Jackpot and the Dark Maiden." She looked at Lieutenant Samko. "Do you know anything about them?"

The human shook her head. "No. As I said, the ship, along with me and the crew, were bought for this job, and we haven't been on the base yet." She paused and then added. "And I can't thank you enough for rescuing us before that happened."

Not knowing what to say, I just nodded.

"All in a day's work." Said Yaki with a chuckle and looked at me. "The interesting part is that the Jackpot arrived along with the rest of this group but took off earlier and..." She gestured at the datapad. "... this log states that fifty of the young women were moved to the pirate's base."

I felt like cursing but didn't. Until now, it would have been enough to intercept the Last Chance, capture it and bring it back, but with our people on the pirate base, that wasn't enough anymore.

"So, there's four-hundred and fifty on the Last Chance and the other fifty on the Jackpot." I said slowly. "Bringing the total to the five hundred people we're missing."

Yaki nodded. "Yes, sir. But that is all I have at the current time, since the exact class of freighters isn't noted anywhere."

"Do you have the departure time?"

"Not yet, sir." Yaki said. "But the techs are looking through the scanner log as we speak."

"Good," I said. "In the meantime, please examine the rest of the logs and whatever you can get your hands on... See if the techs can't find something in the databases about the missing ships. There must be more information about this base somewhere. The small freighter will most likely arrive before we do, and we might have to take the base to rescue our people."

"Yes, sir."

"I hope you can." Commented Lieutenant Samko. "As far as I know, slavers move their goods fast."

I nodded without commenting. Right now, it wasn't a question about whether we could or couldn't rescue our people. CEDF tradition and regulation both stated that as long as there was a reasonable chance of success, we had to try a rescue of any Chiss taken by foreign powers.

Yaki look at Lieutenant Samko. "By the way, how did you end up as a slave?"

Lieutenant Samko sighed. "As I've said before, I'm a freighter pilot turned smuggler, but a few months ago I got caught and my ship seized." She frowned. "Since I couldn't pay their ridiculous fine, they sold me into slavery to 'cover their expenses' and then suddenly I found myself being forced to transport other slaves. I'm glad that you guys showed up and ruined Lord Mahaw's plans."

"All credit for that goes to Lieutenant Commander Thalen here." Said Yaki as she nodded in my direction. "I'm just a trooper."

"Please, no titles while we're having dinner." I glanced at Lieutenant Samko. "It's an old tradition."

"Oh... in that case, please call me Elise." She pondered for a moment. "What may I call you?"

Considering how much trouble Master Brin had with the Chiss names, I doubted she would fare much better, but I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. "I'm Mitth'ale'nuruodo and Lieutenant is Kadasy'ak'ishalla." I watched her face and chuckled. "You'll most likely find the shorter version of our names easier, so just say Thalen and Yaki."

Lieutenant Samko considered that for a moment, and I had no doubt, that she was trying to pronounce our full names in her head, but eventually she nodded. "Thank you, Thalen and Yaki."

"You're welcome." Yaki looked at me. "Sir, any thoughts on how we're going to pull this rescue mission off?" She held up a hand. "Not the space part, but if it's an old Imperial base, it's going to be well defended and an assault on it is going to be tricky."

"First things first, Lieutenant." I said as I leaned back in the seat. "And in this case, we need to take Heraklon freighter first."

"That shouldn't be a problem with the ships we have." Inserted Lieutenant Samko.

"No, but bases tend to have good sensors and if we go after the freighter with lasers discharging, they'll know that something is up." I said slowly and then fell silent, as I thought it over.

First, there's was the question of the safety of our personnel here, but with both the Phoenix and Dark Light here, it wasn't really a problem. Neither of the two capital ships were in a condition to go into hyperspace, but they could chase off any armed freighters that might return here.

Second, the secret base was defended by droid fighters and while they might not be the best fighters in the universe, according to the database on the Fury, they were more agile than Hunter's Gambit and Rising Star and hard to hit, meaning that they could do a lot of damage on our ships.

The base might also have shields and turbolaser cannons, as most Imperial bases usually have those. Those two factors made a frontal assault out of the question. Along the same lines, we couldn't let them know we were Chiss, because if they knew that, they could hold our people hostages. As it were now, the mere presence of our people limited the amount of force we could use, but hopefully, we could work around that.

Third and final factor was the unknown. We didn't know if there were more ships there. There might be customers or rival pirates, that arrived in a cruiser or even bigger ship.

The relatively easy victory over the Hammerhead didn't blind me to the fact that if the Hammerhead had been a real Navy capital ship, crewed by competent people, we would either have lost a few ships or the entire battle.

I could feel my brain speed up as various options and plans ran through my head, and while some corner of my mind acknowledged that Lieutenant Samko opened her mouth to say something and was stopped by Yaki, I didn't pay any attention to the intermezzo.

Leaving would solve the problem of keeping the planet safe.

The third problem could be minimized by simply jumping back out in case we found something we couldn't handle.

That left only the second problem, but that might be solved with deception and looking at the two others at the table, I slowly said. "I'm going to need the intact Sith armor from the planet cleaned and adjusted to my size, a Sith-like helmet, and a cape. The Black Dragons also need to look as grim and Sith-like as possible..." Pausing for a moment, I looked at Lieutenant Samko, I added "Oh... And you need to come along, Lieutenant Samko."

Knowing me, Yaki grinned. "You got a plan, sir?"

I nodded. "I have."

She pumped a fist in the air. "Yes!"

-----------------------------

Despite the short list I had made for Yaki, it wasn't the only things we needed to pull a rescue mission off.

The Heraklon freighter wasn't really a problem, as I planned on taking it intact as soon as it dropped into realspace and simply send it back to Alpha Viga right away. However, for us to get into the base and our people out of it, there was plenty of things that had to be in order, starting with crewing the captured ships.

I had used the crew of the freighter and the dropships to crew them during the battle with the Hammerhead cruiser, but we needed room to transport troops enough to take the base and we also needed room for our people in case we were successful.

It was a tricky problem, as there was a limit to the number of people any life support system could handle, restricting the number of troops we could take along and still have life support left for fifty additional people on the way back. Not an easy feat with only three small ships.

I struggled with that problem for a while, until I remembered that the pirates had used a couple of Rendaran-class shuttles to leave the cruiser. Granted, their version of the shuttle was a civilian version of the military Assault Shuttle, meaning that their original twin laser cannons had been replaced with light laser cannons, but they could still hold thirty people each and make hyperspace jumps at a respectable speed. Something our own dropships wasn't capable off. The passengers might not be comfortable, but they would get there.

With the D5-Mantis capable of taking sixteen passengers for a limited time, ten passengers on the Fury, and thirty on the Dynamic-class freighter, we had room for hundred passengers. Since we needed to transport fifty passengers home, that left room for fifty troops or five squads of troopers. More than enough to take the base unless we messed up, so I decided to take three Black Dragon squads with me, along with the two Space marine squads that had been with me at the start.

That led me back to the crewing problem, as we needed more pilots and gunners, but I decided that our own dropships didn't need them once the troops were gone, so I drafted them into flying the Rendaran-class shuttles. Both secondary pilots from the Phoenix were needed to pilot the Dark Maiden, but if I assigned a Talon Interceptor pilot to fly the Mantis, Lieutenant Samko could pilot the Fury, with Lieutenant Zwul as a secondary pilot and Georgina Writ could go back to pilot the Dynamic-class freighter.

That left us short of secondary pilots, so I drafted eight of the Talon Interceptor pilots, leaving the Phoenix with only two functional Talon Interceptors, but with two capital ships in the system, that should be enough. That was all the pilots available, except me that is.

As a naval officer, I had learned to pilot a spaceship as part of my training, but I preferred not to be at the helm, as it made it harder to use the Force and I needed to be able to use it freely if my plan were to succeed.

With the pilots sorted, I went on to the rest of the crew.

Fortunately, most military ships are over-crewed in case people die, so I shamelessly picked those not absolutely necessary to crew the Phoenix and the Dark Light and put them on the three former pirate ships, adding a few extra technicians from the refinery to various places where they were needed.

While picking out people from the Phoenix, Junior Lieutenant Meistrin asked to join the rescue party since there were two other junior Lieutenants on the Phoenix who could do her job. I happily accepted, as she had the training to command a spaceship, making her the ideal captain of the Mantis.

Since part of my plan was to pretend to be a Sith, I had changed ship to the Fury, as the Fury-class Interceptor was a typical Sith ship. Along the same line, the Black Dragons needed to look more Sith-like than they did now, and all personnel had to be warned, that they couldn't take of their helmets. While there was plenty of species in the universe with blue skin, I couldn't recall any other race with the glowing red eyes of the Chiss.

Fortunately, there was plenty of non-Chiss equipment on the Hammerhead, so I had the troopers equip themselves with new armors and weapons, while the rest was being arranged.

I tested the Sith armor, but that had been infused with dark energy, so instead, I had had the engineers do a rush job on my own armor and helmet, making it look like a Sith armor. With the limited time we had it would only be cosmetic changes, but that was fine with me. It wasn't like I was going to join the Sith Empire anyway. I just needed to be able to scare some pirates.

Even moving as fast as possible, getting it all in order took the better part of a day and as soon as we were done, we set course towards the pirate base.

A trip that would take several days. Not that I minded. I could use a few days of research and relaxation, and with the ship in hyperspace, there wasn't much else to do.

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I hope you have enjoyed this first chapter of Into the Chaos. There're more chapters on the way, as four of them are almost done, while the outline four others are waiting for me to get to them. I plan on uploading them, while I'm working on ALTFH II 😊