Korriban's Open Orbit

A rugged patched up freighter blasted its way clear of Dreshdae with a very disgruntled and put under freighter Captain, his hands played over the controls like an expert operating a pipe organ, he turned to the man Umbaran beside him and glared, but a gentle persuasive waggle of the weapon in the others hand had him sigh and turn his glare toward the bleak emptiness of space, without saying a word, knowing words were pointless he pushed forward on a silver elongated cigar shaped lever and the vessel lurched forward into hyperspace.

The Victory-class Star Destroyer Vehemence dropped out of hyperspace several dozen kilometers over Korriban's north pole, just outside the planet's orbit. Its sublight engines activating, the cruiser lurched forward just as three DP-20 frigates appeared in a wedge formation behind it. The trio of smaller vessels caught up quickly, with two of the frigates- Viper and Crisis- flitting ahead of the Vehemence and the one remaining, the Guerilla, cruising leisurely along in the Vic's wake.

Lillith stood on the bridge of the Vehemence, gazing out the transparisteel viewport with her hands clasped firmly behind her back. Her features were frozen in their customary mask of grim resolve, but it was all she could do to keep a grin of smug satisfaction off her face. A patrol of Sith holdings wasn't the most glorious of assignments, perhaps, but she'd been given her own command (a very modest command, but a command nonetheless) and that was more than enough for now. She moved to straighten her tunic and her hand brushed the silvery hilt of her saber. She let it linger there for a moment- the cool metal had a reassuring feel to it- but her pale gaze never wavered from the viewport.

Not until an officer approached and hastily saluted, anyway.

"What is it?" She asked, returning her attention to the planet below them.

"You asked to receive a status report upon arrival, ma'am." The officer's voice was flat, emotionless. She liked that.

"Proceed."

"Shields and hull integrity for the Vehemence, Viper, Guerilla, and Crisis are at one hundred percent. The same goes for all weapon's systems. Three of the Defenders assigned to Reaper squadron are currently under maintenance; I am assured they will be returned to active duty within the hour. However, Vanguard squadron is at full strength and is on standby, as per your order. Scans show no other ships in orbit, but we'll continue our sweep as we patrol."

Well, that was good news...for the most part. 'Too bad about Reaper squadron,' Lillith mused. 'If we see any action they'll be scrambled a whole quarter shy of full strength.' Then again, it was doubtful they would do more than circle the planet and perhaps gun down a stray smuggler or two until they were relieved. Even if a Mandalorian fleet did appear in orbit, her responsibility wouldn't be to hold off an invasion but to warn her superiors. What could she do with one cruiser and a handful of frigates, anyway?

They'd been idling for a little over two hours with no sign of activity. The realization that this would very likely be what her entire post consisted of had started to prey heavily on the young Captain. She was seated in the command chair on the rather crowded bridge, watching the activity around her and brooding. One hand was carelessly draped over her saberstaff, fingers loosely curled around the hilt. For the hundredth time her gaze shifted to the viewport to study the barren planet dominating the space below them. The small group of ships, now in a much more loose formation, had gradually migrated toward the eastern hemisphere- and incidentally closer to where the Mandalorian fleet would drop out of hyperspace in a matter of moments.

Lillith was a fledging in the force, at least by comparison to some of the demi-gods that stalked the galaxy; but while she was no adept at manipulating the aether, she had always been rather sensitive to it. Warnings of impending danger, the ability to read the emotions and thoughts of those around her, and even perceiving events before they happened were commonplace to her. So the tightness suddenly gripping her chest, the dread hanging heavy in the air, they were familiar to her. Something was coming.

She lurched to her feet just as warning klaxons erupted and the bridge dissolved into chaos.


The Vehemence was about as agile as can be expected of a Victory-class, which is to say that it was a ponderous, lurching, awkward craft whose only saving grace was its powerful bite. Bristling with turbolaser cannons and concussion missile launchers, and carrying two full squadrons of TIE/D Defenders, it was a vessel made for space superiority. The frigates that flitted around it were quick and deadly as a lightning strike, with laser cannons for picking off enemy fighters, as well as turbolasers and missile launchers for harassing larger ships. The Mandalorian fleet had them outnumbered, but did it have them outgunned?

"Captain Umiya!" It was the same officer that had approached her earlier. "Sensors show multiple ships in orbit, only a few dozen klicks-"

"Mandalorians..." Lillith muttered, ignoring the man. She stalked through the frenzied crowd of officers and approached the viewport. They were coming over the "top" of the planet now, and the newly arrived fleet was in front and slightly below them, still scrambling to get into a cohesive formation. 'Marauders?' The Echani wondered. 'Maybe pirates. Disorganized, either way.' For one, still heartbeat, she hesitated. Then her voice broke through the noise, cold and edged like naked steel. "Scramble Vanguard and Reaper squadrons, but keep them close to home for now. Charge our cannons and shields, and have all troopers on standby in case we need to board. Keep us at a quarter speed. No need to rush them; looks like they're already in formation anyway. The Crisis and Viper are to take positions on our port and starboard sides, respectively. The Guerilla should move up beneath our nose. Relay my orders to the other captains."

She turned to the officer, but he was already at the comm station. Clasping her hands behind her back, Lillith stared down at the mass of warships and allowed herself a grim smile.

The Defenders boiled forth from the ventral hangar of the Vehemence like a swarm of angry hornets. As the distance between the two fleets dwindled, they raced between the larger ships, awaiting orders. The three frigates split a bit further from the Destroyer, giving it the space necessary to maneuver its not inconsiderable bulk.

"We're approaching maximum range, Captain, and the preliminary scans have been confirmed." The man's name was Warren, she'd finally learned. He was young, with a round face that gave him a very innocent look, but so far he had proven himself more than capable. "The largest is a Keldabe-class, but there are six more corvettes: four Crusader-classes, and two of those old CR-90's. From what we've seen they're still in good condition despite their...lackluster appearance." The distaste in his voice wasn't unexpected; the man's crisply pressed olive uniform, shining black boots, and rigid spine were all excellent clues as to the source of his disdain. Lillith was more concerned about whether or not the fleet could punch a hole through her patrol forces and lay waste to the planet below them than appearances, though.

"What about fighters?" She asked, brow furrowing.

"None have been scrambled. Either they have none or they're being held in reserve."

'Small comfort,' the Echani brooded. 'But still, that means we need to use our fighter wing to maximize our advantage.' Her pale gaze shifted restlessly between the ships filling up her viewport. She was thinking at light speed, or trying to: it would be only moments before they were in range. There could be no doubt of the Mandalorian's hostile intent: their attempt to communicate with the invaders had been rebuffed, and they were settling into an attack formation. She exhaled slowly, preparing herself, and spoke.

"The Keldabe-class will target us first with its mass driver cannon. When we reach the one kilometer mark bring our engines fully online and dive, as steeply as the navigation's officer will allow. We can't avoid it, but we can minimize the damage. Reaper squadron should target the battle ship, and tell them to get in close. That Keldabe's weapons will be ineffectual at best at that proximity, and if those cruisers decide to engage, the danger of hitting their own flagship should give them pause."

"What about Vanguard? Should we send them to distract the Crusaders?" Warren inquired.

"No; those Corvettes would pick them apart. Keep them in reserve for now. We may need to apply them elsewhere soon enough."


The next few events happened so quickly that later, Lillith would be hard pressed to recall exactly what had transpired. Now, though, she sees it all in perfect clarity: the fleets finally close, and a siren sounds out across the bridge. There are shouts of the Destroyer being targeted, and then the engines suddenly roar to life, increasing thrust to one-hundred percent as the Vehemence's nose tips down in a steep dive. As she predicted, they were too slow to escape unscathed: the Keldabe's main gun flashes and the Destroyer rocks. Lillith is thrown to her knees, as are many others, and, impossibly, yet more klaxons begin to sound. She hears herself shouting, telling her officers to arc left, for kriff's sake, and keep diving. They do just that, the Victory-class's bulk cutting a swath through the space between the fleets and presenting its bow and starboard side to two of the Crusaders and the Keldabe: five of the quad-turbolaser emplacements on the Destroyer's side target the corvette closest to the Keldabe; the fifteen concussion missile launchers and twenty double-turbolasers target the Keldabe itself; and the fifteen double-turbolasers on the bow of the Vehement target the Crusader on the Keldabe's far right.

The wash of destruction danced in Lillith's eyes as she glared out at the battlefield, her hands clasped behind her back, her face once more a picture of composure.


Crisis and Viper both rocked under the initial volley, then took evasive maneuvers, racing upward in a gentle arc, aiming to come down in a dive atop their aggressors. For the two corvettes on the Keldabe's right, it would mean a simple pincer maneuver between the Vehemence and Crisis. Viper was joined in his assault on the other two vessels by Vanguard. Attacking corvettes on their own would be tantamount to a death sentence, but with Crisis joining them, it was slightly less of a suicidal tactic.

"Captain, the CR90's are splitting off and heading for the planet!"

Lillith flashed him an annoyed glance. "There isn't anything we can do about that now. But keep an eye on them; if they decide to approach our rear we'll have to call off Vanguard. Otherwise they'll have to wait until we're finished up here."

    I enter the orbit of Korriban in my modified Fury-class Starfighter, the three engines push the fighter faster than most starfighters would be able to accomplish. Upon setting my navigation system to the hyperspace lane that leads to Kuat, I slow my ship down. Just as the ship ceases it's acceleration, a moderately large Liberator-class Cruiser breaks through the atmosphere flanked by four squadrons of Fury-class Fighters. I allow the hangar bay of the cruiser to float closer and closer and to eventually swallows "Tslatsal", with tractor beams eminating from Black Ice to make sure that it doesn't accidentally cause me to miss the entrance. Upon entering the hangar bay that spanned a large portion of the ship, I set it down and open the cockpit in silence.

    The walk to the bridge was a quiet one, officers and crew salute briefly as I walk past, cloak bellowing behind me with every step forward. I reach the main door to the bridge and tap the console to let me in. Admiral Nightsteel salutes by placing his right fist over his heart, with a quick bow he turns back to look out of the view port in front of him. He touches a console and holographic image of the system comes up. He seems to almost caress the hologram and brings the focus and zoom in on a single particular spot in the system. A group of ships in what seems to be a skirmish is happening, and he turns to face Diabolus.

    Well, we have a skirmish going on in another sector. Do you wish to intervene or leave it be? I would suggest leaving it be as I don't want to put you or our crew in danger over something that could be two enemies that may turn. Just a thought to ponder.

    Ignore them, I do not know who they are and we might as well leave them be. There has been no attempt at reinforcements, so we shouldn't attempt to be any. Jump us straight to the Kuat System as Sinistra ordered.

    Yes, sir. He turns to the Officers at their stations. Recall the fighters, get the hyperdrive read and plot course to Kuat. We leave as soon as possible. Full speed.

    I look around the room as everyone bursts into action like a well oiled machine. It was almost empowering to know that everyone held you in great respect and almost awe inspired fear. I walk to the view port and stare out to the space before me. The glowing dots of stars through out the system, but slowly they become insignificant as the Fury-class starfighters burst into the mandibles grasp and enter the hangar bay that was before them. Once all the fighters have been swallowed up, the ship traveled for a good five minutes before reaching the outer system. Diabolus turns to look at Nightsteel one last time before the hyperdrive kicks in and the entire cruiser lurches forward. With that, Diabolus walks off the bridge and enters his personal quarters down the corridor, it has been a rather interesting day.

The conqueror class assault ship known as the Serengeti dropped out of hyperspace above the planet Korriban, home of the sith and target of the male with in the craft. Checking his instruments he looked over at his male divto as Tridra hissed softly. "Easy boy. Where just here looking for something. Don't get yourself worked up just yet."

He reached over and petted the central head of his three headed serpent and then placed his hand back upon the controls. He turned the ship towards the planet's surface, guiding it towards the surface. If somebody would hail him, he would acknowledge the hail but otherwise the male would remain silent as he was heading for the terrain for the planet below and not any of the cities.

The planet of Korriban was tinged a deep orange. It had always been this way, and bore some resemblance to Geonosis from a distance. But unlike Geonosis, any Force sensitive would not be drawn first and foremost to comparisons of appearance. This planet reeked of the Dark side. As one of the worlds claimed by the Sith in a time many thousands of years in the past, and held by the Sith tradition as a place of learning, of strengthening, and of living and dying, the Dark side practitioners had positively imbued the very soil of the planet with the Dark side.

For Darth Deixar, the Sith Lord assigned to the defense fleet of the planet, having such a powerful presence of Dark side energy at his back was both comforting and helpful to him and the soldiers who served under him. The Chagrian Sith Lord stood on the bridge of his assigned flagship, an Inexpugnable-class battleship named Void that tallied in at roughly 3000 meters in length, staring out into the vastness of space and contemplating what the main Sith Fleet was currently doing. Indeed, as was very aware to the entire central Sith command structure, this defense of Korriban was only a feint. The Jedi strike force that the Sith Council had assured would be baited into attacking Korriban would trigger the actual Sith main fleet to spring into action once it jumped out of hyperspace before Darth Deixar's prepared forces. And even then, the Jedi force would be in the wrong location, because while at one point Korriban had been used as a staging area for the eastern theater, all remaining Sith forces had either been moved to the completely hidden Sith Crown world of Dromund Kaas, or were already moved to Lehon where they would strike at the Core of the galaxy and the Republic.

While loath to be left behind while the majority of the Sith leadership prepared to cement their personal glory in the surprise attack starting with Fondor, Deixar knew a good showing here, even a possible repelling of the Jedi strike force and capture of killing of their leadership structure on the mission, would mean he would most definitely ascend to the Sith Council. Currently, he was politically standing just outside of it, and knew that his ranking both gave him this command role but also in the least desirable of places. Deixar knew one thing for sure, he did not want this command to result as Darth Vitiion's had. She was a human Sith who had the ambition to fit a much more powerful being, and it ended up costing her life when she failed to take Bespin by surprise with her own ambush by her own initiative.  Her failure had not only set back the Sith Empire one valuable Pellaeon Star Destroyer but also one powerful Sith Lady who may have tipped the balance in a later battle.

The Chagrian turned from the forward viewport to his nearest analytics officer.

"Is the Fleet ready? I have felt a disturbance in the Force."

Indeed, the Sith Lord had noticed his senses coming alive with anxiousness. His best interpretation was that the Force was warning him that the Jedi strike force was inbound. Now was no time to be caught off guard. The analytics officer replied, consulting a diagram of the fleet's diagnostics.

"Yes, sir. All six Ardent Fast Frigates are prepared for combat as is our own flagship. All starfighters are ready to launch on your command."

Deixar smiled with no hint of happiness, only cunning.

"Excellent."

He turned away and squinted as if trying to will the Jedi force to appear so that he could get this duty over with and join the main Sith force on the more glorious of the missions.

And then it happened, out of hyperspace and right in front of Deixar's fleet came one Venator-class Star Destroyer, three Nebula-class Star Destroyers, and 2 Acclamator-class assault ships. The ships immediately were showing signs of active deflector shields and weapons systems were already preparing locks, sending warning chimes up and down the bridge. Starfighters came pouring from the four Star Destroyers arrayed in a triangle formation with the Venator occupying a spot in the center of the triangle. The Acclamators were behind that formation like spoilers on a hot rod speeder. This force was more sizable than the Sith Council had expected, given what ships he was allotted, and despite the fact that not a single one of those Star Destroyers was more than a third of the Void's size they had a definite advantage in the amount of fire power they brought to the fight.

Without meaning to, Deixar gulped and his confidence in the Force wavered ever so slightly. This would not be the easy battle he had been expecting.

The Force crackled with tension. But Keth did not need any Force sensitivity to feel the tension mounting as turbolaser bolts flashed through the no-man's land between the Jedi and Sith forces. He knew from years of experience that the hundreds of pilots flying behind him were all waiting for that moment when every other starship had the ability to destroy any other. Until then, all they could do was fly straight at the danger, against every instinct ever ingrained in a sentient species, and prepare to do more damage to the enemy than they could do to your allies.War was a terrible thing. Death hurt the Force, and death hurt the mind too. Keth knew with the utmost conviction that he was not perpetrating death, only limiting it against an opposition who wished it unconditionally upon as many beings who dared to oppose them as possible.

All of these thoughts coursed through Keth's mind as he watched his sensor arrays and piloted his Z95 Headhunter ever closer to the battlefield. Two waves of starships, rushing right at each other, entered the no-man's land and were racing ever closer. Keth's sensor-board began to highlight priority targets as they came closer, and he readjusted his grip on the piloting yoke with his thumbs ready over the firing pad. Then, alarms establishing a lock on an enemy V-Wing sounded from the sensor board and warning alarms triggered by nearly 20 enemy locks being sought also came on from a different board. But due in one part to his organic lineage as a Shistavanen and possessing slightly faster aural-triggered reflexes and one part due to his affinity with the Force and Jedi training, Keth was faster.

Firing off a volley of bolts at the locked V-Wing, Keth was already spinning away down and to his port, seeing out of the corner of his vision through the cockpit canopy as an innumerable number of enemy bolts streaked past his previous position. Bringing the Z95's nose up out of the corkscrew, Keth accelerated forward into the fray as enemy starfighters began to mix with allied starfighters. A TIE Defender streaked in from the top-right of Keth's view and he took shots at it, stitching up its near-sided shields but not penetrating. Seeing the pilot veer the craft back towards the enemy fleet out of reflex, Keth pursued, knowing it would bring him closer to his main objective while allowing a kill onto one of the more dangerous starfighter classes in this battle.

The Defender was aware thanks to its sensors that Keth was on its tail, and it was in the process of jinking and juking as much a possible. But it was nearly never enough against an experienced Jedi pilot. Keth let his focus meld with the Force, and began to move his Headhunter in time with the Defender's movements, firing amidst one overlapping set of slides that put a trail of bolts into the rear shield, burning through them and knocking out of the craft's ion engines. It went spinning away out of control, and Keth following it as it began to tumble, pouring more blasterfire to leave it out of commission for good.

The sensor board was becoming more and more hectic, now that Keth had successfully penetrated the densest part of the enemy starfighter cloud. There were so many enemy marker symbols on his sensors that the empty space in between was nearly invisible. Keth pulled hard on the yoke when a warning alarm blared, and he narrowly avoided a trail of cannonbolts coming from behind him. They passed by harmless underneath his fuselage. Keth modified his climb to bring him spiraling behind the initial direction of the attack, and he dropped down behind a pair of V-Wings who had lost sight of their initial target. Keth wasted no time in firing at the craft to his right, ripping through port wing fins and much of the fuselage's armor plating. V-Wings were notorious for having little-to-no shields: sacrificing that for speed. The resulting shrapnel from the damaged V-Wing, now losing atmosphere and dooming the pilot, crashed into the port V-Wing and cracked the transparisteel canopy but also knocking the V-Wing into a port-bound tumble. Keth veered hard starboard away from the V-Wing on a premonition in the Force and narrowly ducked away from a fireball as the V-Wing incidentally collided with another V-Wing currently being pursued by one of the Republic V19 Torrents.

Realizing that the overworked sensor board wouldn't be too much help, Keth glanced through his canopy as he wheeled his Headhunter around in a tight arc upwards to see the location of the enemy capital ships. The nearest was an Ardent frigate that was coming up into the starfighter fray, presumably to disrupt the Republic maneuvers while giving the Sith starfighters an obstacle to plan ambushes around. Keth continued his tight port turn to bring him around and pointing directly at the Ardent frigate, A pair of TIE Defenders flashed in front of Keth, being pursued by a pair of ARC 170 starfighters firing their cannons with reckless abandon. Another lock alarm sounded, and Keth tensed as laser bolts dug into his rear shield on the port side. They dropped to 50% effectiveness before Keth yanked his yoke hard and sent the Headhunter into a starboard corkscrew bringing him out of the vector of the enemy starfighter. The proximity sensors alerted him that a TIE Defender was now on his tail, using its spherical symmetry to stay with his flat starfighter and keep its deadly lasers firing to keep him pinned. No more had hit home yet, but Keth diverted enough power from his forward shields to his rear flank to compensate for what they had already lost, then quickly pulled out of the corkscrew while still gunning for the Ardent frigate. The wedge-shaped frigate was growing larger and sending limited turbolaser fire into the dogfight, trying to pinpoint only Jedi craft without endangering the Sith forces. Some of the gunners obviously saw Keth incoming, and the green blasts were streaking in his general vicinity now, as well.

Momentarily trying to avoid fire from two different directions, Keth took another pair of hits from the Defender at his rear and pulled hard port, veering to the Ardent's starboard and aiming to streak past it. The stream of cannon fire from the Defender missed wide right as well, but the pilot was determined to chase the Headhunter down. Keth continued juking the efforts of the Defender and the Ardent gunners, having more trouble hitting the agile craft while on a parallel course with the frigate, were having even less success with their slow moving guns. The Jedi armed one of the concussion missiles in his repertoire, set its thrusters to activated after a 3 second delay, and set the advanced targeting computer to the Defender at his rear. The Sith had such modifications to this Headhunter put in that many crafts would envy the customizable missile launching system, not just Headhunter owners. Keth launched the missile, feeling it slide loose of its compartment on the underside of the starboard wing, and then began to slowly slide back towards the frigate, now on a course to come at it from behind if he completed all 180 degrees of the maneuver.

The Defender, not seeing the momentarily inert missile, moved to shortcut Keth's telegraphed action, and in doing so flew right over the missile as it activated its thruster and had but ten meters to cover before detonating right underneath the Defender, crashing through shields and ripping one of the three wings from the Defender. The craft, trailing smoke and fire, hurtled directly at the bridge superstructure of the frigate. Given the limited number of guns able to reach the rear of the frigate and their comparative sluggishness, an out of control starfighter was able to slide right past the defensive bolts. Keth decided his opening was coming, and aiming to meet the doomed starfighter's trajectory at an angle, primed a second concussion missile and fired it immediately, aiming right where the Defender collided with the frigate's negligible shields. The deflectors collapsed when the Defender's core went nuclear and sent small pieces of TIE fighter into the bridge's hull armor, and Keth's concussion missile found its way in before energy could be shunted to reestablish the shields. The missile crashed right into the bridge, sending a small fireball up at the point of impact but clearly penetrating the hull when sudden exposure to vacuum led atmosphere, debris, and some of the crew to expel out of the jagged hole created in the bridge. Many of the running lights on the craft flickered with the sudden damage, and the frigate, clearly in chaos, began to list to port and away from the dogfight threatening to envelop it.

Keth, considering his duty to that ship complete, veered starboard and back towards the main mass of starships. The Inexpugnable battleship was slowly being assimilated into the fray of starfighters swarming through space, and the Republic formation was moving to meet it. The Nebulas were already pouring their superior volume of firepower into the huge warship, focusing only their perimeter guns on the other five Ardent frigates moving to flank the Republic triangle of star destroyers. It looked to the Shistavanen that soon the inferior ships would be taking damage from all sides and even though they possessed the superior firepower statistically, dividing that firepower up among six ships really diminished that potency. Keth knew he had to at least lead an attack on the two remaining frigates on his side of the engagement so that the starboard-most Nebula could reposition to focus on the remaining.

That left two frigates up to Keth to destroy using the starfighters. On his helmet comm, Keth spoke.

Get me three of the K-Wing bombers now, to my position. Commander Caranthyr?

Keth was already vectoring towards the next frigate, closer to the Inexpugnable but possessing inferior latitude on the battleship's port side.

Yes, General?

Escort my K-Wing bombers through the fray, Commander. We're going to cripple the remaining frigates on our formation's starboard vector so that they don't get flanked.

There was a momentary pause.

Yes, sir. I've located the bombers. We're en route on the lowest latitude of the dogfight.

Keth rearranged his sensor board to see the four friendly blips moving below the other levels of the dogfight, coming from below the starboard-most Nebula destroyer, Bright Star. His attention was redirected when his danger sense raced up his spine. Trusting his intuition, Keth pushed his yoke forward abruptly, ducking below a volley of turbolaser fire from the frigate he was fast approaching that darkened the blast tinting of his canopy considerably. His sensors told him that the frigate was vectoring to pull away from the Inexpugnable, presumably to engage Keth's Headhunter at close proximity. There was no doubt that some low-ranking Sith Knight was on board this frigate, and he or she was fully aware that the lone Headhunter was a Jedi of great strength.

Keth was forced into a frantic evasive pattern, turning away from the frigate even farther away from the dogfight and center of the battle. He was becoming aware that the Sith was trying to isolate him from returning to the battle so that any type of help by his sheer presence would be nullified. A kill was not the top priority currently on this Sith's mind. But then, just as Keth was able to completely escape the next incoming volley with some intelligent guesswork, a single pair of bolts flashed out at his position and struck his starboard shields, dropping them to critical instantly. Keth let the imparted kinetic energy wheel his starfighter even farther away from the frigate before regaining control of his craft and turning in a wide arc as the K-Wing unit with Zak among them vectored in to join his approach.

All the while, Keth was searching towards that particular frigate's bridge, trying to get a sense of the caliber of the opponent he was dealing with. Surprisingly, where the majority of Sith commanders tended to hide their presence in the Force, this one allowed his Dark aura to be detected immediately, and when Keth did, he flinched away quickly. This aura, even at a glance, was more powerful even then Darth Vitiion. Just the mere thought made the stump of his left ear ache.

General?

That was Zak, now in formation with Keth's Headhunter and the trio of K-Wings.

Yes, Commander?

The declaration that followed confirmed Keth's suspicions.

I've just scanned the Inexpugnable with the Force, I do not detect any overt Sith commander aboard that ship.

While, in theory, that could mean the Sith aboard the battleship was avoiding detection, Keth's recent encounter gave him a better conclusion. The Sith in charge of this flotilla was aboard that frigate Keth had planned on targeting. And now the frigate, having detached from the firing corridor with the Inexpugnable and the remaining fast frigate on this side, now far out to starboard of the Republic fleet, was closing off the five starfighters from returning to the battle without going completely out of their way or right over the frigate. It seemed the Sith commander had singled out Keth and by coincidence the second of three Jedi in this engagement and was going to take them out personally. It explained why Keth had been blind-sided by that one turbolaser kept in reserve. The Sith was able to use the Force to piece apart the evasion techniques of the Jedi and hit them anyway. A prolonged starfighter battle would not suit the Jedi in any way. They would have to board the frigate and take out the Sith that way...